In the 18th chapter of the book of Luke, Jesus encounters the rich young ruler.  If you’ve been a follower of Christ for long, it is probably a familiar story.  If not, stop and read it here.  

A devout man approaches Jesus wondering what he must do to be saved.  Jesus walks through the commandments - have you obeyed these?  The man replies confidently that he has kept the commands all of his life.  And then Jesus does a curious thing.  He asks the man to do one more thing: sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.

The story follows that, because the man was very wealthy he became very sad and presumably, walked away.  Following Jesus is a tall order.

My friend Justin uses this story in trainings to highlight the reality that Jesus isn’t looking for lukewarm Christians.  This isn’t the only time that Jesus’ words and teaching drive away potential followers.  There’s that crazy scene in John 6 where “many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”  Jesus is looking for committed disciples.  He will build his kingdom not with crowds but with dedicated disciples.  While the world yearns for numbers, Jesus is looking for committed men and women.  

Justin lays out what this commitment might look like using the great commission. He draws out five commitments from the passage and they provide a helpful rubric through which I can reflect on my own heart.  I think they will be helpful for you as well.  

Five Commitments To Be A Disciple of Jesus

1. Authority - Are you willing to submit everything to the authority of Jesus?
2. Go - Are you willing to go anywhere to make disciples for Jesus?
3. Baptize - Are you willing to baptize new believers?
4. Teach Obedience - Are you willing to teach new believers to obey everything that Jesus has commanded?
5. Presence - Are you willing to daily abide in Christ?

It starts with our willingness and commitment.  If you are a leader, a good question to ask first is, "Am I willing?" but the next question has to be, "Are the people I am investing in willing?"  Are they committed disciples or merely lukewarm attendees.  You can fill the pews with the latter but Jesus wants to transform your community, your city, your state and nation - he will turn the world upside down with unschooled, ordinary men and women if they will commit themselves to living the surrendered life and being with Jesus.

As we answer this question we can begin working toward the next question as well:  Are they able?

• Do they know how to submit to Jesus' authority?  If not, can you train them?
• Do they know how to go to the lost?  If not, can you train them?
• Do they know how to baptize new believers?  If not, can you train them?
• Do they know how to make disciples by teaching others to obey Jesus?  If not, can you train them?
• Do they know  how to abide in Jesus?  If not, can you train them?

​It is no mistake that Jesus bookends his commission with authority and presence.   I can do much in my own power but Jesus reminds me that unless I live the surrendered life which I can only do if I abide in Him and experience His presence, little of what I do will have any eternal impact.

For most of my life I’ve wanted to improve my prayer life.  Having read the biographies of many great men and women of God and observing the Biblical examples from Jesus to Moses to the apostles, I’ve always known that prayer was an important part of the life of the disciple of Jesus.  And for most of my life, I’ve not lived up to my own desires to pray more.

The reality is that my knowledge of the importance of prayer has not yet led to a default toward prayer.  But I want it to.

Curtis Sergeant introduced me to a helpful tool to improve my prayer life, helping me to pray for one hour at a time.  I don’t use it often enough but because it is a helpful tool, I’ll be adding it to the Everywhere to Everywhere resource page.  The resource is called The Prayer Wheel and it is a part of the Zume Free Online Training.

The prayer wheel allows you to pray in five minute increments for one hour.  You will need some sort of timing device (Zume Timer) that you can set to let you know when five minutes is up so you can move on to the next section for prayer.
​
THE BASIC PRAYER WHEEL OUTLINE

• PRAISE: Spend time praising God for who He is.
• WAITING: Spend time silently waiting on God.  Just quiet your heart and wait.
• CONFESSION: Spend time confessing sin and all that hinders your relationship with God.
• READ THE WORD: Spend time reading the word of God.  
• PETITION: Spend time praying general prayers of blessing and protection for yourself, family & others.
• INTERCEDE: Spend time praying specifically for one or two people or issues.
• PRAY THE WORD: Go back to the scripture you read.  Read a verse and then pray the essence of that verse back to God.
• THANKSGIVING: Spend time thanking God for all of His blessings and actions in your life.
• SINGING: Spend time singing a favorite hymn or play a worship song on youtube.
• MEDITATE: Spend time meditating on one aspect of God, a phrase of scripture or a word or phrase  from a worship song.
• LISTEN: Spend time listening to what the Holy Spirit might be wanting to say to you through this time.  Have a notebook and pen handy to write down anything you hear from God.
• PRAISE: End your time praising God.

I have created a simple bookmark so that you can carry the prayer wheel with you where ever you go.  Set aside an hour and spend it in prayer with the Prayer Wheel as your guide.

