Let's read our Bibles, people!! God's Word...that's not just a title. The Bible is just that: God's Word. It is Him speaking to us. I can't tell you how many times I have wanted a sign, a word, a proof of God. I can't remeber how many times others have told me they wanted to know God but just couldn't. And the whole time He was sitting right there in front of us. In hotel rooms. In many of our houses...sometimes multiple copies (I think there are about 18 in my house!). In stores: Walmart, grocery stores, Barnes & Noble.
I know of a man who has read through the Bible 2-4 times a year for 50 years. That is about 150 read-throughs. I have known people who have read through the Bible in just under two months.
So let's make a deal. Let's read it!! And not just a couple verses or just a chapter. The Jr. Highers in our church have committed to 15 minutes a day...Bravo!! Adults...lets take it to the next level. Lets read it like a novel. Like a Harry Potter book...like a Grisham or Clancy thriller. Let's tear through it. Soak it in. Soak it up. Start in Genesis tonday! Just pick it up and just read--every spare minute you have...READ. Get off the net, put down the remote, unplug the TV, put aside all the unnecessary stuff. Right now. I'll check back in a week and let's see how far we get! Who's with me?!?! What's the worst that can happen?...will God speak to us?..will He make Himself known to us? See you in a week. Pray for me. I will pray for you.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Presidential Parenting
"As I grew older, I came to see that my parent's love was unconditional. I know because I tested it...Despite it all, my parents still loved me. Eventually their patient love affected me. When you know you have unconditional love, there is no point in rebellion and no need to fear failure."
--President George W. Bush. Decision Points.
--President George W. Bush. Decision Points.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Toilet seats and boot straps.
Have you ever faced a day, a week, an extended period of time, and found yourself slowly overwhelmed by the temporal cares and troubles of the world around you? Work, interpersonal relationships, finances, car troubles, broken toilet seats, sore backs...they all seem to gently yet purposely drown us in persistent waves of turmoil. Well, I have a cure that the Lord revealed to me tonight (again and not for the first time!...I can be a little hard-headed)!! Pick up your boot straps (I just noticed this week that my work boots do indeed have straps and that they do help you to pull them on...especially when you're tired and worn out!!), pull on your boots, and get to the business at hand--loving God.
Awesome God that He is, He has even provided the means by which we can love Him. We can obey Him. We can serve Him. We can do His good work. If you do these, a funny thing will start to happen. God will start to be the true center of your life. The sons of Korah had it right: a day in the presence of God is better than a thousand elsewhere! (Ps 84:10) And tonight I got to experience the evaporation of the aforementioned waves. I entered into the fellowship of His people, I served and loved His children, I read His Word, I gloried in His goodness. I highly recommend it!! As a matter of fact, so does our Lord! (Check it out: Romans 7:5-6, Galatians 5:13-14, and Colossians 3:23-24.)
He even provides a place where anyone and everyone can quite easily get started: church! It is kinda like a boot camp: it is a safe and structured environment where one can receive training and experience in this whole business of loving and serving. But instead of raving lunatic drill instructors, you get kind men and women who love God. You get the chance to practice and prepare for Christian living. And then you go home and to work and to school...the real battlefields! You leave behind your valuable and seasoned warriors while you head out to the front lines. They can't necessarily go with you and you shouldn't necessarily stay with them. You have to go at some point. We all do.
But don't forget to fight when you get out there! Your leaders from church can't possibly get out to all the places that we can. You can always take a breather and head back to church. Just don't forget to get back out into the fight. Jesus commanded us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matt 5:43-48). I would venture to say that you're not going to find a whole lot of enemies and persecuters serving with you at church! But you will find them at the front lines. Semper Fidelis and Godspeed!!
Awesome God that He is, He has even provided the means by which we can love Him. We can obey Him. We can serve Him. We can do His good work. If you do these, a funny thing will start to happen. God will start to be the true center of your life. The sons of Korah had it right: a day in the presence of God is better than a thousand elsewhere! (Ps 84:10) And tonight I got to experience the evaporation of the aforementioned waves. I entered into the fellowship of His people, I served and loved His children, I read His Word, I gloried in His goodness. I highly recommend it!! As a matter of fact, so does our Lord! (Check it out: Romans 7:5-6, Galatians 5:13-14, and Colossians 3:23-24.)
He even provides a place where anyone and everyone can quite easily get started: church! It is kinda like a boot camp: it is a safe and structured environment where one can receive training and experience in this whole business of loving and serving. But instead of raving lunatic drill instructors, you get kind men and women who love God. You get the chance to practice and prepare for Christian living. And then you go home and to work and to school...the real battlefields! You leave behind your valuable and seasoned warriors while you head out to the front lines. They can't necessarily go with you and you shouldn't necessarily stay with them. You have to go at some point. We all do.
But don't forget to fight when you get out there! Your leaders from church can't possibly get out to all the places that we can. You can always take a breather and head back to church. Just don't forget to get back out into the fight. Jesus commanded us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matt 5:43-48). I would venture to say that you're not going to find a whole lot of enemies and persecuters serving with you at church! But you will find them at the front lines. Semper Fidelis and Godspeed!!
Happy Birthday USMC
Today, November 10th, is the 235th birthday of the US Marine Corps. Marines, Leathernecks, Devil Dogs, Teufelhunden, Gyrenes, Jarheads, Grunts, Pogs, Non-NCOs, NCOs, Officers, Mustangs, WOS, Gunnys, Sgts, Boots, BAMs, Devil Pups, Hard Dogs, Riflemen, and all of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The rest of the story
After deciding a few years ago to raise our children in the instruction and admonition of our Lord, my wife and I were confronted with the question of "HOW?" How do we teach/guide these little ones into a loving relationship with Jesus? Our first instinct was to read them the Bible but for some reason that didn't seem enough (more on this later!). Surely there was a more effective way of teaching them God's truths, values, and morals. Hadn't entire ministries and aisles of books been developed and built to show us the way to powerful parenting/discipling techniques designed to bring our kids to Jesus? So off to the Christian book store we went. Shortly after, laden with devotional material for each of the ages and sexes of our children, we began to disciple our children.
