Seedbed's Daily Text delivered to your inbox each morning. Stop Working for Jesus LISTEN NOW! November 8, 2021 Joshua 1:7-9 (NIV) 7 "Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." CONSIDER THIS Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11) I will forever remember my first class of my first day of seminary. It was Asbury Theological Seminary and the class was Introduction to the New Testament. The professor was Dr. Robert Mulholland. His first words to the class that year (and every other year I learn all the time from other classes) were these: “The most important decision you must make in your time at seminary is this one: Will you be in the world for Christ, or will you be in Christ for the world? I am here to help you become the latter.” To be in the world for Jesus implies that I will be doing good things “for” him. To be “in Jesus” for the world, implies that He will be doing God things “through” me. This may seem subtle. It is not. To be “in Christ” for the world means the discipleship journey of becoming a person “in Christ.” This is the second half of the gospel. The first half of the gospel is Jesus with us and Jesus for us. The second half of the gospel is Jesus in us and Jesus through us. The story of the Christian faith and the church for the past hundred years is all about “Jesus with us,” and “Jesus for us,” but not so much about “Jesus in us,” and “Jesus through us.” I mean, we get it, but not really. In response to Jesus being with us and for us we have done our best to be “for Jesus” which has resulted in an enormous amount of religious activity with very little to show for it.  Notice the progression of God’s Word to Joshua so far in chapter 1. Joshua, I am with you. Joshua, I am for you. Therefore, be strong and very courageous. Then note the exhortation toward discipleship—becoming the kind of person in whom and through whom God can live and move and have his being:  Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. It’s time to stop trying to do things for Jesus. It’s time to become the kind of people in whom Jesus is pleased to dwell and through whom he is delighted to work. It’s why Jesus is not looking for employees. He’s on the hunt for friends.  THE PRAYER Father, I think I get it. This is about an exchange of my old life for your new life which is my true self. I am weary of living out of my own ego strength. I want to one who is known by your deep humility and your profound authority and your breathtaking love. Come Holy Spirit and lead me deep into the well of becoming like the God who became like me. Thank you Jesus for becoming like me so I could become like you. In your name I pray, Amen.  THE QUESTION Make sense? In the world for Christ vs. In Christ for the world? How would you say it? Highly functioning religious employee vs. transcendent agent of Jesus presence?   P.S. — ENCOURAGEMENT #8 ENCOURAGEMENT #8 TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SEEDBED ADVENT EXPERIENCE: I am going to be leading you into a different kind of morning meeting with Jesus. We are going from the “quiet time” model to a Communion-Consecration-Commissioning model. Will be life changing. Come on! I want to see you there. Deeper Advent = Better Christmas. You can see all the details here. If you already have the book, The Christian New Year, be sure to choose that option on the dropdown to avoid buying another book—OR EVEN BETTER—get another book and invite a friend to join us. COME ON! For the Awakening, J.D. Walt Sower-in-Chief seedbed.com The post Stop Working for Jesus appeared first on Seedbed. Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2021 Seedbed, All rights reserved. You signed up to receive Daily Text posts via email at dailytext.seedbed.com. Our mailing address is: Seedbed 415 Bridge St. Franklin, TN 37064 Add us to your address book

The following link is to the website Christianbook.com which has discounted everything This product will be released on 10/19/21 40 Days to Awakening: Embracing the Second Half of the Gospel - eBook By J.D. Walt / Zondervan          The following links are to the website Alibris.com which has  new and used books and ebooks Want to buy books by J.D.Walt on Alibris.com?   Want to buy books published by Seedbed Publishing on Alibris.com? The following item is from Walmart Rakuten Kobo and it is an ebook by J.D.Walt   Want to buy ebooks by J.D.Walt on Walmart Rakuten Kobo? J D Walt Renowned Bible scholar, prolific author and worship songwriter, J. D. Walt is the former Chaplain of Asbury Theological Seminary. He now serves as the Chief Sower and ultimate visionary behind Seedbed.com. Seedbed seeks to resource "people, communities, and movements to love the whole world with the whole gospel." Want to buy books by J D Walt on Alibris?  i  Want to buy Books By Dan Wilt On Alibris Want to change how you receive these emails? You can *update your preferences or *unsubscribe from this list.  Subscription Information This email was sent to  Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally