Transformed by Christ into a New Life

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

Calling the Lost

Ephesians 2:1-10 The Message

He Tore Down the Wall

2 1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

For Reflection

In those days Ephesians lived as many of us do as though evil spirits inhabit the air with demons whispering seeds of self-deception and doubt of God's promise of protection and comfort. If some human-derived solution to a pressing problem works we take the credit. When the solution's unintended consequences erupt, we blame each other. Have we ever seriously tried working with God's universe? Or are we forever bound by our self-determination to work at odds with Creation?

Pray

Pray so that you will be more in tune with Creation.  Pray so that you work toward justice and grace.  Pray so that you become a God collaborator.

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Faithful Witness through Suffering

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

A Costly Call

2 Corinthians 6:1-10 The Message

Staying at Our Post

6 1-10 Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,
I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help.
Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

For Reflection

It is our human condition to suffer.  But our suffering is neither good or bad. Nor is suffering punishment for evil deeds or is a lack of apparent suffering a reward.  

Ask yourself, "When have you made the most progress, learned the most?" You probably will note that you learned the most from your failures than your successes. So it is with your spiritual growth.  One does not suffer because of God caught one doing ill-conceived deeds. While suffering may be painful, many of us have understood that living through pain and suffering has resulted in strengthing our resolve.

Some choose to accept that suffering makes them a victim and rarely escape further suffering for the same cause. But we who love the Lord see through our troubles and understand that God wills only the goodness that results. Others as well will see as you embrace your troubles that the suffering enriches your life rather than impairs your life.  Refusing to succumb to life's challenges, even as you have emerged in tears, can fill you with the joy of living.

Pray

Pray so that you will be more able to understand the wisdom of your suffering.

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Suffering and Knowing Jesus Christ

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

A Costly Call

Philippians 3:7-16 The Message

7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.

For Reflection

We spend most of our lives establishing a safe and secure existence for our selves and our families. We are so tied to the work of survival that we are not open to the spiritual life that awaits us. 

Paul is aware of the transformation of his life that allowed him to transcend the everyday pressures of survival. He, like many of us, felt unsatisfied with the corporal life.  In following Christ, Paul found a pathway out of his enslavement to human desires, and into the freedom to expand his former life in ways that provided joy and fulfillment.

Pray

Through prayer, open your soul so that the Holy Spirit will be enabled to lead your transformation into Grace. Pray so that you may find resurrection from the dead ends of your former life.

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The Father HonorsThose Who Follow

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

A Costly Call

John 12:20-26 The Message

A Grain of Wheat Must Die

20-21 There were some Greeks in town who had come up to worship at the Feast. They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee: “Sir, we want to see Jesus. Can you help us?”
22-23 Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip together told Jesus. Jesus answered, “Time’s up. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
24-25 “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.
26 “If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.

For Reflection

Having heard of the Messiah, the Greek-speaking pagans came seeking the ordinary language of religion.  What they heard, however, was a metaphor of eternal life in the natural cycle of a grain of wheat. They were told to let go of their former spiritual lives in reckless abandonment.

The love you will find in following Christ will endure, and you will become more Christ-like. Your growth into grace is your reward.

Pray

Pray so that you will approach your life as Jesus has taught us.  Pray so that you will persist in your journey into grace.

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A Costly Call

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

A Costly Call

Matthew 10:34-39 The Message 

34-37 “Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer a father or mother over me, you don’t deserve me. If you prefer a son or daughter over me, you don’t deserve me.
38-39 “If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

For Reflection

Just as Christ had to die so that God could show us the cost of our commitment to change. We also must die to our former lives to accept the promise of grace. Christ begged for God to save him from pain and death.  We can not expect that our faith journeys will be free of suffering.  It is in the passage through our suffering that we grow in grace. 

Pray

Pray so that you will look to Jesus to find yourself. Embrace your human condition as a tradesman may accept the cuts, bruises, and pain of learning his trade and learn from them.

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Answering the Lord's Call to Discipleship

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

A Costly Call

Mark 4:10-20 The Message

10-12 When they were off by themselves, those who were close to him, along with the Twelve, asked about the stories. He told them, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. But to those who can’t see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight. These are people—
Whose eyes are open but don’t see a thing,
Whose ears are open but don’t understand a word,
Who avoid making an about-face and getting forgiven.”
13 He continued, “Do you see how this story works? All my stories work this way.
14-15 “The farmer plants the Word. Some people are like the seed that falls on the hardened soil of the road. No sooner do they hear the Word than Satan snatches away what has been planted in them.
16-17 “And some are like the seed that lands in the gravel. When they first hear the Word, they respond with great enthusiasm. But there is such shallow soil of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
18-19 “The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.
20 “But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams.”

For Reflection

Ok, I get it.  Some respond and begin a journey to discipleship.  God reveals the secrets of our souls only to those who want them. God's never forces the wisdom of Creation's mysteries upon us.

What of those who do not see, understand or avoid? Are those who do not respond to God's call rejected by God? 

Some of us prefer just about anything but change.  Those who fail t0 accept a new path fear that which they see as inconsistent with a personal world view and out of fear label the jump into faith non-rational. God protects them too. They have not yet developed trust in the unseen to risk failure.  In short, they have not suffered enough to reject their current path.  But, God's goodness includes us all; those who see and those who are blinded by the exigencies of life.

Pray

Pray so that when you fall you will be able to re-frame your experience as an opportunity to learn and to see the wisdom in your failure.

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The Great Dinner for All Peoples

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

Called to Humility and Hospitality

Luke 14:15-24 The Message

The Story of the Dinner Party
15 That triggered a response from one of the guests: “How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God’s kingdom!”
16-17 Jesus followed up. “Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, ‘Come on in; the food’s on the table.’
18 “Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, ‘I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.’
19 “Another said, ‘I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.’
20 “And yet another said, ‘I just got married and need to get home to my wife.’
21 “The servant went back and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, ‘Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and wretched you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.’
22 “The servant reported back, ‘Master, I did what you commanded—and there’s still room.’
23-24 “The master said, ‘Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.’”

For Reflection

Not all will accept the invitation to salvation.  Those that put their selfish needs before their need to be in sync with their creator will not be able to respond to the spiritual longing in their soul that will free them from human folly. Will attending to a piece of property,  working a new tractor, or answering a pressing obligation provide the substantial and robust relief from the never-ending pressure of daily life?  

I think not.  The weeds will always need attention. The tractor will break. Each obligation, once staisfied, will be replaced by another.

Responding to God's call to everlasting reliance on God is the only thing that will satisfy one's soul permanently and relieve the stress of being human.

Pray

Pray so that you will remain an honored guest at God's table. Pray so that you will be able to invite, welcome, and accept others who choose to eat elsewhere to sup the cup of salvation with you. 

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