“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Hebrews 10:24
To "spur" someone on often means doing something to another to challenge, encourage, exhort, and love -- all at once. Picture, if you will, stirring a fire to get the fire going. Jesus followers are urged here to consider, think through, or plan to spur one another on to love others, and to do things that are good for each other as well as society. To be in community means to be in a family, and family members spur each other on. Who in your life is spurring you on? Ask God to give you that someone, and then be that someone for another as well.
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“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:21
A few years ago on Facebook, a number of people all over the globe changed their profile pictures to their doppelgangers (translation: celebrity look-alikes). It was a funny way of poking fun at who we or our friends thought we might look like, or even imitated in our daily lives. Spiritually speaking, we are called, in Ephesians 5, to be " imitators of God." What that means is not that we work hard to be like Jesus, but that we abide in Christ and the overflow of that abiding is His very life being pressed out through us. As we spend time with Him, we begin to look like Him. So what did Christ look like? Paul says, in Philippians 2, " Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus...[He] emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant." (Phil 2:5-7). Jesus, you see, was a servant. He had all the authority in the universe, yet chose to be a servant and submit to people and rulers on earth. As we abide in Christ, the fruit of His spirit will produce submission to and service toward our brothers and sisters in Christ. As you head into today, ask yourself, "Am I allowing Christ's life in me to produce an attitude of a submission and service?" “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
Commonly, parents ask their children, "Was that the nice thing to do?" In asking the question, they are trying to instill kindness and compassion into the heart of their child. For Jesus followers, salvation has already begun a journey of transformation that starts on the inside and has visible expressions on the outside. The indwelling life of Christ in a person causes an initial heart transformation that results in genuine kindness towards others. It is this kindness His kindness, and His very life that others experience when a believer displays a heart of compassion and benevolence. In what ways can you show Christ-like kindness to another person today? “You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens…and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.” Nehemiah 9:6
The mission of an organization does not get accomplished simply with its creation. The mission is accomplished when sustainable systems and processes drive that mission forward. Similarly, what God creates, God sustains. God says that, for all of time, the universe has been sustained by the power of the word of Christ (Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:17) and that, at the right point in time, God sent His Son to redeem people to Himself. He assures us that this mission of redeeming people will not fail, because he has sustained it by His Word and for His glory. In what ways do you see God sustaining His mission in your city? In your country? In the world? What are some ways that God might desire to use you in His mission? “But you will receive pow2er when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
The period in which we are living is the greatest time in the history of people coming to faith in Jesus, and the epicenter of that moment is not in any one central geographic location, because the epicenter...is Jesus moving in His global church. Through His church people like you and me --He is sharing the Gospel simultaneously throughout the entire Earth. God has always had a plan to carry out His global mission, and that plan is you. Jesus did not give this mission to a select religious few. We can all participate in this mission as we pray for missionaries, give generously to support others, and, as for ourselves, go. Jesus gave this mission to the entire church to live out every day and everywhere, and His 2000-year-old plan is still powerfully at work. Where do you sense God may be calling you in order to participate in His global mission? |
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June 2018
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