As students start back to school, as we enter the fall season, it is a good time to take stock of ourselves, to evaluate who we are in Christ.

 Who am I?  What is most important in my life?  What are the most important relationships in my life?  What are or will be priorities in my life?  What changes would I like to make?  What is my plan for growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ?

 I enjoy thinking about such things because I want to live life purposefully.  I want to be intentional in what I do.  How do you live your life?  Intentionally?  Or, are you blown about by the winds of life?

 I believe I am created by God for God’s purpose.  My main job is to live gratefully and obediently.  I am a beloved child of God, and a servant of God, after the example of my Lord and Savior,  Jesus Christ.  I desire to live as faithfully as God lives faithfully in His relationship with me.  For me to do so, I find it helpful to follow a plan for my spiritual growth.  Below is the plan Jean and I have used to guide and strengthen us as we seek to follow Christ.

 1. Worship – We were created to worship God. It is the most Christian thing we do.  We are committed to worshipping God regularly in the community of faith.

2. Prayer – We are committed to nurturing a prayer relationship with God, both individually and as a couple.  It is important to us to spend significant time throughout each day in prayer with God.  It is also important that we pray together.

3. Studying and meditating on God’s Word, the Bible – We are committed to spending time growing in our knowledge, understanding, and application of God’s Word.  Doing this within groups of people is important to us, as we are stimulated and encouraged by others.

 4. Fellowship – We are committed to spending time in fellowship with other Christians.  We need you and are strengthened by our proximity with you.  We are especially interested in small group fellowship where we can get to know one another and pray for one another.

5. Tithing – We believe that we, and everything we have, belong to God.  God commands that we be generous, and God shows us how to be generous through the tithe (giving 10% of our income to others).  We understand that to be the minimum standard for generosity.  Thus we give 10% to Covenant for our annual mission budget; then we give 4% to other areas, such as Covenant’s Building Fund, Second Mile, etc.  We have experienced God’s rich blessing.

 6. Serving Others – We were created for God’s purpose.  After the example of Jesus, we seek to use gifts and time to serve others.  We have a special concern to find ways to serve those who are poor because Jesus told us (Matthew 25) that we will encounter him when we reach out to those in dire need.

 This is our plan.  What’s yours? You are welcome to use ours, as we learned from others.  I hope you will continue to grow into the disciples God envisions you to be.