We finished up our series on Luke’s Gospel. For those who are in the church, we have made a commitment as citizens of a Kingdom to live in a way that looks upside down to the world around us. We are the upside-down Kingdom in a world that thinks it is right-side up. Jesus models this to us in his ministry, teaching, preaching, life, and in who he chooses to have table fellowship with. He calls us to come and do likewise. In two weeks, we will begin this second half of this series. The book of Acts is a launching of the upside-down Kingdom into the world to set the world right. The Gospel is lived out and embodied in Christian community. Engagement in the world around us is the movement of the Kingdom setting the world right. We will trace this theme through Acts.
This coming Sunday, we will have a special guest who has come to do our parenting seminar. Kent Brown is a good friend of mine from Oklahoma City and has done a lot of great work on developing faith in the home. His sermon on Sunday will be on the need for spiritual disciplines to help us continually transform into the Image of God we are called to be. After worship, Kent will be leading out class. He will be sharing practical ways to develop your Christian walk and how to engage in faith formation with your kids. This will be a great class for everyone…not just for people with kids.
To prepare us for receiving a word from God this Sunday, I want to invite you to wrestle with a couple of questions:
- How have you grown in your walk with Christ in the last 5 years?
- In what area(s) of your life do you need to be growing in right now?
- The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Which of these aspects of the Spirit do you need to develop in your life?
Spiritual formation is not a journey that ends with baptism. Spiritual formation is a continual engagement in the act of transformation. In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus is approached by an expert on the law who wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him about how he read the Law. The man replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. And, love your neighbor as yourself” (10:27).
When you think of spiritual formation, where do we spend most of our time? Heart, Soul, Strength, or Mind?
Kent will be discussing what a balanced life looks like when engaging spiritual formation in each of these areas. See you then!