Light of Togo

WIth the recent arrival of Jon & Heidi Huff, the Bible institute is undergoing some small changes which will hopefully lead to its growth and greater effectiveness. One of the adjustments recently made was to allow any church member who wants to learn more about the Bible to attend. Because of this, there is now one pastor-in-training and three other men who are taking courses. Jon is currently teaching Old Testament Survey, and he asked me to teach New Testament Survey. We’ve completed a couple weeks already, and so far it has been a great experience and yet another opportunity to teach the truth of the Bible.

Please pray for these four guys that God would use these classes to increase their knowledge of His Word, and as a result increase their desire to know it’s author.

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Today marks one week since we first arrived in Togo. It’s been quite an amazing experience so far, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in the future here. We started out by crossing over the border from Ghana into Togo’s capital city of Lome. Our missionary coworkers had quite a bit of shopping to do there, so we stayed for a couple nights before heading up-country to the city of Kara, which is where we will be living. Until we get set up in a house of our own, which could take up to two months, we are living with Randy and Jeannette Alderman, who are the veteran missionaries that we’re working with. We are living in a small detached apartment on their property.

There are two other missionaries here also whom we’re working with: Jim White and Lisa Lewis. We’ve been having a great time with all the missionaries here, but I think that the greatest thing has been getting to know the Togolese people and speaking with them every day. While talking to them, we really begin to understand how much of their culture we need to learn. I also am convinced that at some point I need to learn the main tribal language here, which is Kabiye. It’s definitely not something that is absolutely necessary, as most of the missionaries in Togo only know French, but I believe it’s something that will make our ministry here much more effective in the long run. So, I figure that in about a year from now I will start with lessons in Kabiye.

Joshua is having a really great time here, but is having a little difficulty getting used to the heat, as we all are. He’s been having fun playing in the backyard as he’s trying to catch the very fast lizards that roam the area.

I also have some very exciting news to tell you about starting our ministry here in Togo. Once we get settled a bit more in the coming weeks, I’ll be starting to work with one of the churches here in Kara. It is a smaller church that has had some struggles, so the plan is to work along side the pastor, Pastor Nicodime, to help encourage him and build the church through discipleship and evangelism. Please be in prayer about this that God will give me wisdom in this comfort zone stretching opportunity.

Also, there is a man in that church named Élé who is very anxious to get started in the Bible Institute, but Randy is going to be leaving for the States soon, so he has asked me if I’d be willing to start teaching him a course in New Testament Survey. I think that this will be a great opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to getting started about a month from now.

We still just can’t believe that we’re actually here, it’s so exciting! Thank you all so much for praying for us.

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

We exist to glorify God. Period.

If you have not come to the point yet where you realize that the sole purpose for your existence on this planet is to glorify God, you must not have ever read the Bible. There are countless ways in which a follower of Christ can bring glory to God, but here in this passage Jesus tells us that one way is in bearing fruit.  Again, let’s not forget what Jesus is referring to when He talks about fruit.  God is glorified when we show His love through our lives, when we express the joy of knowing Christ, when we exercise faith in the unfailing nature of God.  As John Piper says in his excellent book on missions, Let the Nations Be Glad, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”  When He is everything to us, He is most glorified.

As the branch abides in the vine, the fruit producing process is simply a natural outflow of the life of the vine.  Imagine yourself at a local farm, where you are strolling through the rows of trees and plants, taking in all the sights and smells of non-city life.  Suddenly, as you pass by the grape vines, you hear a familiar but out-of-place sound.  It is the sound of struggle.  You bend your ear to distinguish the source, but you see no one.  Then something catches your eye.  It is a vine, to which is attached a small branch, on which is no fruit.  This comes as no surprise to you since it is not yet the season for grapes.  However, you see and hear that this little branch is grunting and groaning, struggling and squirming with all it’s might, trying to push out some fruit.  You say to the branch, “Hey buddy, what are you doing?”  He stops his efforts briefly and responds, “I’m making fruit!”  You try explaining to him that he can’t do it by all that struggling, and that it’s not even the season for it, but he turns a deaf ear and continues his travail.

As silly as this illustration is, it is a mirror of many Christians who have their focus on the wrong things.  Here is a question: is bearing fruit a good thing?  Yes, of course.  But does it mean that it should be the focus of all our attention?  We must realize that fruit in the Christian life is the result of our attention being fully on our abiding in Jesus and on the glorifying of God.  It is much like the sinner who tries to “be saved” by living a pseudo Christian life, without first going to the source of this life which is Jesus.

The last part of this verse can be a bit tricky.  At first glance, it appears to be telling us that discipleship is conditional and based upon the fruit that we produce.  If this is the case, how much is “much fruit?”  How can we ever be sure if we are disciples of Christ or not?  This dangerous thinking leads to many errors, such as putting all kinds of external stipulations on determining whether or not somebody is “right with God” or not.  I have seen and experimented this kind of Christianity, and in it there are many extra-biblical man-made rules that many times take priority over simple Bible truth.

In a situation like this, it is helpful to consult the original language of the text.  From the study that I have done, it appears that the idea is this: Fruitfulness in the Christian life is not a condition which is required to become a disciple of Christ, but rather it is the proof that one already is a disciple.  Jesus once said that you can tell whether a tree is good or bad by its fruit.  A vibrant, healthy tree will produce good fruit, but a dead or dying tree will produce undesirable fruit or no fruit at all.  The point of this parable was to show that what the tree is, it will produce.  It would be silly to say that the good fruit on the limbs is what makes the tree good.  But it is perfectly acceptable to say that the fruit on the limbs is good because the tree is good.  We must be careful not to reverse this order.  We bear fruit because we are disciples of Christ.  All Christians bear fruit.  It’s not always the exact same kind or quantity of fruit for everyone, but all Christians bear fruit because all Christians are disciples of Jesus Christ.  There is no such thing as a “non-discipleship Christianity.”

So where are your priorities, your focus?  On struggling and straining to push out fruit on your own?  On the glory of God?  Maybe on neither of these things.  The Word of God challenges us to abide in Jesus, rest in His life as our sufficiency, and to do all things for the purpose of glorifying God.  And through this God will bring forth fruit in us, showing that we are followers of Christ.