iLent.org » Spiritual Growth

Week 7 // Invitation & Challenge

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 08:03:21 +0000

// Out asks about
your relationship to
the people in the world.

“OUT” asks questions about your impact and contribution in the world.

What inspires you, moves you, demands a response from you?
Where do you want to touch the world?
Where do you want to serve humanity?
Whom do you want to see meet with God?

Consider the places where you are called to touch your world.

On what are you motivated to spend time and energy?
Do you work or study?
Who are your friends that aren’t Christians?
Where do you meet socially with those outside of church?
Where are you involved with those outside of the church?
What are your hobbies?

The answers to these questions are an invitation to mission.

With whom do you engage in the world?
What do you do to connect with the world?
How do you connect with the world?
Where do you engage with the world?

In this final week, we can clearly see invitation and challenge as Jesus sets His face toward the cross. Who we truly are is often exposed in times of stress and trial. This is also true of Jesus, as we see His UP clearly demonstrated in His prayers at Gethsemane; His IN lovingly shared in the upper room on Maundy Thursday; and His OUT reflected in His heart as He says from the cross, “Father, forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing.”

UP – Go to the 40 hours of Prayer this week. Ask God to give you eyes to see someone needing to be encouraged by the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

IN – Go to the Community Wide Communion Service on Maundy Thursday. While you are there, extend a hand of love with an encouraging word to someone who has served you or encouraged your walk with Jesus during these 40 days of Lent!

OUT – Go outside your comfort zone — don’t keep the meaning and joy of this week to yourself. This week, share with one person who is distant from God one place where Jesus has had meaning in your life.

Week 6 // Invitation & Challenge

admin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 08:03:39 +0000

// REMEMBER

It’s all about relationships.

You have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.

1 Peter 2:21 (NAS)

We continue this week to respond to the invitation and challenge to live the 3D life of Jesus through UP/IN/OUT habits. These “spiritual disciplines” offer different means of grace — meaning habits God can use to shape us so that we see God better and become more like God in our relationships.

How are your habits going? Let’s put all three UP, IN and OUT habits into practice this week. If you will commit to it, God will help you do it and grow through it!

UP –Embrace this day of being with Jesus. Don’t try to catch up on your iLent reading — remember God is more excited about meeting with you than you are with Him. Don’t worry about what you get out of it; rather, reflect on what God is putting in you His Spirit.

IN – Pray with a friend this week. Ask your friend how his or her “Up, In and Out” habits are going. Check in again next week. It’s an IN thing!

OUT – Ask God to show you a need this week and simply go fulfill it.

PAUSE: Are you changing? Being transformed? The first battleground is your mind. Decide to follow Jesus today. It will not just happen.

Week 5 // Invitation & Challenge

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:03:38 +0000

// REMEMBER

Up, In, and Out are relationships.

“In the night, a sailor cannot see land, nor can he get his bearings from the coastline. He must navigate by trusting the dimly lit buoys already set in place. In the same way, when you go through dark seasons, you will be restricted by, or released to what has already been established within your soul.”

Wayne Cordeiro
Leading on Empty, 2009

Good intentions don’t transform us. It’s the things that become habits that shape us. When we look at Jesus, we find patterns and rhythms that enable us to become the people our Heavenly Father intended. Too often it’s not that we forget that we are Christian, it’s that we forget we are human. That’s where spiritual disciplines help. As humans, we need habits God can use to enforce and reinforce His good intentions for life. Devote yourself to these exercises and look for God’s power.

UP – Begin each day this week with this simple prayer, “Father in heaven, today give me eyes to see your heart, a mouth to bless and hands to serve.” During the day turn off your ipod/radio for the week and say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10)

IN – Serve your church community by volunteering in a significant way.

OUT – Tip your servers big this week and encourage each server you pay (from coffee baristas to supermarket checkers) with a deep sense of appreciation. With gratitude, let them know they are doing a great job. If you feel so bold, let them know God really likes them.

