The lesson is focused on "way of discipleship". Being a disciple means being a follower of Jesus. The Footprints in the sand poem talks about several sets of footprints, Jesus walking in front of us, Jesus walking beside us, and when there was one set of footprints, Jesus was carrying us. But maybe that one set of footprints was when we were walking so close to Jesus that we were actually walking in the same footprint as Him.
The first followers of Jesus were called followers of "the Way".
John 14:6 says "I am the way..."
A jungle safari guide doesn't show the way through the jungle by pointing and saying that's the way; he is the way through the jungle. We will join the ranks of the early followers of Christ and discuss ways to be disciples of the Way.
Jerusalem Cross is a large cross in the center with four smaller crosses, one in each corner of the large cross. The attached picture shows the cross and the 4 parts of being disciple. The first part, devotion, describes the activities that we do that draw us closer to God.
Devotion involves just one, or is something we can do alone. It involves prayer, reading scripture, practicing the Presence of God and incorporates a time of silence and reflection in scripture.
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| Jerusalem Cross |
The second part,
Worship, involves more than one person. It is something we do in a group, as a church. In
Acts 2: 37-47 we read about the different aspects of worship
--"devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, the breaking of the bread and to prayer... gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts, eating together and praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people." In both traditional worship and contemporary the elements of worship remain the same-- praising God through song, prayer, teaching from scripture, and communion.
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