One Chapter & One Cup

Romans 10:17
"17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."

One of the most important spiritual disciplines that we can practice is to read the words of Jesus in the gospels. Perhaps more than any other practice, this fuels our growth and transformation into Christlikeness. Paul teaches in his letter to the Roman disciples that faith is birthed by hearing the words of Jesus. Fortunately for us we have Jesus' teachings and stories captured for us in the gospel narratives. So, this is how we grow. We read what Jesus says, and what we discover is, that He always teaches us to act on what He says (Matt 7:24).

Faith is built much like a brick wall. You need the brick (teaching) and the mortar (practicing). It would'nt do much good to stack a bunch of bricks with no mortar, much like it doesn't do a whole lot of good to just read Jesus' teachings and never put anything to practice. I think for most Christians we got a lot of bricks stacked on top of each other, but nothing is really holding them together. If a little rain or wind comes our way, our wall begins to fall apart. In the same way, if you just put a bunch of mortar together you don't have much form. It's just a big blob. So, the bricks give us direction and form, and the practice makes it stick. Now we can start building.

So our experiment this week is to read Luke 14 and enjoy a cup of coffee while doing it.

Experiment 003: Reading Jesus and being Jesus.

There are few things I enjoy more than sitting down in my big chair with a steaming cup of coffee and reading through the gospels. It is one of my favorite disciplines. So, I propose this week that we sit down and read Luke 14 with a big ole steaming cup of coffee! Make time this week so that you can read the entire chapter in one sitting several times. The main question you want to ask yourself is, "How am I going to put this into practice this week?" This could be your prayer as you read. Ask Jesus to help you act on this teaching in Luke 14. Just by sitting down and reading the chapter means that you are already practicing the discipline of study, but we never study for study sake. We study to learn more about Jesus and how to be Jesus to the world. As you read the chapter this week, it would be great if anyone had questions or comments to post them for everyone to read so we could all benefit from it. I hope everyone has a great week and enjoy Luke 14, it's beautiful passage!

Seek the Kingdom,
Jon

Welcome & Introduction

This blog is all about taking Jesus seriously.  It's so easy to go to church and tip the preacher and be done. It seems there is (at least from where i am from) a lot of frustration with Christianity and church.  My goal is just to provide practical applications for Christians who really want to become like Jesus.  We are tired of quick fixes, 7 steps to whatever and church hopping. We need a place to really learn and live with Jesus. And i believe that turns out to be right where we are.  So, hopefully this blog can at least help us move in the right direction. 

You can expect a new experiment every week (probably Monday or Tuesday.) I will call them experiments but my hope is they will become disciplines.  The goal is to try an experiment every week, and if it really fits your station of life, then make it a discipline.  Disciplines help us follow Jesus. Disciplines are not righteousness, but wisdom (Dallas Willard). Jesus said, "take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart" (Matt 11:28-30).  So this is how we learn from Jesus by actually putting into practice what He teaches in the gospels.  

It would be great to get feedback going from people and see how the experiments are going.  Tell about your experience in the comments section.  You may want to say, 'that was really great", or 'that sucked!' Either way, lets just talk about it and create some community and help each other on the Jesus Way.  

A disciple is someone who is learning to be, not so much know. We want to be like Jesus, not just know stuff about Him. A disciple of Jesus is someone who has  decided that the most important thing in life is to be with Him learning to be like HIm.

I hope you will journey with us as we journey with Jesus.

Seek the Kingdom,

Jon

P.S. If you would like to be notified by email when the new post is up just let me know and I will add your email address to the automatic blog send list.