Download the Prayer Wheel Bookmark

I hope that you will find the prayer wheel a helpful tool for increasing your prayer life and your ability to hear from the Holy Spirit.  It has been in many ways a helpful training tool for me but it will only help you if you try it out and apply it.  

Learn more about the Prayer Wheel from others:

• More Disciples
• Zume Tool Kit
• Zume Timer

I remember growing up, my grandmother would tell stories of the waning days of the Great Depression and the first years of World War II.  I was captivated by the way she and the whole country seemed to respond to the crisis of war and depression.  She told stories not only of the young men who willingly signed up to defend freedom but also of the ways those who stayed behind stepped up to serve, sacrificially rationing and growing gardens and doing anything they could to support the war effort.  Those stories left a longing in me to live a purposeful life of sacrifice and meaning.
  
The Covid-19 pandemic is our crisis.  For many of us, we are looking for purposeful ways to respond.  Somehow, “stay at home and watch Netflix” just doesn’t seem all that meaningful, even though we know it is the best thing to do (at least the stay at home part).

As followers of Christ then, what are the ways we can respond that are meaningful and in partnership with the mission of God.  Nearly six billion people in our world do not yet call themselves Christians and over two billion don’t even have access to an opportunity to hear the gospel.  Here are five different ways you can be a part of God’s global mission, even as you stay at home.

LEARN
As the global pause button continues to be depressed, take the extra time you have to learn more about God’s mission and how you can be a part of it.  Here are several ideas:

• Crescent Project’s Online Bridges Study
• OMF’s Six Ways to Reach God’s World
• ​Beyond's Nugget Trainings
  
• Multiplication Concepts Training Videos
• 7 Books to Fuel the Missions Fire

ENCOURAGE
Isolation and loneliness are real issues in a time of pandemic.  I trust you are already doing your part to discover creative ways to encourage those in your neighborhood, your church family and your immediate family.  But missionaries and our global brothers and sisters in Christ are also isolated in times like these.  Here are a few ideas for encouraging them.

• Write a letter to a Missionary - find out who the missionaries your church supports and consider writing them a letter or sending them an email.  Maybe even send them a gift card for iTunes or Amazon.
• Write a letter to persecuted Christians.  You can learn how at Open Doors International.
• Send Bibles to Believers in Restricted nations. Partner with Voice of the Martyrs to send a Bible to countries where Bibles are difficult to access.

PRAY
Too often, followers of Jesus underestimate the power of prayer.  It seems that in the pandemic and the forced slowing of life, prayer would be the greatest response would could give to the Lord.  Here are a number of resources to help you pray more.

• Ramadan Prayer - Today (April 24, 2020) marks the first day of Ramadan in the Muslim world.  Sign up for Prayercast’s 30 Day Ramadan Prayer email series.
• Develop a personal prayer strategy. 
• Learn from the leading edge of Paul’s disciple making strategy. 

GO
Mission trips have been canceled, missionaries have had to return from the field and stay at home orders abound across the globe and yet the opportunity to go into the Muslim world has never been greater.  Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, more people on every continent are home bound than ever in world history.  They are isolated, alone, and wondering what tomorrow will hold. Hundreds of thousands of young Muslim men and women who speak English are also sheltering in their homes, smartphone in hand, surfing the Internet in search of answers, hope and friendship.
  
What if they met you?

Volunteer with Embassy and they will teach you how to connect online with Muslims in difficult to access nations.  You will almost certainly be the first follower of Jesus they have ever met.  

Sign up for a free one hour introductory training or stop by the Embassy website to learn more.

FILTER
We live in a media saturated world.  Messages come fast and furious from every device we own and many are wondering if we can trust any of the news we hear.  How do we filter through all the nose? 

The reality is that we are all being discipled - being formed -  by the messages that dominate our days.  Because of this it is imperative that we shut off the noise and immerse ourselves in the word of God.  As we do this, the word of God will increasingly become the filter through which all other messages have to pass. 

If the dominant source of messages in our day is our favorite right leaning or left leaning news outlet, it will become the filter, even filtering the way we read the Bible. 

Nobody is making you listen to the news or keep scrolling through your Facebook feed.  Nobody is forcing you to not read your Bible.  It’s a choice we all have to make. We have an opportunity to filter what we read, hear and see.

As we do that and as we prayerfully seek God’s direction each day we will find the things we can do in this season of global pandemic and God will use us in his global purposes.  

"What can I do?"

It's a question that Jesus' disciples all across the world are wrestling with during these unprecedented times.  Covid-19 has locked us indoors and it seems the best way to love others is to stay away from them.  These are indeed strange days.

For many, you've spent the last years investing in the lives of friends who do not yet follow Jesus.  You love them dearly.  You've served them tirelessly and now, you can't see them.

And so we ask, "Lord, what can I do?"

For many the last years have been spent doing things for God.  We serve the church.  We help with programs.  We feed the poor.  We go to this event and that activity.  We lead Bible study.  We do, do, do.

And so when the world comes to a halt, we ask, "Lord, what can I do?"

For myself, this has been a journey into a lesson the Holy Spirit has been trying to teach me for the last few years.  I'm a slow learner!  I am by nature, a doer.  Perhaps we all are.  But in this moment, when "doing" has been in many ways stripped away, I've found myself wandering, wondering, worrying. 

Am I doing enough?  Am I doing  the right things?  And who am I?

The first week in particular was tough.  I'd wander in and out of a sort of discombobulated haze, not knowing up from down, not knowing what I'd do with myself once I finished the next email I was writing or the call I was on.  My "doer" was being battered and I didn't know what to . . . well, do.

In it all I could hear the whisper of God in the distance, an inviting calm that, as the days wore on and my chaos subsided, I began to listen to and to recognize.  

Be my child.
Be my friend.
Be a member of my church.
Be a citizen of heaven.
Be my workmanship.
Be my new creation.
Be justified and righteous.
Be secure in my hand.
Be free from condemnation.

Be with Me.  Be with Me. Be with Me.

How are you finding ways to simply be with Jesus this week?

Covid-19 is an unprecedented world event that is unlike anything anyone now living has ever seen. 

It has interrupted life.  It has caused hardship.   And if the Surgeon General is correct, it's going to get worse.  As followers of Jesus there is much that we can and will do in the coming weeks and perhaps months to be His hands and feet, to demonstrate His love, to share the truth and hope of the Gospel.
 
But the most important thing we can do, is to abide in him.

Last week I sent an email out to a number of pastor friends asking if there were any specific ways I could be praying.  As responses came in it became increasingly apparent that these leaders were stepping into uncharted waters.  Life was getting crazy as they tried to figure out what to do about Sunday morning services, how to shepherd well despite social distancing and how to care for their own families.

And of course it's not just pastors. Everyone is struggling to make heads or tails of our current situation.  Across the globe the Coronavirus is wreaking havoc.  

And so more than ever before, as the people of God we must turn to Jesus for guidance and help, and according to Jesus in John 15, we have only two choices: 

1. Abide in Christ and bear much fruit which brings God glory.  Or . . .
2. Don't abide in Christ and don't bear fruit and don't bring God glory.

And so with today's article we want to share a three resources that we have found helpful to help disciples abide in Christ.

Cornerstone Reading Plan:  Any reading plan will do as long as it gets you reading the word of God.  This particular plan will have you read four chapters a day and allow you to immerse yourself in the whole story of the Bible.

S.O.A.P.S Bible Reading:  As you are reading the Bible, the S.O.A.P.S reading tool will help you to interact with the word, obey it and share with others.

Prayer Wheel:  The prayer wheel will give you a process to pray for one hour, five minutes at a time, prayerfully interacting with God in a number of ways.  This particular resource is a pdf with three bookmarks so be sure and share it with a couple of friends as well.

There are many helpful resources to help us abide in Christ.  But above any particular resource,  we must follow the example of Jesus who often withdrew to lonely places to be with the Father.  

It was early 2008 when I was first introduced to movement thinking at a world wide gathering for the mission agency I was working with at the time.  I was new to the mission field, to church planting and so the week long seminar I attended rocked my world.  There were so many paradigm shifts in what I was hearing, so much that was counter intuitive to what I'd done my entire church life in the U.S.  It was disorientating at first but it struck a chord deep in my soul.  

Church planting movments (CPM), disciple making movements (DMM), the spontaneous expansion of the church - all of it seemed born in the pages of  scripture.    Reading the case studies of movements happening in Asian and Africa looked like the book of Acts far more than my own church experience.  And we we living in a country that was less than 0.01% Christian. 

Doing what we'd always done was just not an option.

Over the next several years, we got some great training, had a great coach and dove into our own personal journey of rewriting the paradigms of church that had been embedded in us by a lifetime of North American church culture.  I also began reading everything I could get my hands on in order to help me  grow in my understanding and practice of all that it would take to see a church planting movement birthed where we were.

The first book that I read over and over again was the book of Acts.  It is where everyone should start.  But after that I began to find other books that helped me learn what God was doing in the book of Acts.

And so here are seven books that I found helpful on that journey.