Prayer Night-Wed's 05/13/09 (10 present)

Following up with A.C.T.S., we had a good prayer hour-meeting the Lord for our Awe, Confessions, Thanksgiving and Supplications.

We then wrapped up: What it means to be a Disciple and also becoming a disciple-maker.

2 Scripture References were used: Matthew 28:18-20, which is the biblical mandate of Christ to us. It is not a suggestion, nor a vocational/educational thing. It is a action position, based on the Greek partisan which says, "while you are going about-make disciples, ALWAYS!"

The second scripture reading: Mark 16:15. Which says, to Preach the Gospel. It does not say, defend nor does it say, teach but the reading here in the Greek is a strong suggestion of power, with an exhortation added. We spoke of the term bold and boldly

Finally, we spoke about why we are not meeting the biblical mandate and some reasons were: Fear, rejection, education, and also the Adversary.

All these are quite far from the way God views us, and by not reading, nor meditating-(getting His love letter in our hearts) we are missing the fact that our true identity is found in Him, not in fear of others.

Christian Ed: In the Shoes of the Rabbi: "When Jesus says Come".

CIT: Jesus picked His disciples, He sought others that the local rabbi rejected.

Jewish boys who would aspire to be like the rabbi would be chosen if they were the best and brightest of the students. This would mean that the younger would-be-rabbi's would walk the way there teacher would, talk his ways and take on the mannerisms of the rabbi they followed.

Jesus picked his followers out of the rejected (according to man) lot. He picked common people, non-educated perhaps, but not chosen by the local congregations. Many were fisherman or had a trade.

Those of us today who aspire to be a disciple of Christ must put on His clothes and walk, talk and have the mannerisms of the Master. The thing is, he chooses us, we don't choose Him. We we are chosen to be His disciple, we then become 'disciplemakers'

Which ties in very effectively with our Christian Ed lesson.

Loving, Obeying and Teaching God's Word

Deut 6:1-9; 20-25

Loving God and His word. We read about the Shemah and what it means to us today. Loving God and His word is not a burden but a joy. The correct Hebrew rendering for the Shemah may be: The Lord is Our God, the Lord alone!

We obey God and His word for not only present blessings from God, but also for future blessings, the most being: LIFE! We are concerned for the future of our congregation and this scripture refreshes the idea of teaching our children and our children's children the laws, decrees, and statutes of His word. Not only is it important to teach the word, but also the history of our lives, God's people and our story line-AKA: meta-narrative!

We close with James 1:22 which is that we would not be hearers of the word only, but "doers" as we;;.