I ran today... I don't run. I don't like running. Being out of breath and feeling my heart go way too fast is just not my idea of fun. I wish it was! I wish I liked running... but I don't. But I feel better now and maybe I'll do it again.
Something God is teaching me lately is how important it is to have godly friends who go through life with you. With friends who confess that they have the same struggles I do, life is easier. When close friends share what God is teaching them, it encourages me to get in the word and see what God is teaching them and find something that God leads me to read and then God teaches me too.
In the last couple days I've been meditating on 2 main themes... 1 - how to treat unbelievers (believers too) 2 - how powerful words are.
My intent for this blog is for my own looking back on and reflecting at what God has done, so I won't make it long.
1- How to treat unbelievers
Romans 12:14-21
*Bless them and don't harm them.
*Be there for them in happy times and hard times.
*Get along - display harmony, complement each other's weaknesses and strengths
*Don't be prideful, but humble.
*Never be wise in your own sight.
*Give thought to do what is honorable - THINK!
*Live at peace
*Don't get even.
*Serve your enemies.
These things are not natural... but the verse I'm memorizing this week in the very next chapter, Romans 13:14 says we're not supposed to do only things that feel natural. "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires."
2- How powerful words are
Proverbs 16:24
Proverbs 17:27-28
Proverbs 18:2
Proverbs 18:21
I also learned that James is the "Proverbs of the New Testament"
James has so many wonderful truths and bits of wisdom that it would take a lot of space to share them all.
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. They prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Thinking God's Thoughts
"Prayer is thinking God's thoughts after Him - thoughts that will always be heard and answered." (Thabiti)
The last chapter of Thabiti's book (What Is A Healthy Church Member?) calls a healthy church member a prayer warrior. It discusses what prayer is and what to pray for, etc... Prayer is hard. Some people will just throw out a cry for help "Pray for me!" when they didn't study or when they're on a fast ride at 6 flags (that's me). People who haven't necessarily put their faith in Christ pray when life gets hard.
I really liked the idea that prayer is thinking God's thoughts after him. God is sovereign, in control of all, and knows what we will pray about before we even think about it. And if we pray in the Spirit as we should, it's really God enabling us to pray to himself (which is awesome). But... if God knows everything, why pray?
God doesn't need your prayers to help him decide what He's gunna do in your life. However, we need God and prayer shows our dependence on God. Prayer isn't an avenue to make God change his mind or to help him make decisions. It is a privilege for God's children to have access to talk to our Father anytime!
"Christianity isn't a solo sport and prayer is not a trip through the Burger King drive-thru, where we shout into an inanimate receiver, wait and few moments, and then receive the bag of goodies we ordered to 'have it our way.'"
I think it's cool to find prayers in the Bible, particularly David's Psalms or Paul's letters. God tells us what to pray for! It's a different perspective to think of God being omniscient and instead of just knowing everything and letting us figure it out, he decided to give us an opportunity to talk to him. It's interesting that he knows what he's going to do, but he still tells us to talk to him about it. Then he answers! We can find the request and the answers in Scripture.
God knows what's going to happen, tells us to pray, tells us what to pray for, how to pray, and answers our prayers. It's all about Him really. Prayer changes us and our relationship to God.
I'm thankful God hasn't left us lost without any direction in His word or any comfort through prayer. He didn't leave us to figure out life on our own, but tells us to talk to him constantly about everything and everyone. It's comforting that He does know everything and when we're ready, He'll reveal himself.
"Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." Colossians 4:2
The last chapter of Thabiti's book (What Is A Healthy Church Member?) calls a healthy church member a prayer warrior. It discusses what prayer is and what to pray for, etc... Prayer is hard. Some people will just throw out a cry for help "Pray for me!" when they didn't study or when they're on a fast ride at 6 flags (that's me). People who haven't necessarily put their faith in Christ pray when life gets hard.
