Philippians 4: 9
The goal of Cecil Taylor Ministries is to teach Christians how to live a 7-day practical faith. What do I mean when I talk about a "7-day practical faith?" How do you get there, and once there, how do you grow your faith to another level?
I'm not simply talking about reading your Bible more or praying every day - although those are wonderful disciplines, and you definitely should be doing them! But I'm talking more about how to take scripture into your daily life and apply it to life situations. Your faith can guide you in crisis, or when you're parenting, or as you encounter people all around you in need of one kind or another. A 7-day practical faith can also give you a structure or model for how you generally approach life and grow your relationship with God.
Then your faith can ascend to a next level. How would you like to be more joyful? Possess a more resilient spirit that allows you to rebound from setbacks? Become more loving and caring toward others, modeling Christ better? Grow closer to God?
These are the fruits of living like you're loved, and the subject of my new book, Live Like You're Loved, just released on Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, other online booksellers, and of course, CecilTaylorMinistries.com, where the related video series is also available for small group study.
With the book now widely available, I want to share some snippets of its teaching in my blogs over the next few weeks leading to Lent. Typically in my Wednesday Devotional blog, I share the nature of God or something God has done or is doing for us. Then in my Friday 7-Day Practical Faith blog, I challenge us to respond to God's action, increasing our faith and our impact on the world. This structure neatly maps into how Live Like You're Loved is organized.
The basic premise of Live Like You're Loved is that you are loved by God, forgiven by God, sent by God with purpose into the world, and connected in eternal relationship with God. In each section, I begin by showing the Biblical truth of God's love, forgiveness, sending purpose and eternal relationship. Then I propose practical steps for how to embed these truths in your soul and thus become transformed to fully live them. These are called the SAIL Steps.
Thus, in this series of blogs, I will use the Wednesday Devotional blogs to underscore the scriptural truth about God's nature, and the Friday 7-Day Practical Faith blogs to share ways in which you can live a new life, inspired by these truths, embracing God's love for you, and following the SAIL Steps.
I hope you will either sign up for notifications on the blog platform of your choice, or you'll remember to return on Wednesdays and Fridays between now and Lent to learn more. (I am working on a way to notify interested people when I update my blog at CecilTaylorMinistries.com/blog.)
For now, let me leave you with the encouragement of the Apostle Paul as he prompted the church at Philippi to take their faith to a new level and to apply it to their daily lives (Philippians 4: 9):
Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Learn more about Live Like You're Loved at CecilTaylorMinistries.com/live-like-you-re-loved , including a trailer video, the first video lesson of the series shared for free on YouTube, and a sample of the Leader's Guide for group study.