2 Practices for Pursuing God This Month (April 2020)

When our regular rhythms and structures of life get disrupted, taken away, and thrown into chaos, we need to create new ones. Let's unite as a church by pursuing God together this month by committing to two practices.

First, let’s do an Easter Bible reading plan together. Easter is April 12th and is the biggest event on the Christian calendar. We remember Jesus’ death on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. The gospel message is that Jesus died for our sins and rose on the third day. I’m sad that we won’t celebrate it in person together. But I want to keep our hearts and minds focused on this event that changed everything for us.

The reading plan I’ve picked out for us is called "Our Daily Bread: A New Life Easter Edition”. It’s a total of 10 days. It is provided through the YouVersion Bible app which you can get on any phone or tablet. But you can also access the plan through their website. The plan includes a Scripture reading with a short devotional related to Christ’s death and/or his resurrection. For the next three weeks, we will read it Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays together.

How to sign up for the reading plan

If you already have the YouVersion Bible app and are reading this on the device on which you have it installed, simply click on this link to open the plan then click "Start Plan".

If you don't have YouVersion.

1. Search for YouVersion Bible on your app store.  Install it.  Open it.
2. Once installed and set up, click on "Plans" on the bottom menu.
3. In the upper right hand corner, click the the search magnifying glass.
4. Search for "Our Daily Bread: A New Life Easter Edition”.
5. Click "Start Plan".

If you don't want to use the app, you can read the plan through their website: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/2266

YouVersion will have automatically set it up to be read every day.  But here is how we are going to read it:

• Day 1 - Monday, April 6
• Day 2 - Wednesday, April 8
• Day 3 - Friday, April 10
• Day 4 - Monday April 13
• Day 5 - Wednesday, April 15
• Day 6 - Friday, April 17
• Day 7 - Monday, April 20
• Day 8 - Wednesday, April 22
• Day 9 - Friday, April 24
• Day 10 - Monday, April 27

Second, let's encourage one another every Sunday AND at least once a week. Every Sunday, I'd like each one of us to post in a group I'm going to create in WhatsApp called Encouragement. If you don't have WhatsApp, download it and text me and I'll add you to the group. Here are some examples of what you could post:

• how God spoke to you through your time of worshiping at home
• a verse that stood out to you
• a song that touched you from the worship playlist
• a truth that God reminded you of that you needed to hear
• what God is teaching you
• a prayer
• thankfulness to God - who he is, what he's done
• and more!

This Sunday sharing time is an opportunity for us all to praise God together even though we are not physically together. We can fill that group with God's praises!

I also would like each of us to commit to posting in that group at least one time during the week.  Sundays give us all a big wave of encouragement once a week. Then throughout the week we get little waves of encouragement. These can be super simple:

• a favorite verse
• a song
• something God is teaching you
• something you are thankful for - sunshine, health, kids, etc.

You can think of encouragement as the process of putting courage in.  We could all use that right now.

Let's pursue God together by committing to these two practices for the month of April.