Rhythms
The Community Rhythms of Hoboken Grace – November 2023
One of the most difficult and yet beautiful steps in our maturity as disciples of Christ is the embracing of our disabilities. The scriptures are incredibly clear that it’s in our weakness that His strength is displayed and yet we continue to act as if this journey is about our strength instead of His.
He calls us to embrace our weakness. He calls us to live in light of our disabilities.
The following book is designed to help us address two of the most destructive of our disabilities; our forgetfulness and our blindness.
Our forgetfulness robs us of living in light of His grace, His provision, His love, and His presence. We have the capacity to walk out of an incredible experience with Him and in a moment to believe the lie that He is distant. We need to develop rhythms in our lives and day that call us to remember the reality that we live and move and breathe in Him.
Rhythms also help us address our blindness because they draw us into a conversation with Him that does not cease. Rather than simply speaking to him once a day or once a week, we intentionally schedule times throughout our day to reignite our conversation with Him if by chance it has ceased. We seek to live our lives listening. We seek to live our lives attune to the voice that awakens us to the truth of God. We seek to pray without ceasing as we engage Him throughout our day rather than wasting our conversation by talking to ourselves.
Throughout history those who have known God well, those who have walked with Him, have lived lives with rhythms that called them back frequently to the one they loved most. We seek to do the same. We hope you’ll join us.
Each month we choose one passage on which to meditate for the month. We read this passage every day at a scheduled time and ask God to help us understand it better by allowing it to sift through the lives we lead. Our return to it over and over keeps the truth fresh in our minds as we experience the world around us and allows it to come alive. We seek to listen as the Spirit uses it to enlighten our experience of the journey with Christ.
Throughout this month we will be meditating on:
“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”
1 Corinthians 3:10-15 NIV
Each month as we meditate on truth, we come to God with questions for Him to speak into during our month. We can learn truth intellectually, but we need the Spirit to speak truth into our hearts for us to awaken to it. Bring the following questions to God. Wait for Him to answer throughout your month. Allow the Spirit to do what only He can do.
How do you want to use me today to further build your Kingdom?
What in my life needs to be eliminated because it isn’t helping to build your Kingdom?
In memorizing God’s word, we allow the Spirit to bring truth into our lives at any moment as He calls us back to a passage at just the right time in just the right situation.
This month our memory verse is:
“If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”
1 Corinthians 3:14-15 NIV
In God’s pursuit of us He has given us an incredible gift of the Scriptures. The Scriptures are given to allow us to know Him. They introduce us to Him. They allow us to see His heart, purpose, and plan. Each year we read through the New Testament together as a family to pursue the one who has pursued us. To subscribe to our reading plan simply visit the site below where you can sign up to receive the daily reading every weekday morning in your inbox.
God calls us to fight for people in prayer. The power of prayer is far beyond our understanding, and in faith we bring before God those we fight for. In order to fight well, we’ve designated certain days to certain prayer requests. This allows us to be intentional and obedient in prayer.
Monday – Friends who don’t know Christ
Tuesday – Family
Wednesday – Church
Thursday – Dinner Group
Friday – City and nation
Saturday – World
Sunday – Co-workers
Developing healthy rhythms in your life is about finding a schedule that works for you. It’s about figuring out how to incorporate all that we’ve talked about into your daily, weekly, and monthly experience. It’s about prioritizing and consistently pursuing the one who loves you most. To help in establishing these rhythms, we also created a way to set-up daily reminders through the Hoboken Grace App. Once you download and open the app, just go to the top left hand corner, then settings, notifications and click to turn on rhythms. You will be sent reminders in the morning, at lunch and right before the end of the work day. Many of us follow the daily rhythm schedule below, but feel free to adjust it based on your daily flow and expectations.
Morning:
Commute:
Lunch:
End of Work Day:
Before Bed:
The Lord’s Supper is another rhythm of remembrance and a rhythm we can experience in the community. Each month in your dinner group you’ll walk through our monthly communion practice that ties into our meditation passage for that month as well as our memory verse. The leader will walk you through the following questions.
As you begin communion this month, read through our meditation passage together. (See above.)
Leader: How have you seen God use you this month to build his Kingdom?
Do we see God’s mission as an addition to our lives or the purpose of our lives?
What would change if we did?
(Hand out the bread and cup.)
Read the meditation passage again.
Leader: “As we take the bread, we remember the foundation you have laid as you have executed your mission to rescue us.”
(Take the bread.)
Leader: “As we take the cup we remember the payment you made to bring us into this mission with you!”
(Take the cup.)
Spend time in prayer praying for God to use your life for eternal significance.
Fasting is a practice that allows us to contain the appetites of our flesh while feeding our appetite for the one who loves us most. In denying the appetite for food, we learn that we are stronger than our flesh while at the same time feeding our appetite for Christ, reminding ourselves of where the desires of our hearts are actually found.
This month we will be fasting on Thursday, November 16th.
We will be abstaining from any food and will drink only water from the moment we wake until sunset.
When you feel the craving for food evaluate whether you are engaging your day with purpose or whether you are allowing the temporary to pull you away from that which is significant.
It’s in silence and solitude that we create space for God to speak to our soul. Those who pursued God often did so in the wilderness. This quarter we invite you to take a day and find a space you can enjoy in solitude and silence. Try to spend at least four hours walking through this rhythm.
In your time away with God evaluate your last month. What will last? What will be burnt up? What needs to change as you move into the next month?
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