Love God Love One Another

Gravity is an energy that brings everything together; it draws us, first, to common ground and, second, to each other. Gravity is a God-given gift that makes life on earth possible. In this and every way, God’s heart is a force of generosity—“ALL IN” for us. With God as our gracious benefactor, we are full beneficiaries…prepared to be a benediction (blessing) to others. The closer we come to God's heart the greater the gravitational pull to gratitude.

You did it! We made it! This is Week 6, the final week of Messiah’s fall message and small group series: FIT to be a Disciple. This is the week we put it all together: we’ve trained our bodies, minds and spirits; we’ve teamed up with our families and neighbors—now we study and learn from Jesus how to live as disciples long after this series concludes: how to live as disciples each day of our everyday lives. We’ll talk about vocation and how it doesn’t just refer to religious sisters and priests. We'll share the 3 keys to discipleship, and how they relate to being a Messiah partner. And finally, we’ll hear the 3 top misconceptions about a life of discipleship and the gift God has given us to make it through. Thanks for joining on this journey. We need Jesus and we need each other!

Who is my neighbor? It's the prescient question asked to Jesus 2,000 years ago by an earnest young lawyer, seeking to fulfill Jesus' command to love his neighbor as himself. Jesus responds with a well-known parable, The Good Samaritan, in which a neighbor is transformed from someone who is well known to someone who is unfamiliar and different. Thus the term neighbor replaces the term alien from the Old Testament. What about you? Who is your neighbor? Find out Jesus' challenge for you and your neighbors this week, as we Team Up with our Neighbors in Week 5 of our Fit to be a Disciple fall message series.

Everyone has a different definition of "family," and we all have different relationships with our families. But over the centuries - the most important unit to share faith and grow as disciples has been the family unit - composed of loved ones in your life. So this week, as we continue to become FIT to be disciples - we'll learn about how to Team Up with your Family. Families comfort, restore, hold us accountable, and help us grow. Hear stories of faithful yet challenged families, and learn how God worked in them to bring love, peace, and spiritual growth. Hear about Jesus' "second family," the hometown where he was rejected, and the Father he loved even upon the Cross. Most important: remember that we worship a Triune God who exists only in familial relationship: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What a witness to the importance of "teaming up" with our loved ones and families as disciples

The spirit of God breathes life into our dry life. This refreshment is not earned; it is a gift, already given. As we receive this love we become abundantly empowered to flow it out in joyful response. The fruits of the spirit include: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. With the help of God’s spirit we live to love God and love one another.

The mind of Christ…and how we treat each other is shaped by what we feed our mind. We often think that we can allow anything in but not be affected. God actually coined the adage “garbage in, garbage out” (see Philippians 4:8-9). How we fill our minds is how we see and act in the world. Martin Luther contemplated, “I can’t prevent a bird from flying over my head, but I can stop them from building a nest in my hair.” Fit to be a disciple, is about training our mind. Beauty in, beauty out!

FIT to be a disciple. We'll learn what FIT is all about. We'll learn the difference between being balanced and being focused. And we'll learn how to train our bodies to be disciples of Jesus - to love our bodies as the holy temple of the Holy Spirit that God created them to be.