Keeping Up With the Roberts Family
Each month Cliff and Denise Roberts write home to their high desert family at New Life Fellowship to share all the happenings in their lives and their new church community. We look forward to posting their spiritual insights as they continue walking with the Lord in Lakeland, Tennessee.
August: Lead by Example
Some time around 2010, a friend of mine encouraged me to read The Divine Mentor, by Wayne Cordeiro. He said it had reshaped his approach to Scripture and rejuvenated his love for God’s Word. I followed his advice and had much the same reaction. Over the next decade, I SOAPed regularly and taught countless others the same method for studying the Bible. I introduced (or reintroduced) S.O.A.P. annually with our youth group in Barstow, and our team of leaders followed the same pattern themselves and with their small groups. Partly for accountability, but mainly out of a desire share with my friends what God was doing in my heart, I also began texting my SOAPs to our leadership team. That text circle soon extended to include more friends and leaders, young adults, disciples and friends-of-friends whom I’ve never met. I now find myself sharing regularly from my daily times with the Lord, and that will likely continue to grow moving forward.
Case in point: these monthly updates. What began as “ministry updates” (what are we doing, where are we headed, what does it look like, etc.) have become more devotional, personal, like the SOAPs I share with friends each day. As I wrote about back in our March newsletter, I really sense the Lord leading me in this direction. What God is doing with our family is very relational, often more private than public, usually in our home, and pretty organic. So in our quest to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20), how should I approach that? Well, “lead by example” is probably a good start (1 Cor. 11:1, Phil. 4:9).
I don’t have any fancy letters after my name, nor a theological degree or authoritative plaque on my wall. And I don’t expect to share something so profound and life-changing that my words somehow carry far greater weight than I intend. For those who know me, I want you to know me better, and invite you into my life as best I can. For those who don’t know me from Adam, I want to present myself as authentically and transparently as I can in the hopes that as you see what makes me tick, you see the Lord at work. I don’t know that such an endeavor is worthy of everyone’s time spent reading an email I write, or a text message I send, or listening to a phone call or coffee chat we share, or even receiving a monthly update on our family. But this is who am I and what God is doing in me. My prayer is that it brings Him glory, and honestly, that’s kinda all that matters. So with that somewhat lengthy introduction, here’s a bit of what God’s been working on in me recently…
“Go home”
And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” - Mark 5:19
I’ve had a number of friends (often younger adults, but other less-young adults as well), who’ve been so touched by the Lord in some deep way that they’ve upended their entire lives to follow Him in a pursuit that seems to be more like reaction than obedience. I certainly don’t presume to know God’s will for them, but I do know that the Holy Spirit both gives and withholds confirmation in my spirit. I’ve also known others who have moved their entire families (like we did!), or have dedicated a year or two of their lives to being involved with a prayer house, or the mission field, or on a spiritual assignment or as part of a discipleship program. Shoot, I was in my senior year at Santa Clara University when God called me to Bible college, and after graduating, that’s exactly what I did! So I know that responding to Him and obeying Him is an important part of our discipleship.
But from personal experience, I also know that He doesn’t always call me into something brand new, unexpected or revolutionary with a grand, “Follow Me!” I often wish that He would, because chasing hard after Jesus certainly sounds more exciting and fresh than “Go home and tell people what God has done.” The latter is a call back to the familiar, the mundane, the boring, the hard work of impacting people I’ve already been around, already “tried” influencing, who’ve already shown me how resistant they can be to change. Man, it’d sure be easier to let all that stuff go and just throw myself completely into “following Jesus”. Funny how it’s so easy to see God doing something amazing in a new environment, but so much harder to imagine Him doing it in places that have become familiar to me.
