Christian Growth toward the Great Commission: An Overview
With this blog, my hope is to mobilize Christians toward the Great Commission. I believe that the Great Commission is, by far, the most under exposed and more ignored command of Jesus. So as I’ve felt led to expose this problem in our North American churches and call attention to our responsibility to know the Great Commission and to help people fulfill it, one of the keys I think is crucial is for Christians to do a ‘walk with Jesus’ inventory to see how their relationship with Jesus is going.
Generally speaking, I’ve found that spiritually mature people know the the Great Commission is a command and they must follow it. The inverse is also true as well. If your walk with Jesus is weak, you may either not know about the command or you may not have the deep commitment to Jesus to follow it.
Growing in our walk with Jesus is absolutely essential. We are called to ‘Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.’(John 15:4) The apostle Paul gives us a stirring account in Philippians 3, where he ‘counts everything as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.’ Paul wants so deeply to know Jesus that he’s willing to ‘share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…’ This is the type of relationship Jesus wants us to know and to have with Him.
So how is this possible? There is a list of what I call ‘Spiritual Disciplines’ that help Jesus followers know this kind of intimacy with Him. Spiritual Disciplines can be described as tools designed to augment our spiritual growth and enable us to grow to spiritual maturity. Over the next few weeks, I’d like to go through these disciplines, with the idea that by learning about them and beginning to practice them, you’ll deepen your walk with Jesus, and in turn, grow in your heart to see the Gospel of Jesus spread throughout the world.
Here’s a list of the Spiritual Disciplines I see as most crucial, and the Disciplines I’ll be covering over the next weeks:
Bible Reading
Scripture Memory
Prayer
Worship
Evangelism
Serving
Stewardship
Fasting
Silence and Solitude
Perseverance in the Disciplines
Appreciate your willingness to come with me on the ride and I’d welcome your comments on the way!