Daily Devotion to the glory of God!

Happy New Year friends!

I'm reading a wonderful book called "ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church" by my favorite Australian missiologist Michael Frost, co-authored by Alan Hirsch. A wonderful study in the need for each of us, and the church, to be reJesused! I sat under his teaching at a mission conference in 2009, put together by a mentor, Doug Stevens. Men living the gospel whole heartedly--disciples of Jesus Christ who are multiplying themselves! How are you intentionally multiplying yourself?

In the midst of my study times in the Gospel of Mark (preaching a sermon series on Mark starting January 16), I am embarking on a New Year of daily devotion to the glory of God! Today, I spent Beorn's nap time reading the book of Joshua. Amazing! After reading the 24 chapters of Joshua, I had to jump into Judges real quick because of this one verse: Joshua 24:31, "Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the LORD which He had done for Israel." I not only jumped to the beginning of Judges, but also back to the end of Deuteronomy, to read about the succession of leadership from Moses to Joshua. Moses passed leadership to Joshua who passed it to a group of elders who were with him, but what happened next? Without leadership, the people all went their own direction doing "what was right in [their] own eyes" (Joshua 17:6). Did the elders fail to lead or fail to multiply? Or is failing to multiply the greatest failure of a spiritual leader?

The elders were people who watched Joshua and led under his leadership. They caught the vision and what it took to be the people of God, but they did not multiply themselves? The decline of obedience to the covenant came quickly upon Joshua's death.

How does an anointed leader live and embody the mission of God in such a way as to inspire a generation to follow whole heartedly in the way of the Lord? How does one generation, caught up in the vision of God, transfer this to the next generation in such a way that they will desire to remain whole-heartedly devoted and pass it on to the next?

This is a thought coming from reading a wonderfully rich Old Testament book. This thought directly connects into the work of Frost and Hirsch as they focus the church back on Jesus Christ. It is only by fully knowing and following Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity (the relationship with God) and exemplar of the Way of the Lord, that we can embody the vision of God (the ministry of reconciliation; the mission of God) and live it out as a daily devotion to the glory of God. We become missionaries as we embody the teachings and way of life of Jesus Christ. The fruit of the life of discipleship is mission! How are we going to multipy?

It starts by living a life of daily devotion to the glory of God! How's your daily devotion?

Let's journey together each day! It's only through an intimate knowing of Jesus Christ that we can know God and live out His heart--mission!