This former demoniac in Mark 5 begged to go with Jesus. Man, that’s totally understandable, right? He’d just been radically delivered by the Son of God, freed from unimaginable torment and restored completely in an instant. Who wouldn’t want to immediately drop everything else to follow the Savior?! But rather than welcoming this guy as His newest disciple, Jesus “rejects” his request and sends him home. WHAT?! That seems so inappropriate, maybe even offensive (how rude!). But Jesus actually gave him a mandate that tested the validity of his transformed heart. Did he love Jesus enough to obey? (Jn. 14:15) Was he free enough now to do what God told him? (Jn. 8:36) Had he been completely delivered and now fully become a “slave of righteousness”? (Romans 6) Here’s the uncomfortable truth that I need to wrestle with: following Jesus on my own terms isn’t really following Jesus. If He says to me, “Go home” and then gets into a boat to cross the lake, following Him into the boat is actually disobedience.
Thankfully, God is gracious, and I cannot count the number of times when in my honest zeal I’ve exerted efforts and implemented plans solely because I wanted to express my love for the Lord. I imagine Him smiling and giving me a warm, “Bless you heart, son.” Like me in many of those instances, not everyone impacted by Jesus in the NT followed His instructions. The man healed of leprosy in Mark 1:40-45 actually did the opposite of what Jesus said. Jesus told him not to tell anyone, but to simply present himself to the priest as a testimony of his healing. Likely thinking (or maybe just reacting?) that his story was certainly worth broadcasting, the man went out and began to talk freely about what the Lord had done. But Jesus wasn’t honored by his efforts, his testimony, his glorifying God—Jesus’ ministry was actually hindered! The man did just as the demoniac had done in Mark 5, but had been told to do something else. There simply is no substitute for obedience.
That’s a difficult lesson for me to learn at times, and it’s way more humbling than I’d like to admit. The opportunity for offense, for hurt feelings, for blame, for unfortunate unintended consequences—all of that is there when I’ve stepped beyond the measure of obedience He requires of me. I still remember a prayer time years and years ago as I poured out my heart to the Lord and reaffirmed to Him my great love and desire to serve Him wholeheartedly. His response was pretty direct: “I don’t question your passion,” I heard the Holy Spirit say to my heart, “I question your obedience.” Ouch, yeah that one hurt as bad as it sounds. Again, His preference for a loving 2x4 upside my ego rather than a gentle nudging tends to get my attention pretty regularly. It did then and I still remember the exact spot of my bedroom I was walking in as He laid that uncomfortable truth on me. I wonder if this newly-delivered man in Mark 5 felt the same? His response still gives me hope.
Tom and I have had numerous conversations about our fidelity to whatever God says more than whatever we plan. He’s interrupted, paused, adjusted and blown up our travel plans, prayerwalking plans, meeting plans and all sorts of other plans too. Walking and praying across the country sounds amazing, and there have been so many who are awed and inspired by our journey. But none of that validates anything we do as a ministry. We could walk many more thousands of miles across the nation praying and ministering, yet actually hinder His work with our zeal. So if He says, “Go home,” then home honors Him more than the road, and faithful service more miles we could walk. We still have our plans, humbly submitted to the Lord and on our calendars, but held before Him with open hands and yielded hearts as best as we can manage.
School is slowly rolling in here too, and although I’ll be hard at work creating Algebra II and Geometry syllabi, I need to maintain the same openness and “interruptability” with my school schedule as I try to do with the Lord. Despite my best efforts to calendar the entire year before it begins, things always get adjusted and moved, but that’s part of the beauty of homeschooling! Wisdom will be attending the University of Memphis and Truth is back at Moore Tech to complete his welding classes. Purity will likely begin job-hunting this Fall, but at least it’s not school! (Yes, that’s an accurate take on Purity’s disposition. lol!) As our routine settles in, board game nights, coffee chats, prayer times with friends and shared family nights are all finding their spaces in our schedules.
As always, y’all are welcome to join us any time, even without a heads-up. Coffee is always on tap and the game library continues to grow. You’re welcome to partake freely of both. Our email updates continue to go as they’ve gone for a while now—which is to say that a permanent hosting site is still in the works. Thanks for being so patient with us. Any giving we receive still flows through New Life Fellowship in Barstow at newlifebarstow.com/give (Missions—Roberts Family). We are so grateful for your continued prayers for our family, for your calls and emails and texts. Being connected to the body of Christ in so many ways is richly rewarding for all of us. We love you lots!
