Weekly Practices
Weekly Practice 7/13/26
Make every effort to do or reflect upon this week’s practice with others.
Scripture
James 1:1-8 NTFE
James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus the Messiah, to the twelve dispersed tribes: greeting.
My dear family, when you find yourselves tumbling into various trials and tribulations, learn to look at it with total joy, because you know that, when your faith is put to the test, what comes out is patience. What’s more, you must let patience have its complete effect, so that you may be complete and whole, not falling short in anything.
If any one of you falls short in wisdom, they should ask God for it, and it will be given them. God, after all, gives generously and ungrudgingly to all people. But they should ask in faith, with no doubts. A person who doubts is like a wave of the sea which the wind blows and tosses about. Someone like that should not suppose they will receive anything from the Lord, since they are double-minded and unstable in everything they do.
Practice
Suscipe
While trials and tribulations have a way of making us feel anything but patience, James suggests that patience is key to becoming “complete and whole” people. Some 1,500 years later, Ignatius of Loyola crafted the “Suscipe.” Suscipe means “receive.” It is a prayer of surrender to God’s will and an offering of our entire lives back to him.
This week, incorporate the “Suscipe” into your daily time with God. In truth, this is a pretty bold prayer. Sometimes, you may not fully feel it. Don’t worry. This is not the same kind of doubt James is talking about, which is a kind of lukewarm, half-hearted approach to God. When you pray with sincerity, even a desire to desire to give your all to God pleases him. Trust that he can lovingly work with any amount of surrender you are currently able to offer to him:
Suscipe - Ignatius of Loyola
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
Weekly Practice 7/6/26
Make every effort to do or reflect upon this week’s practice with others.
Scripture
Acts 17:22-31 MSG
So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with.
“The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?
“God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Practice
Seek After God
Over the past month, we’ve been leaning into the practice of witness and the idea is that our hope and faith in Jesus should overflow out of our hearts and lives. This overflow can only happen as a byproduct of first being filled with God's love and presence. To know and love God is always our primary aim.
This week, attend to your relationship with God, however that might look for you. Maybe your soul needs some silence and solitude, or some scripture. Maybe you really need to slow down and get some rest. Maybe you should just keep doing what you’re doing and stick to your current rhythm of prayer. Do your best to listen to God’s invitation to you, then respond.
Weekly Practice 6/29/26
Make every effort to do or reflect upon this week’s practice with others.
Scripture
1 Peter 2:4-12 NLT
You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.
And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. As the Scriptures say,
“I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,
chosen for great honor,
and anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.”
Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.”
And,
“He is the stone that makes people stumble,
the rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
“Once you had no identity as a people;
now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
now you have received God’s mercy.”
Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.
Practice
Witness
This week, go back to watch or listen to any of the “Rule of Life” witness episodes you missed or would like to revisit:
What has your experience of witness/evangelism been like? Would you say it’s been motivated by love?
Does thinking of witness/evangelism as a “long relationship of love" with others encourage you? Challenge you?
How does, or could, this kind of witness/evangelism fit into your own life?
Witness 02: Practice Hospitality
How might you slow down to allow more space for spending with others?
Are you a good listener?
What might hospitality look like “in the contours of your actual life”?
Witness 03: Partner with the Holy Spirit
What do you think about the “thin line” between encouragement and prophecy?
Is “three-way listening” (listening to another person while also paying attention to God and to yourself) a new concept for you?
How might you like to grow as a listener?
Witness 04: Share the Good News
Practice articulating the gospel in your own words. You can do this by yourself, or with a friend. Practice saying, out loud, your version of the good news of Jesus.