Are You Engaging Disciples in the Faith?
Good Morning Friends,
Do you know how important love is for commerce and the governance of activities in society? Well let me tell you that it is critical…it is the very glue that holds us all together. No, not the love of money but the love of God…our love of God that spills over into the lives of others. You see millions of people have actively chosen to be accountable not just to society but to a very personal God that teaches the law of love. They are teaching the next generation to voluntarily choose to love…to trust. It is the challenge of our generation…of every generation. Are You Engaging Disciples in the Faith?
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5Scripture: I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.
2 Timothy 1:5 (NRSV)
28One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ 29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
Mark 12:28-30 (NRSV)
2and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.
2 Timothy 2:2 (NRSV)
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’50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’
Matthew 12:50 (NRSV)
Message: There are no sure fire ways of passing on the faith to another. This is a gift of God. Not ours to offer. However we can love each other and that perhaps is all we can do. And if we truly love others we will pray for them and teach them to pray and read scripture. Here in the Bible we find clues how Jesus went about it….how He came into the everyday lives of others…a woman at a well, a tax collector up in a tree, a soldier concerned for the welfare of his child, a family in Bethany that opened their home to a person who had no home, a blind man, and a group of fishermen he called friends. And in each of the stories Jesus demonstrates the power of faith embedded in their memory as he prompts these same people to bring that faith back into their homes to share. Friends, it is here we must understand that being a disciple may start with believing in Jesus but it does not end in this gift but becomes a gift that keeps on giving. So we must not only believe but actively pursue the purposes of God in reaching the world. And here we might just learn that the family of God…brothers and sisters in Christ can be the very fabric of our community woven together for a very important purpose. Here our shared memories define us.
Pray we persuade, entice, invite and engage people to take their faith to heart and to put it to work. Pray that we teach the children the stories of God so that God and the love of God is in their memories. Pray we learn the way of discipleship. Pray we submit to divine discipline realizing that disciples are not born but made. Pray we love others so they might bear fruit to the glory of God. Pray we teach others the way of love. Pray we become a family…a community of love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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