Today I’m simply pasting in today’s Upper Room Daily Reflection. I can get away with this because it’s focused on one of my books!
(Hit the hot link if you want to read the page at the source)
- Enjoy, and don’t forget that it’s Sunday; go to church – DEREK
Christian Community
NOVEMBER 3, 2013
Today’s Reflection
IT’S HARD FOR ME to follow Jesus with any integrity without the following factors in play:
- encouragement
- moral support
- accountability
- a shared sense of responsibility
- brothers and sisters of like (spirit)
- the sure knowledge that others are praying for me every day.
You can’t find those when you’re going it alone. I like the phrasing of Hebrews 10:23-24: “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.”
This is no world for hesitant Christians. If we are not motivated and equipped to move from peripheral spectators to deliberate disciples – as daily followers of Jesus – then we have no hope of moving forward spiritually.
That’s discipleship in a nutshell – being a Jesus follower in the context of encouragement, mutual support, and provoking one another [to love and good deeds] – all in the context of Christian community.
– Derek Maul
The Unmaking of a Part-Time Christian
“From page 20 of The Unmaking of a Part-Time Christian by Derek Maul. Copyright © 2009 by Derek Maul. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. “http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question
How important is Christian community in your spiritual formation? Share your thoughts.
Today’s Scripture
Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:9-10, NRSV