Friday's Bit of Discipleship
If you have any hope of discipling someone to Christ, you must be sure that they find you approachable and that they feel free to share anything with you, even something they see in your life that needs attention. If spiritual leaders do not have men and women around them willing to tell them the truth and if they do not welcome such truth, the very life of the church is endangered.
pages 88, 89, The Prideful Soul’s Guide to Humility, Fontenot/Jones
Discipleship Prayer of Humility
Father God, help me learn to be attentive to others’ situations and to be approachable as a friend or spiritual mentor. Show me how to be honest and compassionate. Open my eyes even now to what I have previously overlooked…
Pause and listen for a response as He may bring people to mind.
Consider if there may be action you could pursue with these people…) …
Amen.
MISSIO DEI Discipleship Point
Why was and is the Missio Dei (Sending of God) Needed?
The death, decay, destruction, and corruption of the institutional human-ordered Church is in direct proportion to its failing mission health, failure to repent and bear the fruit of participating in the Missio Dei. The church needs to repent, be converted and be saved from its selfish war. It can no longer face inward and be an end unto itself. True humility and repentance will lead the church to a commitment, a heart transformation. This is the re- set, renewal, and return to God’s Missio Dei, His great sending….
The church needs the Missio Dei itself to exist for others. Only when God’s great sending lives within us can we go into the world for Him. We do not live for ourselves while we wait for others to recognize God’s gifts; we cannot embody a “come to us” attitude and continue on with our own lives. Instead, Christ calls us into the world as apostolates, sending us always beyond and outside of ourselves.
See the following Scriptures in your Bible or on pages 287-288 of The Great Sending book: Romans 3:9-20. For further study, see “The Ten Commandments” and “Close of the Commandments,” Luther’s Small Catechism.
Discipleship Prayer
Lord Jesus, let it be that Father God’s great sending lives within us so that can we go into the world for Him, for You – for the benefit of the world you died to save. In Your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.