Missions: Love and Passion Required!

I really enjoyed reading your reflections on the missionaries that you studied. From what I read, you all found inspiration or learned lessons from these amazing people who have and who continue to pour out their lives to share the love of God with people.

Here are some highlights from your reflections:

Katie is a great example of someone who is so in love with God, and I can really learn from her and her relationship with Jesus. {Mercedes}

What inspires me about Katie is her willingness to give without question of how she will provide for herself and how she selflessly gave up all the comforts that she knew and loved...she listened to God’s will even though it seemed like what he was asking was impossible. {Kate}

The part of this missionary journey that inspires me the most is his [Brother Andrew's] persistence. Even when everything was against him, he had faith, faith that the Lord our God would allow it to happen if it was meant to be. It would be a blessing to have such faith as he did, even if I never did anything extravagant. {Claire}

One thing I think is important for us to realize is that if we are doing God’s work, he will provide what we don’t already have. He knows that we are human, and he knows what we are and aren’t capable of. We just need to take a step back and let him do what he does. {Natalie}

I can become involved with Ben Carson’s story by trying my best in everything that is laid before me both physically and spiritually. {Tyson}

Spiritual Disciplines

I am really excited to begin this challenge with you, and I hope that all of you will take it up!

There are two parts to this unit of study. The first part is the weekly readings from the book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Whitney). These readings are required as are the weekly reflections/questions. We will discuss these together, and you will share your reflections via google docs.

The second portion means actually beginning to incorporate the spiritual disciplines into your daily life. This is optional (because I can't really hang over your shoulder every day!), but I believe that in order to be effective, "spilling over" Christians who naturally "declare the excellencies of Christ" we need to be spending time with Jesus - through prayer, the Word, worship, solitude, and so on.

For this week, you'll need to do the following:

1. Finish reading chapters 1-3.
2. Answer the reflection questions that I will send to you. These are due on Tuesday. I will give you Monday's class to work on them.
3. Memorize 1 Peter 2:9. This will be tested on Tuesday.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

4. On Monday, those of us who want to incorporate the spiritual disciplines can chat about the best way to encourage each other in doing that. Come with your ideas, please!