This is the Rough Draft of the Devotional I will be giving at our Synod Meeting this year. I was really surprised to be asked to do since I am the most non Lutheran person in the whole Synod.

We Share Jesus:

Open in Prayer.
God Remind us that we are supposed to be your Body.

Video: We are his Body

The Title of this Devotional is “We Share Jesus” and when the bishop asked me to do this I was wondering just what she was thinking. Of all the people here I am probably the least Lutheran person in here. When people ask me “What I am” I answer that I am a catha-bapta-metha-costa-lyn. However as I thought about it I began to understand since The ONE thing that we all have in common, The one thing that brings us all together, or should be the one thing that brings us all together is that we share Jesus. Or as I would of titled it “It’s all about Jesus… Dummy”

Ephesians 4: 1-8 (NIV)
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit — Just as you were called to one hope when you were called — One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; One God and Father of all and through all and in all.

But to each one of us grace had been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:

“When he ascended on high, He led captives in his train and Gave gifts to men.”

The fact of the matter is that we are facing a lot of issues in the near future that have the potential to rip the Church Apart. People on both sides of the Debate are determined that if they don’t get what they want then there just gonna take their ball and go home. And I got to Confess to you I pretty much felt the same way. That was until I met Stephen, or I call him Mini-me. You see Stephen and I are polar opposites on Just about Everything. I am Big, Stephen is tiny, I am a carnivore, Stephen is a Vegetarian, Stephen in a Communist, I am a Capitalist. Stephen is Emotional (he wants to be a Pastor), I am analytical (I Design Machines), At first glance the only thing we have in common is we are both still alive.. We even have differing views on biblical matters,

we disagree on:
Communion,
End Times,
The Gifts of the Spirit
the Use of Liturgy

Pretty much the only thing we have in common is Christ And we have both found out that that is enough. Since then, Stephen has become one of my closest friends and before, during and after church you can’t find one of us without finding the other.

Why, Because we Share Jesus
Awhile back I was reading through my Bible, something I strongly suggest you all do, and I don’t mean the reading through the Bible you do when you’re trying to find that

“one verse that is gonna put those (insert the name of people who upset you) in their place once in for all!”

This is where that Hard Lesson to learn part starts, at least for me it does. This is the Type of Bible Study where you Read the Bible and instead of thinking “What does this verse have to do with (insert hot button topic that has you all riled up)” Instead You Read the Bible and Think “how does this Change ME.”

So I’m going to Read this next Verse and what I want you take just a moment and think about it. Then I am going to ask you all some questions.

1st Corinthians 2:1-2 (NIV)
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Here is Verse 2 in another translation

GOD’S WORD translation
While I was with you, I decided to deal with only one subject-Jesus Christ, who was crucified.

Questions

1.What do these Verses mean to me?
2.What would change in my life if I ‘Knew nothing but Christ and Him Crucified’

All of us here have things we agree on, I would bet I could sit down with each and every one of you and we would find things we had in common. At the same time I would bet that if I sat down with each of you, we would find things we disagreed on, and as long as we share Jesus, then there is Love. After all in John 13:34 Jesus COMMANDS us to Love one another just as he loved us, and if you’re wondering how He loved us (which is sort of like asking ‘who is my neighbor’) then I’ll direct you to Romans 5:8 You can look it up yourself.
Closing Prayer:
Father, as you brought all of us, your children here together. You have given us the purpose of Sharing Jesus with a World that doesn’t know him and we find ourselves unable to share your Son with each other let alone the Dying world. Le us hear your still small voice and leave here with a passion for the Lost and resolved to know only Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

Amen

Here is the project I have been thinking about working on for the past few months. I have been wanting to do a type of devotional as part of my podcast for a while now and have been working on several different Ideas.

The first Idea was to do a commentary type on the devotional “My utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers, and post a 3-5 min audio of what I thought about that days devotional.

My next idea and the one that is currently in the lead is to do a daily 3-5 min devotional of my own that would be 2 bible verses a day with each week devoted to a single theme. I would like to try and relate the themes so that each theme builds on the previous theme. I would need 365 of these and I have to admit that I find this whole thing kind of daunting but I also feel like this is one of the things I should be doing.

I have been looking at the themes and have listed the themes I have thought of below but I need 52 of them or close to that since some of these themes can support more than one week.

Themes
1. Grace
2. prayer
3. Fasting
4. Forgiveness
5. Love
6. Peace
7. joy
8. Longsuffering
9. Kindness
10. Goodness
11. Faith
12. Self Control
13. salvation
14. lords Prayer
15. Giving
16. Worship
17. Witnessing
18. Friendship
19. Discipleship
20. Truth
21. Pain
22. Grief
23. sorrow

I am really hoping all of you will give me your input and tell me what you think.