Discipling the Heart instead of the Behavior
Our vision statement at Missio Dei is simple…
“Making Disciples who Make Disciples”
well the concept is simple, but how do we make it happen? In a sense it’s that question that prevents us from really seeing this vision come to pass. We can’t make this happen, because a disciple is one who’s heart, his inner man, has been transformed by Jesus, and only the gospel not any person can make this happen.
If our vision was to simply modify behavior we could pull this off through guilt, accountability, and good old fashioned hard work. But none of this will change a person’s heart, that is actually change what a person “wants” instead of what a person “does’. The Pharisees of Jesus’ time were masters of changing their behavior while their hearts remained far from God.
Jesus had this to say to such a person…
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:27-28)
Strong words with strong implications to not only the Pharisees of Jesus’ day but to the Pharisees of our own day, that is you and me, and everyone else who has the proclivity to think more about their behavior than they do their heart (the source of the behavior).
In the following articles Pastor Bob Thune tells the story of his friendship with a transexual and how he was able to disciple his heart rather than his behavior.
Part 3 is yet to be posted but stayed tuned to Gospel Centered Discipleship for that article in the coming days.
