Abiding in Jesus

All of us have a calendar. Whether it is written or whether it is felt, we structure our lives in one way or another. The career-driven person has a work-week schedule; the new parent structures their life around the cry of their infant; and the entertainment-addicted modern shapes their rhythms around Netflix and new cinema releases. Each of us adopt a rhythm to the lives that we live. Now, this wouldn’t be so serious if the rhythms we adopt did nothing to us. But they do. The rhythms we adopt, the habits we entertain, and the practices we put ourselves through—these are not just things we do, these are all things that do something to us. In fact, this is how people are formed. Psychologists know this; dieticians know this; neurologists know this; and, believe it or not, ancient wisdom writers knew this. Every rhythm, every habit, every practice—they all, for better or worse, carry us toward an image of the good life. The question we need to ask ourselves is not whether we’re being formed into something; but what we’re being formed into. For the Christian, the image of the good life comes to us in Jesus. Jesus is the king in whose kingdom we want to live; Jesus is the person we want to follow after; and Jesus is the character we want to transform into. Dallas Willard, in his book The Great Omission, said, “The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.” This is the journey of spiritual formation. Or, in other words, discipleship. “Rhythms”—which we’re using as a catch-all term to refer to the calendar, habits, and practices in our lives—exists to help God’s people to take their formation seriously; to see it as a vital part of their discipleship. Humans are creatures that get both deformed through the everyday, so we need to be able to be Christ-formed through the everyday. Richard Foster, the modern writer on all things spiritual disciplines, says, “The discovery of God lies in the daily and the ordinary, not in the spectacular and the heroic. If we cannot find God in the routines of home and shop, then we will not find Him at all.” In this series, as years progress, we will teach on the spiritual disciplines with the hope that it would give our people a robust understanding of spiritual formation, an ever-increasing practice of spiritual disciplines, and a more obvious sense that we’re becoming more like Jesus. This is a message from Ps. Alex Stark from our series, Rhythms. We hope and pray it's been a blessing to you. Make sure if you haven't yet; subscribe to our channel and follow our social accounts to stay up to date and be encouraged throughout the week! For more information about Newlife head to https://www.church.nu or follow us: https://facebook.com/newlifebrisbane https://www.instagram.com/newlifebrisbane https://youtube.com/newlifechurchau