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    Get up and Go!: Devotionals for Mission
    Get up and Go!: Devotionals for Mission
    Get up and Go!: Devotionals for Mission
    Ebook153 pages1 hour

    Get up and Go!: Devotionals for Mission

    By Tom Sikes

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    About this ebook

    Get Up and Go!Devotionals for Mission offers itself to the reader as a companion for the journey that follows Jesus into mission in daily life. Tom Sikes, author and pastor, presents brief devotions, where each reflection builds upon the foundation of a passage from the Bible and leads to a prayer.

    Get Up and Go! groups its devotions into two sections: Get Up and Go with Jesus and Get Up and Go with the Disciples. Within these two sections, individual devotions embrace a variety of topics with titles like Mission Possible, The Swoosh, Feeling Small, Man Cave, Weve Got Spirit, and Get the Bagpiper. One final section, Get Up and Go with Us, presents a short compendium of suggestions for sources of inspiration for growth in ones discipleship.

    You may have recollections of hearing and reading Bible stories and finding yourself wondering how the followers of Jesus made such drastic changes in their lives and set out with such fervor to carry out his mission. If you do, then Get Up and Go!Devotionals for Mission will serve as your devotional guide for returning to Jesus and his disciples for inspiration and for answering his call to get up and go out into the worldto carry out his mission and share the good news.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateJun 1, 2015
    ISBN9781491766453
    Get up and Go!: Devotionals for Mission
    Author

    Tom Sikes

    Tom Sikes, a pastor with a quarter-century’s experience, is the founder of Paving Your Way Outreach and a leader of mission trips to New Orleans, Belize, and Brazil. He holds degrees from Emory University, the University of Georgia, and Columbia Theological Seminary. He and Page, his wife, have three children.

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      Book preview

      Get up and Go! - Tom Sikes

      GET UP AND GO!

      DEVOTIONALS FOR MISSION

      Copyright © 2015 Tom Sikes.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4917-6646-0 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4917-6645-3 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2015907355

      iUniverse rev. date: 5/30/2015

      Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

      CONTENTS

      Preface

      Introduction

      Get Up and Go with Jesus

      Mission Possible

      Get Up, Take Your Mat, And Go Home

      Meet The Messenger

      From Water To The Wild

      Come, Follow Me!

      Matthew’s Call

      Bar Stool Ministry

      Three In One

      Senseless

      The Swoosh

      The Compass Of Compassion

      Packing Light

      Shake It Off

      To The Far Shore

      Feeling Small

      All You Can Eat

      Leftovers

      Going Without God

      When God Offends

      No Longer Following

      Get Up And Bring It

      Take Up Your Mat

      Providence

      Young Man, Get Up!

      How To See People

      Man Cave

      Savior And Lord

      Razzle-Dazzle

      @Noon

      Jesus Or The Jar

      Let Him Go

      Easter Dark

      Mary’s Mission

      Get Up and Go with the Apostles

      Don’t Go Yet!

      Five Verbs Of The Holy Spirit

      Four Mission Fields

      Departure Time

      Keeping Us Grounded

      Holy Spirit Time

      Rise And Shine

      The Simple Gospel

      All-Inclusive

      Taking The Plunge

      Three In The Afternoon

      Jumping For Joy

      Flabbergasted By Faith

      The One Church

      Three Lessons On Money

      A Widow’s Might

      Help Wanted

      Take Care

      Get Up And Go To Samaria

      To Be Entertained

      We’ve Got Spirit

      Buying God

      In Between

      Into The Gaps

      Lessons From Philip

      From Bad To Good

      From Scared To Sacred

      Our Damascus Road

      Blind Spots

      Get Up And Go, Ananias

      Holy Spirit Shakedown

      Get The Bagpiper

      Look For The Opening

      Mission Wins

      Get Up And Go With Us

      To Sammy Clark, who invited me into ministry and mission

      PREFACE

      Get up and go! God said those words often to people in the Bible. He says the same words today. God calls us inward through devotional reading; he then sends us outward in the Spirit to join him in ministry. This devotional book blends meditation with mission.

      Come inside, and meet people that God called to get up and go into the world with hope and inspiration. See how their stories shape us for our mission today.

