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We say we’re Christians, but…

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…we allow programs on our TV at home that we would never expect to be allowed at church.

…we listen to music with lyrics that do not align with Biblical truths.

…we regularly spend more money on birthday parties or family vacations than we spend on mission work, on furthering the Gospel, or giving to the poor.

…we spend more time perusing social media or reading mindless online articles than we spend on time in prayer or reading the Bible.

It’s time for a change.  It’s time to return to the truths of scripture:
1 John 2:15-17: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Change is hard.  We understand that.

Our goal for you and your goal for yourself should be to follow the above verse with your whole heart.  In order to turn away from all of these things that we’ve allowed to become part of our culture, it’s going to take some time.  It’s going to take some sacrifice.  It’s not easy to unsubscribe from that site, remove those songs from our music stream, and turn off the TV in the middle of an intriguing season – but you can do it.  If you want to live a fulfilling Christian life, you need to do it.  If you want your children and your children’s children to rise above the mire of this world, you must do it.

Our challenge is designed with a few things in mind:

  1. We will help you re-align your life so that your focus is on Christ.
  2. We will walk you through specific behavior changes over a committed period of forty days.
  3. We won’t suggest lofty ideals and leave the rest up to you.  Instead, we offer practical ideas for change in a way that makes sense.
  4. We use scripture to affirm the need for each step of the process.
  5. You commit to the challenge; we’ll line out the rest.

The 40 Days to Faithful Challenge has four phases.  We begin by making room for God.  We do this by clearing out time in our day and space in our mind.  You might wonder where you’re going to find this time. We help with that too.  We’ll help you eliminate worldly habits and replace them with habits that more fully align with God’s word.

Phase One:  “Purify Your Vision”

We begin by establishing a new routine that includes a pattern of time alone in prayer and reflection.  It is only through consistent time alone with God that such a change can be made.  This phase has a focus on reducing and eliminating harmful and distracting screen time from our lives.  Very few of today’s entertainment options add to our Christian walk.  We’ll also take a look at the sort of Internet videos we allow ourselves to watch.  After a period of self-monitoring, you’ll likely be amazed at how much time is spent each week in front of a screen.
In this phase, we evaluate our priority for entertainment, make decisions regarding what is appropriate, and be completely aware of what this screen time is costing us.

Phase Two: “Make Ready your Mind”

During the second ten-day phase, we’ll evaluate additional parts of our environment – including our listening and reading choices.  What sort of content are we allowing in our mind?  The only way to fill ourselves with Christ is to make sure there is room for Him.
If the latest top 40 album is constantly playing in our background, it’s so much more difficult to meditate on the God’s word.  The more we fill our minds with things of Christ, the less and less room there is for the world to sneak in and take root.

Phase Three:  “Sweeten your Spirit”

Halfway through our challenge, we begin to focus on the people around us.  We will work to eliminate any social media that it is a problem for us or our immediate family.
We will look at how we converse with others, pinpointing problems we might have with gossip, negative conversations, and harmful speech patterns.  We will learn techniques to turn this negativity around for Jesus.
We will also focus on what we need to do to live as examples for our friends and acquaintances.  The third phase is all about preparing the way to let our light shine.

Phase Four:  “Prepare your Fruit”

By the final phase, we will have one month of focused behavior change behind us.  It’s time to look to the future and find where God wants us to impact change.  He does not want his children to become stagnant or fall back into old behavior patterns.
We will study God’s Word to determine our next steps and make a plan for continued growth and closeness with God.

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Join us on this movement to change our world one person and one family at a time.

Click here to read more about committing to the challenge.

Click here to read our frequently asked questions.

Click here to find out where it all started.

Daily readings can be found here.

Prepare your Fruit: Day Ten

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Faith, Hope and Love: But the Greatest of These is Love

You have arrived at your final day of the challenge. You have persevered through the trials, attacks and temptations that came alongside you these past weeks. You have committed to making the Lord preeminent in every aspect of your life. We are rejoicing with you, praising God for His love, grace, mercy and hand in each of our lives.

Where do we go from here? How do we continue on this journey seeking God? How do we protect ourselves from the schemes of the devil? It starts and ends with seeking God, through His word and through a continued focus on building our relationship with Him through prayer. It will align our heart and life with His character.

Through it, God entrusted us with a great responsibility. Our calling as believers is to share the good news with those around us. We can’t just hold on to it ourselves. The most important aspect of sharing God’s love with others is to reflect His word and character in the good but also the bad times of our everyday life. God’s greatest commandment is to love. In Mark 12:30-31 affirms the importance of love:  AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. Our responsibility is to share the gospel, through love, with everyone God sends our way.  We are to do this not only through words, but also through actions.

One scripture that struck me as I was writing this final day of the challenge:  Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2).

Only by the mercies of God are we capable of changing our lives and having a relationship with Him. Without His grace and mercy, we would still be in the midst of the sinfulness of our nature. Yet He loves us and gave His only son in order to save us. Christ gave up His seat beside the Most High to come down to earth and be crucified for us. We must remain on course and not allow the world to reclaim a preeminent position in our lives.  We’ve been granted each day for a reason and it is our prayer that we do not miss His calling and purpose for us.

God granted us to see truth. It is a gift He opened our eyes. We can’t stop here…We have to excel even more for the purpose of furthering God’s kingdom, living a life set apart for the gospel. Paul shares with us in Philippians 1:21 that for him, to live is Christ and to die is gain. How many times have we heard this verse and never truly reflected on the depth of Paul’s devotion towards Christ?

We are not of this world. Let us be transformed through His word from the inside out, living our life as a living sacrifice as we await His second coming, the day we will reign with Him in holiness and righteousness forever and ever! God never expected us to walk this path alone. We have the still small voice of the Comforter confirming our paths with loving faithfulness. We also have brothers and sisters in Christ to walk alongside us. Hebrews 3:13 reminds us to encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

(Ephesians 3: 14-19)

This challenge has changed each of us, and we pray you, too, will face each new day with a renewed spirit.  As sisters and brothers in Christ, we will continue on this journey together. We will continue to pray for you and your families as you continue living your life for the Lord, growing in His word, and in your relationship with Him. May you stay strong and encouraged, living a life in truth and love looking forward to the day you meet the Lord Himself.