The Pinnacle of Knowledge / Compassion LPC pt1 (123/365)

Hello, folks. I’m finally taking on all the notes I took last April 12, when I was in Cubao for Compassion Philippines’ Luzon Pastors’ Conference.

During our last trip to represent our church at a Compassion Philippines event, I learned how the said organization would intentionally book its participants with each other in a room – to save money, and to get us to know each other better.

Back then I was paired with a good pastor from the Mountain Province… and last April 11-13, I was surprised yet again because I wasn’t paired with just one other pastor from the Mountain Province… No, there were three of us sharing the room this time. We shared the room with Pastor Arnel. While most folks who work with Compassion are from Camarines Sur, he was one of the few who started off early from Camarines Norte.

And adhering to the spirit of fellowship, he was very eager to listen to what we had to share (calling it ‘food’ from the north, or Luzon), just as he wanted to share whatever was on his heart.

Here is what I remember from our discussion:

Christ even chased down those who wanted to kill Him. We’re all about telling people that God loves them no matter what they did in their past, or no matter what was done to them… But this was pretty eye opening, to consider that Christ was intensely intentional with His love (which was the Father’s love) to the Pharisees and everyone who actively sought His death… just as He was intensely intentional with the tax collector, the adulteress, the leper, and so on.

Pray for what’s (and who’s) beyond your control. The rest of the world has yet to let the Holy Spirit bring them to Christ… and they can only go as far as to count on their own strength, and/or to lament and complain about what goes on in their lives in this reality. Christ paid a great price to, first, reconcile us to the Father, and consequently, give us the opportunity to come, as we are, to the Creator of all that is seen and unseen, with any and all that we have in our minds; and this includes situations and/or people that drive us to wits’ end.

The pastoral mantle is a very heavy one. No additional comment about this one, can’t remember what brought me to note this one down… but I’d like to add, now that I’m revisiting this, that the pastoral mantle is a heavy one, and one factor that makes it heavy is that you don’t see very much, in terms of returns in the investments that cost more than mere money.

Here’s something that came to mind as I was getting ready for the actual event:

Knowledge -> Application -> Discipleship

…and now, so many weeks later, here’s what I have to say about that:

You get the most knowledge from the smallest amount of time through application.

You make the most application from the smallest amount of time through discipleship.

I know I started with Knowledge and moved from left to right, but here I would have us consider going right to left. Don’t climb from the bottom, but start from the top; That is, work your way down to the knowledge that matters through discipleship.

There will always be the tendency you weigh yourself down with too much knowledge, lose focus from all the application opportunities, and see discipleship as an elusive destination more than a natural action.

I’m not saying I’m an expert on this. I mean, look, I’m the one who’s writing right now, instead of actually going out there and ‘discipling’. But let me justify myself. I’m writing to consolidate knowledge, or simply to organize my thoughts. And I also see it as transferring data out my brain’s hard drive and RAM so I have more free space to move.

The way I see it, there’s no sense in application or discipleship if you don’t have the space in your mind (before you have space in the physical) to move.

And, see, there’s one common ground between application and discipleship – it’s moving. More than the memorization of concepts, and even more than the chronicling and writing about it (as I’m doing), it’s really just moving. Doing it more than talking about it.

I’m sure to see, later on in my notes, that one or more of the speakers said the same thing – Discipling isn’t a concept of our salvation in Christ, just as grace isn’t a mere volume in the full book of God’s goodness; More than it being learned or taught, it’s something we do. Something we live.

Introduction

Pastor Sanya from Compassion Thailand

He has been in Compassion for 24 years, and it was a joy for him to visit the country, just so he would see the ‘context of the Philippine Churches’, versus how things have been going on in his own country. In Thailand, he laments the legal recognition of same-sex marriages, and the construction of a casino in Bangkok. He asks the churches there, ‘where are we?’, ‘what is the voice of the church?’

He also points out that less than 1% of Thailand is born again, and how happy he is to see how the Bible is freely available here in the Philippines.

His word comes from transition between Moses and Joshua in Judges. He shares: Your calling is greater than your hire(?). There’s no turning back once you’ve been called. Live out your calling. (I add) Live out Christ, and tell the Truth.

And there it is. You want to understand what it means to ‘live’ discipleship more than it is to learn about it and apply it? You live out Christ – that is, you live, understanding and appreciating how you have been given Life by Christ, who HIMSELF is our Life.

Consequently, you disciple, understanding and appreciating how you yourself have been discipled by Christ.

While we were sinners… while I was a sinner, He chased me down, as impetuous as He was when He chased down the leper, the adulteress, the tax collector, those who would be called His disciples, AND those who would call Him their sworn enemy.

Scriptures tell us that He retreated to the wilderness to pray… and I’d like to imagine that among the many things He would discuss with His Father, He would also be praying for you and for me.

We disciple from the foundation of everlasting love, which Christ also proved was an intentional love – One that chases us down, and one that would bring us to pray – to consult no less than the Creator of all things seen and unseen, whom we call Father, for any and all people and situations we are led to.

Let’s keep going.

(to be continued)

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#Bible #CompassionPh #Discipleship #Knowledge #Application #JesusChrist #HolySpirit #Christianity #PracticalChristianity #BenefitsOfSalvation #Reflections #Revelations