Go Into the World

Over the past several weeks, we have gone over ways that you can expand your daily Bible study time to deepen your walk with God.  Today, as we wrap up this series, I’d like to give you some practical ways to make yourself more mobile in your Bible studies and what you then do with your greater knowledge and deeper faith.

Worship

 

What is worship?  In reality, all that I am writing about in this series is a form of worship.  Worship includes everything in a Sunday church service.  Worship includes helping those less fortunate.  If all is done as to glorify God and to be obedient to him.  However, it seems like today with many Christians, worship just comprises the singing portion of a church service.  And that is how I am using the word today in this blog post, but I just wanted to clarify for the sake of correctness.

One of my favorite things to do is to sing.  I love music.  The way it makes you feel an emotion.  The way that you can use it to make others feel emotions.  The way that it can cross all sorts of situations, cultures, and barriers to make everyone feel connected.  It brings together, but it can also divide.  It can be a rally cry.  It will be stuck in your head for days, over and over and over…

Man’s Great End

Lord of All Being,

There is one thing that deserves my greatest care,

            that calls forth my ardent desires,

That is, that I many answer the great end for which

            I am made —

            to glorify thee who hast given me being,

            and to do all the good I can for my fellow men;

Verily, life is not worth having

            if it be not improved for this noble purpose.

Yet, Lord, how little is this the thought of mankind!

Most men seem to live for themselves,

            without much or any regard for thy glory,

            or for the good of others;

They earnestly desire and eagerly pursue

            the riches, honours, pleasures of this life,

            as if they supposed that wealth, greatness, merriment,

            could make their immortal souls happy;

But, alas, what false delusive dreams are these!

And how miserable ere long will those be that

            sleep in them,

            for all our happiness consists in loving thee,

            and being holy as thou art holy.

O may I never fall into the tempers and vanities,

            the sensuality and folly of the present world!

It is a place of inexpressible sorrow, a vast empty nothingness;

Time is a moment, a vapour,

            and all its enjoyments are empty bubbles,

            fleeting blasts of wind,

            from which nothing satisfactory can be derived;

Give me grace always to keep in covenant with thee,

            and to reject as delusion a great name here or hereafter,

            together with all sinful pleasures or profits.

Help me to know continually

            that there can be no true happiness,

            no fulfilling of thy purpose for me,

            apart from a life lived in and for

            the Son of thy love.

The Valley of Vision

Edited by Arthur Bennett

Ideas and Guidelines for Prayer

 

As I mentioned last week, the post about prayer became so long that I decided to split it up into two posts.  So without further ado…

Prayer

Prayer is so very important.  Most people pray, even non-Christians when they are in a bad situation.  Many others give prayers of thanksgiving when good things happen.  However, we are called to pray “unceasingly” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  Now, obviously we cannot do that literally.  There would be no way to fulfill the call to go out and make disciples or to eat or anything else.  We are instead supposed to be continually in prayer throughout the day.  One of the habits that I got into was thinking about all the times that I could pray while doing other things.  When I am sitting waiting somewhere, when I am driving, when I am walking from one room to another, when I am crocheting or other projects that do not take much concentration, and at specific times that I can set aside a few more minutes for a longer prayer (like when I wake up, go to sleep, or at meal times).  Many of theses prayers are tend to be very quick; a minute here, a few minutes there.

However, I also have set aside a time each day to come to the Lord in a more meaningful and deeper way.  I have carved out a longer time in order to give precedence to talking to God.  I try to pair this with my Bible study and worship time if I can.  And the easiest way that I have found to be able to remember what to pray about is to create an in-depth prayer list.  I have tried having it on the computer but have found this distracting.  I have also tried to keep a prayer journal, but then I am flipping through it more than need be.  Now, I have a prayer list on my computer that I print off and update every so often.  I am able to change and add to it in the mean time and when it starts getting messy then I write up a new one.

Expand Your Daily Bible Study

In the recent years, polls have shown that Biblical knowledge is at an all time low.  Mainstream Christianity is going towards a humanist-centric religion, based on how we feel, what we think, what others tell us outside our religion, what other religions do, and what popular consensus is with the masses.  Quite honestly, I wish these groups would stop calling themselves Christians because they hold true to almost none of the tenants of Christianity and those that they do, they have seriously twisted.

Walking the Path in 2015—Part Three

 

Last week, I wrote about the specific areas that I was going to work on for 2015.  My hope through this short series was just to show you my way of trying to be intentional in my life.  God has His plans for my life, and I know that I usually uncover them as I walk with Him.  However, that does not mean that I can’t have a plan for my life to help me follow what He wants.  And I am always ready for all of my plans to go out the window, if He so chooses to change my course.  Actually, by not thinking that these plans are set in stone and coming back many times throughout the year to re-evaluate, I make sure that I am first seeking what He wants and then setting my goals to do what He wants in my life.

And that brings me to my last category, which is health.  For me, this is a big one.  As Mark loves to say, I “play disorder bingo where no one is the winner.”  For years, I have been trying to find ways to either eliminate or improve health issues.  This has been hard, since most medications make me much sicker than the actual disorder.  I have been left to find natural ways or just deal.  I choose to try to improve my health.

Walking the Path in 2015—Part Two

Last week, I shared with you how 2014 went.  Part of what helps me to decide what I want to work towards for the next year is to see how God has worked in my life in the past year.  Then from there I try to make goals that will guide how I want to live the next year.  These goals are flexible and I revisit them several times throughout the year.  They always change from the beginning of the year to the end as God guides me on my path.

My goals really fall into four categories each year: God, husband, home, and health.  Could I come up with more things?  Yes, but these are really the four areas that I want to be intentional about.  I will go over each one of the areas, and then tell you one or two of the many goals I have set for each to give you an idea.  If you would like to do this too, your categories and subsequent goals will obviously look different, but this should give you a general idea how to set goals that will work with how God works and changes your life.