How are you implementing faith into your life? How are you practicing resurrection? How is Jesus part of your everyday life? How do you exercise daily in God? What does it mean to follow Jesus? Important questions and I would love to hear your responses.

Before starting this discussion I am sharing few Bible quotes and Eugene H. Peterson quotes from The Jesus Way to fuel our conversation and hopefully encouraging you on your pilgrimage.

Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. You can count on this. Take it to heart. This is why we’ve thrown ourselves into this venture so totally. We’re banking on the living God, Savior of all men and women, especially believers. (1 Tim. 4: 7-10, MSG)

“To follow Jesus implies that we enter into a way of life that is given character and shape and direction by the one who calls us (Eugene H. Peterson).”

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. (Col. 3: 1-2, MSG)

To follow Jesus means picking up rhythms and ways of doing things that are often unsaid but always derivative from Jesus, formed by the influence of Jesus (Eugene H. Peterson).”

Servants, do what you’re told by your earthly masters. And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t cover up bad work. (Col. 3: 22-25. MSG)

To follow Jesus means that we can’t separate what Jesus is saying from what Jesus is doing and the way that he is doing it (Eugene H. Peterson).”

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2, MSG)

To follow Jesus is as much, or maybe even more, about feet as it is about ears and eyes.” (Eugene H. Peterson).

May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you. May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God our Father when our Master Jesus arrives with all his followers. (1 Thessalonians 3: 11-13, MSG)

 

Gracious God,
Be with each of us
as we continue to learn
how to live out our faith in you,
how to practice resurrection,
how to bring you glory,
how to rest in you,
how to love you.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: Okay. Now it’s your turn. Please, chime in and share your thoughts on:
How are you implementing faith into your life?
How are you practicing resurrection?
How is Jesus part of your everyday life?
How do you exercise daily in God?
What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you place it before God as an offering!

Photo courtesy of Kashane Smith