Molong Nacua's Blog

“Why is it that Jay-r doesn’t want to get baptized yet believes in Jesus?” Jomie starts conversing with me just now. It’s the 23rd of February, 7:40pm.

“Who is this guy you’re talking about Jomie?

“It’s our customer at the store who became a friend” Jomie starts telling me about him. “He comes every night to eat BBQ and stays longer so we have become close to each other. Last night, as I was waiting for Albert to leave for home after working with Peter, it was almost midnight when Jay-r came and we had a chat. I started making him into a disciple.” (Jomie is working together with a disciple here named Manman all days as he shared this to me. And they also talked about making disciples while doing something. They discussed how it’s a lifestyle, it’s about talking while doing things together, and a meeting is simply talking.)

“How did it all start anyway?” I want to know the details why his new friend doesn’t want to get baptized yet believes in Jesus. “That’s quite interesting.” As I listened, I see Jomie has presented the Gospel well, explaining how he ‘normally’ does it every time he makes a disciple.

Jomie told his story: “How much is your salary here?” Jay-r asked me.

“Salary? What do you mean?” I replied.

“Working here in the store” Jay-r asked in more detail.

“Nothing. You don’t receive salary from your family, I said to him.”

“Family? Are they your family?” asked Jay-r.

“Not really. Not my physical family. But anyone who follows Jesus is your family in the faith.” Jomie explained.

“What does that mean, a follower?” Jay-r inquired.

“Now, I will make you a disciple of Jesus.” Jomie starts sharing with him starting with believing to a responding through repentance and baptism.

Then Jomie said to me, “Last night, I asked God why did Jay-r not want to go through baptism yet he believes in God. Are there really people who are like that Kuya?”

“Of course Jomie, there are. Don’t expect people to ‘always’ respond to the way you’ve always shared the Good News to them. Why, are you sad?”

“It’s a kind of like….” he replied.
“Is it because every time you’ve made people into a disciple they will get baptized?” I asked Jomie.

“Yes,” he said proudly.

“It’s not about you, Jomie” I admonish, “making disciples is about Jesus. So don’t be sad. Also, what’s important to the person is that he really gets what it takes for him to follow Jesus. It means, you shared with him God’s love and sacrifice, denying self, leaving his sin and being dead to that sin, and baptism, and so forth. Did he get this all anyway?”

“Oh yes, we even talked about his vices that he will need to stop destroying himself by taking drugs. He’s young about 16 years old. He shared with me that he’s using drugs sometimes so I told him that if you want to follow Jesus then leaving sin and burying them in baptism is a reason for you to respond to what He has done for you,” Jomie makes a point.

“Exactly right Jomie! Many so-called disciples start following Jesus yet still follow their sin. Then they wonder why their life hasn’t change. Following Jesus doesn’t require you to change your life first, it’s an exchange of your life for His life but it surely requires you to leave your sin behind. And that’s when He starts changing you as there are good works that He prepares for you to do. That’s obedience and that’s the summary of being a disciple. You are doing alright by presenting to him the Gospel. So don’t you start feeling bad about yourself. Or are you sad because you start taking the glory that’s due Him?”

“What does that mean kuya?”

“As I said, making disciples is about Jesus, not you. Is it because that whenever you shared Jesus you are ‘always’ successful in going to the end – baptism. And now that you can’t somehow get someone to be baptized you feel bad?”

“Sort of” he agreed.

“See, then making disciples for you starts to become about you. If you can get the person baptized you are happy. And if not? You are sad. It’s all about you Jomie, not Him anymore. How proud we are when we say ‘I made a disciple in just 5 minutes!’ And this includes baptism even, right?”

“Yeah!” His response was quite exciting.

“And when we become proud we forget that we are making a person a disciple of Jesus, not ours! Why did you ask God that question last night without Jay-r present with you?” (The question being: Why he doesn’t want to get baptized yet he believes?) “Why didn’t you ask God while you were making Jay-r into a disciple?” I asked Jomie these somewhat deep questions and he couldn’t answer straight. “Making disciples is ‘introducing’ Jesus to the person, not ‘talking about’ Jesus. It means, Jesus is present in making disciples. Simply put, when you introduce me to your friend it means I am ‘present with’ you. And you can actually ask me questions right away if you’re having a hard time dealing with your friend, right? So why didn’t you ask Jesus right away as He is present with you saying ‘Jesus, why does he not want to get baptized when he believes in you anyway?’ Jesus for sure will answer you. But you did not ask. That means, you’re not aware that He is present or you just simply ignore him because making disciples has become about you. When did we make disciples on our own Jomie?”

“I have learned my lesson” he said.

