John G. Lake

(1870–1935)

         John Graham Lake could be compared to Jacob, the biblical character and schemer. He was ordained in the Methodist Church after claiming to have graduated from a seminary that did not exist. Even so, his passionate desire to serve the Lord would, like Jacob, be changed to make him “a prince with God.”

     After we have been born again, the next step in our progression toward maturity in Christ is to become a disciple. A disciple is a student but it is much more than that. A disciple in biblical times was one whose primary devotion of life was to be like their teacher. They awoke in the morning thinking of their teacher, the day centered on learning from him, and they went to bed at night reviewing what they had learned. A disciple’s whole life revolved around learning from their teacher.

         The Special Bulletin I recently posted, titled National Health Scare, made quite an impact. It turns out that the brief I had received from the Liberty Council was the work of a reporter, and neither Matt Staver nor I had the chance to verify its content before it was posted.

        Our worldview is how we see the world. As covered last week, there are four basic, dominant worldviews—Christian, Islamic, Secular, and Marxist. As stated, most of the troubles and conflicts in the world today are the result of the clash of these four worldviews. Understanding these is a key to understanding the world in our times.

First, I would like to thank those of you who emailed us with your understanding and support for the action that Mike, Jack, and I felt we had to take in regard to Paul Cain. To my personal surprise the response was almost totally supportive. Although this has been one of the most difficult and heart-rending problems that I have personally ever had to deal with (and I am confident that Mike and Jack would say the same), the remarkably mature and gracious way that the church seems to be almost universally handling this matter is cause for great encouragement.

         Even with the great increase of knowledge the world is now experiencing, there is not much understanding. Understanding means to “stand under” someone else’s situation, to put ourselves in their place. This comes mostly from learning to become a good listener, which is also very rare. Yet if we are going to fulfill The Great Commission to make disciples, we must be able to reach people where they are. We can’t teach first graders geometry, and we will lose senior citizens if we try to teach geometry to them.

This week we will continue our discussion of the three phases of ministry and how it applies to the three parts of the habitations of God in Scripture. As a reminder, I have broken them down into the following general definitions.

Phase I: Rescue and Salvation. The main goal of this phase is to lead people to Christ and add them to the church.

As we proceed toward considering how we can help build the highway for our God, we want to occasionally fortify the foundations of our own spiritual lives. Just as there were five pillars at the door of the Holy Place in the tabernacle of God and the Holy of Holies, there are five basic principles that enable us to enter the deeper realms of the spiritual life. These are basics which we should have growing in our lives, regardless of how mature we become. They are: