{"id":15,"date":"2016-08-24T11:54:34","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T11:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=15"},"modified":"2016-08-24T11:54:34","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T11:54:34","slug":"introducing-next-steps-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the Next Steps Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"www.unsplash.com\"
www.unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For most Christians, our level of knowledge far outweighs our level of obedience. We know so much more than we do, and that’s a problem. At the end of the most famous sermon ever preached (the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7), Jesus gives a stark warning to his readers: “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice<\/em> is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matthew 7:26-27).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The aim behind this blog is simple: to provide Christians with clear and simple\u00a0next steps to take in their\u00a0faith. For most of us, we know enough. We just need to start doing. Or look at it this way: when Jesus called his disciples, he used one refrain over and over again. It wasn’t a call to “come to church,” or “learn the Bible” or even “get your life right.” What Jesus said again and again was “follow me<\/em>.” How do you follow Jesus? By taking one step at a time.<\/p>\n

The Next Steps blog will be filled with practical advice and truth from Scripture designed to help you take the next step in your relationship with Jesus. More than being a follower of Jesus myself, I am a pastor to a local church, doing my best to help a group of people take the next step in their relationship with Jesus. Most of what I share here will be what I’m sharing with my own church family.<\/p>\n

So if you’re ready to move from knowing to doing, if you’re ready to take a step of faith and follow Jesus to new heights, then come along with me as we take our Next Steps together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most Christians, our level of knowledge far outweighs our level of obedience. We know so much more than we do, and that’s a problem. At the end of the most famous sermon ever preached (the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7), Jesus gives a stark warning to his readers: “But everyone who hears these…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,5,3],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-blog","tag-intro","tag-next-steps"],"yoast_head":"\nIntroducing the Next Steps Blog - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For most Christians, our level of knowledge far outweighs our level of obedience. If you're ready to move from knowing to doing, this blog is for you.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Introducing the Next Steps Blog - Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For most Christians, our level of knowledge far outweighs our level of obedience. If you're ready to move from knowing to doing, this blog is for you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-24T11:54:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2016\/08\/lynDyjGSR9eR57ouPIEE_IMG_woods-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joshdaffern\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Introducing the Next Steps Blog - Next Steps","description":"For most Christians, our level of knowledge far outweighs our level of obedience. If you're ready to move from knowing to doing, this blog is for you.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Introducing the Next Steps Blog - Next Steps","og_description":"For most Christians, our level of knowledge far outweighs our level of obedience. If you're ready to move from knowing to doing, this blog is for you.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html","og_site_name":"Next Steps","article_author":"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","article_published_time":"2016-08-24T11:54:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2016\/08\/lynDyjGSR9eR57ouPIEE_IMG_woods-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Josh Daffern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@joshdaffern","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html","name":"Introducing the Next Steps Blog - Next Steps","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2016\/08\/lynDyjGSR9eR57ouPIEE_IMG_woods-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2016-08-24T11:54:34+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-24T11:54:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c"},"description":"For most Christians, our level of knowledge far outweighs our level of obedience. If you're ready to move from knowing to doing, this blog is for you.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2016\/08\/lynDyjGSR9eR57ouPIEE_IMG_woods-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2016\/08\/lynDyjGSR9eR57ouPIEE_IMG_woods-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/08\/introducing-next-steps-blog.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Introducing the Next Steps Blog"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/","name":"Next Steps","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Josh Daffern","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c","name":"Josh Daffern","description":"Born and raised in California, Josh graduated college from California Baptist University and spent two years as a missionary in Africa before coming back to America and finding the love of his life (Robin). Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. Enjoy the blog!","sameAs":["http:\/\/joshdaffern.com","facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","https:\/\/x.com\/joshdaffern"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/author\/jdaffern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}