What a good student this young man!

“When I went to Butuan City in Mindanao,” I shared my own story that resonates with his, “A friend brought me to his friend whom he wants help to become a disciple. The guy was way older than me, 58 years old and loves to debate anyway. The guy started to believe that Jesus has already saved him 2,000 years ago but he cannot believe that he can save himself by doing nothing. “There must be something to do to get save” was his opinion. I was in a bit of a shock. It’s my first time to make a person a disciple like this. So in a moment of silence that I am speechless I ask God in my spirit what should I do. And I got my answer and I did convince him that there is nothing he could do to save himself and finally I baptized him that day.”

“The Lesson for you today is to thank God that you present Him well – that in order to follow Jesus he must deny himself, this includes repentance (leaving sin) and baptism- but he refused to go through the process to become a disciple. Or else, he will use the name of the Lord in vain as a disciple who doesn’t know how to behave by his way of life. He doesn’t know how to live the ‘new life’ simply because the ‘old life’ wasn’t buried in baptism. In Jesus time, many disciples also left Him. He even asked Peter if he also wants to get out of the club!

“Lesson two: making disciples is about ‘introducing’ Jesus to your friend. He is present in the making. Don’t ignore Him, recognize Him. Making disciples is not slow but quick. It is quick in the sense you have to ‘slow down’ because you may need to keep silent for a while if you have a hard time so as to give Him time to talk to the person that you’re making into a disciple and to give Him time to guide you.

“And lesson three: Write your story of how you tried to make Jay-r a disciple. It’s still a good story that encourages people to make their friends ‘new or old’ into a disciple.”

Here is how we meet needs:

First, we decide if the need is urgent or not, like emergencies. If this is the case, we don’t hesitate to help. If it’s not urgent, we ask ‘who’ is this person and who is asking us to help. Are they saints? Unbeliever? Our priority is the believer, “the least of these my brethren.” The biblical sequence is to help the ‘needy’ saints first, then, if we have extra, we help the unbelieving ‘poor.’ See, we don’t ‘call’ those believing poor ‘poor.’ We call them ‘needy.’ Because if we follow the biblical principle of meeting needs, the result would be that “there will be no poor among them because they own everything.” They share not only the spiritual blessings but also the material blessings. It’s like if there are sick among us we heal them, but if symptoms persist we buy them medicines. Got it?

Let’s continue…

More questions: Is the person able to work or not? If so, then what’s his/her need? Is it important ‘and’ urgent? Or is it just important but not urgent? If so then we let him/her work in our ‘common’ garden (everything is in common except for a few stuff like our wives, etc), or paint something, or plant something, or we ask him/her to wash some widow’s clothing. That is ‘serving’ Jesus’ family. ‘Force’ him to do this? Sure, why not? I am even ‘forcing’ myself to do something I do not like. My brethren, we hardly ‘dole out’ help to someone who is ‘able’ to work. “He who doesn’t work does not eat.”

Is he/she a widow over age 60-65? The Bible tells us to give aid to widows over 65 years old. Does he/she have children to take care of her? If so, are the children able to take care of him/her?

These questions have become ‘normal’ to me/us here. I don’t even have to ask for a ‘meeting’ to find out. If we have to ‘have’ a meeting then that is ‘meeting a need.’ This is the kind of meetings that we have – instead do a meeting in a coffee shop, why not do it instead in someone’s else’s house fixing a families yard? And yeah, have your coffee-talk-about-Zoe-Life while doing things together? That’s what we are just doing this whole week!

I simply know them by name and their situations. It’s what church is all about anyway: relationships. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. These guiding questions we learn simply because we ‘keep on’ helping needy saints and the unbelieving poor. You just have to become wiser and wiser normally as you go do the work of meeting needs ‘everyday.’ That’s helping fulfill Christ’s law by ‘carrying each other’s burden.’ My good friend, Mike Peter’s, shares about this, saying, “if a mother needs milk, go buy her milk. That’s how you help carry each other’s burden.” Guess ‘mere’ prayers can’t get the job done right? ‘We’ ‘you’ ‘me’ are just the ‘answers’ to the prayers of these needy saints. Simple, hey?

God gives us the work, and the work has taught us how to do it. We hardly say “no” to someone who has a need, but we find ways to help meet that need. Even if one is on drugs we help give money. Yes? Yes! How? Simple, I let him write down 50 verses from the bible then he report to me and then I give him 50 pesos. Crazy ideas? Yes. No wonder only the ‘crazy’ people can change the world. A person who refuses to help, or refuses to find ways to help just makes an alibi for him not to – or I should say the real deal is that he just doesn’t have the ‘desire’ to help? Where is Christ’s ‘passion’ for the ‘lost’ and the ‘least’ in you?

