Disciipleship Dare 24/7 - Called to Include

In being called to love, day thirty eight, Jess said, “The most attractive thing about Jesus was that He did not exclude anybody, offering His message to everyone equally.”

In offering His message equally, Jesus was offering His love through the ministry of inclusion. When you read the Gospels you see that Jesus didn’t just go to the “lovely” people. He went to publicans, tax collectors, lepers, adulterers, diseased and deformed, and even the demon possessed. Jesus actually went out of his way to minister to the out casts like the Samaritan woman at the well.

How about us? Do we go out of our way to include the “Bills” of this world – the slower to comprehend or mentally challenged? Do we go out of our way to include in our fellowship the single Mom or Dad? Dare we mention the messy situations like the person with an addiction, a slobbering drunk, the homeless or a person with a same sex attraction (ssa)?

It’s so easy after church or during the week to include our usual friends, those who fit comfortably into our circles of friendship. But we are called, as disciples of Christ, to include the messy life as well. It’s not that we have to fix them. That’s not our job. God does the conviction, the delivering and transforming. It’s our job to extend the love of God through sharing our lives with them. Just the simple act of looking them in the eye, smiling, asking them to join us for coffee or lunch, inviting them to go with us somewhere simple. Then God in and through us does His work. .It’s His kindness through us that brings them to repentance; not our judging or barking at them.

Just this week a single Mom told me how much it meant to her that someone from the church simply asked her and her children to go with them to the beach to get some ice cream and walk around. She said, “you’ll never know what it meant to be included in their time of fun.”

Some people are looking and watching, longing to be included. When is the last time you included someone outside your normal circle to be in your life?
When is the last time you extended your life to the unlovely? What are you waiting for? Jesus is ready and waiting to minister through you in the ministry of inclusion.

Lord, thank you for including us in your death on the cross so that we can include others and bring them to the realization that their sins are already forgiven too. Thank you for the grace to be includers.

(Facebook friends go to Dennis Jernigan’s profile and read his March 12th note for further contemplation).

Discipleship Dare continued…. Day Seventy Two

It’s the seventy second day of the year. Where are you on the Discipleship Dare? I finished on the forty-third day since we started on January 3. Don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t make it by the fortieth day. I was highly motivated.

For some reason some people were knocked off course during the snow storms. Kids were home needing more attention. Schedules were changed which throw us off center. It’s not everyday you are snowed in with your husband and kids with hot chocolate, French toast and all kinds of other goodies, movies, games and snow shoveling.

Hebrews chapter 12 in verse 1 tells us to “run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us.” Perseverance means we don’t give up. If we stumble, we dust ourselves off and get back up. If we get distracted we refocus. If we get hurt we allow ourselves to heal and get back on the race track. If you got off course, determine to start back where you left off and finish the Dare. There’s no disgrace in being slower at finishing. Finishing the course is what is important.

Determine here and now, “I will pick up the Dare again, start where I left off and finish. A disciple is a follower of Christ. In your walk with Christ there will be distractions, failures, wounds, discouragements to throw you off course. You don’t just give up saying, “I just can’t do it.” That is a lie. God in you is greater than any setback. Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Jesus doesn’t give up on you so don’t give up on your commitment as a disciple. Recommit to the Dare and see what God will do in you.

Lord, thank you for your patience with us. Thank you also for your power to compete whatever you have asked us to finish.

See You at the Well

In the beginning of our spiritual heritage Abram and Jacob and others built an altar of sacrifice in order to meet with God. The altar at Bethel and Shechem were places where God met with them, renewed the covenant and instructed them. Later in the places of these altars, wells for drinking were dug for the weary traveler. Around these wells, communities rose up and the well was the gathering place.

How appropriate that people gathered at the well where life was sustained and refreshed. Today we don’t need to go to wells to get water; it flows freely through our faucets. But the habit of gathering was established and continued throughout the Old Testament and New Testament church. Is it possible God knows something about us that we don’t? God establishes patterns of behavior for a reason.

People gathered to pray, to fellowship, to break bread, and to worship. People gathered to wait on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. People gathered to celebrate the Sabbath and the goodness of the Lord. People gathered to learn and share their lives with others.

There is power in the gathering of people to worship and seek the Lord. We see that power when Peter and Silas were delivered from jail by the hand of the Lord in Acts in response to the church praying.

Is it possible that we’re relying too heavily on the faucets of our own self-sufficiency instead of gathering at the well? There’s a time to build a personal altar of worship and another time to gather together with the Body of Christ to celebrate, worship, pray, rejoice or mourn and receive instruction, inspiration, and inner renewal.

Let’s leave the faucet of the comforts of our home to gather at the well – together. See you at the well…

Psalm 122:1 “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Our Feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!

The Discipleship Dare Day Forty - Giving

Jess tells us that “generosity is the mark of a true disciple.” Following Jesus’ example of giving and not just teaching or preaching is our example. It has been said that “people don’t care to hear what you have to say until they know you care.”

My Mother was a great example of fulfilling the mission through giving. She picked children up for Sunday School from our neighborhood and even gave them something to eat when necessary. She took a blind neighbor to her doctor appointments and helped clean her house. The message of the gospel was wrapped up in acts of kindness and love.

It’s easy for some to stand on a corner and hand out an evangelism tract. It takes some time and willingness to be ridiculed. But it keeps us detached from them personally. The person takes the tract and we have no idea what happens with them afterward.

Being willing to baby sit their children, help fix a car, buy groceries, cook a meal, take them to the doctor; these are all investments into their lives that show we genuinely care about them personally.

Giving is a way of showing that we genuinely care. Who are we caring enough about that we are giving of ourselves and not just our words? The lady my Mom helped all the time received Christ as her Savior and at least seven others in her family. Giving goes a long way toward fulfilling our mission.

Lord, help us to feel your compassion toward people and be willing to creatively give of ourselves to meet those needs.