Check out Luke 10:1-16
Continuing from yesterday, third question, What is the right mind-set about the Church? First off, it is not a place to which you go. It is a living thing that you are. Church is a family that you celebrate. It is people. It is relationships. It is where you sharpen your tools and hone your skills. The Church equips you for your mission. The Church sends you back, week after week, back into the wreckage to love the lost, to heal the broken.
As disciples we are called to be the body of Jesus Christ, and to carry on His ministry.
Fourth question, What is the right mind-set about our own ministry? It’s not your ministry. It belongs to Jesus. You can try to save the world. You can try to adopt every cute Mexican orphan. You can try to rehabilitate every addict. But if it’s not by the initiation of Jesus, if it’s not through the power of the Holy Spirit, then it’s on your own strength, and your own strength is not strong enough.
As disciples we are called to be the body of Jesus Christ, and to carry on His ministry.
I once went to a church where each week the pastor would call out, “Christian, what do you believe?” And the congregation would be respond by reciting the Apostles’ Creed all together. It was pretty awesome.
Yet, to me, something was missing. Following Jesus is so much more than just believing in Jesus. There’s more to it than accepting some propositional statements and feeling warm and fuzzy when the music plays. It’s more than my mind and heart. It also has to be my hands and feet. Every week I waited for the pastor, before sending us out into the world, to end his sermon with, “Now Christian, what do you practice?” But he never did.
Don’t fall for the lie that being Christian is only believing the right things and avoiding bad behavior. There’s got to be so much more.
So what is it that you actually do that makes you a follower of Jesus? What do you practice that makes you Jesus-shaped? Christian, what do you practice?
Fiftyeight 