Friday's Bit of Discipleship
Paul tells the Colossian Christians: Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12) To walk out of our rooms or homes without first clothing ourselves with humility is to walk out spiritually naked. A leader who walks into a meeting without humility is spiritually naked. The disciple who tries to share his faith without humility is spiritually naked. As in the fairytale, everyone sees it as it is, and someone inevitably will shout out, "the emperor has no clothes!"
page 151, The Prideful Soul’s Guide to Humility, Fontenot/Jones
Discipleship Prayer of Humility
Lord God, when I pick out clothes for the day, remind me to include the attractive ensemble of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
MISSIO DEI Discipleship Point
Additional Rationale or a Jubilee Immersion
In all of life, but especially made obvious in the world of sports, repetitions (or “reps”) are the necessary preparation for a successful athlete. Think of a football quarterback who repeats throws time and again to his receivers for ongoing mental and muscle memory (new habits and renewed eye-to-hand coordination), or a basketball player who practices free throws day in and day out in order to improve. Repetition – repeated action – is required to break old habits of thinking and behavior. It seems that the church is getting “sacked” again and again with decline, closure of churches, missional apathy, and malaise, locked into tired old programs, habits, mere performances, stopgap measures, and political solutions, with doctrinal conflict, divisiveness, and division.
Athletes must exercise immersion training to break old mental and muscle habits. So it is with Christians who pledge to join God’s great sending. Intensive reps in the Word of Christ creates a new spiritual heart and “muscle” memory (a new missional heart transformation at the “free throw line” of the mission to the world).
Discipleship Prayer
Lord Jesus, coach us up through intensive reps in Your Word that we may strengthen our spiritual heart and muscle memory. So we pray. Amen.