Following Jesus (2): Two Grande Dark

Coffee is coffee. But coffee isn't coffee.

In the hand of the One who turned water into wine. It's more than a Starbuck coffee. 

"Two Grande Dark" - the spirit of "Got it" and "Pass on."

Master Xu ( Click & know him first will help Following Jesus (1): Shall We Dance? ) drank tea back home. Seldom drank coffee. Never a Starbuck fans. But I am everything of coffee, of Starbuck. Since he didn't have any idea what to order, he followed mine. " Two Grande Dark please!"  No milk only sugar is my cup of coffee. Xu followed the last detail. We drank, talked about everything, of life, of immigration, of James O Fraser, of faith...

Then at other time, Xu would meet his own friends in restaurants, his home AND Starbuck. Now he met Alan, another Chinese immigrant, in Starbuck. He messed up the order and ended up something like Latte or Mocha, expensive and milky. He distasted it. Came back to me and asked what's the correct name to order. I told Xu, "Grande Dark." And ask him to repeat a few times "Grande Dark."  Now whenever they met in Starbuck, he made Alan drink...GRANDE DARK.  Xu "Got it". He "Passed on" to Alan right away.

Coffee is not my interest here. Jesus IS. Coffee is a medium to connect people. LTG (Life Transformation Group) is the like, a tool only, but Xu experienced the "Got it" and the power of God's words there.

3 months ago, when he felt desperate at all live challenges in this new country, I encouraged him to read Bible, by himself, as well as with us as a group.  This was his first time reading Bible.

I refrained myself from giving out to him only teaching, knowledge and opinion. Every questions he raised or every life issues he faced, I would answer them in the light of the Scripture and Jesus teaching - I flipped Bible.  Our focus is obedience unto Christ(Mat.28:20)  If he still didn't "Got it," we would learn the same lesson the other week, the other other week... till he was convinced to ACT. Even my friend was just a seeker, non-Christian, pre-follower, I wanted to make sure obedience to Christ was planted, planted deep. Because a true mark for Christ follower is obedience and love, not knowledge.

He showed progress, but slow. Now he told me he would be leaving for China in February. I thought I  should formed a LTG with him so that he later could repeat it with someone in China, to grow his new found faith and to grow the Kingdom there.

We did 3 things in LTG - the very core things of our faith, of our living as followers, yet so often neglected or reduced to lip service:

1. Read about 30 chapters Bible a week: He was then bathed in the Kingdom values, filling his soul, spirit and thinking, shaping him, instructing him...We read Gospel of John, then two three times Matthew(since we couldn't finish at the same time). Romans. Now Luke.  Jesus became bigger and bigger in Master Xu.
2. Make ourselves accountable to each other: we ask each other character shaping questions, confessing sins and drawing our focus again and again to the spiritual realm, the presence of God in our lives...
3. Pray for non-believers: this prepared him to share his witness and Jesus' teaching to his friends.  

Life's happening, growing and began to bear fruit.

He got drunk, then next morning he confessed he was wrong, since he now knew drunkenness is a sin(Rom 13:13). He no more wanted to tell lie, just wanted to be honest. He confessed his negligence of his kids and wanted to be a better father. Those were the things we confessed as we met in the LTG. And I told him that we should confess to each other and asked God's forgiveness. But at the same time, we should ask forgiveness from those with whom we had wronged.

The next day, after he had left for China, his wife told me that Master Xu had apologized to her and asked for forgiveness. He never apologized before.  Amd she was touched. They used to pointing finger towards each other, seeing logs in other's eyes. Now they were submitted to Jesus' teaching and confessing their logs in their own eyes (Mat.7:3-5).

I didn't induce them to say a sinner's prayer and became a believer. I no more a fans of it. I now challenged people to follow, to obey, to have an obedience-based faith.  When they follow Christ, they are His follower. When they obey Christ, they are God's obedient children (1Peter 1:14). A sinner's prayer won't bring you into his Kingdom, only the faith in obedience will do.  

There he was, he "Got it." He's following Jesus. And "Passed on" now...

 He shared Jesus teaching and his own experience to friends. People listened to him and wanting to study Bible with us. 2 weeks before he left, he brought Alan to our Bible Study, 6 of us including Alan's wife. We studied Bible.

Now Alan learnt to drink Grande Dark from Xu. Now Alan joined our LTG.  Both of us would connect with Master Xu in China through Skype to do LTG together every Friday. 

This is our journey in making disciples for Jesus. This is what we do in convincing them that everything we do, they can do, they should do.  His charge and his dream " to make disciples OF ALL NATIONS" (that is, of all people groups, of all languages, culture, subculture in this world) can only make senses when all believers all do it.

And do it with all focus. 
 

A LISU Christian was praying


A same disciple-making journey. In April, I would go to Yunnan to further disciple Master Xu. We were kind of connected by James O Fraser ("Mountain Rain"). I felt something divine in the minority groups out there in Yunnan, out there for us to discover, out there God's plan for us.  It is another journey.  We would walk along the missional path of James O Fraser, visiting cities he preached, staying in the Lisu minority people village... to hear, to see, to discover what God has prepared for us there. 

If you are inspired by what we are doing, and want to support my journey to Lisu in April. You can team up with us by donation - this will relieve our ministry's financial burden, and by prayer support, in our "LISU & Minorities 101 Journey." (Email me for detail)

See coffee is more than a coffee... 

So whether we are in a remote village in the Lisu community, or in a packed Starbuck corner in Vancouver. Be it face to face. Be it via Facebook.

 

We have one vision, one heart and one focus. To grow and reproduce faithful disciples, leaders, Christ communities. Love Jesus in our hearts. Love people with our deeds. Glorifing our Father here and forever.

Come and join me with a coffee!

This time with..."Two Grande Dark"