Out O' Th' Bushes: A Texas Preacher's Guide to Givin' Plumb Up!

OUT O’ TH’ BUSHES

A Texas Preacher’s Guide to Givin’ Plumb Up!

TEX TONROY

Copyright © 2016 Tex Tonroy.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-2032-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-2033-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015918907

WestBow Press rev. date: 1/22/2016

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

THEME 1: LOVE

The Gift of the Magi

Tex’s Thoughts on Love

Exodus 20:1-17

John 3:16

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Leviticus 19:18

Luke 10:29-37

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

2 Timothy 2:24-26

Ephesians 4:29-32: A Story about Sam

A Few Words about Mercy

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

God’s Love

THEME 2: HUMILITY

Moses, Humble?

Tex’s Thoughts on Humility

1 Chronicles 7:14

Micah 6:8

Matthew 5:3-12

Luke 9:23

James 4:6, 10 (and parallels)

1 Corinthians 1:25-31

Baptism (Matthew 3)

THEME 3: THANKSGIVING

The Valley of the Shadow

Tex’s Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Matthew 5:11-12

1 Corinthians 13:6

Romans 12:9-17

Psalm 118

Psalm 5:11-12

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Philippians 4:4-8

Praise the Lord!

THEME 4: TRUST

Into the Fire

Tex’s Thoughts on Trust

Proverbs 3:5-6

Psalm 23:1-6

Psalm 37:39-40

Isaiah 26:3

Matthew 25:14-30

John 5:24

Philippians 4:6-7

Hebrews 11:6

Genesis 15:6

Psalm 91:9-12

Isaiah 40:31

Hebrews 3:1-19 (with parallels)

THEME 5: OBEDIENCE

The Test of All Tests

Tex’s Thoughts on Obedience

James 1:22-25

1 Samuel 15:22-23, KJV

Matthew 21:28-32

Luke 9:23

Isaiah 1:18-20

Matthew 7:24-27

Matthew 11:25-30

Matthew 18:1-4

Matthew 21:28-32

John 7:17

Romans 6:16

Romans 8:1-4

Galatians 6:7-8

Philippians 2:5-8

THEME 6: SERVICE

John Brown’s Body

John Brown’s Speech

Tex’s Thoughts on Service

Romans 12:1-2

Serving: Our Mission

John 13:1-17

Romans 12:1

Psalm 100:1

Matthew 4:19, Fishing for Men

1 Peter 3:15, Give an Answer

Matthew 28:19, Sharing the Gospel

Matthew 28:18-20, Making Disciples: Show ‘Em!

John 5:24, Short and to the Point

The Miracle Method

Acts 2:38, Repent and Be Baptized

How Can You Tell if People Are Christians?

2 Timothy 2:2, The Discipleship Verse

God’s Primary Tools: Relationships and Demonstration

Sharing Jesus: A Group Project

Tell a Story, Maybe Your Story

Me and Lindsey, My Baby

Hebrews 10:24-25

Luke 24:13-35, Walk to Emmaus

Uncle Snooks

Brother Homer

Loyde Castle

James 5:13-20, Praying is Service

2 Timothy 2:24-26

John 15:1-8

1 Peter 3:15-16

Mark 8:35-37

Luke 4:14-21

Matthew 25, Prison Ministry

CONCLUSION

It’s All About Surrender

Love and Surrender

Humility and Surrender

Thanksgiving and Surrender

Trust and Surrender

Obedience and Surrender

Service and Surrender

Conclusion of the Conclusion: Make Disciples

K.B.M.T. for JESUS

Epilogue

Bibliography

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

Scripture quotations from The Message. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (AMP or Amplified) are taken from the Amplified Bible, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Managing Editor: Dr. Kevin Hrebik

Consulting Editor: William Zinger

DEDICATION

To the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY,

the God of my forefathers (and mothers),

who called me out of the bushes

back to His Marvelous Light

To my daughter, Lindsey

(Tonroy) Robertson, who said,

"I thank God and my Dad, that they both

ran to meet me when they saw me

coming out of the bushes."

