Discipleship Point and Prayer
FRIDAY'S BIT OF
DISCIPLESHIP
“Passage after passage in the Scriptures makes it clear that humility is the way to God's heart. The proud find the door closed to his inner sanctum, but those who demonstrate humility are welcomed there again and again. By some measures the performance the former group may outshine the latter, but never mind. God does not receive us on the basis of performance. He receives us on the basis of heart, and no quality of heart is more important to him than humility.”
p.10, The Prideful Soul’s Guide to Humility, Fontenot/Jones
Humility Prayer
Oh Father God, I yearn to know your heart. I yearn to know the way to your heart. It is not lost on me that Jesus is the way to you. So Jesus, again I pray that you teach me humility – and I thank you for being my Way to our Heavenly Father. Amen.
MISSIO DEI
Discipleship Point
What are the ESSENCE and ESSENTIALS of THE GREAT SENDING and CHRIST- APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY?
SENDER – Jesus did not send Himself! He did not presume the mission Himself without His Father. God the Father sent Him and in that sending, Christ was given authority. Nor did the Holy Spirit presume the mission Himself. The Sender of the Holy Spirit was God the Father and the Son Jesus. Individual believers and the community of faith do not ascribe their mission unto themselves. Their Sender is Christ, who gives authority in His sending of the believers to be co-heirs and co-associates with Him in His mission to the world. The Sender is the initiator!
THE SENT – Jesus was a sent one and the recipient of authority; the Holy Spirit was a sent one and authorized; those who are baptized into Christ are sent ones by Jesus and are granted authority to go into the world with the Gospel.
THE SENDING NATURE (THE FULL CHARACTER AND SIGNIFICANCE OF “SENDING”), part two:
- Sending always requires the sacrifice of leaving (as Jesus left His heavenly home for earth, the disciples left their nets and boats, and the Samaritan woman left her water pot)
- Authorized sending always requires the sacrifice of going (see Matthew 28:19 – “as you go”)
- Sending always is the giving of an authorized task, such as Christ’s rescue mission and the believers or disciples proclaiming the Gospel, witnessing, etc. (see Luke 24:47-49 and Acts 1:8)
- Sending always involves an authorized message such as reconciliation through Christ alone, the Gospel message (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)
A final and necessary essential of being sent is the recipient or target, the audience – that is, the world, every tribe, language, nation, and all people living on earth.
See the following Scriptures in your bible or on pp. 256-257 of The Great Sending book: 1 Corinthians 1:9, Matthew 9:6, John 20:31, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 For further study, see also the Second and Third Articles, the Apostle’s Creed, and the Office of the Keys, Luther’s Small Catechism.
Discipleship Prayer
Lord God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – sharpen the focus of my mission lens, the one that allows me to see Jesus as the SENT ONE who sacrificed His life for our sins, the lens that helps me see my sins SENT AWAY by that act of love in Jesus’ death on the cross, and the same lens that shows me as a SENT ONE into the world on Your behalf, an ambassador like the Apostle Paul. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.