It’s cold in the dim corridor as I walk to room 6 for my retreat at Mission San Luis Rey. As in prior years, I’m the only soul spending the night in the historic mission on the first Thursday of the New Year. I light a candle in my dark room, open my guitar case, pull out my journal, and wait. In the next 20 hours God meets me. He’s always speaking, but I’m not always listening. Now I am.
The theme God gave me for 2013 is “slave” from Romans 1:1-5. The greatest epistle in human history starts with “Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus.” (Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ)
“Lord, let me be your slave” will be my prayer for the start of each day this year. The kingdom of God turns things right side up…the greatest joy comes from the most humble position. A slave … of Jesus.
Even after 28 years of ministry, I’m still struck that I’ve been “set apart” for the Gospel. What an honor. And the work of the Visual Story Network has an apostolic nature to it. Not in a capital “A” way, but in a functional way. We call and equip the people of God to communicate the Good News via visual means in order to bring people from many nations to “the obedience that comes from faith” (Rom. 1:5).
I invite you to join me in 2013 in (re) learning to be a slave of Jesus Christ.
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I want to follow jesus
I want to be slave of Jesus Christ