Welcome! The purpose of this blog is to encourage followers of Jesus Christ to have daily time in which they intimately connect with the Lord Jesus. It includes an aspect of praise to God, some of how I sense the Lord speaking to me, and then a topic for prayer. My hope is that this blog will help you in three ways;

1. A balanced spiritual diet of Scripture reading - Using the lectionary readings for the day, this will give you a balance of passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, the New Testament Epistles and the Gospels.Don't feel obliged to read all the passages ... unless you have the time and the inclination!

2. An example of Spiritual Journaling - I have committed to write this daily post, not for teaching purposes but as my daily spiritual journal, sharing what I hear from the Lord and how I experience Him with me each day.

3. An online discipler – One of the reasons that so many Christians do not have daily devotion is because they do not have a discipler. A discipler can help them build up this basic element of discipleship when they first become Christians. The best way for you is to have a discipler to walk with you for a certain period of time so that daily devotion become a good habit. Or, you may have a group of 2 or 3 people to encourage and be accountable to each other so that you won’t stop your daily devotion. I offer myself as your online disciple to walk with you daily to enrich your spiritual journey, trusting that you will in time, offer yourself to others.

So let us start this journey with Jesus our Lord . . . click here for today's readings

Monday, February 8, 2010

Finding Christ outside the Camp

Praise: A Merciful God. "You are a gracious and merciful God" (Neh. 9:31) "and I praise you for your great mercy."

Scripture: The writer to the Hebrews in our passage, invites us to go outside the 'camp' to meet Christ and to suffer the same reproach. Jesus, of course, was taken outside of the city, Jerusalem and all that it stood for, to be crucified for our sins, cast out like the dead carcasses of sacrificial lambs killed on the temple altar. At one level, this is written to Jewish believers to remind that that the old covenant (represented by the city of Jerusalem) is now obsolete, and that our life is now in Christ.

We are not to settle for temporal provision/delights/home as our true 'home' is found in the city that is to come. But I was also challenged by the missional call to be those who would 'go out' and engage with those who are yet to believe, and lo and behold it is there that we find Jesus already there. It may cost us, we may suffer, people will be confused and question us, they may even want to discount us, but we will find Jesus only too ready to embrace us.

In the very going though, we also become bearers of the kingdom message and reality. Jesus in the gospel reading tells us that in coming to him to drink, we will subsequently find a river of living water flowing from our own hearts into the lives of others. This is what Jesus and the presence/power of the Spirit makes possible through our lives.

"Here am I lord. Send me ... in the power and fullness of your Holy Spirit."

Prayer: Pray for God to add to us those who are being saved and those whom he would call into our missional, community life. Humbly acknowledge that God provides the growth as we faithfully obey and trust. Rejoice in God's loving kindness that endures forever.
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