{"id":17274,"date":"2018-02-12T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T21:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=17274"},"modified":"2018-02-12T13:00:49","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T21:00:49","slug":"bishops-urge-methodists-to-deny-themselves-for-the-sake-of-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/bishops-urge-methodists-to-deny-themselves-for-the-sake-of-gospel\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishops urge Methodists to deny themselves for the sake of Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. –\u00a0 The Bishops of The United Methodist Church are calling on members of the denomination to deny themselves during the 2018 Lenten Season for the sake of the kingdom of Jesus Christ and to set aside self-interest so that others may have a more abundant life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bishop Bruce R. Ough<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a message sent on behalf of UMC bishops to United Methodists throughout the world, Council of Bishops President Bishop Bruce R. Ough challenged fellow Christians to reflect on the meaning of Jesus\u2019 words in Mark 8:34-35, where he said: \u201cIf any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bishop Ough said losing one\u2019s life for the sake of the gospel means that one has to live the same purposeful life Jesus lived. \u201cIt means to deny our preferences for the sake of Jesus\u2019 kingdom purposes. It means to set aside our self-interest so that others may have a more abundant life. It means we are saved in order to participate in the salvation of others. It means our hearts will break for the very situations that break the heart of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Lenten Season that starts on Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2018, the UMC bishops are asking Methodists to engage in spiritual disciplines that include praying, fasting and sharing their resources with others in their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this Lenten season, let us continue to live out our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Together, let us lose our lives for the sake of the Gospel,\u201d Bishop Ough said in the message.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THE COB LENTEN MESSAGE<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. –\u00a0 The Bishops of The United Methodist Church are calling on members of the denomination to deny themselves during the 2018 Lenten Season for the sake of the kingdom of Jesus Christ and to set aside self-interest so that others may have a more abundant life. In a message sent on behalf of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":17029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[438],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-press-release"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Bishops.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-4uC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17274"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17279,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17274\/revisions\/17279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}