If we know what the person’s need is, then we can decide how to help – should we help him with the ‘full’ amount he needed? Maybe ‘half’ the amount but let him ‘work’ for the other half ‘with his own hands’ working in the garden. Or, maybe just provide 20 percent of the need, or nothing’ at all, simply because the need is non-sense since he wants money to pay his electricity yet he does nothing except watching tv?

Now let’s go to some examples we do here:
1. Jomie’s brother came one night and needed 300 peso as his boat fare to another island ‘next night.’ So, he still has one day vacant. Should we give him 300 directly? No. He has one day vacant. We let him work for a day. His need is important but not urgent.
2. Three guys in school we provide them 30 chickens, 10 chicks each to raise. Later I would buy the chickens from them per kilo. But they can feed them, no money, they’re high school students. What did we do? I hired them to work here two days a week (sat-sun) and paid them to buy feed for their chicks. Dole out? Don’t think so.
3. Peter came to ask help, a father of two kids. He came at 9 in the evening. He had just lost his work. He came because he wanted his wife to be admitted at hospital due to suffering of asthma for three weeks already! Did we wait to let him work first before helping? We send him directly to the hospital using what was left in our account. Did I let him repay? No. It’s a help for a needy brother.
4. A widow in her 60’s asked help for medicines. She lives in a slum area. I knew her for 20 years. She’s still poor and her family is still poor. Her children are working but still poor. I gave her a nebulizer machine and vitamins and medicines.
5. I saw a child suffering a leg burn who had a fever. He keeps crying. I called up a bunch of guys to take care of him. They live in another island. He was admitted for a week, they have no money to even pay for their own food at the hospital, not even a jeepney fare for $6/person back and forth, fare from island to the city. Yes, it’s that much, too much already for a normal Filipino! We provided everything, and all went well. Paid about $350 in hospital bills but ended up not paying the doctor’s fee. He’s a Christian. He’s the one who even thanked me for taking the child in. It was my first time to be thanked by a doctor who didn’t charge me.
6. Went to another island to drop house supplies worth $500 for typhoon victims. On our way to the pier going back home and while on a jeepney, we saw a lady whose shoulder was deformed due to some wood dropping on her during typhoon incident. I left with not much so we handed her some 500 peso. She’s a Christian? No. But should I have to witness to her first? No. But she needed immediate assistance. We came back after a week to do a mission- to fix her shoulder. I sent two people spending $250. They found the lady, took them to hospital for check ups and laboratories. She needed a quick fix for $300. I told Albert we have no money yet. But Albert says he’s got money in his account from his hammock business sale and said he could use it. You can guess the kind of people we have around here.
6. Peter came again and said a child needs to be taken to hospital. It was already delayed. I hand him 700 peso, but my wife says “no, give him 900.” And that’s all money we’ve got that day. “Next time that something like this happens,” I said to Peter, “don’t hesitate to ask me to help. Ok? Now you know who to go to. Go.” Are exactly the words I said to him to make a point that emergency problem needs to be taken care of directly.
7. Another widow came taking with her a girl named Juliet. I knew them or years. I took Juliet to the hospital when she was two years old. She won’t eat and she keeps laying down and weak. She has a hole in her heart. Four holes actually. She came to visit me sometime here and I visited her sometime to bring what I can. She came to receive from me food, milk, toys, dress, and shoes ,and yes, prayers for her dear heart.

Needy saints come with different needs and we do different approaches.

++

Another story, recently just last week. A mother with children, one was bitten by a dog, had asked help for anti-rabbis injections, etc. What did we do? Surely prayers would work, hey? But any mom would like to make sure that her child is ok.

By the way, this mom had her two kids ‘accidentally.’ Why? Because she herself has a brain problem. Her mom also had a brain problem and ‘accidentally’ (or was taken advantage by it?) got pregnant. She’s the result of it. Yes, you might ask “how about her two kids?” Obviously, they had it also.

So, my sister has taken the three of them into her care. They’re living with her. And the ecclesia here has been helping whatever needs would arise, such as this. Not all the time can we help, but we do our best, as always, to each other as ‘brethren.’

We don’t build orphanages to ‘support’ orphans or needy children such as this woman. We ‘help’ put them into a family. We don’t ‘support’ a sister, we ‘help’ a sister.

See, God is not an orphanage ‘director’ or a ‘supporter.’ He’s a Father who adopted us as His own children. We, as an ecclesia here, do likewise.

Orphans are not ‘projects’ to raise support. They’re humans like you and me.

