Craving Christ

April 17, 2018

 DAILY READING

2 John 1-6

This weekend’s reading: John 21:15-19

FIELD NOTES
In the Old Testament, the Israelites lived out their faithfulness to God by following the Law.  They ate and drank (or didn’t eat and drink) certain things because God’s Law commanded it.  They performed certain rituals in a certain way because God’s Law commanded it.  In 2 John today, John expands on his commission to us live our faith out in our lives.  He says that love (to live out our faiths) is to follow Christ’s commandments.  But here’s the deal, we aren’t following these commandments as a checklist.  That if we do this or do that, we are good to go in God’s eyes.  We aren’t called to be just like first graders who mindlessly follow the rules of their teacher.  We instead are called to love Christ so much that we want, we crave following Christ’s commands.  We want to show love to God, to each other, and to ourselves.  We want to pray and study the Scripture because we want to know more about Christ and feel the Spirit move through us.  Sometimes following these commandments are laborious and difficult- kind of like when you start exercising after a long time of not working out.  At first, it is a pain literally, but then at some point, you hit a sweet spot and exercising is actually rejuvenating.  Reading Scripture, praying, and serving others rejuvenates us.

QUESTIONS FOR THE FIELD

• How are you following God’s commands?
• How are you failing to follow God’s commands and how could you renew your commitment?

FAMILY FIELD TALK

• How do you want to be like Jesus?

PRAYER GUIDE
Lord help me to move beyond a shallow faith.  Help me to crave You, to long to be like You in every fiber of my being.  Teach me what a faith like this would look like.  Amen.