Bible Reading Plan - Monday (1-7-19)

     Christianity is not intended to be a spectator sport. Following Jesus closely means that He will lead us into opportunities to be actively engaged with His purpose and work. God calls us to overcome barriers to become people involved where we are most needed. This 7-day reading plan will help us identify the key areas where God is calling us to get active and get engaged!

Day 1 – The call to engage

     In case you haven’t heard, God has a plan for you. In His plan you will experience more of His goodness, and so will others around you. In fact, His design is so specific for you that if you were to reject it, then there will be less good in this world.
     The Bible teaches us that God has given each of His followers spiritual gifts. These are special abilities and capacities to accomplish tasks that will bring benefit to someone else. It is His way of giving us the opportunity to cooperate with Him and bring more goodness into the world. In this design, we love others by putting a greater good above our own interest. We also will gain personal benefit by using these gifts as well, but that is secondary.
     But that goodness is not experienced and the benefit is never applied unless we choose to act. Seeing a need isn’t the same as meeting a need. Seeing a problem isn’t the same as providing a solution. God’s design calls for us to not simply be aware of needs and problems, but to do something about them. He calls us to do more than observe and listen. He calls us to be more than spectators. He calls us to be people who take action. He calls us to engage.
     We may not be able to solve all problems, or meet all needs, but we can surely solve some. Don’t let what you cannot do discourage you from doing the good you can do!

Romans 12:3-8
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

James 1:22-25
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

James 2:14-17
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 4:17
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

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