Life Reflection: What does it mean for me to say that Jesus is Lord of my life?  In what areas of my faith walk have I been making compromises?  How could I improve my prayer life?

Life Reflection: What does it look like for me to live into this prayer:  Lord, show me how to so take your kingdom into my life that my life becomes a true party—a feast of the real kingdom.  Let me become a person of such humble service and joyful love that the handwriting of your love will break the broken parties of insignificance we try to throw—and usher in a new, Kingdom-of-God party.  Let my life be so different that the people of this world will desire to make you the Lord of their feast!  Amen!

Life Reflection:  How is God challenging me to live out my faith and be different in our increasingly secular world?  Do I feel the need to always defend myself and my position? Am I prone to rants?  What is one situation in my life that I need to release to God’s control and say “I trust in your power, and believe you will fix this, BUT IF NOT, I will still serve you because you are my God.”

Life Reflection: In following Jesus in this world, is my tendency to separate from the culture to follow Jesus (and thereby separate myself from people that Jesus seeks to love)?  Or to assimilate to the culture and look no different than folks who do not follow Jesus?  How can I love the people of this world and Jesus at the same time?  When was the last time I asked myself, “How does the Gospel influence my next action?”  How can this question remind me of Christ as the true foundation of my life?

Remember: Love the city of humanity for the sake of the city of God

Life Reflection: Do I believe that God wants to use First Church in the rest of God’s story?  Do I believe that God wants to use me in the rest of God’s story?  Do I believe that God could use us in a holy movement?  What part of living into God’s idea of a hero is hardest for me:  Repentance?  Focusing on character over appearance?  Commitment to something greater than myself?  My willingness to consider others ahead of myself?  What step can I take today to live a more heroic life in Jesus?

Life Reflections: What brings more “shaking” in my life—the circumstances of this world or Christ within me?  What needs to happen in my life so that I am so anchored in Christ that the circumstances of my life no longer dictate my happiness or satisfaction?  Am I willing to pray like the early disciples to speak God’s Word with great boldness?  How bold am I for Christ?  How “sold out?”  Do I believe that God could use me/us to be part of a movement of movements for the glory of God?  What does my role in such a movement look like?

Life Reflection: How do I experience the true power of the Holy Spirit in my life?  What types of persecutions or hardships or fears do I face because I am a Christian? What would help me to understand that as a Christ follower I am tapping into power source greater than any power source of this world?  What would allow me to live with absolute certainty in the reality and love of Christ?  How does God want to use me to help create a powerful, Holy-Spirit-filled movement?

Life Reflection: What is the final word in my life?  Is it God’s truth as found in scripture?  Am I seeing and receiving God’s truth in my life or am I missing it?  What is causing me to miss it?  How can God’s truth bring healing in my life and the lives of others?  How can God’s truth carry us through times of difficulty?  How can God’s truth foster a holy movement where lives are being transformed in Christ?  What step is God calling me to take in God’s continuing story?

Life Reflection: What role does the Holy Spirit play in my life?  Do I view the Holy Spirit as an optional part of God that I can take or leave as I wish?  Or do I see and understand the Holy Spirit as part of the Triune God?  What would it look like in my life to live into the power of the Holy Spirit?  How can we as a church live out the type of community described in Acts 2:42-47 through the Holy Spirit?  Have I welcomed the gift of the Holy Spirit into my life?  If not, why not?