CORE
This past Sunday, not only did we wrap up our “I AM” series, but a group of about twenty-five of us finished our fourth and final week of CORE 2. This was my and my wife, Ruth's, first CORE experience. If you’ve never taken CORE 1 or 2, it is “an intensive discipleship course which is designed to draw you into a stronger connection to Jesus and draw you away from secular distractions for four weeks.” Ruth and I went about it a little backwards for our first time—we started with CORE 2 and will take CORE 1 in February 2017. Nonetheless, the fruit that the Lord produced in us through taking CORE was far more than we had expected. For these past four weeks, it seemed like God was giving Ruth and me a glimpse of not only what our lives could look like more intimately connected to Him, but also of what our marriage could look like of being more fully in union with Him.
When you take CORE, you get rid of the distractions that normally consume your life (social media, Netflix, movies, etc.) and you replace that time with spiritual disciplines—prayer, studying and memorizing Scripture, listening to sermons, etc. While initially it was certainly a sacrifice for Ruth and me (the first night of CORE, we were at a loss of what do since we couldn’t watch Netflix!), we gradually started to experience the joy of the freedom in replacing the “noise” in our lives with truth of God’s Word. Instead of being bound to our phones and running to Netflix after having a long day, we would take a walk together or listen to a sermon together. And as we did this more and more—soaking up truth, rather than the “noise”—we started to notice that we were a little more patient with each other, a little less irritable and a little gentler in how we communicated with one another. This wasn’t because we were “doing more” for God. It was simply because we made more space in our lives for the Holy Spirit to move within us. For these four weeks, it was an onrush of truth, rather than the usual onrush of the “noise” of the world.
I want to be clear that by taking CORE, you won’t learn what it means to be a “better Christian” and you won’t learn any “secret formula for the Christian life.” What CORE will do is it will give you the opportunity to take four weeks to see what life looks like when you replace some of the “noise” of the world with God’s truth, and how when you do that, you make more room in your life for the Holy Spirit to transform you. CORE 1 starts in February 2017, and I strongly encourage you to try it out if you’re new to Greater Portland, if you haven’t had the chance to take it yet, or if you would like to take it again as a refresher for your spiritual life.