Follower of One : Missions For The Rest Of Us

Mission Trip Day 8 - Listen - Job's friends came and spent 7 days with him without saying a word. Often that's the best comfort we can be. Often there are no words. Everything we say results in more pain. There's nothing that can be fixed. Listening is a ministry. When we listen to someone else, we send the message that they're important. We tell them anything that belongs to us is less important than whatever they want to say or do. 

Listening requires silence, and it also requires questions. Sometimes, we need to ask questions. Jesus asked 339 questions. A friend named Bob Tiede wrote a small book that contains the 339 questions Jesus asked. When we ask to learn, not to cross-examine or to make a point, we also send the message the other person is important. Click here to get your own free copy of this book or any of Bob's other books: https://leadingwithquestions.com/resources/ 

Today, be quiet. Listen. Trust God. Ask a question if you must. Sometimes all you need to do is pause and the other person will keep going. Don't interrupt. After a couple of seconds of silence, then ask, "What else would you say about that?" or "Tell me more." Ask God to give you ideas as you listen for ways to serve others. Those ideas may be Jesus talking. Listen for his ideas and for the Holy Spirit to nudge you to serve others so that Jesus becomes visible. 

And don't forget to check out our online community. Go to community.followerofone.org and join us. Members of Follower of One can be the friends you need to help you integrate your faith daily. 

Mission Trip Day 7 - Make Time - Jesus stopped everything to come to Earth and serve us. Imagine with me today what it was like to know before time, outside of time, that Jesus would have to come into time and live and die for us. When God invites us to follow him, we necessarily need to allow him to interrupt our fallen nature and our tiny plans. Today, let's make some time in our schedule to let God interrupt us. Everything he wants for us will seem like an interruption in our regular day. However the more we train ourselves, the more we see his promptings and we step up to them.

Regardless of where you are in your faith walk, put some time in your calendar to be interrupted. Do some work ahead of time. Get your work finished. Get somewhere early. Be on the Zoom call or the Webex call early. Plan to stay late. Work past time today and look for someone to help. Everything you do because you follow Jesus matters. Jesus stepped out of heaven, laid aside his rights as God, and lived an unhurried life with us. When he was on the cross, he added, "It is finished." John 19:30

We make time because God has a job for us to do until our time is finished. Put some space in your day today. Remember what Jesus did for us as motivation. He gave us 33 years. He gave us a day being tortured and another day dying on the cross. We can get somewhere early. We can put others ahead our ourselves. We can allow his effort to inspire us to serve others the way he served us.

Would you like your faith in Jesus to be more front-of-mind daily? If you're not on this mission trip, why not sign up for the next one. It will begin after the holidays. Go to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com and sign up.

Mission Trip Day 6 - Go! Today begins action week of the marketplace mission trip and our first action is to go. What? That's it? Go is our keyword for realizing that wherever we are, there's where we serve God. Our present is the only time we can serve Jesus. We can't serve him in the past and we may or may not serve him tomorrow, or someday. But we can serve him right now. 

Our verse is Hebrews 4:16. The author makes his point, that Jesus has been through what we went through. We can rest in Jesus. The key to resting in Jesus is to remember we have everything we need and Jesus. It's up to us to draw near to Jesus, and receive mercy and grace to help. Help us do what? Whatever we're doing. When we draw near to God, we're free to do whatever he tells us to do.

Today, remember wherever you are, you can draw near to God and receive mercy and grace. God's purpose is to make himself known. We become his ambassador, or his representative, if we see our job as making Jesus visible in our daily life, wherever we are.

Want to make some other changes in your environment to help you remember to draw near to God? Make it a point to head over to https://community.followerofone.org and meet the other members of our private online community. We work to help stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). Check it out.

In this week's episode of the Follower of One podcast, Mike speaks with Brent and Adrian from CBMC Oklahoma. CBMC provides events, workshops, resources and one-on-one discipleship - all for the purpose of training and preparing believers to engage other men with the Gospel. Please give both Brent and Adrian a warm welcome!

Episode Breakdown

1:25 - How Brent Connected with CBMC

3:15 - CBMC Oklahoma

5:05 - How Adrian Connected with CBMC

7:25 - Adrian and Brent's Families 

10:40 - Brent's Business Background

11:30 - Adrian and A Life Worth Following

13:25 - CBMC Goals for the Coming Years

19:25 - Brent's Thoughts on the Marketplace Mission Trip

24:00 - How to Get Involved with CBMC

26:35 - Moving Forward in a new Generation

28:10 - Brent's Thoughts on the Generational Impact on Faith 

32:45 - Connect with CBMC

Showing Love and Appreciation 

It is apart of our journey and especially the Marketplace Mission Trip here at Follower of One, to show Love and appreciation in our own way. Mike speaks with both Brent and Adrian on how they enjoyed the Marketplace Mission Trip and how the trip itself gave the opportunity to show what they appreciated most, the people around them. Nothing that we do is supposed to be grand in gesture. The little things add up, and as they do, it is important to remember why you follow Jesus. Figure out a way to show your love and appreciation of others this upcoming week at work. The results are worth it, we promise!