I really liked the idea that prayer is thinking God's thoughts after him. God is sovereign, in control of all, and knows what we will pray about before we even think about it. And if we pray in the Spirit as we should, it's really God enabling us to pray to himself (which is awesome). But... if God knows everything, why pray?
God doesn't need your prayers to help him decide what He's gunna do in your life. However, we need God and prayer shows our dependence on God. Prayer isn't an avenue to make God change his mind or to help him make decisions. It is a privilege for God's children to have access to talk to our Father anytime!
"Christianity isn't a solo sport and prayer is not a trip through the Burger King drive-thru, where we shout into an inanimate receiver, wait and few moments, and then receive the bag of goodies we ordered to 'have it our way.'"
I think it's cool to find prayers in the Bible, particularly David's Psalms or Paul's letters. God tells us what to pray for! It's a different perspective to think of God being omniscient and instead of just knowing everything and letting us figure it out, he decided to give us an opportunity to talk to him. It's interesting that he knows what he's going to do, but he still tells us to talk to him about it. Then he answers! We can find the request and the answers in Scripture.
God knows what's going to happen, tells us to pray, tells us what to pray for, how to pray, and answers our prayers. It's all about Him really. Prayer changes us and our relationship to God.
I'm thankful God hasn't left us lost without any direction in His word or any comfort through prayer. He didn't leave us to figure out life on our own, but tells us to talk to him constantly about everything and everyone. It's comforting that He does know everything and when we're ready, He'll reveal himself.
"Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." Colossians 4:2
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Thabiti's book (I just like the name Thabiti.)
Well, I'm here! I'm not gunna ignore the fact that I haven't posted in 2 months; I'm just not going to talk about it. A few things have changed in my life in the past 2 months - some disappointing, but others proof of God's grace (undeserved favor) on me. Relationships have changed... some are leaving and some are beginning to grow. Life is exciting, really. It's always interesting how things turn out. I've had some great expectations for what I thought my summer would look like. However, that's not how it's gunna be, and I'm very glad. I think this is the first post I've made since I got a Mac! That's cool...
I've partially put off writing because it HAS been so long and I'm just not even sure what to say. But I've got to start some time, so here we go. One of the sorta big things that has happened between my last post and now is that I'm officially a member of my church, Brainerd Baptist. They have a "Membership Matters" class for people who are interested in becoming a member, or just learning more about our church. Parts of the class are boring because it's basic knowledge - facts that are crucial to the foundation of church membership, but just stuff that I've known since I've grown up in churches. Other parts of it were interesting, but my favorite part was all the new, free stuff I got (consumer Christian, I know). They gave me four new books, 3 that I didn't have before.
The one my college pastor suggested I read first is What Is A Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti Anyabwile (yeah I can't say it either). It gives 10 marks of a healthy church member, and if I had thought about this before finishing chapter 8, I would've written a post on every chapter. But... I'm too anxious to read other books this summer to go back and read it again just to blog about it. Mark 7 (of a healthy church member) says that a healthy church member seeks discipline. Since school has been out and my work schedule isn't consistent right now, it's so much harder for me to designate a time for reading the Bible. I can't blame my schedule though. The only thing I can blame is my own lack of discipline, apathetic attitude, and forgotten faith that the Word can speak truth into my life and that it is how God speaks to me personally.
Thabiti's book helped me to examine myself by asking these questions:
We should receive the Word "with a friendly and submissive heart." "Specifically, we accept the fact that the Bible is true, that it's the only sufficient authority for shaping our lives, and that it must govern how we feel and think."
This helped me to realize that the reason I just haven't been excited about being in the Word everyday is even though I know the Bible is true and God's avenue of communication for us, I "forgot." I wasn't applying the truth to my heart and applying it to my life. If I had been truly believing that God will speak and that I'm doing more than gleaning information, I would have found a desire for reading it. "The Bible was not written to satisfy your curiousity; it was written to transform your life" (not sure who said that, but I remember it).
When a believer is seeking discipline (mark 7), he/she will be a growing disciple (mark 8).