PAUSE: We are almost a month into this adventure. Want to tell someone what discipleship is? Simply put, it’s following Jesus’ example, living the 3D life Up/In/Out.

Week 4 // Invitation & Challenge

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:03:32 +0000

// REMEMBER

It’s a triangle of relationships.

“If you want the blessing of God in your life, you must care about the things God cares about.”

Rick Warren

It’s already week four on the Invitation and Challenge. Maybe it’s time we step it up? What do you say?
I think you will find this week’s practice a challenge and a joy. Here is a helpful hint: Review the suggestion, pray about it and then make the commitment. If you don’t decide ahead of time to let God use this habit in your life, either you will not follow through, or you will just go through the motions without letting God change you. That’s religion, not relationship. Following Jesus does change us. As an encouragement, I remind you that we’re on this journey together!

UP – Water fast: Make water your only beverage for the week remembering Jesus is our living water, and we will never be thirsty. (John 4) It’s an UP thing!

IN – Make this fast a group effort — Do it with others.

OUT – A child dies every 15 seconds because of the lack of clean water. It costs us an average of $0.98 to provide clean, safe water to one person for one year, so every dollar makes a difference! The Challenge this week: Make water your only beverage. Save the money that you would normally spend on sodas, coffee, and sport drinks for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, contribute the money you saved to Living Water International for the drilling of wells.

PAUSE: Stop sometime today and breathe. Just stop and breathe. Now think: How is it going? What are you learning? Where do you need to bring in some balance? What is getting squeezed out of your life, UP? IN? OUT?

Week 3 // Invitation & Challenge

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:03:18 +0000

// REMEMBER

Truth won’t change you until you put it into practice.

“We are educated far beyond our obedience. Our goal is for each one to have one relationship with one person who seems far from God.”

Mark Batterson

Here are three more suggested habits. The purpose of these habits is to allow God to use them to shape us more and more into the image of Jesus. Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Hebrews 5:14 (NAS) Consider your spiritual habits as training in discerning and living out spiritual truth.

UP – Stop and thank God for His good creation, for the work of your hands and minds, and for the simple things we take for granted – remembering we are never entitled but truly blessed by God.

IN – Share your life struggles with a trusted friend or mentor. Talk about what God is showing you in your life!

OUT - Take a friend or coworker to lunch; be a friend without an agenda

PAUSE: Take 3 minutes and review with God how you spent your time. Was there time with your Heavenly Father, have you spent time in community this week? How is your OUT? Over the top or under served?

Week 2 // Invitation & Challenge

admin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:03:42 +0000

// REMEMBER

Discipleship is about relationships.

“Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples, who distributed the bread to the crowd.”

Mark 8:6

Each week you will find three suggested practices offering both an invitation and challenge for this season. These practices or “spiritual disciplines” offer different means of grace meaning habits God can use them to shape us so that we see God better and become more like God in our relationships.

This week select a habit to put into practice that fits your goals toward personal growth and balance. Put one or all three UP, IN and OUT habits into practice. It’s really between you, whomever you chose to grow with, and God! Remember we are in this together!

It’s an UP thing!
UP – Fast one meal a day for the week. Use the time you would normally eat to read your iLent – be hungry for Jesus.

It’s an IN thing!
IN – Create some accountability with friends to do this fast together – seek God’s face.

It’s an OUT thing!
OUT – Assume the one meal a day is worth $5, and take that money and together with your friends or church community give it to a cause you will support.

PAUSE: Live Simply, Up, In, Out. Pause right now : What dimension is needing attention this week?

Week 1 // Invitation & Challenge

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:03:21 +0000

// REMEMBER

It’s all about relationships.

You are invited to grow in your UP/IN/OUT relationships through the challenge of these spiritual practices and habits. Each week, you will find three suggested practices offering creativity and direction for this season. These habits or “spiritual disciplines” offer different means of grace — meaning habits God can use to shape us so that we see God better and become more like God in our relationships.