Being Godly in Every Area of Your Life

One of our main goals at Follower of One is to give you tools to spread the gospel in a positive way outside of just on Sundays. Brent talks about how living your faith and being Godly in every area of your life is truly how you lead. You are leading not just the people in your inner circle, but everyone around you all the time. How do we make that difference? It all starts with practice. Taking the Marketplace Mission Trip is perfect for finding time and attention to focus on God and how you act Godly every day. Have you taken the trip yet? Don't worry, you can do it right at home! We want to bring everyone one step closer to Jesus, find out how by joining us!

Interview Quote

"When you show service and love and appreciate to the people around you, they will ask why you are different"

Connect  with Brent and Adrian

Brent's LinkedIn

Brent's Twitter

CMBC Oklahoma

Adrian's LinkedIn

Connect With Follower Of One

Join us over in our Online Community, get social with us; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Listen to our podcast on your way to work and subscribe using your favorite podcast app. Be a part of our next Marketplace Mission Trip! 

Mission Trip Day 5 - Speak for Yourself. Peter writes this letter to "those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours," (2 Peter 1:1). So, he's talking to believers. Even so, when he begins to explain why he wants to (stir them up," (vs. 13), he goes on to explain using first-person pronouns to explain the basis for his faith. 

Peter goes on to also state the the scripture, specifically the prophetic word, or the word of the prophets, is more certain even than his eyewitness testimony. But I believe that appeal is there for us. People who give no credibility to the Bible, don't really care what is says. And until they do care what it says, quoting scripture isn't a great way to convince someone else of the truth of our faith. Our first defense is our own interaction with Jesus.

So what was your interaction with Jesus? Practice it today. You thought about it a couple of days ago if you're going through the mission trip. Today, thank Jesus for what he did saving you. Thank him for his blessings for you and what he has done. The easier and the more present Jesus is to you, the easier you can state your beliefs and your reasons for your actions. And that's the first step when it comes to talking with others about our faith. When people begin to see that we care about them, they'll want to know why. That's your chance to speak for yourself.

Don't forget to pray for everyone you'll meet today, too. Whether or not you sign up, you're on a mission when you pray for your coworkers, customers and friends. Why waste an interaction today? Pray for everyone you meet. You never know what God will do in and through you as you pray.

Mission Trip Day 4 - Serve Others The Greek words most often translated service, could also be translated minister. Here, in the New American Standard Bible, the translaters chose "employ in serving" for the translation. Peter is challenging us to put our special gift to work for the service of others.

Do you get up every morning thinking about how to serve others? Mike believes that's the primary change God wants us to make. If we follow Jesus, our goal is to do what Jesus did, and he served others. His whole life was a gift to us, to serve us, to provide a way where we could be restored to God. 

But Mike also confessed, and you probably would to, that he spends most of his time choosing what he does and how he does it. He confessed that he served himself, and challenged us to look at ourselves honestly. 

Peter challenges us to take every gift given by God and put it to work serving others. That's how we make Jesus visible. Serving others is a simple act, that looks so foreign to people who don't follow Jesus. They have to question. They might think we're crazy, but they definitely will notice. Serve others today and make Jesus visible.

Then, take a trip over to our new Shop on the Follower of One homepage. This is where you can purchase some cool merchandise with our logo. Your purchases help us grow Follower of One, too. Once you get your stuff, please take a minute and share a photo of yourself with your stuff on social media, too. Use #FollowerofOne so we can shout you out too!

Mission Trip Day 3 - Know what you believe. Are you "able to teach?" Second Timothy is believed to be Paul's last letter. It's a note to Timothy, but not a farewell letter, because we see toward the end that he expects Timothy to meet up with him later in the year. (See 2 Timothy 4:21.) 

Some consider this a pastoral epistle - a letter from Paul to pastors. Paul is clearly writing Timothy. And he is instructing Timothy how to live as a follower of Jesus. Timothy was setting up churches. So in a degree that is true, but the idea also contributes to what some call the sacred-secular divide. This divide is the idea that part of our life, and certain occupations, are sacred. They operate according to different rules. Others, like working in IT, or running a business or being an accountant, are secular. The word "secular" even means, worldly, or without religion. 