      I encourage you to think along the lines of mission as you read scripture. These devotionals are intended merely to plant seeds. They are brief and thought provoking with some twists along the way. At the end of the book, I offer suggested resources to help if you would like to learn more about the missional church and opportunities for mission trips or projects.

      Everybody Is a Missionary

      I have been in pastoral ministry for more than thirty years and have received my doctorate in missions. I have enjoyed helping people discover their mission fields of home, school, work, and beyond. I follow the missional church model that offers these points:

      1. Everybody has a calling. How can people discover their missional vocations?

      2. A missional church is more interested in the sending capacity of its members than the seating capacity of the sanctuary.

      3. We are called to be the Gospel, do the Gospel, and, lastly, say the Gospel.

      4. Here is a benediction we use as a missional church that emphasizes the sending of members as missionaries:

      You go nowhere by accident.

      Wherever you go, God is sending you.

      God has a purpose in your being there.

      And he has given his Holy Spirit to you!

      Each devotional is from either the Gospels or the book of Acts, using the New International Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted. I offer some highlights, questions, and a prayer. At the end of this book are some resources that go deeper into the missions.

      Let’s get up and go!

      INTRODUCTION

      Are you looking for a deeper purpose in life? Beyond getting a paycheck and having a roof over your head and food in your system, are you being fulfilled? Maybe you are stuck in the middle of nowhere.

      Nowhere Is Now Here!

      You are now here. Come inside. Discover how God called people who were in a rut and how they jumped at the chance to join God in mission around them. From Nicodemus to the woman at the well and others from many more story lines, they all were invited to go beyond where they were.

      Jesus says, Come follow me. Let’s get up and go!

      9781491766453-16.jpg

      MISSION POSSIBLE

      Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

      —Matthew 10:1

      Have you ever described yourself as a missionary? God does. God takes normal people and turns them into missionaries at home, at work, or at school and beyond.

      Let’s set some framework for this book of devotionals. We will rephrase these themes, as God would shape these principles differently with each person he calls. Here we discover the threefold commission of disciples as they discern their purposes:

      1. Jesus called the twelve to himself. Twelve is the number for completeness. It is the number of the tribes of Jacob. It had meaning, and the disciples were familiar with that number. He called them to himself to see God as a person, to experience his grace, to dance at weddings, and to laugh and learn.

      2. Jesus shaped them by giving them authority in his name. He molded them for mission by giving them power—not in their own name but in his name.

      3. Jesus sent them to heal. This concept is crucial. It was not a club to gather but a church to scatter. Two by two he sent them, with purpose and peace.

      To be a Christian is to be called, shaped, and sent.

      • How does God call us these days?

      • What are ways that God molds us?

      • Where do you want God to send you today?

      • Where do you not want God to send you?

      • Which of these questions is the toughest to answer?

      Prayer

      Every day is a new day for mission! Help me to sense my calling, to be chiseled and groomed to be more like Christ, and send me to meet people who need encouragement and hope—I pray.

      GET UP, TAKE YOUR MAT, AND GO HOME

      Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven. At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, This fellow is blaspheming! Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins … Then he said to the paralytic, Get up, take your mat and go home. And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God.

      —Matthew 9:1–8

      The one who would climb a cross would crisscross the waters. He looked beyond the whitecaps toward the shores for people who needed him. Are you waving to him now to come to you? If he did come, what would he do for you? Let’s see how he treated this man who was paralyzed. What is it that keeps us down and out?

      Jesus offered a threefold call to this paralyzed man. Imagine him speaking like this:

      1. Get up. In other words, I see that you are down. I am aware of the disease that keeps you down physically and emotionally. I say to you words that are opposite of what you or others say. I am able to heal you, but you must do your part. Get up.

      2. Take your mat. Don’t leave it down there, or you might want to fall back on it. I am aware of your human tendency to fall back into old routines. Take the old life with you, and perhaps throw it in the garbage.

      3. Go home. The first people who need to see you whole are your family members. Watch their faces as you walk in the kitchen door. Your mission field begins at home before anywhere else. Your sins are all forgiven, so don’t live in shame anymore. Smile big, dance in the kitchen, and feel the freedom of my love. Let them love you and hold you and support you. Thank them for their care while

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