A child in the orphanage is an orphan. But an orphan in the family is a child. Thus, we provide families for the fatherless. Literally. We encourage Christian families to adopt an orphan or foster a child, even ‘temporarily,’ without documentation, with only an agreements between families.

Imagine, if only—-I must say this again, IF ONLY 50 families would do this, that’s fifty fatherless children that we are providing a family.

However, if indeed you have a hard time doing it on your own, then help a family who’s doing the job like this. That’s two families, then, working hand in hand: one does the actual raising, and one does the financial assistance. The only predicament for this to the latter family is that the first family, who literally took care of the child, can’t provide you with a ‘tax deductible’ receipt! Again, in the kingdom it’s all about relationships and trust. If you can’t trust the person, forget it. People need receipts for what they give because they have no relationship to the person. And, they don’t normally give from their heart to reach the needy. Imagine, you want a ‘refund’ in some way to what you’ve been given? Whatever the reason is, it is not ‘real’ giving in a biblical sense. Personally, people who ‘ask’ me for a receipt, photos, or a report are the ones who don’t really know us and what we do. To those whom we know, however, we normally just communicate what’s going on here. The documentation stuff becomes natural.

My friend, for goodness sake, do something different in your life and to other people. I wrote something that’s suppose to be posted on my Facebook wall, but I didn’t. I will put it down below, then, as I see it fits! Here it is:

“Are you a Christian, and a disciple even? What did you do? Read your Bible and a book? And then what? Take a walk with your dog and drop him to a clinic and spend $300? What a sloppy commitment. It looks like your life doesn’t depend on who you are. Being a disciple, our life depends on it. If we could sign our own name to everything that we do, could we be trusted?

The life we have is the only life we get here on earth, and it’s not a dress rehearsal. Every minute we waste is gone forever. We can either choose to take responsibility for what we do with it, or make excuses.”

http://waittilyouhearthis.com/church-planter-sees-acts-style-revival-in-philippines/

He has proven it again and again.

The hardest thing that God has told me to do is to do nothing. “Molong, if you want to taste the fullness of the Holy Spirit you have to trust Me fully.” It basically just ask me to watch Him work.

And at the same time, this words have made people who misunderstood me and gives me trouble to many specially those who have past leadership positions in their churches. They allowed us to be different yet at the same time telling us what to do. Who loved to hear our stories yet trying to fit it into their theological thinking. And if it doesn’t find space in the mind that’s when they questioned our practices.

We make new stories, not new theories

Too many stories to tell, old and new, God Himself has proven many times what He told me that day when many disciples were made and I’m quite worried about their maturity. “Should i do follow-up works like visitations and bible studies like how I did before?” His answer is obvious: watch Me work Molong.

Again, we grow by stages. This is the reason why I don’t follow theological stuff much. I ask and obey God. It’s a journey. Our growth starts from ‘I work for God’ to ‘I work with God’ to ‘I watch God work.’

I always believe that for us to grow we have to leave some things behind. Leaving what I did before is the most freeing feeling I’ve felt. I was reminded that I am a human-being, not human-doing. That saves a lot of time and money.

Alright, here are my points. Just to highlight some stories that’s just happened this past 2-3 weeks ago apart from what we normally do everyday as an ecclesia.

A 23yo guy named Tonton was baptized by his own brother, who’s a 3rd generation disciple named Kristian who was made by his cousin Jason, a 2nd generation disciple. Jason was made by Albert, 1st generation. (photo caption of his own brother baptizing Tonton, 4th gen).

The same day (Sunday) while this very thing happened, a guy named Peter who’s a tired performing Christian brother in his church decided to become a follower. He’s bringing with him his first disciple that he made named Eric. I was present during Eric’s baptism along with his wife’s. And this was happened two years ago! Both see us at my house that day. And it’s my second time I saw Eric again after 2 years. While having coffee together, 8 of us sitting around the table (with some women disciples on other corner having their own discussions), shared stories from the Bible and how we should live as such. Eric, sitting in front of me starts throwing me words like “yeah, I read that in the Bible,…” And he keeps doing that ’til I stop and just politely ask. “It’s obvious that you have read your bible. Who gives you a bible? When do you normally read it?” He said that I gave Peter a Bible to give it to him of which I can’t remember. “Every night i read my Bible” Eric answered back.

“Peter,” I get his attention. “Did you encourage him to do this? Did you do some sort of Bible studies together?”

“No. We haven’t actually meet for a long time. Whenever I visited you, you remember that you ask me about Eric I have no stories to tell because after their baptism they transferred house quite far from where we live.” Peter explained.

“And you read your bible every night Eric?!! What made you do that?” I was excited to hear something.