The devotional booklets were good and full of strong Biblical truths. But something was nagging at me. Not sure that we were doing all that we could, my wife and I enrolled in a parenting class/conference. (I highly recommend it, by the way. It was a valuable tool in leading us to a more Biblical form of parenting: http://www.parentingministry.org/ ) Things were improving all the time and our children were responding but something was still missing. The children's ministries at our church were and are incredibly blessed by the Holy Spirit; our children loved their godly leaders...but something still lacked. As my wife and I started to dig deeper into God's Word we became fully convinced that the example we set and modeled was more important than everything we had done heretofore. Our relationship with and transformation in Jesus was what they could see every day. But there was still one more piece of the puzzle yet remaining (...and I'm sure there are more waiting to be found!)...but this little piece is one I must share with you.
One night, after our devotionals with the kids, one of the girls asked an incredibly pertinent question about one of the Bible characters (Joseph...Jacob's son) the devotional had briefly mentioned. I sat down on the bed with her and her sisters and easily launched into a half hour story about him, his family, his triumphs, his failures. My years of Bible reading, church attendance, and Bible studies came flooding back as I told them the stories of Abraham and Issac and Jacob and Esau...my wife had to cut me off!! But I left the story hanging...and told the girls I would continue it the next night. We never went back to the devotionals. Every day (sometimes at the dinner table, sometimes before bed, sometimes in the car) we would pick up where I had left off the last time and just talk about the Bible. For those first couple of weeks, I mainly just hit the highlights and we quickly found ourselves in Revelation. I told them what I knew and directly consulted the pages of the Word for specific details that eluded me. But for the most part, I imparted the Word to them in as faithful and relevant manner as I could. Then we just started over in Genesis. That following jaunt through the Scriptures took a little longer as I covered more of the stories and characters...sometimes studying a little in advance. This current and third run has been much more detailed and longer and full of Spirit-inspired applications for the children that no devotional ever could have compared to.
Our initial instinct of reading them the Bible had come to fruition! It really was all we needed. Every night the kids can't wait to hear the "rest of the story". They are remembering and identifying characters/stories/concepts from the Word. Even the little ones are absorbing truth. They have been taken through the Bible three times now. By the time they leave our clutches, I fully expect to have guided them through the Word 20-30 times. My oldest is already asking to tell the part of the stories he knows to the younger ones. At 7 he is beginning to teach the Bible!! Thank you Lord. His Word really is sufficient for all the answers to life and living. I pray that you and I, dear reader, may immerse ourselves in God's Word and then just let it flow into the lives of our children, our youth, our coworkers, our friends, our family, our neighbors. Because it doesn't stop with just the children.
The devotional booklets were good and full of strong Biblical truths. But something was nagging at me. Not sure that we were doing all that we could, my wife and I enrolled in a parenting class/conference. (I highly recommend it, by the way. It was a valuable tool in leading us to a more Biblical form of parenting: http://www.parentingministry.org/ ) Things were improving all the time and our children were responding but something was still missing. The children's ministries at our church were and are incredibly blessed by the Holy Spirit; our children loved their godly leaders...but something still lacked. As my wife and I started to dig deeper into God's Word we became fully convinced that the example we set and modeled was more important than everything we had done heretofore. Our relationship with and transformation in Jesus was what they could see every day. But there was still one more piece of the puzzle yet remaining (...and I'm sure there are more waiting to be found!)...but this little piece is one I must share with you.
One night, after our devotionals with the kids, one of the girls asked an incredibly pertinent question about one of the Bible characters (Joseph...Jacob's son) the devotional had briefly mentioned. I sat down on the bed with her and her sisters and easily launched into a half hour story about him, his family, his triumphs, his failures. My years of Bible reading, church attendance, and Bible studies came flooding back as I told them the stories of Abraham and Issac and Jacob and Esau...my wife had to cut me off!! But I left the story hanging...and told the girls I would continue it the next night. We never went back to the devotionals. Every day (sometimes at the dinner table, sometimes before bed, sometimes in the car) we would pick up where I had left off the last time and just talk about the Bible. For those first couple of weeks, I mainly just hit the highlights and we quickly found ourselves in Revelation. I told them what I knew and directly consulted the pages of the Word for specific details that eluded me. But for the most part, I imparted the Word to them in as faithful and relevant manner as I could. Then we just started over in Genesis. That following jaunt through the Scriptures took a little longer as I covered more of the stories and characters...sometimes studying a little in advance. This current and third run has been much more detailed and longer and full of Spirit-inspired applications for the children that no devotional ever could have compared to.
Our initial instinct of reading them the Bible had come to fruition! It really was all we needed. Every night the kids can't wait to hear the "rest of the story". They are remembering and identifying characters/stories/concepts from the Word. Even the little ones are absorbing truth. They have been taken through the Bible three times now. By the time they leave our clutches, I fully expect to have guided them through the Word 20-30 times. My oldest is already asking to tell the part of the stories he knows to the younger ones. At 7 he is beginning to teach the Bible!! Thank you Lord. His Word really is sufficient for all the answers to life and living. I pray that you and I, dear reader, may immerse ourselves in God's Word and then just let it flow into the lives of our children, our youth, our coworkers, our friends, our family, our neighbors. Because it doesn't stop with just the children.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)