Making Disciples

For Everything There is a Season

Mark Yule
Pastor of Discipleship

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” - Ecclesiastes 3:1. 

I became familiar with these words from Ecclesiastes  in 1965 – although not directly through scripture nor through the identified author known as “The Preacher” (who most scholars believe is Solomon).  No – I heard these words by way of The Byrds song “Turn! Turn! Turn.”   Although Solomon received none of the royalty money for his lyrical contributions, the message of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 remains eternally true – everything has a season.  Busy seasons and seasons of rest.  Seasons of planting and seasons of reaping.

It is wise to not only recognize these seasonal fluctuations and patterns but to maximize them as well.  Even the Creator of all life, Jesus, realized the need to incorporate a brief season of rest into his schedule.  Often Jesus would break away from the crowd, His disciples and His public ministry for some needed alone time to pray and to enjoy communion with His Father.  So, for the workaholics out there here’s a needed reminder:  taking a rest is not a sin. It is beneficial.

Use a scheduled time of rest (a sabbath season) to do just what Jesus did.  Pull away and spend time with God to pray; to seek His refreshment and revitalization; to listen to His Spirit lead in the paths ahead; to dedicate yourself anew to what God has in store for the next season.

Our Making Disciples devotionals will be taking a break for the time being.  We hope you have enjoyed these brief devotionals to get a mid-week mini dose of inspiration as we try to become better followers of Jesus.

Prayer: Our Father, thank You for Your perfect creation and for pointing out the benefits of the different seasons of our lives.  God, I would pray that you would use our season of summer to draw close to you and to gain all that we need - physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Provide rest for our souls and creative thoughts for how You want to direct us in our next season of life.  Help us to maximize each day and to make each season count for your glory.

Churchless Christianity

Mark Yule
Pastor of Discipleship

Old time preacher/author Vance Navner said, “What the world needs is neither a Christless churchianity nor a churchless Christianity, but Christ, the Head living afresh in His body, the Church.”

I couldn’t agree more as it seems that there is a tendency to be pulled in either extreme.  The truth of this quote pulls us back to a rightful center.  Woe to the church where Jesus isn’t the object of focus.  Not programs or personalities; not buildings or budgets - but Christ, first and foremost.

We can also be in danger of swinging off center by adapting to a “churchless Christianity.”  We live in a world which can pull a follower of Christ off kilter by self-centered drives and independent desires for autonomy.  True, our faith is personal, but that should not be synonymous with isolation from His body, the church.  Christ must be head for He rules and makes the rules for how we can fit and function within the church.  He desires unity and harmony not isolation.

Christ and the church are inseparable and undefeatable (“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  Matthew 16:18)  Personally and corporately Christ must be the Head, and we must be connected to the body.

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”  Ephesians 2:19-22

As disciples and disciple makers let’s stay firmly connected to our Cornerstone and make sure we are joined together in His Church.  

Prayer: Lord Jesus, may You live afresh in my life.  May I stay connected to You as my Head and my Lord.  Help me to stay firmly joined to the church in community, harmony and unity.  Christ afresh, for Your glory.