All posts tagged: Religion and Spirituality

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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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 …

Christmas Generosity

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Cast your bread upon the water: Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. He who observes the wind will not sow and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 Your giving is going to be a win win situation… someone will truly be blessed and you will be blessed in return as well … …

Quotations About Prayer

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…the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working… James 5:16 John Wesley God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.”  (Famous evangelist who spent 2 hours daily in prayer)   S.D. Gordon Prayer strikes the winning blow; service is simply picking up the pieces.”  One should never initiate anything that he cannot saturate with prayer.” The greatest thing anyone can do for God or man is pray.” Martin Luther If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.  Chuck Smith Prayer does not change the purpose of God.  But prayer does change the action of God.” The most important thing a born again Christian can do is to pray.” Sidlow Baxter Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.”  E.M. Bounds God shapes the world by prayer. The more prayer there …

Temptation

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We live in an era where you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home to be faced with temptation. You turn on the television, you get on the internet and you can find it every on every click or change of channel. If we are not smart we can begin to think and even believe that the consequences of playing a little loosed with temptation will be minor. But every compromising click or changed channel can drag you down into a deep and dark dungeon of bondage and addiction. We have all seen and heard of scandals over the past decade, ones that shocked leaving homes broken, lives destroyed and reputations ruined all because of one single poor judgement. Bill Pollard said, “reputations are fragile, they must be handled with care like a valuable vase that if dropped can never quite be put together again”. Temptations knock at the door of all of us. It would be nice to heed the voice of God it knocks at your door – master it! And don’t …

New Age Movement

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Scripture exposes the deception of the New Age Movement. “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12). Unlike New Age, the Bible declares that truth is found, not by looking inward to self, but by looking upward, not by looking to men, but by looking to God (Jer. 17:5,9). Paul’s rhetorical question says it best: “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Cor. 1:20). Indeed, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

This is rest – This is repose

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When we read the stories about the Israelites and their disobedience to God and His judgements against them, we sometimes think – how can they make the same mistakes over and over again. But we fail to realize that we are no different. God says this is the way walk ye in it and we say “excuse me”  this is my way and I am going to walk just where I want. Well, we may not say it quite bluntly, but we do exactly what we want. Just like the Israelites we know that our safety, security, deliverance, peace and rest depend upon our total obedience and allegiance to the Lord, yet for the same reasons they chose to ignore God we choose to do the same. Consequently, we reap the fruits of disobedience. In the same way God warned  them by his Prophets that their safety and security, their deliverance from their present calamities and from the apprehensions of still greater approaching, depended wholly on their trust in God, their faith and obedience; he does the same for us – …

Feeling Thankful

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Feeling Thankful, a photo by wbrightministry on Flickr. God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left. Thank You so much Lord! Lam. 3:23

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; …