Week 8 - Instrument - Day 40 - Friday

God has designed us to produce fruit. To live as a Sign, Foretaste, and Instrument of the Kingdom of God we need to spend the proper time abiding, pruning, and growing. The natural outcome is bearing fruit in our lives. This is clearly stated in I John 2:6 “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” A healthy rhythm of rest and ministry should always be the pattern of a disciple of Jesus.


Scripture:
• Spend some time slowly reading and meditating in John 15:1-17 and 1 John 2:6.

Reflection
• If fruit-bearing is not coming naturally in your life, could it be that you have not spent the proper season abiding? Could it be that we are overgrown branches, too weak to support a single grape? In what stage or season do you currently see yourself in this passage? How might others help you in abiding in God?

Practice:
• Intentionally place yourself in the presence of God, then do something you delight in: go for a walk, take a nap, talk to a friend, have a cup of coffee, play a game. Enjoy yourself in God. Receive the gift of rest. Tell God what happens in you as you try to rest.

Week 8 - Instrument - Day 39 - Thursday

In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus tells his followers that they are to “go” and make converts, saved people, new church members. No, this isn’t what God said. He asks us to be disciple-makers, who teach others how to live and love like Jesus. The agenda is much larger than “saving souls.” It involves helping others make the transformational journey into Christlikeness. However, we cannot give away what we don’t have ourselves. We need to be on that same journey to fulfill this “Great Command.”
Scripture:
• Spend some time slowly reading and meditating in Matthew 28:19-20.
Reflection
• What is the difference between being a Christian and being a disciple/apprentice?
• How would you explain the difference between:
o Intending to make disciples and letting converts happen (and)
o Intending to make converts and letting disciples happen? (Johnson, Jan and Matthews, Keith, Study Guide to The Divine Conspiracy, p. 9)
Practice:
• Consider every aspect of your life (home, work, neighborhood, friendships) and how you are reflecting Jesus. What would you like others to learn about Jesus from you? How can you model the virtues of Jesus in all your relationships? How can you teach others how to do all that Jesus did?

Week 8 - Instrument - Day 38 - Wednesday

As we submit to God and His kingdom, our values change. We start to see others as dearly loved children of God. We see others who are neglected and marginalized by the world. We understand that true religion is worship revealed in action and we bring voice to the voiceless. We are no longer numb to the needs of those around us. We feel compassion and we are moved to act on that compassion. Just as Jesus is aware and embodies the hurt of others, we too feel and act in compassion.
Scripture:
• Spend some time slowly reading and meditating in Matthew 25:31-46.
Reflection
How does this passage reveal what God considers allegiance in His Kingdom? Who’s in and who’s out?
Practice:
Start by praying. Consider your responsibility before God and your role in His kingdom. What effect does God’s view of the gifts He has given you have on you? How can you begin to share your gifts with others? Could you tutor? Can you paint or fix things? Start by daily asking God how he wants you to help the marginalized and needy around you.

Week 8 - Instrument - Day 37 - Tuesday

Ultimately, the church should emerge from mission, rather than the mission emerging from the church. Mission then is the context that influences the way the church gathers. When mission defines the church, it no longer attempts to “attract” or asks others to “come to us”, but it “goes” out and forms around others. Mission is not merely an activity of the church. Rather, mission is the result of God’s initiative, rooted in God’s action in human history. It begins with the call of Israel to receive God’s blessing, be formed into His people and be a blessing to all nations. (Genesis 12:1-3) God is a missionary God and it is always his mission to reconcile the world to him. We need to understand that the church is God’s “sent people.” The church does not “send” because it is already “sent.” This is the only biblical model of the “church.”
Scripture:
• Spend some time slowly reading and meditating on John 20:21 and Matthew 28:18-20

Reflection
• What does it mean that God sends you? How should you view your neighborhood, where you work, where you fellowship?

Practice:
• Set aside time daily or as often as possible to walk your neighborhood and prayerfully ask God, “How can I serve and embody your love for my neighbors?” As you pray and walk, listen for insight from God.

Week 8 - Instrument - Day 36 - Monday

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:9-12)

The Biblical understanding of salvation is that our lives become swept up into something larger and greater than ourselves, into God’s purposes for the world. In other words, the receiving of salvation and the call to mission are not to be conceived sequentially, as if one followed the other. Rather, to receive salvation is, to be called into something larger and greater that we are, to be invited to participate in God’s saving purpose and plan for the world. That is why the gospel is primarily about God, and only secondarily about us.
- Inagrace Dietrich (Storm Front)

Scripture:
• Spend some time slowly reading and meditating on 2 Corinthians 15:17-20.

Reflection
• How do you respond to the words of Inagrace Dietrich (above) and the passage in 2 Corinthians?

Practice:
• Spend some time praying for those you know, who have not yet been “reconciled” to God. Pray that they may come to have a relationship with God. Ask and listen to how God may want you to reveal the “gospel” to them. Make yourself available to God throughout the day and look for how God may be currently reconciling those around you to Him. Participate in that ministry of reconciliation.

Week 7 - Living as a Foretaste - Day 35 - Friday

Individualism is always at battle with community. A radical commitment to one another in the church community is in contrast to the dominant culture. Individualism can also chew away at a congregation’s dependence on the Holy Spirit and its interdependence with others in the congregation as well as with the larger church body in other congregations. Living as a foretaste for others is risky, but if it’s to be authentic we need to recognize that as a “body” we are stronger and healthier that a collection of “individuals.”
Scripture:
• Spend some time slowly reading and meditating on I Corinthians 12:14-27.
Reflection
• How have you seen individualism in your own life and the churches’ life be destructive?
Practice:
• Spend some time in prayer and reflection and ask God to “Search your heart.” Ask God to reveal how you have focused on yourself and not on the needs of His body. How can you begin to contribute to the health of the body and what do you need to give up for the sake of the body and the loss to your individualism? – You may not hear anything at first, but continue to ask God daily:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:24-25

Week 7 - Living as a Foretaste - Day 34 - Thursday

Active helpfulness means individuals will come to know enough about one another to become significantly involved in each other’s lives. It challenges the culture’s assumptions of individual rights and private space in order to participate in God’s work of bringing wholeness to relationships and healing to communities…Communal patterns of active helpfulness require frequent and sustained interaction.
- Dale A. Ziemer Treasures in Clay Jars


Scripture:
• Spend some time slowly reading and meditating on Philippians 2:1-4
Reflection
• How can we be helpful if we do not spend enough time to come to know one another?
Practice:
Begin to listen deeply to the hurts and needs of those you do community with and those in your neighborhood. Prayerfully ask God to reveal needs that you can help with. Does a family need a meal delivered to them because of the busyness of their circumstances? Does someone who is ill or injured need the lawn mowed? Figure out the need and act on it.