{"id":26412,"date":"2026-01-19T10:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26412"},"modified":"2026-01-19T11:06:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:06:57","slug":"26412","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26412","title":{"rendered":"Follow Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) Lyric Video - Hillsong UNITED\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dy9nwe9_xzw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Sunday, January 18, 2026&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-gitfty-tlkrdrec-y\/\">READ ON CAC.ORG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They said to him, \u201cRabbi\u201d (which translated means teacher), \u201cwhere are you staying?\u201d He said to them, \u201cCome and see.\u201d \u2014John 1:38\u201339<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard Rohr considers the invitation to discipleship Jesus extends today:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Jesus goes out to Galilee, his initial preaching is summed up in the verse, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is at hand\u201d (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15). <strong>\u201cRepent\u201d (or&nbsp;<em>metanoia<\/em>&nbsp;in Greek) means to turn around, to change. The first word that comes out of Jesus\u2019s mouth is repent,&nbsp;<em>change.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus calls us to be willing to change, but many of us are not willing to change, simply because we\u2019re not willing to turn away from ourselves! Usually, we\u2019re not in love with God. Instead, we\u2019re in love with our way of thinking, our way of explaining, our way of doing things. One of the greatest ways to protect ourselves from God, from truth and grace, is simply to <strong>buy into some kind of cheap conventionalism and call it tradition.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But great traditions always <strong>call people on a journey of faith to keep changing.<\/strong> There\u2019s no other way the human person can open up to all that God is asking of us.&nbsp;There\u2019s no way we can open up to all we have to learn or experience, unless we\u2019re willing to let go of the idols of yesterday and the idols of today. The<strong> best protection from the next word of God is the last word of God<\/strong>. We take what we heard from God last year (or from authority figures in our first half of life) and we build a whole system around it\u2014and then we sit there for the rest of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Immediately after he begins preaching, Jesus calls his first four disciples. Jesus just says, \u201cFollow me\u201d and immediately they leave their nets and follow him (Matthew 4:19\u201320). But today, the way I see people transformed doesn\u2019t happen this quickly. Maybe it happened that way with Jesus and the disciples; I don\u2019t want to say that it didn\u2019t. A true disciple will have that kind of readiness. Most of us, though, would prefer some process of conversion, a series of conversations over a few weeks, with Jesus saying, \u201cHey, I\u2019m into something new. Do you want to be a part of it? Let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope we realize that we\u2019re all called to discipleship. We hope that the point comes when we\u2019re ready to let go of our nets: our sense of self, our security systems, and the way it\u2019s always been. Fishing is Simon (Peter) and Andrew\u2019s economic livelihood, and Jesus says to let go of it. He says essentially, \u201cI\u2019m going to teach you how to fish in a new way, to fish for people\u201d (Matthew 4:19). What he means is that he\u2019s going to give them a new vocation. Hearing this Gospel passage, I hope we\u2019re inspired to ask, \u201cWhat is God asking us to do? Where is God asking us to go?\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>===============<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abraham\u2019s Call<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Monday, January 19, 2026&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-giiludk-tlkriywur-y\/\">READ ON CAC.ORG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>The story of Abraham is a mythic,&nbsp;primeval&nbsp;story, so much so that it became the founding myth of the three monotheistic&nbsp;religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.<br>\u2014Richard Rohr,&nbsp;<em>Soul Brothers<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CAC faculty member Brian McLaren describes how God called Abraham (initially Abram) and Sarah to a new covenant:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the ancient stories of Genesis, God is up to something surprising and amazing in our world. While we\u2019re busy plotting evil, God is plotting goodness\u2026. While we plot ways to use God to get blessings for ourselves, <strong>God stays focused on the big picture of blessing the world\u2014which includes blessing us in the process.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You see this pattern unfold when God chooses a man named Abram and a woman named Sara. They are from a prominent family in an ancient city-state known as Ur, one of the first ancient Middle Eastern civilizations. Like all civilizations, Ur has a dirty little secret: its affluence is built on violence, oppression, and exploitation\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God tells this couple to leave their life of privilege in this great civilization. He sends them out into the unknown as wanderers and adventurers. No longer will Abram and Sara have the armies and wealth and comforts of Ur at their disposal. <strong>All they will have is a promise\u2014that God will be with them and show them a better way. From now on, they will make a new road by walking.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Abraham and Sarah\u2019s trust in God\u2019s call is a model for our faith:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This story also tells us something about true faith. <strong>Faith is stepping off the map of what\u2019s known and making a new road by walking into the unknown. It\u2019s responding to God\u2019s call to adventure, stepping out on a quest for goodness, trusting that the status quo isn\u2019t as good as it gets, believing a promise that a better life is possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>True faith isn\u2019t a deal where we use God to get the inside track or a special advantage or a secret magic formula for success. It isn\u2019t a mark of superiority or exclusion. <strong>True faith is about joining God in God\u2019s love for everyone.<\/strong> It\u2019s about seeking goodness with others, not at the expense of others. T<strong>rue faith is seeing a bigger circle in which we are all connected, all included, all loved, all blessed\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sadly, for many people, faith has been reduced to a list. <strong>For some, it\u2019s a list of beliefs: ideas or statements that we have to memorize and assent to if we want to be blessed. For others, it\u2019s a list of dos and don\u2019ts: rituals or rules that we have to perform\u2026. <\/strong>But Abram didn\u2019t have much in the way of beliefs, rules, or rituals. He had no Bibles, doctrines, temples, commandments, or ceremonies. For him, true <strong>faith was simply trusting a promise of being blessed to be a blessing. It wasn\u2019t a way of being religious: it was a way of being alive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John Ortberg asked his mentor Dallas Willard what it would take to live the kind of life Dallas was always talking about\u2014a life caught up in the goodness of God, a life lived from the kingdom of God, an abundant life of prayerful love. In short, the life of a disciple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dallas paused for a moment and said, \u201cJohn, you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John wrote that down and said, \u201cOkay, I got it, what else?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Long pause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat is all. There is nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s Dallas Willard for you. But\u2026how can that be all there is? At the risk of trying to speak for Uncle Dallas, perhaps what he meant, in part, is this:\u00a0<em>All of God\u2019s abundance is there. The grace, the power, the resource of God has already been given. You simply need to become aware of it. And you become aware\u2014and you become transformed\u2014by slowing down. You must slow down into the life of God.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday, January 18, 2026&nbsp; READ ON CAC.ORG They said to him, \u201cRabbi\u201d (which translated means teacher), \u201cwhere are you staying?\u201d He said to them, \u201cCome and see.\u201d \u2014John 1:38\u201339 Father Richard Rohr considers the invitation to discipleship Jesus extends today: When Jesus goes out to Galilee, his initial preaching is summed up in the verse, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26412"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26412"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26422,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26412\/revisions\/26422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}