F E B RUA RY
2 0 1 2
ISSUE NUMBER 2
THE NETWORK
Becoming more like Jesus in 2012 If someone asked you, "How is your spiritual life going?", how would you answer? Maybe you would think about whether you are reading the Bible as much as you used to, or praying as much, or whether you are spending as much time serving in the church as you should. The truth is, we tend to measure our spiritual growth by how much, or how little we are doing. But the Bible has a different measure. It measures our spiritual growth by asking the question, "Are you growing more like Jesus Christ? Is your character, your attitudes, your priorities, your heart, becoming more and more like his?" "For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." (Romans 8:29 NLT) That is the goal of the Christian life...to become more like his Son...to become more like Jesus Christ. Are you becoming more like him? Is your character,
attitudes, priorities and heart increasingly reflecting his? To answer that question, we need to answer another question: What was Jesus actually like? What was his character? What attitudes did he portray? What priorities governed his life? What heart did he have towards people?
THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST • Completely dependable (Hebrews 13:8) • Absolutely holy 9) (Luke 1:35; 1 Peter 2:22; John 8:2 • Genuinely loving (John 15:13) • Truly humble (Philippians 2:5 - 8)
2012 is a year we, at • Thoroughly meek Kingfisher, are going to be (Matthew 11:29) focussing especially on becoming more like • Living a life of prayer Jesus, and to do that, we (Matthew 14:23; Luke 6:12) need to focus on the to • Completely committed character of Christ, and serving in his Father's how his character can Kingdom (John 5:17; 9:4) impact, mould and change us into his likeness. • Creative (John 1:3) Starting on Monday, 16th January, for 12 weeks, you • Tempted, yet sinless (Hebrews 4:15) can receive The Character of Christ • Compassionate (Matthew every week on email, or by 14:14) following Kingfisher on facebook or on James' blog • Full of grace (2 Peter 3:18) (se the website for further • Focussed on heaven details)...or you can receive (Hebrews 12:1 - 2) it on paper if you prefer!