The Roberts Family
(Cliff, Denise, Purity, Wisdom, Truth, Justice, Honor and Life)
Case in point: these monthly updates. What began as “ministry updates” (what are we doing, where are we headed, what does it look like, etc.) have become more devotional, personal, like the SOAPs I share with friends each day. As I wrote about back in our March newsletter, I really sense the Lord leading me in this direction. What God is doing with our family is very relational, often more private than public, usually in our home, and pretty organic. So in our quest to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20), how should I approach that? Well, “lead by example” is probably a good start (1 Cor. 11:1, Phil. 4:9).
I don’t have any fancy letters after my name, nor a theological degree or authoritative plaque on my wall. And I don’t expect to share something so profound and life-changing that my words somehow carry far greater weight than I intend. For those who know me, I want you to know me better, and invite you into my life as best I can. For those who don’t know me from Adam, I want to present myself as authentically and transparently as I can in the hopes that as you see what makes me tick, you see the Lord at work. I don’t know that such an endeavor is worthy of everyone’s time spent reading an email I write, or a text message I send, or listening to a phone call or coffee chat we share, or even receiving a monthly update on our family. But this is who am I and what God is doing in me. My prayer is that it brings Him glory, and honestly, that’s kinda all that matters. So with that somewhat lengthy introduction, here’s a bit of what God’s been working on in me recently…
“Go home”
And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” - Mark 5:19
I’ve had a number of friends (often younger adults, but other less-young adults as well), who’ve been so touched by the Lord in some deep way that they’ve upended their entire lives to follow Him in a pursuit that seems to be more like reaction than obedience. I certainly don’t presume to know God’s will for them, but I do know that the Holy Spirit both gives and withholds confirmation in my spirit. I’ve also known others who have moved their entire families (like we did!), or have dedicated a year or two of their lives to being involved with a prayer house, or the mission field, or on a spiritual assignment or as part of a discipleship program. Shoot, I was in my senior year at Santa Clara University when God called me to Bible college, and after graduating, that’s exactly what I did! So I know that responding to Him and obeying Him is an important part of our discipleship.
But from personal experience, I also know that He doesn’t always call me into something brand new, unexpected or revolutionary with a grand, “Follow Me!” I often wish that He would, because chasing hard after Jesus certainly sounds more exciting and fresh than “Go home and tell people what God has done.” The latter is a call back to the familiar, the mundane, the boring, the hard work of impacting people I’ve already been around, already “tried” influencing, who’ve already shown me how resistant they can be to change. Man, it’d sure be easier to let all that stuff go and just throw myself completely into “following Jesus”. Funny how it’s so easy to see God doing something amazing in a new environment, but so much harder to imagine Him doing it in places that have become familiar to me.
This former demoniac in Mark 5 begged to go with Jesus. Man, that’s totally understandable, right? He’d just been radically delivered by the Son of God, freed from unimaginable torment and restored completely in an instant. Who wouldn’t want to immediately drop everything else to follow the Savior?! But rather than welcoming this guy as His newest disciple, Jesus “rejects” his request and sends him home. WHAT?! That seems so inappropriate, maybe even offensive (how rude!). But Jesus actually gave him a mandate that tested the validity of his transformed heart. Did he love Jesus enough to obey? (Jn. 14:15) Was he free enough now to do what God told him? (Jn. 8:36) Had he been completely delivered and now fully become a “slave of righteousness”? (Romans 6) Here’s the uncomfortable truth that I need to wrestle with: following Jesus on my own terms isn’t really following Jesus. If He says to me, “Go home” and then gets into a boat to cross the lake, following Him into the boat is actually disobedience.
