“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” said Jesus of himself. Service is a core aspect of the life of Christ and the life of anyone who would follow him. When a person comes to faith there is a lot of taking at first, and rightly so. Learning and being served are how baby followers of Christ develop. At a certain point, however, the tables have to be turned in order for growth to continue. Just as an adolescent needs increasing responsibility to develop into a mature adult, so a maturing Christian needs some way to give back in order to become all he or she is meant to be. When we serve, we identify ourselves more deeply with Christ, we grow in humility and other godly character traits, and, as we link arms with our brothers and sisters, we contribute to the overall progress of the Gospel.

As the head of the Church, Christ leads the serving effort. He modeled it in his earthly life and he now directs the effort from his seat in heaven. “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men” (Eph. 4:8). The gift that each follower has been given is his or her assignment in the ongoing development of the body of Christ. For example, some have the gift of hospitality, some mercy, some knowledge, some helps, some administration, some teaching, etc. As each person accepts his or her assignment and carries it out, the work that Christ wants done in the Church gets done. If someone withholds his or her gift, things don’t happen that need to happen (or at least someone else gets really tired carrying a double load!). One of the greatest blessings is to watch a well functioning local congregation as each person joyfully serves in the unique role that he or she has been given. It is nothing short of miraculous.

So how does one discover the gift? This too is a spiritual process involving prayer, Scripture study and community. The Spirit gives us insight into our giftedness as we seek him in prayer. Scripture teaches us about the various kinds of spiritual gifts and how they are to be exercised in the body of Christ. The community around as can confirm or not whether the particular gift we think we have is evident to them as well. Sometimes taking a spiritual gifts inventory like the one below can be a helpful way to jump start the process (although such inventories shouldn’t be used in isolation from the above methods of discerning the gifts).

Scriptures
Ephesians 4:7-13
1 Corinthians 12
1 Peter 4:7-11
Note: the lists of gifts in the Scripture are generally not taken to be exhaustive.

Resources
Spiritual Gifts Inventory (forthcoming)
S.H.A.P.E Finding and Fulfilling Your Unique Purpose for Life, by Erik Rees

Projects
1. Take the inventory and isolate your top three gifts
2. Discuss the gifts with your Home Group members and with other Christians who’ve known you for a long time. Ask them if the findings of the inventory fit their experience with you.
3. Consider your past serving experiences and your ministry interests. Do these help narrow down where you think you could serve best? An example would be someone who has the gift of hospitality, has experience working with kids and loves junior highers. This person might decide to host a junior high youth group at his house (any takers?).

God has given us knowledge and power through Jesus Christ, and has blessed us with physical bodies that can do many wonderful things. However, with these blessings comes great responsibility. We are called to control ourselves so as to fight the temptations of Satan and grow into more mature Christ followers.

An illustration of self-control is the story of David and King Saul. The young David was chosen by God to be the next ruler of Israel, but King Saul couldn’t face this reality. He chased David relentlessly, trying to kill him. One day, when King Saul searched for David and his men in a cave, he fell asleep, and David saw him. David had a chance to kill Saul and stop fleeing for his life. However, David controlled his desire and did not harm Saul, even though his men were urging him to seize the opportunity. He didn’t touch Saul because the Lord had forbid him to kill his king. David was blessed by the Lord and would later become a great king of Israel. This story illustrates that knowing what the right thing to do is only part of our growth as a Christian; we must also exercise self-control during times of temptation - putting our knowledge into action.

David also illustrates the consequences of lack of self-control. When he finally became king he was blessed with great power and wealth for He followed the Lord. One night he saw a beautiful woman named Bathsheba. She was married to a soldier in David’s army. David knew she was married but still sent people to get her. He slept with her and she would become pregnant. In order to cover his tracks, he sent Bathsheba’s husband to the dangerous front lines of battle to ensure his death. The Lord was greatly displeased with David and the son he had with Bathsheba would die. This is a great example of how one moment of a lack of self-control can snowball into more and more sin.

