The Follower - My 40-day Journey in A Purpose Driven Life
Colossians 1:16 says: "Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him."

In seeking to become a better follower of Christ this year, one of the resources I used was A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. It is an incredible book and challenged me on every page to take a look at myself and my priorities.  I will enter a short summary of each chapter for the day.  The quotations from the book will be enclosed in quotation marks.  The rest are my thoughts.

Day 23, Part 2 - "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think."  Rom. 12:2

"Once you decide to get serious about becoming like Christ, you must begin to act in new ways."  (Our old ways of behaving are habits, because we have done them over and over and over!  To develop new habits, we have to act in a new way over and over and over!)

"To change your life, you must change the way you think.  Behind everything you do is a thought.  Every behavior is motivated by a belief, and every action is prompted by an attitude.  To be like Christ you must develop the mind of Christ.  The New Testament calls this mental shift repentance, which in Greek literally means 'to change your mind'....We are commanded to 'think the same way that Christ Jesus thought.'  We need to stop thinking immature, self-centered, self-seeking thoughts and begin to think maturely, which focuses on others, not ourselves.  Christianity is not a religion or a philosophy, but a relationship and a lifestyle.  Thinking of others is the heart of Christlikeness and the best evidence of spiritual growth.  This kind of thinking is unnatural, counter-cultural, rare, and difficult."

                                      So....Grow up....it's never too late!

Day 23, Part 1 - "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think."  Rom. 12:2

Grow up!  "Sadly, millions of Christians grow older but never grow up.  They are stuck in perpetual spiritual infancy.  The reason is that they never intended to grow.  Spiritual growth takes an intentional commitment.  You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing.  Discipleship always begins with a decision."

(Most things in life are like that.  We just coast along, never making a decision or commitment to be or do anything.  We are afraid that if we decide to do something, we will be held accountable and, ultimately, fail.  We don't realize that in not deciding, we are in reality making a decision - to not do!  So if we do nothing and succeed at it, then we haven't failed.  Kind of weird logic, isn't it?)

However, "Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make.  They can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way, they will define you."
                       "We become whatever we are committed to."

Day 22 - "You were created to become like Christ!"

"In all of creation, only human beings are made 'in God's image'.  While we don't know all this phrase means, we do know some of the aspects it includes:
* Like God, we are spiritual beings.
* We are intellectual - we can think, reason, and solve problems
* We are relational - we can give and receive real love
* We have a moral consciousness - can discern right from wrong

"Sanctification is the process of changing us to be more like Jesus and that is the job of the Holy Spirit and the third purpose of your life on this earth.  Christlikeness is not produced by imitation, but by inhabitation.  We allow Christ to live life through and in us - through the choices we make.  We choose to do the right thing in situations and then trust God's Spirit to give us his power, love, faith, and wisdom to do it."

This is our greatest privilege, our immediate responsibility, and our            ultimate destiny!

Day 21 - "Let us concentrate on the things which make for harmony and the growth of our fellowship together."  Romans 14:19

"Unity in the church is so important that the New Testament gives more attention to it than to either heaven or hell.  Unity is the soul of fellowship.  Destroy it, and you rip the heart out of Christ's Body.  In Jesus final moments in the Garden, he prayed for our unity - even during that time."

"Focus on what we have in common, not our differences.  As believers we share one Lord, one body, one purpose, one Father, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one love.  These factors are far more important than any differences we could enumerate."

"We must stay focused on what matters most - learning to love each other as Christ has loved us.  Conflict is usually a sign that the focus has shifted to less important issues - things like personalities, preferences, interpretations, styles, or methods - then division always happens."

"If you are a part of God's family, it is your responsibility to protect the unity where you fellowship."

Day 20, Part 2 - "That's why God calls peacemakers his children."  Matt: 5:9

There are seven biblical steps to restoring fellowship:
1.  "Talk to God before talking to the person.  Most conflicts are rooted in unmet needs and unknown expectations.  We have expectations for other people that we assume  they know or take for granted.  When they don't live up to those expectations or meet our needs in a certain way, we are disappointed or angry."
2.  "Always take the initiative, whether you are the offender or the offended.  God expects you to make the first move."
3.  "Sympathize with their feelings.  Use your ears more than your mouth.  Pay close attention and focus on their feelings, not the facts.  People don't care what we know until they know we care."
4.  "Confess your part of the conflict.  Begin with admitting your own mistakes or sin.  Accept responsibility for your mistakes and ask for forgiveness."
5.  "Attack the problem, not the person.  In resolving conflict, how you say it is as important as what you say.  You are never persuasive when you're abrasive."
6.  "Cooperate as much as possible.  Peace always has a price tag.  Sometimes it costs our pride; it often costs our self-centeredness."
7.  "Emphasize reconciliation, not resolution.  Reconciliation focuses on the relationship, while resolution focuses on the problem.  We can walk arm-in-arm without seeing eye-to-eye on every issue."

Day 20, Part 1 - "Relationships are always worth restoring....Paul taught that our ability to get along with others is a mark of spiritual maturity....A broken fellowship is a disgraceful testimony to unbelievers."

"Jesus said, 'God blesses those who work for peace, for they shall be called the children of God.'  Notice Jesus didn't say, 'Blessed are the peace lovers,' because everyone loves peace.  Neither did he say, 'Blessed are the peaceable,' who are never disturbed by anything.  Jesus said, 'Blessed are those who work for peace'--those who actively seek to resolve conflict.  Peacemakers are rare because peacemaking is hard work."

Unfortunately, most of us were never taught how to resolve conflict effectively.  "Peacemaking is not avoiding conflict.  Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was never afraid of conflict.  Peacemaking is also not appeasement.  Always giving in and allowing others to run over you is not what Jesus had in mind."
                                Work hard at living in peace with others.
                                                                                 I Peter 3:11

Day 19 - "You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor."  James 3:18

"Only the Holy Spirit can create real fellowship between believers, but he cultivates it with the choices and commitments we make.  It takes both God's power and our effort to produce a loving Christian community.  Fortunately, the New Testament is filled with instruction on how to share life together.  Paul wrote, "I am writing these things to you....so you will know how to live in the family of God.  That family is the church."

"Cultivating community takes honesty, humility, courtesy, confidentiality and frequency.  WE NEED EACH OTHER!

Day 18 - "How wonderful it is, how pleasant for God's people to live together in harmony!"  Psalm 133:1

"Over and over in the Bible God and His writers talk about a fellowship of believers or 'experiencing life together'.  When it comes to fellowship, sizematters:  smaller is better.  You can worship with a crowd but you can't fellowship with one.  Once a group becomes larger than about ten people, someone stops participating--usually the quietest person--and a few people will dominate the group.  Jesus demonstrated that with his small group of twelve."

"The Body of Christ, like your own body, is really a collection of many small cells.  The life is contained in the cells.  Authentic fellowship happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives.  In real fellowship people experience mercy.  Fellowship is a place of grace, where mistakes aren't rubbed in but rubbed out.  Fellowship happens when mercy wins over justice.  To understand the difference between trust and forgiveness:  forgiveness is letting go of the past.  Trust has to do with future behavior.  Forgiveness must be immediate, trust must be rebuilt over time.  People must prove they have changed."

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