Episode Transcript
CONSECRATE
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
HEAR
Joshua 1:7–9 (NIV)
“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
CONSIDER
First Thessalonians 5:11 says, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
I will forever remember my first class of my first day of seminary. It was Asbury Theological Seminary, and the class was Introduction to the New Testament. The professor was Dr. Robert Mulholland. His first words to the class that year (and every other year, as I hear all the time from other classes) were these: “The most important decision you must make in your time at seminary is this one: Will you be in the world for Christ, or will you be in Christ for the world? I am here to help you become the latter.”
To be in the world for Jesus implies that I will be doing good things for him. To be “in Jesus” for the world, implies that he will be doing God things through me. This may seem subtle. It is not. To be “in Christ” for the world means the discipleship journey of becoming a person in Christ. This is the second half of the gospel. The first half of the gospel is Jesus with us and Jesus for us. The second half of the gospel is Jesus in us and Jesus through us.
The story of the Christian faith and the church for the past hundred years is all about Jesus with us and Jesus for us but not so much about Jesus in us and Jesus through us. In response to Jesus being with us and for us, we have done our best to be “for Jesus,” which has resulted in an enormous amount of religious activity with very little to show for it.
Notice the progression of God’s Word to Joshua so far in chapter 1. Joshua, I am with you. Joshua, I am for you. Therefore, be strong and very courageous. Then note the exhortation toward discipleship—becoming the kind of person in whom and through whom God can live and move and have his being:
“Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.”
It’s time to stop trying to do things for Jesus. It’s time to become the kind of people in whom Jesus is pleased to dwell and through whom he is delighted to work. It’s why Jesus is not looking for employees. He’s on the hunt for friends.
PRAY
Father, this is about an exchange of our old lives for your new life, which is our true selves. We are weary of living out of our own strength. We want to be people who are known by your deep humility and your profound authority and your breathtaking love. Come, Holy Spirit, and lead us deep into the well of becoming like the God who became like me. Thank you, Jesus, for becoming like us so that we could become like you. In your name we pray, amen.