“It was the last day of my job and my money would only be good for 3 days,” he shared. “I was reminded that I am a disciple and disciples doesn’t do bad thing like stealing. It won’t solve my problem. I grab my bible and starts reading, looking for answers and whispered to God my wish to have a job. And just when my money to feed my family of four is out, someone arrive at our doorsteps and offered me work! I was so thankful to God. That saves a lot of my problem. Since then I read my bible every night along with my wife.” It’s obvious because even in the midst of our bible conversations he quoted scriptures even from the book of Revelations. I was sharing about kingdom economics, how are we as disciples should positioned ourselves like Acts 2 and 4 kingdom life-together as family living from house to house, sharing things, etc. “because there will be a time where no man can buy or sell…” And he said “yeah, I read that in Revelation about 666.”

Simple stories like this leaves me dumbfounded. Simply because we cannot remember if we ever do ‘discipleship classes’ to any of the disciples that were made. God is at work here and to do anything that He doesn’t told us to do is only meant to disturb Him.

Now, here’s the story for you today. Yes, at this very date that I posted this. Hear it yourself.

We plan to do things quick and fast, we don’t sweat the small stuff most of the time. If some of us here agrees to do something then we just do it and later solve problems that may come along the way. We don’t expect problems to arise, oh well, going to the field is filled of it already! We just need to be available to solve it. Several of us agrees to go back to north of my province where we helped typhoon victims, build them houses and distribute food and water and shelter for four months after typhoon hit them last Year November 8. The purpose is to see those that were made into disciples. Peter and Tonton joined in the team that was formed for this purpose. We don’t choose who will go, anyone can but only a dozen came.

They all slept here last night at my house, woke up at 3 in the morning. Me and my wife didn’t sleep and just took care of them until they left at around 4 in the morning. As they arrived at my Dad’s place, they were being chased already by sick people! Yes, some sick people around the community came to my father’s place (my father has a house there that was hit also by typhoon) and have waited for them to get prayed and healed for! They have breakfast together and minister to each other. Then along with other disciples they roamed around the saints houses there and hand them packs of bags where some kilos of rice, canned good and clothing was shared. Then they went straight to the island called Malapascua where a handful of disciples are waiting also to be ministered.

A disciple named Christopher came whom Jomie made into a disciple during his last visit at the island where he made six disciples including this guy. (A full story about Jomie’s trip and how this guy was made into a disciple will be find here: http://www.pation.wordpress.com) When Chris heard of them he joined in where they set up their tents along the shorelines. Read from Albert’s report today:

This is Christopher, one of disciple here in malapascua island, Jomie made him into a disciple in one of his trips here. He just came now this afternoon to see us, and informed us that he made two disciples and baptized them just after he was made into a disciple of Christ. He is a cooked in one of the restaurants here in the island. He just escape for while from work to see us. Anyway, Thank you for your prayers as we all got here safe.***

This particular story reminded me again of what God said to me about trusting Him fully. Look at this guy Christopher, Jomie left him after his baptism without doing any ‘discipleship classes’ just like Phillip in the book of Acts has done to the Eunuch!

“Is Chris a matured disciple?” You make ask. Well, surely to most ‘Christians’ way of weighing him he is not. “But is he a disciple?” Indeed. A disciple is one who makes disciples. And I’m sorry to burst your bubbles here, what kind of maturity are we looking for than a person who can be able to make others becomes Jesus’ disciples?

How about Diosua’s story, a fourth generation disciple, below:

Nov. 21, 6:15pm

“Who made you a disciple then?”

I ask Diosua (‘dios’ in cebuano is Lord) who came here at the house from the mountain for his baptism.

“It’s Roel, Gabriel and Alai,” he replied while holding a shirt to be used for his baptism. These three people who made him a disciple are 3rd generation disciples who are also his friends. And they were made into a disciple together by Albert’s sisters named Analyn and Arlen (2nd gen).

“Geduot sad ko sa Ginoo oi samtang namalandong ko sa ilang gesulti.” (God has push me too while I meditate on what they’ve shared.) he said confidently to us all here as I interview him. His decision to be baptized today was being informed by Albert’s mother yesterday.

“Well, he came today, and that means he’s serious to become a disciple.” Albert’s mother said to me as Albert and Jomie took Him to the nearby ocean to be baptized at this time 6:27pm.

(Unedited) ;-)

Many Christians don’t just ignore their kingdom mandate which is to “seek His Kingdom” but also doesn’t know “how” to seek it because they’re seeking other things. Already filled-up with other things. Even the very area that only God can fill they filled it up with something else. They’re not seeking the kingdom first, as my friend Mike Peters would say “if we seek good jobs and good business and good weather and go after them then it’s obvious that we’re not seeking His kingdom first but second.”