Thankfully, God is gracious, and I cannot count the number of times when in my honest zeal I’ve exerted efforts and implemented plans solely because I wanted to express my love for the Lord. I imagine Him smiling and giving me a warm, “Bless you heart, son.” Like me in many of those instances, not everyone impacted by Jesus in the NT followed His instructions. The man healed of leprosy in Mark 1:40-45 actually did the opposite of what Jesus said. Jesus told him not to tell anyone, but to simply present himself to the priest as a testimony of his healing. Likely thinking (or maybe just reacting?) that his story was certainly worth broadcasting, the man went out and began to talk freely about what the Lord had done. But Jesus wasn’t honored by his efforts, his testimony, his glorifying God—Jesus’ ministry was actually hindered! The man did just as the demoniac had done in Mark 5, but had been told to do something else. There simply is no substitute for obedience.
That’s a difficult lesson for me to learn at times, and it’s way more humbling than I’d like to admit. The opportunity for offense, for hurt feelings, for blame, for unfortunate unintended consequences—all of that is there when I’ve stepped beyond the measure of obedience He requires of me. I still remember a prayer time years and years ago as I poured out my heart to the Lord and reaffirmed to Him my great love and desire to serve Him wholeheartedly. His response was pretty direct: “I don’t question your passion,” I heard the Holy Spirit say to my heart, “I question your obedience.” Ouch, yeah that one hurt as bad as it sounds. Again, His preference for a loving 2x4 upside my ego rather than a gentle nudging tends to get my attention pretty regularly. It did then and I still remember the exact spot of my bedroom I was walking in as He laid that uncomfortable truth on me. I wonder if this newly-delivered man in Mark 5 felt the same? His response still gives me hope.
Tom and I have had numerous conversations about our fidelity to whatever God says more than whatever we plan. He’s interrupted, paused, adjusted and blown up our travel plans, prayerwalking plans, meeting plans and all sorts of other plans too. Walking and praying across the country sounds amazing, and there have been so many who are awed and inspired by our journey. But none of that validates anything we do as a ministry. We could walk many more thousands of miles across the nation praying and ministering, yet actually hinder His work with our zeal. So if He says, “Go home,” then home honors Him more than the road, and faithful service more miles we could walk. We still have our plans, humbly submitted to the Lord and on our calendars, but held before Him with open hands and yielded hearts as best as we can manage.
School is slowly rolling in here too, and although I’ll be hard at work creating Algebra II and Geometry syllabi, I need to maintain the same openness and “interruptability” with my school schedule as I try to do with the Lord. Despite my best efforts to calendar the entire year before it begins, things always get adjusted and moved, but that’s part of the beauty of homeschooling! Wisdom will be attending the University of Memphis and Truth is back at Moore Tech to complete his welding classes. Purity will likely begin job-hunting this Fall, but at least it’s not school! (Yes, that’s an accurate take on Purity’s disposition. lol!) As our routine settles in, board game nights, coffee chats, prayer times with friends and shared family nights are all finding their spaces in our schedules.
As always, y’all are welcome to join us any time, even without a heads-up. Coffee is always on tap and the game library continues to grow. You’re welcome to partake freely of both. Our email updates continue to go as they’ve gone for a while now—which is to say that a permanent hosting site is still in the works. Thanks for being so patient with us. Any giving we receive still flows through New Life Fellowship in Barstow at newlifebarstow.com/give (Missions—Roberts Family). We are so grateful for your continued prayers for our family, for your calls and emails and texts. Being connected to the body of Christ in so many ways is richly rewarding for all of us. We love you lots!
The Roberts Family
(Cliff, Denise, Purity, Wisdom, Truth, Justice, Honor and Life)
It was great to hang with Tom a bit last month. We did more talking than walking,
but the prayers were sweet and the fellowship was great.
but the prayers were sweet and the fellowship was great.
Purity celebrated her 21st birthday on July 14th! I know, can you believe it? She wanted to visit the beach, so joined by her friend Peyton, and her incredible sisters, she did exactly that. The Gulf of America is very different from the Pacific Ocean,
so if you’ve only experienced one of them, try and visit the other too!
so if you’ve only experienced one of them, try and visit the other too!
Life wanted to go to Kids Camp, so I agreed to go as a Counselor. I know, I know, it was a totally unfamiliar, strange role for me that I’ve never ever done before…yeah, right. Camp was great, Life had a blast, and the time spent together was unforgettable.
Plus, it was fun!
Plus, it was fun!