{"id":1912,"date":"2014-10-16T12:54:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T16:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=1912"},"modified":"2014-10-16T12:54:39","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T16:54:39","slug":"strategic-living-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=1912","title":{"rendered":"Strategic Living, Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have been considering how to live our lives on purpose, with intention, on mission with God.<\/p>\n

Acts 1:8 is the map Jesus has given to us for this purpose: \u201cBut you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

As we have seen Jesus\u2019 strategy has four key parts: the advance of the gospel to \u2026
\n1) \u201cJerusalem\u201d<\/em><\/span>
\n2) \u201call Judea\u201d<\/span><\/em>
\n3) \u201cand Samaria\u201d<\/span><\/em>
\n4) \u201cto the end of the earth.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Last time we considered the first prong of this four-fold strategy\u2014reaching our Jerusalem. Your Jerusalem is made up of the people who are geographically near to you and culturally like you.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s now consider your Judea<\/span><\/strong>. Those in your Judea are still culturally like<\/em><\/span> you, but they are different than those in your Jerusalem because they are geographically in proximity<\/span><\/em> to you.<\/p>\n

\"Acts<\/a><\/p>\n

What does that mean?<\/p>\n

The people in your Judea are \u201clike\u201d you in things such as income, neighborhoods, tastes, schools, work, ethnicity, language, hobbies, sports\/reading\/music\/entertainment interests, etc. But they don\u2019t\u2019 live in your immediate circle of relationships or community, yet neither do they live at the ends of the earth. These people live within proximity of you; they are neither next to you nor far distant from you. They are people generally like you in terms of culture, but who are just beyond the circle of your immediate relationships.<\/p>\n

That might mean people who live one or two communities beyond the city where you reside. It might mean people in your company that you don\u2019t regularly have any contact with. It might mean people in the same industry or career as you, but whom you don\u2019t yet know. It might mean people involved in community groups or athletic teams like yours, but whose groups and teams are different from yours. It might mean people with the same hobby as you.<\/p>\n

Who might some of these people might be?<\/p>\n

You likely won\u2019t know them by name, because you don\u2019t know them personally \u2026 yet. You\u2019ll probably have to identify them by other markers. For example, if you love High School football, you might say, \u201cOthers that gather at the same Friday night game\u201d or \u201cOther parents\/boosters of our team that I don\u2019t yet know.\u201d Or it might be \u201cOther engineers (or accountants, teachers, plumbers, etc.).\u201d It might be, \u201cOther book lovers (if you love to read).\u201d Or, if your hobby is crafts, it might be \u201cOther craft lovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

You get the idea.<\/p>\n

Take a few minutes and ask God to help you identify people who are generally like you, but who you don\u2019t yet know. Consciously (or better, in writing) identify several of those who make up your Judea<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Now, what is one thing you can do to take a step toward those people? Just to begin to build relationship with them, to position yourself in their lives, to get to know them and to let them begin to know you?<\/p>\n

When will you take one of those steps?<\/p>\n

As you take that step, remember, when you are walking with Jesus into their lives. You might not share the gospel with them this week (or maybe you will!), but you are moving toward the place where they will trust you enough to allow you to do so. As has been said, you are building relational bridges capable of bearing the weight of truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have been considering how to live our lives on purpose, with intention, on mission with God. Acts 1:8 is the map Jesus has given to us for this purpose: \u201cBut you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30,25,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acts","category-evangelism","category-missions","post-preview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-uQ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1913,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}