October 29, 2023
John 14:15-15:11 — Jesus calls us, “Come and follow me.” He calls us to be his apprentices to learn from Him how to live his life to the full. As apprentices, our goal is to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did. How? By abiding in Christ. Abiding in Christ we learn to live in a constant state of awareness and connection to the Spirit. How? We practice the practices Jesus did. These are the spiritual disciplines also called the Rule of Life. We must radically rearrange and reorient our lives so that we practice the Sabbath, solitude, silence, fasting, prayer, study, and meditate on God’s Word, serving others, and doing all this in community. With these practices we keep God before our minds and hear his voice; we are being transformed into the image of the Son; and we experience the love and power of God the Spirit. This is the easy yoke, that, when we put it on with Jesus, makes the kingdom life possible here and now.
This is part of our series, Christ-Centered, Community-Concerned, exploring our church’s mission-vision statement in light of the book of Colossians. What does this mean and what does it look like in our personal daily lives and in our church life and ministries? How does this shape our thoughts, minds, attitudes, words, and actions? Credit is given to the following sources that informed and were used in this series: Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart & The Spirit of the Disciplines. From here on credit is also given to the following: Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren; Ragged: Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritually Exhausted by Gretchen Ronnevik & Elyse Fitzpatrick; The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Also, Comer’s podcasts on Practicing the Way and the resources from his website, https://www.practicingtheway.org.
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