new year, new word

Along with our THRIVE group, we just finished a great bible study called The Tangible Kindgom: Primer.  It sure did put A LOT of things into perspective and made for some good, authentic conversations about how our lives should reflect God's Kingdom in a tangible way. 

The premise of the book is essentially that "God's Kingdom doesn't usually unfold in a nice, neat package or linear progression.  In fact, He is much more likely to show up in unexpected places and in unique experiences that only He can orchestrate.  The hope is that the book will will help you be ready when He does.  This includes listening and being willing to be changed.  It also includes learning to take personal responsibility for your own calling to be "sent" (John 20:19-22) and dealing with those parts of your flesh that keep you from following Jesus as he leads you out into the world." 

One part of the book that really stuck with us was the idea of becoming an "apprentice" of JESUS.  Here are a few quotes that explain what this means...

"When you think of what it means to be a disciple of Christ, what comes to mind?  Typically, when this question is asked in church groups we get the generic responses like studying the Bible, prayer, attending church, or being involved in a small group.  In contrast, if you would have asked some of the first disciples what it was like being one of Jesus' students, they probably would have responded with, "He always tested our faith and our motives.  He always took us to places we wouldn't have gone ourselves.  We became friends with people we would have hated before.  Looking back, it was the most wildly transforming process I could have ever imagined.  I'll never be the same." 

"Discipleship for the disciples was different from our idea in one major way: it actually involved following JESUS where he went and doing what he did.  How do we replicate this process of discipleship?  In our modern era, we have in many instances reduced the "discipleship" process to a passive act of being taught about Jesus or studying other in history that have modeled true discipleship.  This gap between learning and action has handicapped the modern church by producing passive disciples.  We have taken discipleship off the streets and brought it into the classroom and the church pew."  

"Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says..." (James 1:22)

"While it's good to learn about becoming a disciple, there is significantly more that can only be understood through practice [and action].  In order to re-engage the discipleship process, we need to redefine it in a way that better captures the essence of discipleship today.  That world is apprenticeship."   

"Often people get discouraged in their faith experience.  We complain about church, other Christians, and even gripe to God.  We feel He's let us down, and sometimes we bail on faith altogether.  Here's one thought to consider.  Maybe God hasn't let anyone down.  Maybe the reason we don't see his power or work in our lives is that we've never moved from passive discipleship to apprenticeship. " 

With all this in mind, we desire to be true apprentices of Christ.  We will not be content with being a passive disciples.  We want to know JESUS, really know him...and model our lives after his life (not to mention, model and share JESUS with our children).  This is a huge, life-long journey, we know, but this is right where we want to focus during 2010.  We want to move beyond the norm, the mediocre.  Less talk and more action.  We truly want to be the "hands and feet" of JESUS.  Our lives are intended to be a mission and that takes a whole lot of deliberate practice and action to prepare our hearts for that!  That is why we've finally landed on our new "word" for 2010 being simply...JESUS!!!  

If you have no idea what we mean by our "new word" you'll have to go back and read this post from the beginning of last year.  Anyhow, this seemed like the perfect word for our family for this year.  Our church is teaching through the book of Matthew (an account of JESUS' life) for the entire year (and likely much longer) with this goal as well, in addition to our THRIVE group studying this it too.  We can't wait to listen, hear and obey what God's is calling us to do everyday of our lives!  We are excited to see what this year holds and to hopefully share some of our journey with you.  Oh, Christ be the center of our lives, be the place we fix our eyes, be the center of our lives!