Discipleship

I Pledge Allegience

June 22, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

“I pledge allegiance to…” How do you finish that sentence? We all pledge our allegiance to something or someone. Many are brought up being taught to pledge their allegiance to their nation. When I was younger, we said the pledge of allegiance to our country’s flag at the beginning of each school day. Now that we’re adults, we get to choose where and to whom we will pledge our allegiance. If you follow Jesus, the choice is simple.

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Jesus does not accept divided loyalty. He demands our whole heart, the entirety of our devotion because He knows it is impossible to serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). I am grateful for living in America. Despite what seems to be a never-ending erosion of our values and principles, I still think it’s the best place to live. But I pledge allegiance to Jesus and no one or nothing else.

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We Need Jesus

June 18, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

Pastor and author Tim Keller said, “In every disaster, whether it’s 9/11 or COVID-19, God is saying to people, ‘Eventually, I’m going to put an end to all of this. But for the time being, this world is broken, and every time you think you don’t need me and that you can get on top of it, something like this will come along to remind you that, no, you do need me”. We need Jesus.

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Our efforts to build a society and a world without Him are failing miserably. We will fail because each of us is concerned with what’s best for us, not our neighbor. It’s a universal affliction. Even for those of us who try to live a God-centered life, most of our thoughts remain on ourselves. We need Jesus to change our hearts. The world needs Jesus to transform millions who are not ashamed to stand on His Word and share His gospel.

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Hard Truths

June 11, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

Many people leave the Church and their faith behind because they no longer agree with the Church’s stance on hot button topics of the age or even long-held teachings that seem antiquated to their itching ears. People leave the truth because they expected it to be easy. They wanted to belong to something. This is not a new phenomenon. Jesus gave a teaching one day that caused his followers to abandon him in droves (John 6:53-68).

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When He taught about giving away all you had to follow Him, His disciples remarked how difficult the teaching was and wondered who could receive it (Matthew 19:23-26). The teachings of Jesus are difficult. They are hard truths because many are called but few are chosen. Few will endure the cost of discipleship.

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Following Jesus

June 4, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

We find one of the hardest teachings of Jesus in Luke, chapter fourteen, verses 26- 33. I’ve rarely heard messages preached from this passage, at least not without several caveats and attempts to water down what Jesus was saying. I think we are on dangerous ground any time we try to soften or redefine the words of Jesus. Jesus was the most intentional person who ever lived. He meant what He said every time. One way we know this is because when Jesus gave a hard teaching such as the one in John 6:53-58, we learn a few verses later that many turned away from following Him.

Jesus didn’t soften His message or try to say what He had said another way to win them back. No, He meant what He said, and He allowed the people to accept the teaching and follow Him or to walk away. He wanted everyone to trust in Him, but not at the cost of compromising His Word.

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Time Keeps On Slipping

May 25, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

There’s an old song that says, “Time keeps on slipping into the future”. As most of the world has been sequestered in their homes for the past couple of months, I’ve noticed time seems to pass faster than ever before. Others have begun noticing it as well (see “Why time seems to be going faster while we are in lockdown”). Add this to the phenomenon of time passing by more quickly the older you get

(I don’t know if there’s evidence for this, but it’s something an older person told me when I was younger, and I have found it to be true in my life), and time keeps on slipping not just into the future, but out of my hands. The time we hold today will be gone tomorrow, never to return.