Often I share to disciples, when it says “seek ye first the kingdom” it means first of all that the kingdom is hidden. It was meant that way or else Religious swines will find it and trample it on their feet. But here is the good news: Jesus promised that he who seek shall find! So if it’s hidden and we are told to seek it, it means then that it can be found. Yes?!

What is our job then? It is clear, ‘seek’ it. But how sad, many doesn’t know ‘how’ to seek it or simply because they don’t know ‘what’ to seek? Many also have tried ‘figuring it out’ first and see if it fits to their religious appetites. God’s heart is not found in ‘trying’ but it is found in seeking.

So, what is the kingdom of God then? Well, it’s within you and within me. His rule is where His domain is. “The kingdom of God is within you.” If it’s within each of us, then we’re not meant to live our lives individually eh? That’s why out of 75 commands of Jesus to us 58 of these is one-anothering. Simply put, our lives was never meant to live in isolation.

Like the early church, they ‘assembled’ themselves as one family, (imagine pieces of puzzles can be gathered but not assembled! Like many house- churches of today?) from “house to house.” One family, not many ‘Christian neighbors,’ and they live next door to each other in one city to obey their King as a body. Not one hand said to the other foot, “see you next Sunday!”

Acts 2&4 really is our pattern to follow. Many simple/organic/house churches who claim that they’re following the early church patterns, well, except Acts 2 and 4! They’re actually following the ‘result’ or the ‘fruit’ of their way of life. Example, they meet from house to house simply because they just live next door to each other!

A ‘way’ of life of sharing, of no buying, no selling but only giving and receiving, “no one is poor among them because they own everything” and other kingdom values. That’s why they’re called “The Way” simply because they have found the way to live. Seeing each other on house church meetings once a week or so cannot simply transfer kingdom values. Just as one’s good character will soon becomes bad because of his surrounding bad company guys so as the life of a person will change dramatically because he is surrounded with godly people. Honestly, after 3 yrs only of living Jesus-Life together with other saints here I can totally understand why Jesus could just retire and leave the disciples after that long. Now, we’re living together almost 9 years! And helping other areas we have where making disciples happen develop into Acts 2&4 Life!

So, let’s continue. If we seek His kingdom it means seeking His people who has the King’s rule, who obey the King. People who are living the kingdom life- together. Simply ask, when we found what we are seeking what should we do? Like a man who found a treasure in the land which not his own. Went and sold everything he has and bought that land. In other words, transfer location. Change our priorities.
This is what we are seeking, in time God brings in to us these kinds of people because God is also seeking people who are seeking His kingdom. He brings in connection and relationships and fulfill His own purposes in us, not our own individual selfish callings and gifting. Oh surely you’ll find them soon but make sure if you find it don’t use it for your own pleasure as gifts are not meant to keep but to be used and shared among the body.

When you find His kingdom, it ask you to align yourself not only to the King but also to His body. Being of ‘one mind’ and ‘one heart.’ It ask you to forsake everything you have and follow Him. It ask you to deny yourself and believe in Jesus’ words. Un-deny yourself is denying Jesus. It ask you to put down selfish ambitions and visions and dreams of your own. And you start putting other saints needs than your own. Simply put, start serving them. You are free to serve others because that’s how true freedom is designed for us as God’s people.

Ok? So, now go and start seeking your kingdom mandate. If you don’t have a seeking heart, ask Jesus for it. Surely He loves answering prayers to folks who are seeking His will!

What was the insurance of the early Church to have a life of security and freedom?

I love the way the early church shared and lived life with each other. Their sacrificial love among brethren is the pattern we are to follow. Many have tried to make a principal out of the way they lived but have failed to live practically following that pattern. It is, therefore, significant to examine this very important aspect of their body life: Where did they get their security and freedom? When they were made disciples of Jesus, what drove them to sell their houses and lands and joine the community called “The Way” and begin to live an alternative lifestyle? Surely, common sense tells that the one who has many houses, cars, land and businesses is more secured than the one who is trying to get rid of it. What kind of message did they expose themselves to that came from the apostles? What kind of lifestyle did they see that made them do likewise? What kind of security did they see in the ekklesia that the world they lived in could not offer?

What despicable scenery, when we look at the way the Christians today behave and live life with each other! Doesn’t security mean to have more, not less? More money, properties, businesses, cars, insurances, and lands and more not less! Although they believe that Jesus will come back soon they still want more church buildings, more parking lots, more programs, and more leaders. I remember reading a line contrasting the early church and the modern church, it reads like this: Peter preached one sermon and three thousand got saved, the pastor today preaches three thousand sermons and one gets saved!

