Day 37 - Just to Get on the Same Page...

Just to Get on the Same Page...

Key Question:
If someone asked you why Jesus came to earth, what would you say (in one word/phrase/verse)?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.
Luke 19:10

Many of our students—past and present—have participated in mission trips that were a lot of hard work. This hard work was freely given and gladly done. Nearly every person who engages in the mission trips is asked at one time or another why they would come and do this. People who are on the receiving end often have trouble understanding why kids and adults would take their own free time to come, serve, and do thankless, difficult work.

If you’ve gone on any of those trips, you know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen the bewilderment on the faces of folks when we do loving and caring things for them that no one else cares to do. You’ve seen how they are amazed at the acceptance and value given to them. They don’t realize that it’s just a taste of what Jesus has done for us. They cannot understand that we love them and want to help them when no one else does.

It’s usually during those times when we are serving that we openly acknowledge that a big part of why we do what we do for them and the love we show them is because God loved us so very much that he allowed his only Son to die for us. No matter how many times I read and hear that, it still blows me away.

Now, let’s answer the key question:
If someone asked you why Jesus came to earth, what would you say (in one word/phrase/verse)?

Your Mission
What action makes you feel most loved? Spend time writing down all the ways you’ve experienced love from both God and others.

Day 38 - Preparing to Live Under God’s Vision

Preparing to Live Under God’s Vision

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
John 5:17

A collection of powerful thoughts on prayer, devotion, and transformation:

If we are to be new creatures in Christ, we must show that we are so by new ways of living in the world. If we are to follow Christ, it must be in the way we spend each day. For if the doctrines of Christianity were practiced, they would make a man as different from other people as a civilized man is from a savage. If the doctrines of Christianity were practiced, it would be as easy a thing to know a Christian by the outward course of his life as it is now difficult to find a person who lives the Christian life.
- William Law

God’s loving motive [in discipline] is to bring us into total harmony with himself so that moral power and holy usefulness becomes our in this world and in the world to come.
- A.W. Tozer

O that the Lord would open our understandings! for they are but a dead letter without the illumination of His Holy Spirit.
- George Whitefield

If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the smooth waters just inside the harbor bar, full of delight, but always moored; you have to get out through the harbor bar into the great deeps of God and begin to know for yourself, begin to have spiritual discernment.
- Oswald Chambers

Read these over a couple of times, as you prepare to live under God’s vision for you and for our church family. Remember that we are God’s workmanship, “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Your Mission
Pray for the leaders of our congregation today. Pray specifically that God would give them the vision to reach those around us and to glorify him in all we do.

Day 39 - Essentiality of Vision

Essentiality of Vision

However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him” –
but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
President John F. Kennedy, 1962

For many of us, this happened in our lifetime. Nearly all of us have seen footage of the moon landing and have heard and read that America did what seemingly could not be done. The phrase in this challenge that seems most relevant to us as we look to the future concerns the way that the Kennedy’s goal served “…to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills...” Kennedy’s challenge engaged a generation in pursuit of his goal.

Goal setting can be a tricky thing, can’t it? Can you name the last goal you set—and achieved? Think about that for a few minutes. Why did you set that goal? What drove you? What kept you on track toward finishing and achieving what you set out to do? Did you complete that goal in the time frame you set for it? What was the reward for you? Was it worth it?

While we can go through our day-to-day lives just reacting to what happens around us, we need goals to help us do the things we need to do, as well as the things that we want to do. So how essential is it that we articulate our goals and vision?

Your Mission
In your prayers today, use the phrase “Father, help me to use the best of my energies and skills in your service.” Keep your eyes open to what he shows you.

Day 40 - Blessing and Promise of Vision

Blessing and Promise of Vision

Where there is no vision, the people perish...
Proverbs 29:18

Does this ring a bell? What is meant by “vision” and “perish?” A quick look at the New Century Version can expand and elevate our understanding.

Where there is no word from God, people are uncontrolled, but those who obey what they have been taught are happy.

This “vision” that people need is not a new, trendy statement that can be easily posted or tweeted. The vision we need is a clear word from God. We need his guidance for how to live our lives and his direction to make the most of our time on earth. Our happiness is directly tied to the vision, or the word from God.

A quick story about guidance and vision.

Auto mechanics dread trying to diagnose and fix electrical problems. They can be so difficult to track down. Once, after rebuilding an engine for my truck, I was attempting to start it for the first time. The engine would crank, but would not start. I reached out to my dad (a master mechanic) for help. He studied the situation for a few moments and then said, “You have your wires crossed on the coil.” I thought, “Could it be that simple?” I trusted his guidance and switched the wires. As soon as I turned the key, the engine roared to life! I just needed a little guidance when I had my wires crossed.

It is easy to get our wires crossed in life. We get mixed up about what is right and wrong or about what is important or unimportant. It is easy to get confused. This concept holds true when we apply it to our church. Are we on point with the mission of God revealed in Jesus Christ? I believe there is a “holy restlessness” in our hearts, stirring us to reconnect with his mission in a fresh way.... something inside that says, “There has to be more we could be doing for the cause of Christ!”

This prayer and action guide is all about reconnecting in a fresh way with the vision of God. The leadership of our church dedicated themselves to prayer and fasting for the past four months, repenting and recommitting ourselves to God's vision. During the next 40 days, we will dedicate ourselves as a church family to reconnecting with the vision of God. I am so excited for the opportunity to make this journey with you!

Your Mission
Stop and say a prayer right now, asking God to grant you—and our church leaders—clarity and wisdom to envision the future.

Introduction - Disturb Us, Lord

Disturb Us, Lord

Sir Francis Drake was a complicated man by all means. This British sailor became world famous in the 16th century for his navigational exploits. To some he was a hero and to others an enemy. Like many adventurers of his time, their good deeds and lawless acts were a mixture of the time, place, and vocation of new world exploration. He was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe.

His father was a minister and later a sea-faring chaplain. He introduced his son to faith and sailing. The following is a prayer by Francis Drake:

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.