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discipleship

  • Spiritual Formation

    Click here to download MP3s of Listening to God through Scripture (ZIP Format)
                                                                                             
    Going Deeper with God


    Weekly we suggest different spiritual exercises based upon and correlating with the Sunday morning sermon and biblical texts.  Spiritual exercises are work-outs for the soul.  They strengthen us from the inside-out, so that we become more and more like Jesus.  When we examine the life of Jesus, we see him exercising spiritually every day.  In the same way, when we do spiritual exercises, by God’s grace and the Spirit’s power, we become more like Jesus! - Karen Bables, Director of Adult Discipleship

    Remembering Sunday, January 29, 2012
    Galatians 5:15-26, An Epidemic


    • Read Colossians 3:1-17 and compare it to this passage in Galatians.  What is God saying to you?


    • Trying to get our own way all the time is the behavior that our sinful nature spawns. In Galatians 5:19 of The Message Eugene Peterson describes the lifestyle that results from self-centered living: “repetitive, loveless, cheap sex, a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage, frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness, trinket gods, magic show religion, paranoid loneliness, cut-throat competition, all consuming-yet-never- satisfied wants, a brutal temper, an impotence to love or be loved, divided homes and divided lives, the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival, uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions, ugly parodies of community.” This week as you watch TV or movies or read or listen to the news, pay attention to how many times this lifestyle is described.  Each time you hear or see these sins, ask the Holy Spirit to show you manifestations of them in your own life.


    • If we shed the old self and put on the new self that Christ brings, we live “God’s way.”  Peterson describes those who live this life as having: affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity, a willingness to stick with things, a conviction that basic holiness permeates things and people, forming loyal commitments, no interest in forcing their way in life, being able to marshal and direct their energies wisely. When you see these behaviors in someone (especially your children) this week, find a way to tell them that they are walking in “God’s way.”  Try to model this behavior for your children. Put this list in your planner or on your calendar or bathroom mirror or refrigerator. Ask the Holy Spirit to live in you so you can live in God’s way.


    Preparing for Sunday, February 5, 2012
    1 Corinthians 3:10-15; A Performance Review


    • Read this passage.  Think of yourself as a building. What is your foundation built on?