Being Equipped

In responding to the command of Jesus to make disciples, one necessity is to become better equipped to do so. In the last week God has facilitated this in several ways. One was in spending a day with a veteran disciplemaker, one of the few people i know who has been personally discipled, and then employed that over his entire adult life. He gave me a book called "Intentional Disciplemaking," by Ron Bennett. About the first half is dedicated to how to minister the gospel as we cannot disciple those who are unregenerated,
     On Saturday had the opportunity to listen to three audios from Summit Ministries in Colorado. The first was about the meaning of meaning by Michael Bauman. Key ideas were: Ideas have consequences, and, bad ideas have bad ones; sloppy language makes sloppy thought possible; does meaning derive from intention or interpretation, and language is at the core of reality. Our God is a god of language. He created the world through speaking, and Jesus is identified as the Word of God. (John 1) The primary revelation of God is through the inspired, inerrant pages of the Bible.
     The second audio was by Chuck Edwards. Thoughts here were: the postmodern world has no humor. Words have meaning only in context. Do not ask what does it mean to me; ask what does it mean. Context is key. The third more problematic audio was by Greg Koukl. He made numerous assertions, and between that the questions raised, spent too little time on actually making his case Biblically. His points were: Never read a Bible verse in isolation; stop looking for special meanings. The primary example was Jeremiah 29:11 which begins, "I know the plans i have for you..." Koukl maintains that this promise was to the specific Jews destined for exile during Jeremiah's ministry, and should not be applied to believers. This opens a sizeable can of worms because much of the Bible is written to specific individuals and groups or about them in a specific time frame i.e. Paul's letter to the Philippians or to Timothy, or Jesus' prayer in John 17 which initially prays for the disciples listening to Him as He spoke, and only in verse 20 to those who will hear the message. Time did not permit but it would be imperative to hear what guidelines or methods Koukl would propose to determine what was for then and what could be applied now.
     Finally Sunday night i listened to a DVD by Bill Jack to facilitate evangelism. He uses five questions.
What do you mean by what you are saying?
How do you know?
What difference does it make in your life?
What if you are wrong, i.e. the eternal consequences.
What would you accept as evidence?