If you need money to live then you’re not secured. Money seems to be your shield, not faith. If you need your career to live then you’re not really free. Career determines who you are, not God. You see, true security comes from forsaking all you have, giving it all up, not acquiring more and making yourself dependent on God alone. And true freedom comes not from serving others to benefit yourself (like any who work in this world do) but from serving others, laying down your life for others even when you benefit nothing out of it. This is exactly how the early church behaved and shared life sacrificially with one another. Forsaking and serving is the kingdom way of life. How did they do it? Simple. They showed obedience to their King first and then to his kingdom mandate.

Jesus said to us – his disciples, to seek first his kingdom and its constitution and then secondly, all these things shall be added. Let’s do this one by one. If Jesus says ‘seek,’ it means it is hidden and needs to be ‘found’ right? “Seek and it shall be found.’ My friend and brother Peter here asked as we discussed these things among ourselves, “Where? Where is the Kingdom of God?” It’s a very good question by the way. You see, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand’” (Lk 8:10). The priceless pearls of the Kingdom shall not be trampled by those that don’t even know how to ask the right question but carelessly shout Kingdom, Kingdom! It is a hidden secret. Why do you want to blast it carelessly?

Jesus is the King. A king without his domain is no king. Jesus says in Lk 17:21, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” If Jesus is your King, you are his domain. As more people acknowledge him to be their King and pay allegiance to his Kingship, his Kingdom expands and of the increase of his governance and peace, there is no end.
Paying allegiance to the King commands being obedient to his decrees and keeping his commands. A king without decrees, is not a king worthy of respect or obedience. “If you love me,” Jesus said to us as his disciples, “you will obey what I command” (Jn 14:15). When you acknowledge Jesus as your King, he descends his domain all over you. You enter into the King’s domain through baptism, and you remain in it through obedience because you love him. Obedience makes Jesus domain happen in you. Thus, the Kingdom of God is within you.

Let’s go back to Mt 6:33 again, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God…The Kingdom of God are those people of God, who have aligned themselves to the rule of King Jesus. Those who have made the allegiance to obey his commands out of love to him. Those people who let the Kingdom of God happen daily in their lifestyle and live in obedience to Jesus’ commands and his decrees. The Kingdom of God talks of a plurality then, a community, a body joined and knit-together in a region. Jesus says, “Seek first such people!” Seek first my people who live according to my Kingdom rules obeying my commands because they love me! And what does ‘seek’ mean? Change your priorities. Get out of all the human allegiance you have made to your church, your organization, to your worldly affairs, to your country, deny your Self, egos, rights, opinions, and enter the Kingdom of God. Lock-in to the Head, King Jesus, and join the community of Kingdom citizens and be part of that Body! (Start such a community if there is none in your region. Seek out such people and extend the Kingdom of God.)

Do you see the hidden secret? The Kingdom of God can be found! It’s right here! Wow!

As you find those people who live the Kingdom life together as a family, an ekklesia in the region (one church, one region) you join together with them. (Even if it may cost you to leave eberything and move to another region, do it! It is worth the Kingdom!) Because that’s why it says, “and all these things shall be added unto you.” Now, we are talking! That is being secure of everything that you need. But how does this work? O course, there is a price to pay. The cost of discipleship is to forsake all and to deny oneself. Jesus said in, Lk 14:33 “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Seek his kingdom first, does not mean, seek a good job, a good salary or good weather and your job transfer. We say, “No!” to these things and deny them to define our daily lifestyle. If these things come first to determine our life, then we practice that seeking His kingdom is not our top priority.

What did a person or a household see when they got saved in those early ekklesia? He definitely did not see a church and immediately became a member of it, really. So, what did he see? He saw the Kingdom of God. Jesus is so right in saying that when a person is born again he can see the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3). The disciples’ security is found in Jesus. Jesus shall meet all our needs according to His riches and glory and as the church forsakes all in order to receive a hundred fold. This is just one of the principles of the Kingdom life here. Mt 19:29 states, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much.” This is what Jesus has promised. I know, it stands so opposing to the way worldly people think and behave. In the world, the rich is rich, the poor is poor but in the Kingdom, the rich is poor and the poor is rich. The first is last, and the last is first. One who forsakes all has a hundred-fold! Madness? No, it is the normality. In the Kingdom, not doing what Jesus says is the madness! Those who arrogantly, adamantly argue that “what Jesus said, he didn’t actually mean it” will never get what he so simply says. To those he says, “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mk 1:15). Repent means, change the way you think. Renew your mind, my friend because the way your mind processes thoughts, needs a complete turn around and a new alignment to King Jesus in order to grasp kingdom stuff. He commands us to ‘repent’ before believing the news of his Kingdom! It requires you to turnaround from your arrogant madness and submit in obedience that comes out of love to your King.