So how do we grow in self-control? On one level, we are called just to do it, to be self-controlled. God has given us a will, the ability to choose what we do with our bodies, and we are to take responsibility to exercise our will in accordance with His. We are not helpless victims of our desires. On a deeper level, however, it is the case for many of us that our will has been weakened by repeated failures to exercise it properly. Years of succumbing to bad habits has left us feeling like we have no control over our wills. In this case, we need to take a step back and let God do some restoration work in us. By studying the teachings of Jesus, by praying for the power of the Holy Spirit and by paying close attention to our experiences, God re-shapes our minds, our emotions and even our physical desires. As these aspects of us our made more like Christ, we find over time that our will, which is merely an expression of our thoughts, emotions and physical desires, becomes more aligned with the will of God. We begin to experience small victories. Small victories lead to larger ones. The process of renewal is now in full swing. We no longer feel like captives to urges whose power is greater than our own.

Scripture:
1 Samuel 24
2 Samuel 25
1 Peter 5:8
2 Peter 1:6
1 Thessalonians 5:8
Titus 1:8

Resources:
The Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard
The Life You Have Always Wanted by John Ortberg (Chapter 11, “An Undivided Life”)
Sermon on Proverbs 25:28

Gentleness can be defined as withholding one’s power even when using such power is justified. This attribute is exemplified in Jesus Christ. He is fully God, and when He walked the earth as a man, he could’ve destroyed His enemies. However, He withheld that power and treated His accusers in a gentle manner, never in a harsh or spiteful way.

A practical application for exhibiting gentleness is when we share the gospel. Often times, the gospel is met with anger, suspicion, resentment, disinterest, or even hatred. It’s important that when we share the gospel or answer questions about our faith, that we act with gentleness, for Proverbs 15:1 reads:

1 A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Likewise when teaching others, it’s tempting to flaunt one’s knowledge to appear wise or intelligent. However, behaving in such a way can intimidate or overwhelm someone. We are called to be gentle, obeying the Lord’s will for us and growing into more Christ-likeness.

While we are called to gentleness, it’s important to remember that this doesn’t mean that we are not called to discipline or correct others in particular situations, sometimes in a strict manner. Indeed, the Lord disciplines those whom He loves, and there may be times when we are called to be strict when dealing with people.

Scripture:
2 Timothy 2:24-26
Galatians 5:22-23
Matthew 26:51-54

Practice:

1. Make a list of the areas in your life where you have “power” in relation to others. Under each area, make two columns and identify ways in which you have subverted that power in order to treat others with gentleness and ways in which you might have abused your power. Spend time in prayer over your lists, seeking God’s growth in these areas.
2. People in authority often need to correct others. Sometimes the correction is right but the approach is wrong because it is lacking in gentleness. Is there anyone close to you who needs to hear you apologize for correcting without gentleness? Go and apologize.

I’ve always hated that question, “Are you one of those people who takes the Bible literally?” I think what people mean by that is something like, “Did you chuck your brain so you could mindlessly follow some wacko who wrote in a day when they didn’t even use last names?” I’d like to think the answer to that question is no. The real question, when it comes to the Bible, is this: “Is it human or divine?”

As always, the line of reasoning starts with Jesus. The earthly Jesus taught and modeled that there is a kind of writing that “comes from the mouth of God,” even though it is mediated through flawed human beings. It was Jesus’ conviction that the books we now view as the Old Testament were of this category (see Matthew 4:1-17). His Apostles, in following his lead, gave the name “scripture” only to those writings they believed fit this same category of “divine in origin.” When Peter refers to the writings of Paul as “scripture,” he is making a strong statement as to the ultimate origin of his letters and, hence, their authority. The early church confirmed the collection of New Testament writings we now have as being the ones given by God.

