Welcome to the Red Letter Challenge! If you have not yet picked up a RLC book, please join us on the journey and pick up a copy of the book at church. I pray that these next 40 days will be a blessing for you as together we are invited to grow in our faith as we follow The Good Shepherd Jesus! There will be many things that you will be asked to do in our daily challenges (i.e. pray for those who have hurt you, help a neighbor, etc.).  Zach Zehnder writes, “I believe that truly following Jesus means that we should be willing to live a life doing what He asks us to do (i.e. “love your neighbor!”) But, before you can DO things as a Christian you will need to simply spend some time BEING with Jesus.

Over these next 40 days, we are going to focus on the actual words of Jesus in the Bible. As we focus on the “Red Letter Words” of Jesus we will focus on five main principles: Being, Forgiving, Serving, Giving and Growing. Jesus invites you to spend time with Him every moment of your life (Being). As you receive the gift of His grace, the Holy Spirit encourages you to share this gift of mercy with others (Forgiving). As you grow in your faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirt will lead you to see how much that Jesus has done for you and will inspire you to live for others (Serving).  When you recognize that Jesus has blessed you with the eternal blessings of His love, you can be guided not to trust in the things of man, but to trust in the gift of Jesus’ love (Giving). We are all then invited to share this treasure with others as we simply share what God has done for us in our lives (Going). To provide you some insight into your strengths and growth areas, I encourage you to complete the RLC Assessment (see button below). This tool will assist you in areas that you may want to focus on during our 40 day RLC Challenge!

I pray that this journey will be a blessing for you as we open our hearts to the words of Jesus! “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock." (Matthew 7:24-25)

I ask that you pray that the Holy Spirit would guide you in this study of Jesus’ words and that you would find a regular time for your daily readings. I also encourage you to join a discussion group. I believe that this will be a blessing for you in your faith walk with Jesus!

Blessings on your journey,
Pastor Maske