Taking Next Steps with Jesus

In an earlier post I asked you to pull together a list of people that are in your life, and then take a week to pray and ask God to give you the eyes to see, ears to hear, and the heart to respond to the Holy Spirit's leading and see who He has placed in your life and who you might be missing. Did your list grow? Who did God let you notice that you didn't notice before? What now? I am amazed that God came and lived among us.  As a matter of fact, the whole Bible tells the story of God pursuing us.  God is a relational God, and I believe that since we are created in God's image, we too are relational beings. We are created to be in relationship with God, and with each other.  As disciplemakers, we are invited to come and follow Jesus, in mutual community with God and each other, and help others to take next steps with Jesus. We also have been created now, and placed right where we are at today.  That was intentional.  And, if God knows all of our days...

All right; We talked about Josiah in 2 Kings, and now I want you to go find the story of Josiah in Chronicles.  Since God references Chronicles in 2 Kings, we should let the Bible inform us of God's thoughts on what He is saying to us.  Best to go to the source to understand what God is saying. Pray together asking God to open your hearts to His word, and His word to your hearts.  Then, read over the story of Josiah in Chronicles with someone else and talk about it together.  You may want to have the passage in 2 Kings open as well to compare. Ask; who, what, where, when, why, how?  Do you see God?  His rescue plan?  Anything new?  Anything you should obey? What was the same between the 2 passages?  Different? Why? How does the fact that Kings was written to Israel pre-exile, and Chronicles was written to Israel post-exile play into what God is sharing in these two accounts? What did your learn about God? What did you learn abou...

It's amazing to see that God's way with us has been consistent throughout the Bible.  To compare Deuteronomy to Matthew, to look at the way God walked with Israel in both seasons of their lives, to look at God's pursuit of Adam and Eve in the garden and to compare it to the hope God gives us for eternity with Him in Revelation...it's amazing. Is it any wonder that in God's invitation to follow Him that He would want our lives, our homes, our activities, etc., to be like His?  Not at all. Let's think through this lifestyle a bit more. How can we cultivate a disciplemaking way of life and intentionally lean in to Jesus together in mutual community? The first thing we need is a fresh walk with Jesus.  You certainly don't need any more of me, but rather, more Jesus flowing out of me; so that, when I bump into people "as I am going" Jesus splashes off on them. Bible:  This fresh walk is cultivated by spending time with Jesus, together.  It...

Throughout the Bible God has been pursuing us, and inviting us into a disciplemaking lifestyle with Him.  Matthew 28: 18-20 isn't the first time in scripture that we experience this lifestyle, no, if we look we will see that this lifestyle is a normal way of walking with God. I want to encourage you to explore this for yourselves. Take a moment to look up these passages with a friend, and together, with Jesus, wrestle them and see God's disciplemaking heart throughout the pages of the Bible. Deuteronomy 6:1-3 Psalm 78: 1-8 Mark 3: 13-15 Luke 6: 40 Matthew 28: 18-20 Acts 14: 19-23 1 Corinthians 4:16-17 2 Timothy 2:2 Mark 12: 30-31 John 17: 20 Acts 1:8 Where do you see evidence in the Bible of God's disciplemaking ways? May God bless the reading and wrestling of His word together with Him. In Christ Eric [I want to thank Dave and Rennie Garda of Cadre Minsitries for their insight and help in this conversation.  They love Jesus deeply, liv...

I wanted to take some time to give a couple of devotional readings for you and your disciplemaking friends and families this week to Study God's word, Pray, Love extravagantly, and Live lives of worship together. God open our hearts to Your word, and Your word to our hearts--give us the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and hearts that are responsive to your Holy Spirits leading.  In Jesus name, Amen (I will post another reading later this week) _______________________________________________________________________ Here is a set of readings from the Bible that use the 10 commandments as a framework: (All quotes are from the ESV Bible, www.biblegateway.com) ________________________________________________________________________ Exodus 20 English Standard Version (ESV) The Ten Commandments ______________________________________  And God spoke all these words, saying,  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of...