Without looking at the actual data, it might seem like the inclusion or exclusion of a particular book in the Old or New Testaments must have been a bit arbitrary. When we consider actual candidates, however, it turns out the process was not so difficult. Authorship, dating and theological consistency make separating the wheat from the chaff fairly simple. Perhaps the book most often suggested as a possible candidate for the New Testament is the Gospel of Thomas. But the Gospel of Thomas is clearly theologically inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. For example, the book ends with these words, “Simon Peter said to them: “Let Mary go away from us, for women are not worthy of life.” Jesus said: “Lo, I shall lead her, so that I may make her a male, that she too may become a living spirit, resembling you males. For every woman who make herself a male will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Ouch! Is it really so hard to see why this book didn’t make it in?

A person who believes the Bible to be divine in origin gives it a special place of authority in his or her life. What the Bible says, this person seeks to understand, apply and carry out. Often this is easy and brings immediate blessing. Sometimes, however, the commands of scripture run counter to the desire of the individual. It is in these moments that faith is tested and strengthened. “Is my word authoritative in your life even when it is difficult or hard to carry out?” God asks. For most Christians, the tough passages in scripture need to be sat with over a period of time, reflected upon and digested, before sense can be made. This process is good, healthy and ought not to be short-circuited. At the end of it, we find that, yes, God knows what he’s talking about. A clear sense of the origin and authority of scripture motivates us to hang in until we get there.

Scriptures
Origin of scripture: 2 Peter 1:21
God’s word is powerful: Psalm 33:6
Jesus’ view of scripture: Matthew 4:1-17, Matthew 5:18
Paul’s letters as scripture: 2 Peter 3:15-16
Authority of scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 4:12

Resources
The New Testament Documents, Are They Reliable? by F.F. Bruce
The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, by Craig Blomberg
The Old Testament Documents, by Walter Kaiser

Projects

1. Which teaching in the Bible is difficult for you to live out? Study it on your own or talk to a knowledgeable person about it so you fully understand it. Then step out in faith to live it. What happened? Share with your small group.
2. Read one of the books listed above and then look for an opportunity to share your views on scripture with a skeptic. Share how it went with your small group.

When we talk about stewardship in the church, we are talking about what we do with what we have, whether it be money, natural resources, our gifts, etc. It is very easy to become selfish with these things, but Jesus calls us to a different path. The only way to affect change in our stewardship habits is to get our minds around the big picture. In the fast paced fury of everyday life, it is often too late to battle selfish tendencies if we’ve not developed the proper mindset ahead of time. Here’s the key.

A “steward” is someone who manages someone else’s property or affairs. When it comes to money, natural resources and our gifts, the key insight for the Christian is that all of it belongs to someone else (God) and we are merely caring for that which is not our own. All you need to know is embedded in that word, “stewardship.” You are caring for things that are not yours.

Giving our money or making sacrifices for the protection of what we’ve been given is a discipline that pays huge spiritual dividends. When we give or protect, we reaffirm our conviction that we are just creatures in a world created by a powerful and good God. We shatter the idol of “self,” who wants to be god and wants to be in control of everything. We remind ourselves that ultimately our needs will always only be fulfilled by our Creator. We’ll never have enough money to protect us from every possible catastrophe, but God is enough. As it says, he owns the cattle on the thousand hills (or, in modern terms, “he owns the markets on a thousand wall streets”). Many people have found a freedom in giving that far surpasses any sense of loss they could have experienced.

So, how do we give and how do we protect? In terms of giving, many Christians talk about 10% since this amount is used so frequently in the Old Testament as the amount to be brought to the temple. This is a great starting point, but if we truly have the heart and mind of Christ we will keep 100% of what we have at his disposal. For those who have a high earning power, why not set a dollar amount equal to what is necessary for living expenses and then cap it there? Everything earned above that amount is prayerfully given to kingdom work. People using this method have ended up giving 30%, 40%, 90% or more.

With respect to protecting the resources we have, Christians don’t have a great reputation for this at the moment. But, in Scripture, we have every reason to be leaders in this arena. This world is a precious gift from God and to trash it carelessly is to take his gift for granted. One of the resources below can help you think through this area more biblically.

Scriptures
Giving: Malachi 3:10, Luke 6:38, 2 Corinthians 9:7
Protecting: Gen. 1-2, Psalm 104

Resources
Saving God’s Green Earth, by Tri Robinson
The Treasure Principle, by Randy Alcorn
Saving God’s Green Earth online documentary

Projects
1. If you are not currently giving 10%, begin to change that by increasing .5-1% per month. Notice how this affects your Spiritual health (and your financial health).
2. Watch the video link above and take action.

God loves to get things done through people. We often want spiritual growth to fall out of the sky but, more often, God’s preferred delivery method is the community of faith around us. I know that is a bummer for some of us… we wish we could sail off to “(fill in your name) Island” and commune with our maker one on one. The Bible won’t allow it. Coming to our heavenly Father means receiving the rest of his family as well, as our brothers and sisters.

As we receive our new family, we will learn that they are a gift to us. Through people God loves us, encourages us, teaches us, corrects us, strengthens us, gives us a sense of belonging, and on and on. And through us, God accomplishes these same things in the lives of those around us.

Fear often keeps us from community. We fear we’ll get trapped in someone’s problems (we’ve got enough of our own). We fear we’ll get let down (again!). Or snubbed. We fear that when people find out who we really are, they’ll want to flee. The truth is that all these things are possible. Relationships are messy. And so, taking that step to join a Home Group or call a friend or be there for someone else is ultimately a step of faith. We trust not that the community will be perfect, but that the God who builds it will be faithful, whatever we encounter. It is in the messiness that God’s best work is often done.

Scriptures
Col. 3:1-17
John 17:6-26
Ephesians 4:1-16

Resources
Renovation of the Heart, by Dallas Willard (chapter 10)
Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Everybody’s Normal Until You Get to Know Them, John Ortberg
Link to sermons on community

Projects
Join a Home Group or find some friends, take the inventory and help each other grow.

In his first poem on prayer, George Herbert (1593–1633) refers to prayer as the soul’s blood. What can he mean by this? Two things, I think.
First, I think he means that, just as the blood is one of the essential agents for sustaining our life, so prayer is absolutely essential for sustaining and bringing life to our soul, because it is one of the most fundamental ways to keep our relationship with God vital and vibrant. Of course a person can “get by” in life without actively seeking communion with the Lord, but why would you? Why starve yourself, why deprive yourself, when you can be coming to know the God in whose very presence is fullness of joy?
But there is a second way in which prayer is the soul’s blood, in that it can be spilled out. Every Christian soon comes to learn that earnest prayer is work, sometimes very hard work, and that it is labor. When our Lord implores us to “beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest,” he is using a word suggesting a fervency and an earnestness. “Beseeching” is not the polite act of folding the hands and offering up an effete request, rather it is earnestly grabbing someone by the lapels, fixing them with your eye and imploring them to help you out in your situation. Jesus speaks with approval in Lk. 18:5 of people who ‘wear God out’ with their importunate prayers, and Paul talks about our approaching God with boldness and confident access. A contemporary of Hudson Taylor said of his prayers, “I had never heard anyone pray like that. There was a simplicity, a tenderness, a boldness, a power that hushed and subdued me, and made it clear that God had admitted him to the inner circle of His friendship. Such praying was evidently the outcome of long tarrying in the secret place, and was as dew from the Lord.” The soul’s blood, indeed!
Herbert also calls prayer ‘reversed thunder’—thunder normally rings down loudly from heaven to earth, but in prayer, our Lord has given us His own authority to thunder at Heaven. John Donne (1572–1631) says of prayer, “Earnest Prayer hath the nature of Importunity… Prayer hath the nature of Impudency; We threaten God in prayer… And God suffers [permits] this impudency, and more. Prayer hath the nature of Violence… we besiege God… and we take God Prisoner… and God is glad to be straitened [squeezed] by us in that siege.”
Are we in the habit of thundering at Heaven? Are we in the habit of importuning God with our requests? Are we developing the characteristic of beseeching our God, of spilling our soul’s blood in praying for this world?
In his book, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, D.A. Carson examines about a dozen prayers of the Apostle Paul for those he cared for, and Carson shows that these prayers can be examples for us, to show us how a godly person prays. Earnest prayer is a demonstration both of faith and of love, of faith that our gracious God hears and heeds our prayers, and of love for those we pray for, whether they are close by or distant.
Let us demonstrate our faith, demonstrate our love, let us nurture our souls, let us be willing to spill our blood: let us learn to pray, and persevere at it.

Two metaphors unlock our understanding of God’s word and its role in our lives.  Isaiah says it is like “rain” that enters the parched earth causing it to flourish, yielding seed for the sower and grain for the eater.  If our souls are parched, the word of God quenches.  Beautiful.  Secondly, Peter calls God’s word the “imperishable seed” that takes root in our soul and grows up bringing newness.  For the deadness in our soul, God’s word is vitality and life.

The people of the Bible model how we should handle this precious gift.  Moses admonished us to talk about it continually: when we sit at home, when we travel along the road, when we lie down and when we get up.  The Psalmists call us to delight in it (the word means “to dandle,” like what a parent does with a child on his knee).  Jeremiah simply “ate” God’s word, calling it his joy and his heart’s delight.

Despite all this, most people find it difficult to study the Bible, at least some of the time.  Our ability to read the Bible increases by several means.  First, we need the Spirit to help us and so it is always good to pray for insight and wisdom.  Secondly, the Bible itself helps us to understand when we allow the easier parts to shed light on the more difficult ones.  Thirdly, with time and consistent reading, we grow in our understanding of the overall story-line, the history, the different genres of the Bible and in our understanding of the interpretive techniques that help us unlock its treasures (resources below can help accelerate this process).  Lastly, the community of faith with its preaching, teaching and small group Bible study helps to draw out its treasures.  By these means, God increases our understanding.  The important thing is not to give up early in the process when it can be most challenging.

Ever since Christ, people have discovered that daily Bible intake is a key to spiritual vitality.  One year Bibles are great for this.  My favorite method is to read five chapters per day starting in Genesis, Joshua, Job, Isaiah and Matthew (Pentateuch, Historical writings, Poetic books, Prophets and the New Testament).  You’ll finish the Bible in a year this way and there is lots of variety (although it is a rigorous pace and I certainly haven’t done it this way every year).  For many, memorizing Scripture has becomes hugely life-giving.  I find this is best done with a few partners and a regular meeting.

Scriptures
Rain.  Isaiah 55:10-11
Seed. 1 Peter 1:23
Living.  Hebrews 4:12
Taking it in.  Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Jeremiah 15:16

Resources
Verses to memorize, Best 100
How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth, by Gordon Fee
Eat This Book, by Eugene Peterson
Related Post:  Resource: Bible (forthcoming)

Projects

1. Pick a place in the Bible to start your reading that will naturally hold your attention.  Genesis 37-50, 1 Samuel 16- 2 Samuel 24, Acts and Mark are great for this.
2. Sometimes the problem is that we just haven’t made a plan for regular reading.  Make one and ask someone to pray for you as you follow it.
3. Ask your small group buddies to memorize a verse a week with you from the list above

No. And yes. The master of spiritual growth is the Spirit and only he can guide us. But the Spirit works through people and the OPISO people want to help position you to sense the leading and work of the Spirit in your life. We have identified some basic traits of a Christ follower and then we’ve come up with questions that reveal the extent to which those traits are being cultivated in you. Our list is not exhaustive. But, it is a start and a lot of the traits that didn’t make the list flow out of the ones that did. Get to work on these and others will follow.

One of the strengths of the list is that it is holistic. The traits are divided into three categories: beliefs, practices and virtues. Beliefs are the things we know about God and ourselves, practices are what we do as a result of those beliefs, and virtues are character qualities that pervade all our being and doing. So, for example, we’ve all known “belief-oriented” Christians who could give chapter and verse for any bit of doctrine we might ask about (and a whole bunch more we didn’t even know existed!) and yet this same person hasn’t let off a whiff of joy in the last decade, which is a virtue that is also important to God. At the same time, some Christians are so joyful you need sunglasses to look at them, but ask them why the Bible is worthy of holding authority in our lives and all you’ll get is a bunch of hemming and hawing. If we can point out these weaknesses, provide some resources and push people towards community where godly change is nurtured, then we’ve positioned ourselves to catch the wind of the the Spirit. And that’s what brings the real transformation.

Here’s how the traits in the inventory break down:

Beliefs
God
Salvation
Bible
Jesus Christ
Holy Spirit
Church
Eternity

Practices
Worship
Prayer
Bible Study
Community
Stewardship
Service
Witnessing

Virtues
Joy
Faith
Love
Humility
Patience
Gentleness
Self-Control

Prayer is an opportunity to sit down with the Creator of the universe, not merely some rote chore to be “performed” before each meal. Nowhere else in the world do we get this kind of easy access to power! The first step in developing a healthy prayer life is seeing it as a privileged relationship and not just a task.

Like all relationships, prayer combines speaking and listening. We can speak to God about anything and he hears it all, no matter how outlandish. At the same time, many Christians have found it valuable to allow Scripture to shape the subject of prayer, transforming their inner thoughts and desires. We need to remind ourselves to speak to God in praise of him, in thanksgiving, or in confession as well as in asking him to address our needs.

Most people find that learning to listen to God takes more time to develop than learning to speak to him. Jesus says his followers know his voice, just as a sheep knows the voice of its shepherd. (It is said that a large gathering of sheep can be separated into flocks merely by having the shepherd of each flock call his sheep to himself. They know the voice of their shepherd). As we grow in Christ, we learn to distinguish the voice of God from the chatter around us. Scripture, biblical community, life experience and inner promptings all help us to discern God’s voice more and more over time.

Different kinds of prayer are appropriate to different settings. Just like spouses need dedicated time to sit and talk with each other, scheduling dedicated time to pray with God is critical to spiritual vitality. Some of the resources below can help you structure that time. Secondly, God also hears our prayers in the heat of the moment when a particular need arises (some call these emergency or arrow prayers). Thirdly, there is a of a kind of prayer that takes place while we are doing other things, even while we’re talking to others (I’m doing it right now!). It is an inner dialogue that runs concurrently with our other activities. Brother Lawrence calls this “practicing the presence of God.” Lastly, group prayer is all over the pages of Scripture such that whenever we are with a group of believers of any size, we ought to consider the possibility of praying together.

Our posture during prayer is always important. Inwardly, if not outwardly, it is appropriate to bend our knee before the Creator and come in an attitude of poverty and openness. As we pray, we seek to do so with faith in God’s power and goodness. Such faith honors God and opens the way for him to answer. Finally, we ought to make room in our hearts for the Spirit to direct us to those things that we most need to pray for.

Scriptures
On shaping the substance of our prayers: Matthew 6:5-15; Philippians 4:2-7; Ephesians 1:15-23
On praying with faith: Matthew 24:16
God invites us to prayer: Matthew 7:7, 11, 18:19, 21:22; John 14:13, 15:7, 16

Resources
The Power of Prayer in the Believer’s Life, compiled by Robert Hall
Too Busy Not to Pray, Bill Hybels
The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence
Fresh Faith, by Jim Cymbala

Projects

1. Tell your Home Group you are going to spend the following week starting each day with prayer. Report back the next week and describe how your life was affected by the regular prayer time.
2. Read Brother Lawrence’s book and share with your Home Group how practicing the presence of God is affecting your spiritual life.
3. To increase faith in prayer, keep a journal of asked/answered prayers over the period of a month. At the end, review it with your Home Group.