I know I'm not the only Christian whose had those months of no growth. It's so easy in a Christian environment with Bible classes and chapels to rely on that for my spiritual feeding. But, that's not ultimately satisfying because that's not how God designed for us to be nourished. What I learned from this chapter is that I should always be striving for maturity. Here are some quotes and main points from chapter 8 in Thabiti's book:
I've partially put off writing because it HAS been so long and I'm just not even sure what to say. But I've got to start some time, so here we go. One of the sorta big things that has happened between my last post and now is that I'm officially a member of my church, Brainerd Baptist. They have a "Membership Matters" class for people who are interested in becoming a member, or just learning more about our church. Parts of the class are boring because it's basic knowledge - facts that are crucial to the foundation of church membership, but just stuff that I've known since I've grown up in churches. Other parts of it were interesting, but my favorite part was all the new, free stuff I got (consumer Christian, I know). They gave me four new books, 3 that I didn't have before.
The one my college pastor suggested I read first is What Is A Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti Anyabwile (yeah I can't say it either). It gives 10 marks of a healthy church member, and if I had thought about this before finishing chapter 8, I would've written a post on every chapter. But... I'm too anxious to read other books this summer to go back and read it again just to blog about it. Mark 7 (of a healthy church member) says that a healthy church member seeks discipline. Since school has been out and my work schedule isn't consistent right now, it's so much harder for me to designate a time for reading the Bible. I can't blame my schedule though. The only thing I can blame is my own lack of discipline, apathetic attitude, and forgotten faith that the Word can speak truth into my life and that it is how God speaks to me personally.
Thabiti's book helped me to examine myself by asking these questions:
- As we read the Bible, are we reading for information only or with faith that God actually speaks through his Word?
- Is our first reaction to the Scripture "how does this make me feel?" or "do I accept this as true?" Do we allow our feelings to determine what's true, or do we allow the Scriptures to determine our feelings?
We should receive the Word "with a friendly and submissive heart." "Specifically, we accept the fact that the Bible is true, that it's the only sufficient authority for shaping our lives, and that it must govern how we feel and think."
This helped me to realize that the reason I just haven't been excited about being in the Word everyday is even though I know the Bible is true and God's avenue of communication for us, I "forgot." I wasn't applying the truth to my heart and applying it to my life. If I had been truly believing that God will speak and that I'm doing more than gleaning information, I would have found a desire for reading it. "The Bible was not written to satisfy your curiousity; it was written to transform your life" (not sure who said that, but I remember it).
When a believer is seeking discipline (mark 7), he/she will be a growing disciple (mark 8).
I know I'm not the only Christian whose had those months of no growth. It's so easy in a Christian environment with Bible classes and chapels to rely on that for my spiritual feeding. But, that's not ultimately satisfying because that's not how God designed for us to be nourished. What I learned from this chapter is that I should always be striving for maturity. Here are some quotes and main points from chapter 8 in Thabiti's book:
- "We're far too vulnerable to settling for being thought of as mature rather than actually being mature."
- We get stuck in a performance trap that hinders growth. - So many things in American culture are measured by performance (sports stats, grammy awards, etc...) and we carry that mindset over to our relationship with the Lord. If we have enough quiet times, read enough books, and listen to enough sermons, then we're spiritually healthy, right? No - This isn't growth.
- Growth is also not relative to how the other Christians around you are doing. You're not a strong Christian just because you are surrounded by weaker ones. God won't compare us to others when he judges our lives.
- "Self-effort is not the source of true spiritual growth." This was probably the root of my lack of discipline. I so often revert back to my own strength to grow spiritually instead of asking the Spirit to mature me. "Holy Scripture tells us that our progress in discipleship and spiritual maturity depends on the grace and will of God, not on our own self-effort and strength."
I might write a post on the next 2 chapters if I feel like it. But God has used this book to convict me, and I definitely recommend it. It's simple enough for the normal person to understand but profound enough to challenge you. And the best part was... it was free. :)
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