At RLC, we have a simple and last vision. We see a community of believers constantly growing and reaching out to reach our world. This compels us to be on mission to see this vision become reality. This mission is:
RLC exists to MAKE DISCIPLES by knowing God more, growing in God daily, and sharing His goodness with everyone.
This takes consistent effort. At the beginning of each year, we refocus on this vision and course correctly to be sure we are on a mission. This year, our rally cry to reorient ourselves is:
2025 Rally Cry: We Grow Together.
How?
The most obvious question is how? How do we get to know an infinite God in our finite state? The good news is that God wants to know us. This is why He gave us His Word. We know Him by doing what He tells us to do through His Word. These are called Spiritual Disciplines. The challenge already is the word "discipline." To many people, discipline is an ugly word or a word filled with striving. While this word can mean that the idea behind spiritual disciplines is not to convince God to see us. Instead, the concept behind spiritual disciplines is so we can encounter God. Spiritual disciplines are the doorways to knowing God more. This is probably why there is so much spiritual warfare around engaging in spiritual disciplines. We have a spiritual enemy who knows the power of these pursuits of God and how much God wants to know us. This year, we will challenge each other to take a spiritual next by growing toward God with spiritual disciplines.
This is where you come in. There are many ways to grow in our relationship with God. Below is a list of some of the most popular spiritual disciplines. If you click the link, they will guide you on adding these disciplines to your daily life.
Why?
God's Word says:
(Colossians 1:9-12a) So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father.
The Apostle Paul was writing this to a church community. He had heard how they were growing in their relationship with God, which was exciting. He hoped that they would continue to grow together. This is because He knows that if we grow together, we will experience the "SMILE" of God. (v10a)
God's Word says in Zephaniah 3:17, "The Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs." Many of us struggle to draw close to God because our picture of God is skewed. We see God as vengeful or violent. What would happen if we saw Him for who He truly is? What if we saw Him as still being in the Garden of Genesis 3, longing to be in constant fellowship with His creation? We see this side of God by engaging in spiritual disciplines. By knowing Him more through spiritual growth, the veil is taken away and we see His smile toward us.
We also experience His FREEDOM. (v10b) Galatians 5 says, "Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves… the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Everything our heart longs for is what God wants to provide. The things we bind ourselves up with and the addicts we become victims to are in our attempt to gain the adjectives in the list above. These attributes await us when we come to know God more by growing in our relationship with Him.
We can experience His POWER. Romans 5 says, "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. Endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." God wants us to be free and influential in the world He has made. Even when bad things come, they do not have to define us because they all work together for us to experience His strength and power.
We can experience His JOY. Colossians 2 says, "Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness." The challenge in this life is to make peace with the fact that life is hard. I heard someone say the other day, "Life is hard. Get a helmet." This is very true. How much less would we suffer if we didn't expect always to be happy? However, this does not mean we do not have joy. The joy the Lord brings is a settled confidence in who God is and what He is doing. This comes as we grow in our relationship with Him as He reveals Himself to us.
Here is a promise from God's Word that I pray becomes a reality in all our lives this year:
(Ephesians 3:14-19) When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father… I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made COMPLETE with all the fullness of LIFE and POWER that comes from God