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank God, who put this story in me, where it had to get out.

Thanks to Dr. Kevin Hrebik and Bill Zinger, my faithful editors.

Thanks to all those who prayed for me and encouraged me to keep on trying.

Thanks to my daughter, Lindsey, my son-in-law, Wes, and my son, Ian, who loved me and whom God has used to show me a multitude of things about discipleship.

Thanks to all the guys in prison, who opened their hearts and lives to show me how God works.

Thanks to all my family at John Wesley UMC, especially the Utes, who let me teach and share the revelations God has given me, and who allowed me to practice making disciples.

Thanks to my wife, Gaye, who puts up with me through thick and thin.

INTRODUCTION

Why call this book OUT O’ TH’ BUSHES? I call it that because the bushes is my term for the wilderness where I’ve stayed most of my Christian life. You know, the secular world, often known simply as the world, where Christians go, and sometimes stay for long periods, hiding from God and His call on their lives. It’s that place where the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches (Matthew 13:22) rob us of the life that is in Jesus Christ. It’s the place where we never really confess our sins, so God can’t forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), so we stay separated from Him until He finally comes to deliver us, to pull us out and keep us out o’ th’ bushes. Then, after we get out of the bushes and make the commitment to be Jesus’ disciples, we accept His commission to make disciples. Making disciples is inextricably intertwined with coming out of the bushes.

If we’re going to accept the commission that Jesus gave us just before He ascended into heaven, where He says, God gave Me all power, so go, go into all the world, and make disciples, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you; [and know this], I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20), then we’re going to have to draw near to God (James 4:8). And as part of our role in this commission, we must teach others (help others to learn) to draw near to God. That is the primary purpose of this book, and that is the primary purpose of discipleship.

Now I am convinced that the first phrase of the commission cited above is absolutely correct, that all power is, in fact, given to Jesus, in heaven and in earth, and if we are to take part in the making of disciples, we will only do it as Jesus gives us His power through the Holy Spirit. As it says in Luke 11:11-13, If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

This book is a combination of a how-to book and a study and discussion guide, but mostly it is a tool to use to draw ourselves nearer to God, so God will draw nearer to us. We then, in turn, share the love, the truth, the mercy, and the light of God with the disciples God puts us with. OUT O’ TH’ BUSHES touches on what is really going on in our relationship with God, stressing six great themes of the Bible: Love, Humility, Thanksgiving, Trust, Obedience, and Service as the structure for the book. That’s the message God gave me from the beginning.

Discipleship is all about building (growing) relationships, with God and with others, particularly with those God has put us with. Shine the light of this relationship concept on everything you read in this book. But more important, like Paul says in Philippians 2:5, Let this mind (this attitude) be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. As we live our lives as disciples of Jesus, we are constantly involved in a process, a progression, a moving from being natural (like the world and the flesh) to being spiritual (more and more like Jesus). So it is with discipleship, a constant moving up the continuum from being more like me to being more like Jesus. As much as we’re able, being like Jesus should be the focus of our lives in everything we do, especially in discipleship.

So how do we teach disciples? Just for clarity, I’ve deemed make disciples to mean helping people develop a personal relationship with Jesus. On the other hand, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I [Jesus] have commanded you, sounds like we’re supposed to be teaching rules and required activities and acceptable associations. My reading of the Bible indicates that is NOT what Jesus was talking about at all. I submit that teaching them (the disciples God has made through us) is all about teaching them the mind and the attitude that Jesus had when He was walking around on the earth, and even more, teaching them to discern the attitude that Jesus has right now, through the Holy Spirit, in the hearts of His people. So while I’d like to present a seamless dissertation about what Jesus thinks and says, a tome which has a beginning and an end and three major points with three sub-points under each point; that method just doesn’t seem to fit the subject matter. How do you teach the mind or the attitude of Jesus? You do it one principle at a time, one story at a time, one shocking experience at a time.