As one truly forsakes all, that’s when he is secure. That is what the early church did, that was their attitude. They did not argue and debate and share opinions. They simply obeyed and forsook, denying their self, their own, their possessions, houses, lands, fields! They modeled a submitted attitude of the heart for us to follow. Today we have made a theological principle out of what they actually practiced. Many fail to follow such lifestyle that begins in the attitude of a submitted heart. In Acts 2, it says that they met from house to house. This means that they did not meet just on Sunday mornings for a couple of hours. That is not what they modeled for us to practice. The obeyed Jesus’commands of one-anothering and modeled what it takes to be a Body. They met from house to house. When one house got saved they just moved to the next house. Consider, what makes of a body if its parts are separate from each other? What kind of foot is that which asks the hand, “See you next Sunday Morning?” Unlike the lifestyle in modern churches that is filled with artificial love and ambition, the lifestyle in the book of Acts is full of sacrificial love and devotion. They lived ready anytime to martyrdom, to die for their King and his Kingdom – for one another.

That kind of selflessness gave them all the security. Think, what do you lose anyway if you are selfless? Now, how about their freedom in Christ. How did they actually get it? Jesus freed us from sin and slavery. “It was for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1). But how did they practice this new freedom. Jesus who has set us free modeled it for us. He took on the very nature of a servant (Phil 2:7), and came to us in a serving attitude to set us free. You followthat pattern and serve others to live in that freedom. Are you living such a freedom as a disciple of Jesus? Jesus is the one who set us free, he set an example of how to serve one another to really live in the new freedom he bought and brought for us. By serving one another, we live in freedom. Jesus came to serve, not to be served. We should do the same. I serve you; you serve me and we serve one another. How’s that!

In a world that is full of I-me-mine mentality, the Church also adopts such a mind-set. The I-me-mine mind-set does not enhance servant attitude but a leader attitude. Everyone wants to join some ‘Leader’s Conference’ so it’s obvious that nobody wants to serve their brethren. To say that a ‘leader serves’ annoys me to the core. Come on, honestly, a leader does not serve, he leads period. A servant does serve. Even if the job of a leader is guaranteed to serve, then it is more appropriate to call him a servant and not a leader. Jesus didn’t get the job done by leading. He got it done by serving. He came to serve. And we must go and do likewise as we are told to ‘serve one another.’

“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought” in Rom.12:3, talks actually about our act of spiritual worship. How do we worship? By offering our bodies as a living sacrifice. How do we practice this? Read the whole chapter and you will see it is all about serving one another! Someone explained to me that the ‘second’ commandment (loving your neighbor) is the same as the ‘first’ commandment (loving God). If loving God is worship, then loving your neighbor is worship to God. “Leave your gift at the altar” Jesus says when offering sacrifices, “and be reconciled to your brother” (Matt.5:24). Relationship is more important than offering a sacrifice. “How can you say you love God whom you do not see,” asks John, “when you cannot love your brother whom you see?” (1Jn. 4:20) See?

And here is Paul’s words of interaction to the ekklesia in Philippi, “Let each of you look out not only to his own interest, but also for the interest of others” (Phil.2:4). Practically it means, I will look out for your needs, you look out for mine. Deal? Imagine this, you take care of your brother’s needs and your brother take cares of your need, and everyone in the ekklesia is doing it the same way! Don’t you think that’s security and freedom in action? Yes, indeed!

Lastly, think about this, there are basically 75 commands of King Jesus, as His disciples we should know them or else we do not know what to obey, and 58 of these are about one-anothering. What do you say? Did Jesus command us leadership or servanthood? One-another, means I cannot live without you; you cannot live without me! I’m not greater than you, you’re not greater than me! In our house, we are 18 of us living in two buildings next to each other. And whatever we do, we always do it two by two, or four by four. When we cook, we all cook together. Once a missionary brother came visiting us and he ate with us. He liked the food and so he asked, “Who cooked this one?” There was some seconds of silence because at first. No one answered “Me!” Then someone broke the silence and answered, “Albert.” Albert then answered, “Ah, Jomie!” And Jomie pointed at Arlen and said, “It’s Arlen.” Then the missionary realized how our family is knit-together as one body! No one takes the credit because we all serve all.

True security comes from forsaking all for the kingdom of God. And true freedom comes from serving one another.