Friday's Bit of Discipleship
We need to think the same way Jesus did. We need to see at the cross how dramatically and deeply humble he was, but then we need to be like him in our relationship with God and in our relationships with others.
page 39, The Prideful Soul's Guide to Humility, Fontnet/Jones
Humility Prayer
Lord Jesus, in two days we remember your entrance into Jerusalem riding on a donkey that Palm Sunday. It was a humble yet kingly mount. You knew who you were and where you were going – to the cross for our sins. Remind us to be humble and yet confident in our own lives knowing that You make us forgiven sinners and beloved children of God through God’s grace. In Your name we pray. Amen.
MISSIO DEI Discipleship Point
From the introduction to the Participant's Study Guide
John 17:17-19
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake
I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. —Jesus
Transformation does not happen automatically or by coincidence. It is only the powerful Word of God and His Gospel that produces fruit and that changes hearts. Embracing Christ and His mission is more than a cursory or superficial treatment of God’s Word. It means diving deep and diligently into God’s Word, to not only know God’s will but to understand His will in depth and apply it accordingly. God stresses this truth in Deuteronomy 6:6-9: And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates”.
God’s word is powerful. Any student immersed in the Bible will treasure, reflect on, and fix in memory God’s truth, again and again. He/she will, as the “Collect for the Word” says, “hear… read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest…” (The Lutheran Hymnal, “The Order of Morning Service,” page 14). We are powerless to transform our own hearts. But God in His Word can boldly change, transform, and lead us, including in this Word-of-God encounter, to powerful and meaningful immersion in His Missio Dei, which is the Gospel core.
See the following Scriptures in your bible or on pages 256-257 of The Great Sending book: John 20:21-23, Galatians 4:4-5, Hebrews 2:14, Hebrews 3:14, 1 Corinthians 1:9, Matthew 9:6, John 20:31, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 For further study, see the Second and Third Articles, the Apostle’s Creed, and the Office of the Keys, Luther’s Small Catechism.
Discipleship Prayer
Lord Jesus, I pray for the power of Your Word and Spirit to work upon my life, indeed upon the whole church, transforming us as we embrace our role as sent ones in the world of people You love. Amen.