“So anything that’s not fully supporting that awareness of God’s presence,” she added. “Anything that doesn’t support the purpose of pressing me into becoming more like Jesus then, even if it’s not sin in and of itself, it’s sin to me because it’s not supporting the goal of a disciple.”
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When Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 28 to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” it is not a suggestion, but a “mandate for the church and believers,” Shirer said.
“Not to just be making converts, not to be [only] building programs, not to just have big platforms, or great preaching ministries,” she explained. “The crux of the body of Christ is that we’re growing people to spiritual maturity, that they’re being formed into the image of Jesus Christ.”
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“So once church is reduced to a Sunday morning experience for a couple of hours,” Shirer said, “you’re actually missing the crux of what the abundant life is, which is learning how my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, all of the things that those entail. All of it lines up underneath the authority of Jesus Christ.”
Shirer continued:
There’s not a separation between the sacred and the secular. Everything is sacred. So I’m going and making disciples like while I’m running errands. I’m [always] alert. Lord, is this little intersection I’m about to have in the line at Chick-fil-A, is this shimmering with sacred responsibility? Is this shimmering with invitation and opportunity to just speak a word of encouragement or to let my light shine so brightly in my attitude right here that the fruit of the Spirit is seen because I’m patient? [For example], everybody else at the American Airlines checkout counter is so impatient and acting crazy because the flight’s delayed. But there’s one who is a reflection of the image of Christ. Maybe just that disciples another and says, “Wait a minute, let me behave in that way, because that reflects Christ just because we are moving throughout the regular rhythms of our life, with that mandate in our minds.”
Shirer’s new book, “I Surrender All,” speaks about many of the themes found throughout “The Forge.”
“It is about, while I’m here on earth learning what it means to bring all of me, every bit of my personality, my physicality, my strengths, my weaknesses, my preferences, my hobbies, my entertainment choices—all of it, Lord, I surrender to you,” Shirer said.
“Anything that is first place, anything that I’m holding on so tightly that when I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit to loosen my grip, I’m resistant to it or my response time takes way longer than it should,” she continued. “That God will help me to start to see I need to loosen my grip on those things, so that the only thing that is on the throne of my heart is you—Christ, and Christ alone.”
“The Forge” releases in theaters on Aug. 23.
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