Day
📖Daily Reading
John 1
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
John 1: 45-50
Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “we have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good from Nazareth?”
“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.
“ As they approached Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel - a man of complete integrity.”
“How do you know about me? Nathanael asked.
“Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”
“ Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God - the King of Israel!”
The first chapter of John is pretty long and jumps right into Jesus’s divinity the beginning of his ministry which also includes a brief mention of John the baptists ministry. The last few paragraphs of the chapter focus on Jesus forming is team of disciples. This is where I reflected deeply and paid attention to. Reading between the lines Jesus must have spent time thinking about the characteristics he was looking for in the people he chose to be his inner circle and the founders of what we now call Christianity. If this was an important exercise for even Jesus to do, it seems that it might be something worthwhile that we all should do and even do on a regular and periodic basis.
Jim Rohn often was quoted as saying you/me/we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. With this in mind it does seem like a good idea to make sure that you are finding your people in a conscious and intentional manner. This is exactly what Jesus did. Now of course Jesus was God in the flesh but he was also fully human, which means that even he needed to choose intentionally. He knew he would need encouragement, intense focus, and the perseverance to face adversity and challenge.
So these are a few first clues that are probably good characteristics to look for in your people. The first two disciples Jesus chose interestingly were first John’s followers. So loyalty to a particular person does not seem to be one of his defining characteristics, but rather loyalty to seeking the truth. When they met Jesus they immediately seemed to know it was time to follow Jesus. This does not necessarily mean that they no longer respected John, but they recognized Jesus mission and authority as being greater than John’s and wanted to join Jesus. As a matter of fact it was after John acknowledged and pointed out to his followers that Jesus was ‘the lamb of God’.
Next we are told that Andrew, which was one of these two went to get Simon. Jesus upon meeting Simon we are told looks at him intently and renames him Cephas (which means Peter, which means rock). Again taking time to evaluate and assess someone. Next Jesus finds Philip himself and says ‘come follow me’. Philip joins him and immediately goes and recruits his friend Nathanael. What can we learn about Philip’s character from this brief encounter? Obedience, eagerness, networker and ability to persuade maybe? It is interesting to try to read between the lines.
Then we learn probably the most about Nathan (Nathanael), which are the verses I pulled out for today. The fig tree is the symbol of Israel. Nathan is honest we know because of his initial skepticism. He not only can recognize the truth when he sees it but he honestly expresses his thoughts and his skepticism. That is probably a good characteristic to have in an inner circle and on your team. You might not always like what they have to say, but we need people that will call it like they see it. We need watchers on our walls.
We should all take inventory and make sure we have a diverse team that bring lots of perspectives, gifts and talents to the whole team. We all are unified in our core beliefs, Jesus and his team are all focused on God, they all find their identity in God, they are loyal to agape love, they are not loyal to other minsters or leaders, to their roles, their or even their names. These were probably the most essential ingredients for Jesus because they needed to encourage, hold each other accountable, and keep themselves on mission not so they could keep themselves in a bubble or form a ‘clique’, but for the opposite so that when they were at work they were very focused on what they were doing and how they were conducting themselves while simultaneously keeping their focus on the bigger mission of spreading the good news of God’s love to all for eternity.
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
Is our mission really so different? Should we not ensure that our inner circle is supporting and building us up in our specific assignment within the larger mission?
📖Tomorrows Reading
John 2
Coaching Opportunity
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