In this book, I’ve used two sources for our material: Passages from the Bible, and Stories from the Bible and from my own experiences and those of others. In the end, I am hoping and praying that readers will not have acquired a list of answers to put on a test, but rather, that they will have acquired new and different attitudes, choices, and emotional responses to Jesus and His life that is in them. Finally, I pray that they will find new ways to see what God is doing in their lives and in the lives of others, along with new ways for them to respond to the life that is in Christ Jesus that has come to reside in them.

THEME 1: LOVE

THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name, Mr. James Dillingham Young.

The Dillingham had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called Jim and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling—something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds. One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the Sofronie.

Will you buy my hair? asked Della.

I buy hair, said Madame. Take yer hat off and let’s have a sight at the looks of it. Down rippled the brown cascade.

Twenty dollars, said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

Give it to me quick, said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim’s present. She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation—as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value—the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends—a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

If Jim doesn’t kill me, she said to herself, before he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do—oh! What could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?

At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the frying pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered, Please God, make him think I am still pretty.

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two—and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face. Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

Jim, darling, she cried, don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It’ll grow out again—you won’t mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say ‘Merry Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for you.

You’ve cut off your hair? asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact even after the hardest mental labor.

Cut it off and sold it, said Della. Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, ain’t I?

Jim looked about the room curiously. You say your hair is gone? he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

You needn’t look for it, said Della. It’s sold, I tell you—sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered, she went on with sudden serious sweetness, but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della.

For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year—what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table. Don’t make any mistake Dell, he said, about me. I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first.

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims—just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say, My hair grows so fast, Jim! And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, Oh, oh! Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit. Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it.

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled. Dell, said he, let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ‘em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.

The magi, as you know, were wise men—wonderfully wise men—who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their home. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

TEX’S THOUGHTS ON LOVE

Exodus 20:1-17

The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17 starts out with God talking to the Israelites, and He says (this is a paraphrase), I am the Lord your God; I brought you out of the captivity in Egypt; I’ve been taking care of you (your families and your clan) since Abraham, and if you stick with Me, I will continue to take care of you. This first part says, without saying it in so many words, I picked you out before the foundations of the earth to be Mine. I chose you to be my special people because I love you. I want you. I want you to be My people and I want to be your God. I love you. I’ve been putting up with you for a long time because I love you."

The above is sorta’ the why of the Ten Commandments, or God’s introduction. What follows is the list, divided in two parts. The first four are things God wants us to do to show our love for Him:

1. No other gods besides Me

2. No idols, no statues of anything to worship

3. Don’t curse

4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy

The last six are the things we do to show our love for our neighbors:

5. Respect your momma and your daddy

6. Don’t kill

7. Don’t commit adultery

8. Don’t lie

9. Don’t steal

10. Don’t covet (in case you don’t know covet, in means wanting what somebody else has so much that you’d try to steal it if you weren’t such a chicken)

Some people think that the Old Testament and the Ten Commandments were issued as edicts from a hard God, and that he’s changed in the New Testament. To me, He’s still the same. The Israelites were just pretty stubborn and hardheaded (maybe hardhearted, too) like us. Maybe God hasn’t changed. He started out to love us, and He never gives up, in all kind of ways, reaching out to us and showing his love, hoping that someday we’ll get it. This is where all the love that is in the world starts, with God (James 1:17).

John 3:16

This classic verse is a direct confirmation of all God shows us in the Old Testament about His love. The way I read the verse, and the parts of the Bible that support this verse (which is most of it), is as follows: God loved the world, the people in the world so much, that He came down to the earth in the body of a man, in the person of Jesus, and sacrificed Himself so that His blood would pay the penalty of sin (separation) for all of us (2 Corinthians 5:14). Also, Romans 8:32 says, And if God loved us enough to give His own Son, won’t He also give us all things? That’s how much.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

This is the passage that the Jews call the Shemah, and it deserves to be quoted, even if it’s just in my paraphrase. It begins with, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, The Lord is the Only One. Just to let you know, the Shemah is the source of the first and great commandment that Jesus spoke when he said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. And the last part says, "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart [memorize them, know them by heart]. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind