Devotionals
The fall series devotionals, “In Christ Together For The World”, will begin September 6.
Introduction by Glenda Simpkins Hoffman
Links to daily devotionals may be accessed in the panel to the right, or at the bottom of this page.
This year we are exploring the “journey of transformation.” What does that mean? In his book Invitation to a Journey, Robert Mulholland Jr. answers this question by defining spiritual formation (another way of saying “transformation”) this way: “Spiritual formation is the process of becoming like Christ for the sake of others.”
We began the year by looking at Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Paul makes clear that if we are to be spiritually formed in Christ, we must understand who we are as disciples and what God’s vision is for us—“to live our lives as Jesus would live them if he were us” (Dallas Willard).
Following Easter, we began a series on Best Spiritual Practices. Spiritual practices, or disciplines, are the means to deeper transformation so that we can experience the abundant life Jesus made possible through his life, death, and resurrection. Spiritual disciplines are for disciples. They do not give us brownie points with God or accomplish anything on their own. They are a means of grace. That is, they are how we offer ourselves to God and allow him to do what only he can; they enable us to cooperate with God in what he is doing in us and in the world.
In his book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster divides the disciplines into three categories: inward, outward, and corporate. In the season following Easter, we explored some of the inward disciplines as we looked at sacred rhythms that help us to remain deeply connected to Christ and nurture our personal relationship with him. In the early part of the summer we will explore the corporate disciplines—those that are practiced with others in our families, in spiritual friendships, and in our life together as the body of Christ. In the second half of the summer, we will explore the outward disciplines—those that affect how we interface with the world.
This devotional guide has been designed to support our personal encounters with Christ as well as our life together. We hope the guide will be a helpful tool as you continue to make time and space in your life for solitude, scripture, prayer, self-examination, discernment, and so on and use it as motivation and encouragement in our corporate and outward disciplines. A variety of texts from the Old and New Testaments have been provided for each week to help us really chew and digest God’s Word through our meditation and reflections. You may want to continue using the practice of lectio divina each day using the text provided (see the end of this booklet for a description of the process), and then move to the reflection questions followed by a time of prayer.
In addition to the sermons and devotions, you may want to read more on the disciplines discussed each week. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us are excellent resources. As always, you are encouraged to join with others in your family, a small group, or prayer partners to discuss what God is teaching you and how you are being called. Deeper transformation always occurs as we share the journey with others by living faithfully in accountable relationships.
As we learn about and live out these best spiritual practices throughout the summer, we hope we will see evidence of how God is indeed “spiritually forming us into the image of Christ for the sake of others.” The summer will conclude with our “Labor for Your Neighbor” Sunday on September 5 as we gather as the church to worship and then to be sent out to apply together what we have been learning “for the sake of others.” Please make plans now to participate in this wonderful churchwide celebration and service.
O God of peoples, nations and history; you who became incarnate in the midst of economic, social and political injustice; you who call us to incarnate the reality of your kingdom in the midst of the world’s destructive values, structures and dynamics; we confess that we would much rather limit our relationship with you to the comfortable confines of our own insulated world. We are prone to withdraw and create islands of security within which we can live in some degree of peace and comfort without having to see the pain and anguish of the world outside. We are tempted to limit our spirituality to the narrow boundaries of our self-circumscribed world. O God of justice and mercy, help us see that to be conformed to the image of Christ is to be thrust out into the world as agents of your redeeming, healing, liberating, transforming grace. Help us to see that our growth toward wholeness in Christ cannot move toward its fruition apart from our life in the world. Guide us in our consideration of this reality and help us to be open and responsive to what you are saying to us.
From Invitation to a Journey
by M. Robert Mulholland Jr.
Best Spiritual Practices (Summer 2010)
Index to Daily Devotionals
| Week | Dates | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | May 31-Jun 6 | |||||||
2 | Jun 7-Jun13 | |||||||
3 | Jun 14-Jun 20 | |||||||
4 | Jun 21-Jun 27 | |||||||
5 | Jun 28-Jul 4 | |||||||
6 | Jul 5-Jul 11 | |||||||
7 | Jul 12-Jul 18 | |||||||
8 | Jul 19-Jul 25 | |||||||
9 | Jul 26-Aug 1 | |||||||
10 | Aug 2-Aug 8 | |||||||
11 | Aug 9-Aug 15 | |||||||
12 | Aug 16-Aug 22 | |||||||
13 | Aug 23-Aug 29 | |||||||
14 | Aug 30-Sep 5 |