Apprenticeship

November 27, 2012

“He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you..”  (Matthew 4:19)

In the seventies I attended a meeting where the business executives of a large city asked the vice president of a large shipyard to explain why his shipyard was continuously given the contracts to build large aircraft carriers.  They had just been awarded a contract to build a large carrier and the next highest bidder was $38 million above them.

He said that he could answer their question with one word: apprenticeship.  He explained that a student in a university absorbs information for many weeks and then is asked to show that they remember and understand that information.  After doing that for four years they are given a degree and we declare them educated.  But unless they specialize in something that equips them for a specific job they are often educated people who can’t do anything.  In the shipyard, however, they put a person in the classroom for two weeks and in the shipyard for two weeks and after doing that for five years they build aircraft carriers.

I believe it is helpful to define what we mean when we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ. A synonym for the word disciple is “apprentice.” A disciple is an apprentice who is learning what they are doing and doing what they are learning.  Apprenticeship and discipleship are essentially the same concept.

To paraphrase and summarize, Jesus offers a covenant contract to those who profess to believe in Him.  That contract has two parts.  He promised, “You follow Me.  That is your part.  I will make you.  That is My part.  You follow Me.  That is your responsibility.  And I will make you.  That is My responsibility.”

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Posted by Dick Woodward

Preparing Us for Heaven

May 29, 2012

“When your body suffers, sin loses its power.”  (1 Peter 4:1 LB)

As you and I grow closer to God, one of two things happens: God burns out of us everything contrary to the essence of His spiritual and holy nature, or our resistance to this process puts our relationship with God in a spiritual “deep freeze.”

Years ago I visited a man who had just experienced a five-artery bypass operation after suffering a massive heart attack.  Involved in much sexual immorality before he became a follower of Christ, he had sought my counsel frequently regarding his continuous battle with a sexually impure thought-life.  When I arrived at his room in the hospital, he extended his hand to me from his oxygen tent and said, “I haven’t had a sexual thought since I entered this hospital!”

What he said reminded me of that part of the verse quoted above by the Apostle Peter, which tells us that sin can sometimes lose its power when we are suffering.  If people were transparent, many would acknowledge the reality that their loving heavenly Father has kept them from much sin by permitting many shades and grades of suffering and limitations.  According to the book of Hebrews (12: 29), and the first letter of the Apostle Peter, God sometimes uses suffering to diminish sin and increase the share of His holy nature with His children.

If a large block of ice and a blowtorch came together slowly one of two things happens: the blowtorch can melt the ice or the ice can extinguish the blowtorch.  God knows His business is to prepare us for heaven.  He is a consuming fire that sometimes uses suffering to do that business.

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Posted by Dick Woodward

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