My Epic Journey

Living the Christian life is not always easy.  Actually it was never meant to be easy.  Putting into practice the spiritual disciplines  will prove to especially hard as we head back into the fast-paced, result-driven culture we live in.  To help, here are practicals you can put into place to help maintain a healthy focus:

1.  Start small

Sometimes we fail because we plan too big.  Start with a small goal with the disciplines, understanding that the Christian life is a growing process that takes time.

2.  Put together a plan

Once you have set some goals concerning the practicing of the disciplines, put together a plan of how you are going to get there.  Take into consideration, when, where, what, and how the disciplines are going to look in your regular life.

3.  Find an accountability partner

Find someone who will hold you accountable to be faithful in practicing the disciplines.

4.  Pray

I know it may sound like a given but we often forget the reality of the spiritual world we live in.  More than anything, Satan does not want you to develop disciplines that will strengthen our relationship with God.  Make it a practice to wake up every morning and begin your day praying that God will help you be faithful in your relationship to Him.

5.  One last thought—ENDURANCE! 

Remember that the disciplines wouldn’t be considered disciplines if it didn’t take hard work, determination, and perseverance in putting them into practice.  It also wouldn’t be considered “practicing” them if it didn’t mean we weren’t going to fail every once in a while.  Don’t let failure throw you completely off course.  God so deeply wants a relationship with you that He desires that you move past the failures and keep going!

Question: How many of you would consider yourself a daredevil?

Question:  What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?

Question:  What is the most dangerous thing God had ever done?

Illustration:

Chronicles of Narnia:  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Mr. and Mrs Beaver are explaining to the kids about the world of Narnia, how Narnia got to the place where it is cold, frozen, etc., and goes into great detail about Aslan.

Lucy, the youngest of the three can’t grasped that a Lion would be something that people would be excited to see.  She asks the question, "Is he (Aslan) safe?"  Mr. Beaver quickly replies, "Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he is not safe.  But he is good. He’s the King, I tell you."

Of course if you are familiar with the Narnia story you know that Aslan represents Jesus.  So essentially, the message of that scene is that Jesus is not safe but he is good.

Application:

Jesus is not safe.  He didn’t call us to live a "safe" life.  He didn’t die so that we can live a mediocre, non-challenging life.  Jesus is very dangerous.  His teachings are dangerous and those that truly follow Him will find the path they walk to be dangerous.

So how do we follow Jesus?  We live has he lived!!

1 John 2:6 (NIV)
6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

So then the question to be asked is, "How did Jesus live and how did he command us to live?"

Mark 12:28-31 (NIV)
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."

John 13:34-35 (NIV)
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

But loving people isn’t always safe. 

Loving people means we invest in the life of others.

It means we have to get messy. 

It also means we have to give our all!!

So how do we love?

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NIV)
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Empty.
Completely empty.
No glimmer,
No hope,
No peace,
No joy.
Void of happiness,
Void of pain,
Void of everything,
Void of Light.
Empty.
Completely empty.

But there is Hope,
There is Peace,
There is Love,
There is a Way,
There is a Light.
Fullness.
Completely Jesus.