But Jesus never asks us to be religious. In fact, he had the most difficulty with the religious people of his day. When Paul suggests that the Lord's servant should be able to teach, he means we must know what we believe. We need to be able to explain it. He's not just talking to pastors, but this is something that applies to every believer. We must be able to explain our faith in a way that would make sense. I believe the phrase "The Lord's servant" at the beginning of this verse applies to the word "anyone" in verse 21. These are people who choose to follow Jesus. 

Paul further modifies able to teach by saying, kind to all, patient when wronged and with gentleness, correcting those who oppose. These are commands for each of us. Today, we need to know what we believe. We want to be able to explain our faith in a way that makes sense to others and doesn't suggest they're ignorant or lost. We want to state our faith and our relationship with Jesus as a matter of fact, based on our own experiences. God will use that to cause others to question their life and their relationship with Jesus.

So, today, practice your two-sentence answer to the question, "Why are you doing this?" Remember to assume they ask, "But why?" and answer again, each time with short, one-or-two sentence answers. The Holy Spirit will use your explanation to cause others to question their own life. And some will move one notch closer to Jesus.

Mission Trip Day 2 - Appreciate Others - Deep down inside, we know that what we think affects how we act. Paul challenges the Philippian believers, and all of us, to focus our mind on the true, honorable, right, pure, lovely. 

Mike mentioned that he drives where he looks. Our mind takes us where it is. If we focus on the good, we find it. And if we focus on the negative, that's what we get, too. Do you experience anxiety? Remind yourself about what is good. Remind yourself what is true about God. Remind yourself what is true about our salvation or for today, remind yourself about something true and positive about your coworkers, customers or vendors. When you've thought of it, share it with them. Tell them what you appreciate about them. Remind yourself to remember what you like about them.

Mike mentioned that he thought part of the reason why we're all feeling so negative is because that's all we hear. All media is based on attention. We're drawn to the negative. But if we're going to appreciate others, we must fix our mind on the positive, on the true, honorable, right, pure, lovely. Read this in any translation. Memorize it. And then, compare your thoughts to this list. When you're anxious, you're not here. When you're worried, again, you're not here. Take your thoughts captive so that you can appreciate others. It requires self discipline. 

Try it today. Tell a coworker what you appreciate and be sincere. Keep thinking until you come up with something genuine. And, then, when you're done, cement your action. Get them or you a gift from our new online store. Go to https://followerofone.org/shop.

On the first day of the mission trip, we do what Paul told Timothy to do first: pray for everyone. The most important thing is to pray, on behalf of all people. Can we pray for everyone? We can pray for those we know, and those God brings to mind. Do you pray regularly for the people you work with? Wouldn't it be great if we all had 4 people praying for us, a friend, a coworker, a customer and a vendor or service provider. Imagine what might happen in the world if every person had 3 or 4 people praying for them?

Prayer changes us. When we pray, and listen to God's direction, we end up getting in line with God. Our prayers on the mission trip get us thinking about God and what he wants. Then they get us looking for what's best for our coworkers and friends. And finally, we give thanks, even for difficult things because our gratitude in difficulty makes Jesus visible, too. Our prayers matter.

So who can you pray for today? Pray for everyone you will see and those who are on your calendar. Pray for the people God brings to your mind. Pray consistently and with your self-talk. God will change you as you do, and you will experience his joy and peace in your situation. 

Tomorrow is election day in the US. Please make sure and vote. Your vote matters. And more importantly, please pray for our nation. Pray that the people who win have wisdom and accept responsibility to represent the whole country, and pray for those who are on the losing side that they would be good citizens. Ask God to re-united the United States of America.

The US election is in 2 days. Mike encourages us to continue doing the things God has for us. Daniel didn't criticize the people who had the unfavorable laws passed against him. He didn't whine about it. He didn't complain his case to the king. He just kept doing his thing.

In a couple of days the election will be over. Regardless of who wins, I pray the people of God continue doing what Jesus calls us to do. We follow him and trust him. Our answer doesn't come from government, or from power or might. It doesn't come from the election or the majority or even the opinion polls. Zechariah 4:6 says everything comes from the Spirit of God. He is at work. He is doing his work. We need to do our part and be faithful.

As I pray for our world and the US and this election, I pray that God is glorified. That his people unite, not on a political candidate or even a party platform. Rather I pray we unite in following Jesus. Let's make him visible in a way that prompts others to follow him, too. Daniel kept doing what he had been doing. He kept praying to God. Let's keep turning to God. We don't need to keep fighting or criticizing our opponents. Let's become people who love one another. That's a convicting challenge for me. Is it a convicting challenge for you, too? 

I hope you and I make Jesus visible in a good way this week. He is in charge. We can trust him.