 Have you ever wondered why it seems that the church grew in amazing ways in the early years? Reading through the book of Acts, thousands of people came to know Jesus at events (Acts 2 and Acts 4). This continues through the New Testament books.
The Bible, as we know it, wasn't put together for at least 200 years after Jesus' life. When it came to maturing in their relationship with Jesus, reading the Bible wasn't a thing for them. Yet, it seems like the followers of Jesus matured and grew in ways that we can't seem to figure out in 2019. Recently I learned about a document called The Didache. This document was something that shaped the lives of followers of Jesus. The Didache lays out a schedule of daily prayers, fasting and taking communion. These practices are called spiritual disciplines. Early Christians connected to God as Jesus did through spiritual disciplines. This connection is so crucial as we live this life. Last week, I plugged my phone in to charge it. When I woke up in the morning, my phone was at 10%. I neglected to make sure that the cord itself was plugged into the wall outlet. My phone looked like it had a connection to power, but it didn't. How many of us Christians walk around looking like we are connected to God, but we have no connection at all? We show up to church every so often but don't make engaging in church a part of our life. We may read the Bible every so often but we get confused by the Bible, so we give up. Our relationship with Jesus stalls. We settle for a mediocre relationship with Jesus instead of what we see in the New Testament. I'd encourage you to create a daily rhythm of spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines help us connect to God like Jesus did while He lived here on earth. June 30th, we are starting a message series called “Our Lord's Prayer”. We are challenging our people to pray this prayer each day. We also encourage our people to join a small group. Our small groups are where we learn to read the Bible. We use a method called S.O.A.P. SOAP stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. We'll explore other spiritual disciplines in the next post.
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