All posts tagged: Bible

The Twenty Minute Window

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It is 2:41 in California and I just finish writing the last part to a 4 part blog series entitled All In. I said I would deliver the series in 4 day and I did, but I really struggle to get done. I had so many things to carry out this week so I found myself just one day off until 35 minutes ago. I hit the publish button and went to one of my favorite blogs to read and learn and be stretched. All of a sudden I’m gripped by what I am reading and by the time I’m finished, I realized that I had just stepped into my twenty-minute window to listen in silence to the voice of my creator. A word with power is a word that comes from silence. So say the Egyptian Desert Fathers of the third century A.D. So says one of my old spiritual mentors, the late Henri J. M. Nouwen. So says the life and speech of Mama Maggie of Cairo, one of my new spiritual mentors. Our world is wordy, says …

All In

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Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength How to love the Lord with all your strength This is our last post in the series All In. So far, I have challenged you to take everything you have, every part of your life and invest it in this relationship you have with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are not yet fire up to give yourself completely in 2012 to the Lord maybe this last post will help you jump in. The command here in Mark to love the Lord with all one’s strength is a call for us to intensify our affections or bring all our energy to bear on one thing – loving God with zeal. In Ecclesiastes 9:10 we find the word “Might.”. In Romans 12:11 we find the word zeal. And in Colossians 3:2, 5 we find the word heartily. All of these used to describe how we need to …

All In

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We have seen what it means to love the Lord with all your heart and with all you soul. Today, I will continue this blog series by sharing what it means to love the Lord with all your mind. This will be the 3rd part in this 4 part series ALL IN And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30 The Mind is the seat of the intellect. Hebrews 11:3. To love God with all the mind is to love God through our thinking. Hebrews 11:3 says by faith we ‘understand’. What does it mean – “by faith we understand?” It means – “by faith we think.” Faith is not inconsistent with thinking. Sometimes we see faith as purely mystical. But true faith requires thinking, reasoning and rationality (Matthew 6). I understand that there are some things you just can’t explain, but I am deeply offended when our culture tells me that because I …

All In

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We are in a series entitled All In from the book of Mark and chapter 12:30 where it encourages us to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength.” Yesterday we talked about how we can love the Lord with all our heart and it all came down to what or who we hold the dearest in our heart. Today I want to continue with the title – ‘How to love the Lord with all our soul.’ How to Love the Lord with all our soul! The soul as we know is the seat of all affections. The soul loves life. The soul loves the good things of life. It wants to keep you running after the good  things of the world. It wants to keep you hooked on pleasure. The soul wants you pursuing the things of the world. The soul has so much love for money, fame, status, and lots of pleasure. Here is an example from Luke 12:19, 20 of where the …

ALL IN

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I would like to introduce a four-part blog series that I will deliver over the next four days. I am taking my title from Mark 12:30 and I am going to unpack the verse talking about what it means to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. I am praying that it will be a blessing to you. Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength Part 1: How to love the Lord with all you Heart According to the Bible, the heart is the center not only of spiritual activity, but of all the operations of human life. Proverbs 4:23 calls it the “wellspring of life.” The heart is also the seat of the conscience (Romans 2:15). It is naturally wicked (Genesis 8:21), and has the potential to contaminate life and character (Matthew 12:34; 15:18. Therefore, if the heart must love God fully and completely, a few things must …

Bible Reading Plan for Slackers and Shirkers

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Do you want to remove the pressure to keep up with getting through the entire bible in a year? Do you want to read a variety of  biblical genres? Do you prefer a continuity by reading the same genre each day of the week? If you do, than BRPSS is what you need. Bible Reading Plan for Slackers and Shirkers. According to the guys at trinity church blog, this plan is unusually helpful because it combines two biblical values which seem to diverge in most bible reading plans. Those two biblical values are discipline and grace. They argue that the advantage of this plan is that it provides guidance as you read each day but does not put you on an internal guilt trip if you miss a day – you just pick up on the next reading – on the day it happens to be. Here is an example of the biblical genres you will be reading from throughout the week” Sundays – Poetry Mondays – Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) Tuesdays – Old Testament History Wednesday – Old Testament History Thursday …

Pray without ceasing

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I am  sure that you have heard this catchy phrase used before – but what does it truly mean to Pray without ceasing? Does it mean that we have to be on our knees 24/7? Does it mean to constantly, throughout your day, bow our heads, close our eyes or be in verbal conversation with God? What did the apostle Paul have in mind when he penned these words – “Pray without ceasing?” Pray without ceasing means that Christians are to pray continually. We can’t bow our heads, close our eyes, and fold our hands without ceasing, but those are customs of prayer, not prayer itself. Prayer is communication with God, and we can live each minute of the day in a constant, flowing, conversation with God. There is significant, important value in a time where we shut out all other distractions and focus on God in a time of “closet” prayer (Matthew 6:6). But there is also room – and great value – in every-moment-of-the-day fellowship with God Further Reading Psalm 141:2; Exodus 30:1; Exodus 30:6-8; Hebrews 7:25; …

Devotional: Let Us sayings in Romans

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There are several places in the scriptures where the phrase “Let Us” occur over and over. I would like to share them with you so that together we can discover what we are being called or motivated to do. Romans 12:6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; Romans 13:12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Romans 13:13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. Romans 14:19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Romans 15:2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to …