Each week, select a habit to put into practice that fits your goals toward personal growth and balance. You will find the “bar” set high on some and lower on others.

Perhaps you need to be challenged in your OUT. Then select the OUT habit for that week. Or maybe you are great at OUT, being engaged with the world, and you are weak in your personal time with God. Then put more focus on the UP for that week. Or put all three UP, IN and OUT habits into practice in one week. It’s really between you, whomever you
chose to grow with, and God!

UP – Choose a time daily, when you not rushed, to read iLent and reflect on it. Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. (Col. 3:16) As you do your devotions this week, let the words of Christ dwell, remain, be rich and flow in your life.

IN – Have lunch with someone from your church community you want to know better.

OUT – Pray daily for one specific friend who does not yet know Jesus.

PAUSE: Begin the week with a plan. Decide where you will allow time for your UP with God, your IN and your OUT.

The Invitation and Challenge of Unity

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:00:56 +0000

IN” asks questions about those with whom you live your life, questions about reality and intimacy. The people who share your load, share your dreams, support your vision, hear your mistakes, know your faults. The people whom you love. Consider the places you are called to community. With whom do you most share your life? To whom do you give permission to encourage, challenge and rebuke you? Where do you spend time with others who are following God? Who knows everything about you? When do you regularly meet with other believers? How do you connect with other believers? With whom do you regularly eat? The answers to all these are our community, where we share time with people traveling in the same direction. Who is your community? What does your community look like? How do you do community? Where is your community?

Remember, Imagine, John Lennon’s 1971 idea of peace and harmony? Lennon’s lyrics are inviting but only a faint echo of something more from eternity. Jesus, too, has a dream of harmony. It’s that one day His disciples would live as one: “My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one…and the world will believe you sent me” John 17:21 (NLT). Instead of pairing off by mini distinctions and styles, by the kind of “Christian shoes” we wear, Jesus prays we would live more effectively for His purpose. John and Yoko sang for world peace. Jesus prays that we live as one so the world will believe He is for real! Jesus prays we kick off our separatist shoes so the world sees we are really His feet.

Look at what Jesus says: “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one. . . John 17:22.” He says He has given us (disciples) “glory” so that we (disciples) may be one in the way He and the Father are one. They have the same purpose, they work together in mission and message to the world. That is the model for the church, working together in mission and message. Instead, we have argued, separated, majored on minors, and acted on our own.

Jesus goes on to pray, “May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me.” (v23) Jesus believes our unity is a revelation to the world of His nature and mission. Yet this isn’t what we’ve shown the world for the most part. We have put enormous effort toward fulfilling the Great Commission but have made a great omission by not seriously considering Jesus’ vision and heartbeat for His church and world evangelism. Imagine His church, multiple congregations kicking off pride, not competing but living with a sense of unity.

Jesus’ prayer suggests the only way to fulfill His commission is to go together as His Church, as one church of many congregations. Imagine what it would look like if the church in its many congregations around the world began to share Jesus’ heartbeat. Imagine if we prayed the prayer of Jesus and dreamed His dream. Imagine that!

The Invitation and Challenge of God

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:00:06 +0000

3D focus, the triangle of relationships

The invitation and challenge of God is found throughout the Bible. On page after page, we see God’s inviting people to be with Him and challenging them to do something for Him. Think of this invitation in terms of relationship, our identity formed by God’s covenant with us. This defines who we are—our ‘being.’ Think of the challenge in terms of responsibility, our calling in God’s kingdom. This defines what we do—our ‘doing.’ Being and doing. Identity and calling. Covenant and kingdom. Invitation and challenge. We will follow this double helix throughout this year’s iLent devotional, asking God to help us hear His invitation and act on His challenge.

Also on this journey, we will use the spiritual habits we developed last year to help us grow in the invitation and challenge of practicing the 3D life of Jesus—

UP, our relationship with God
IN, our relationship with our community
OUT, our relationship with our world.

We pray that you experience and enjoy God’s invitation and challenge in your life during this season of Lent!