Rhythms
The Community Rhythms of Hoboken Grace – May 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:
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
James 1:19-21
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 can I listen better to you today?
Who am I struggling to understand?
How can listening help me with my frustrations today?
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:
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
James 1:19
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: When has listening completely changed your perspective about something you were frustrated with?
When have you spoken without understanding and made a fool of yourself?
(Hand out the bread and cup.)
Read the meditation passage again.
Leader: “As we take the bread, we remember that the One who became one of us, who understands us, and gave His life to rescue us from our foolishness.”
(Take the bread.)
Leader: “As we take the cup, we remember that His blood was shed for us to be forgiven and for us to understand and forgive one another.”
(Take the cup.)
Spend time in prayer thanking Jesus for caring to understand and love us!
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, May 18th.
We will be abstaining from any food and will drink only water from the moment we wake until sunset.
The urge to speak may be an urge even stronger than the urge to eat. As you seek to control your appetite for food, allow it to remind you to control your tongue as well. Enter into the day seeking to listen far more than you speak.
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.
Many of us are completely uncomfortable with silence. We want to, feel we need to, speak. Go to a place where you can spend the day in complete silence. Force yourself to be comfortable without words. Even in your experience of God seek not to be heard, but to hear. Listen to and for Him!
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