His initials might be “JV” but my guest on the podcast today is headed for the next level in the Kingdom of God. You’ve learned about Joshua before, today you’ll hear directly from him.
More About This Podcast…
God’s given me a very bold mandate this new year, which is to feature 17 faith stories from 17 different people over the coming months on the podcast. I’m so delighted Joshua Vineyard could show up today for the first of these stories on this episode of the Pasture’s Podcast.
This remarkable, kingdom-driven young man is all of 22 but has a very seasoned demeanor and solid mooring even as he seeks adventures abroad for the Lord’s glory.
I’m eager for you to hear Joshua’s faith journey in his own words, his rocky road to finding that which is “real and genuine”, and the response of his life to lay it all down and live out his testimony by faith in the Christ “who loves [him] and laid His life down for [him]…” (Gal. 2:20).
Thanks for listening in. I’m certain you’ll be blessed.
I get John Wesley. Before he became the guy who said, “I look upon all the world as my parish”* he preferred his parochial, amicable studies and libraries rather than the great halls. He was a cave-dweller. Ministerially, he was a good Oxfordite, a proper Anglican priest, who toed the party line and desired things be done decently and with order. He had some OCD in him, I’d wager. In short, he went with the program.
I do like my cave, but, granted, that last bit is quite unlike me. I have Baptistic roots but there are doors closed to me because of my ‘aberrant’ theology, and, likewise, I have not found a home among their polar opposites (I’m too Baptist I’m told). Ah, well, such is life. My wife quipped a few years ago that if I were the type of person to “play the game”, I would be set for life with meetings and denominational appointments. She followed that up by saying, “I respect you more because you don’t.”
She so completes me.
John-surnamed-Wesley was a fussy dresser, I’m told, always neat and fashionable without being conspicuous, starched to the gills and spotless. Hands soft and manicured, Wesley’s skin was probably sallowed from dwelling indoors by candle’s glow. Continue reading A Door Called Aldersgate
Decisiveness is the fulcrum of true discipleship.Luke says that Jesus “resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51)He’s about four months away from Calvary and the language that Luke employs emphatically illustrates our Lord’s decisiveness in seeing His mission through to the end.It’s more about His state of mind and not a geographical change.It has nothing to do with His checking MapQuest or getting a TripTik from Triple A.He knew who He was, what He was called for, and nothing was going to get in His way.
A few verses down, He encounters three would-be disciples.He says to each of them, “Decide!”Me?Or the world?Me?Or your will?Me?Or your level of comfortability?In each case they chose what was behind Door Number Two and left satisfied with that.
He says that a true disciple is one who has set his hand to the plow, or, in Elisha’s case burned the plow (see 1 Kings 19:21).Jesus set His face (“like flint”, Isaiah 50:7) to Jerusalem and we are to set our hand to the plow.Plowing is about harvest, and in the succeeding verses, Jesus sent out the seventy with this pep talk: “Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send more plowers into the field.”Some plant, some plow, some water…but the Lord gets His beautiful harvest!
Our Lord cannot use scribes (the first guy) who are worried about looking foolish to their rich buddies when they are found sleeping in caves or under bridges “for a carpenter” instead of their large-mortgage house.He cannot use the ‘I’ll catch up with you down the road but right now I have a lot of personal stuff to iron out’ candidates (the second guy).The call is NOW. And there’s the plow!And He will pass over those who waver between two worlds and the Lord knows this world will usually win out (the third guy).
The call is NOW.And there’s the plow.
Who are the harvesters?Who are the ones “pressing into the Kingdom” (Luke 16:16)?They are people who will empty their entire life savings at His feet even though the religious tell them every reason why they shouldn’t.They are people who will walk away from a lucrative career because their life and livelihood is in His hands.People who will drop the nets at their feet, leaving every security behind because they see the Greater Incentive, a Treasure you cannot refuse.
We need to be more decisive than ever in these changing times.Before I finished that last sentence I was interrupted by a call from someone I know who just won over $20,000 in the lottery tonight.Isn’t that ironic?The world will do stuff like that for us—anything to keep us from treasuring Christ.Anything to keep us from pressing in, pressing on or setting our hand to the plow. Tragically, the third certainty of life—after death and taxes—is that twenty grand’ll be gone in a few days, weeks or months.
Then what?
Decisively pressing in means fighting against that twinge that says, “man, I wish that had happened to me.”It means being unimpressed by what the world offers because you know nothing can compare to the richness of knowing about a Greater-than-all Treasure and going after it.
There’s the plow.It may look worn, earthy, scarred and rusty, but it’s Who you set your affection on at the far end of the field that really matters.
