Spiritual Disicplines...

Following are some kickstarts to some of the Christian Spiritual disciplines with some beginning exercises for each discipline summarized from some entries in the NRV Spiritual Disciplines Bible:

Fasting

Hungering for God’s deliverance  2 Chronicles 20:3

Don’t wait for the Moabites to come marching in before practicing fasting.  Practicing fasting, dependence upon God, prior to emergencies leads to the natural practice of looking to God when emergencies do happen.  Start off practicing a short 24-hour fast, lunch to lunch.  Drink plenty of water, perhaps with a bit of lime or lemon.  Expect distractions and some discomfort--use distractions and discomfort to turn to God in thought and prayer.  Keep a journal/phone/pad handy to record insights throughout the day.

Service

Leading by serving  Mk 10:41-45

Though God is all powerful and worthy of all honor and glory, he became a suffering servant (Is 53.)  In the eyes of God, greatness is not measured by where we stand but by where we kneel.  Where are you most tempted to seek places of honor?  Church?  School?  Sports?  What one step can you take to free yourself from seeking your own interests and to begin focusing on serving others?  Write it down and let your friend know.

Repentance & confession

The 10 Commandments:  A gracious moral inventory  Ex 20:1-17

By God’s grace, a moral inventory of our past behavior compared to the 10 commandments is not a process of despair but rather restitution, reconciliation and renewal.  Examine your spiritual life by reflecting on each of the commandments.  How does each one apply to you--both in attitude and behavior.  What causes you the most concern?  What causes you the least?  How can you make the Ten commandments a regular part of your daily confession to God?

Stewardship

A way to remind yourself  Deut 8:17-18

Prosperity can lead to spiritual amnesia.  If we allow ourselves to be numb to God through comfort and prosperity (America is still the most prosperous world nation), we will pay the price.  Do you consider your money a reminder of God’s provision?  Can you remember living “manna” to mouth?  How did it affect your spiritual life living on more manna and less money?  Read Deut 8 noting the promises of God’s provision.  Record as many specific occasions as you can remember that God has provided for you.

Spiritual Friendship

But isn’t God enough?  Gen 2:18

Our spiritual journey is not a solo journey.  Spiritual friendships can heighten our awareness of God’s presence, provide accountability, and provide encouragement.  Who encourages your spiritual vitality?  Who is trustworthy?  Make a list of some people and spend time praying for God to lead you into a deeper “soul” friend relationship.  If you already have a close Christian relationship as such, pray for God to lead you in deepening that friendship.  Include who God has laid on your heart about your intention to deepen in fellowship.

Prayer

Exploring God’s Mercy, Learning God’s Heart  Gen 18:1-33

Prayer can be one of the most frustrating yet rewarding disciplines.  Prayer begins not with requests but with our relationship with God.  Reflect on your view of God.  How do you think God views you?  Is there someone you know in a bad situation, or is something overwhelming you with anxiety?  Talk with God about it as a conversation with a special friend that wants the best for you and for all.

Bible Study & Meditation

Handwriting on the heart  Deut 17:18

Israel’s king had to make his own personal copy of the law.  Obedience to God was essential to his effectiveness as a leader.  Spend a period of time copying Scripture by hand.  Choose one of the shorter epistles or several favorite chapters of the Bible.  what do you notice as you copy?  As you make your copy, be ready to note insights and ideas in your journal so you can give them thought later.

Worship

Take a Rest  Exodus 20:8-11

Few of the spiritual disciplines are clearly commanded in scripture, though some are.  Most are accepted because of example and the testimony of God’s people.  But observing the Sabbath, a day of rest, is a commandment, to serve as a worshipful reminder of the Lord’s covenant with us and as a means to our well-being.  Worship sets the pace for our lives.  When was the last time you scheduled a time of doing absolutely nothing?  Reflect on you weekly sabbath day.  Consider eliminating some activities and adding some restful things like taking a nap, sitting alone with some music, taking a leisurely walk...how do you rest?  The purpose is to rest and refresh your soul, not exercise the soul.  Remember God’s covenant with you and refresh your soul.

Who's Speaking?

I spent a recent morning in prayer alone with only God and nature on the back deck.  The birds chattered so much that any other sounds were muted in the process.  As I spent time in solitude, getting annoyed by the constant chirping and babbling of the birds,  Job's conclusive statements about God resounded in my head.

About God, he spoke:
You said, "Listen!  And I will speak!  I have some questions for you, and you must answer them!"  I had heard about you before but now I see you with my own eyes.  I take back everything I've said and now I sit in dust and ashes in repentance.

I'd read a different take on Job's conversation with his friends and with God earlier, one that is not important to review here, other than to say, this epiphany was much brighter.  God prepared my heart in  advance through a random presentation of His word.  Then through an exercise in solitude, God made clear to me the babbling bird I can be.

He loves the babble of the birds because He created their songs, but I get caught up in singing my song to other busy birds and forget to listen for the conductor, telling me when I'm a bit flat, or encouraging a good run of notes, or adjusting my tempo.

As I gave Him the issues on my heart, I left them on the table, stopped my chirping and listened for Him.  Scriptures zinged at me and through me as reminders that His voice is written down, and He's happy to remind us of what He's said regarding our struggles.   As I see the value of the rambling of this world compared to the clarity of Christ, I realize that I must listen.  God has some questions for me, and I must answer them.  Will my answer involve obedience always and repentance when necessary?  Truthfully, I'll probably still do my share of screeching in the trees, but I pray through regular solitude, I can become better at recognizing the Spirit's voice, listening for His lead and in obedience, keeping in step with His rhythm.

Salty Sacrifice and Holiness

     Recently, I was reading a book regarding holiness, which ironically, pointed me back to scripture by pointing out Leviticus as a book devoted to holiness.  Many times we search for answers ourselves while God directs us back to His word, so I found no surprise in finding a verse I noted years ago in my Bible:
  "Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.  Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy."  Lev 20: 7-8

     So even before Jesus came in flesh, God instructed us to set ourselves apart, following His instructions, His law; but regardless of our efforts, it is God who makes us holy.  Paul poses the New Testament question of if we should just forget about trying to obey God, so that God's grace can be even greater.  The answer is absolutely not, and James expanded that answer to write that faith without works is a dead faith.

     Getting back to Leviticus and holiness, how does this work if God does the work, but we are supposed to play an active part.  Isn't playing an active part, in essence working?

     If I do not lie with a man as a man lies with a woman, will God make me Holy?  What about if I avoid taking my wife's sister as a rival wife?  Or not mating different kinds of animals?  Or not eating blood, making sacrifices correctly, burning mildew?  What do all these laws mean?

     Leviticus runs through a ton of instructions to give further detail from God's greatest instructions as applied to the Israelites.  Much discussion can be had on what those instructions meant to them at that time in relation to modern times on this side of the cross--but as a general look, it seems that the point of all the instructions was laying out things that would sever relationship with God, setting us apart from God instead of setting us apart for God.

     How do we set ourselves apart for God?

     "Season all your grain offerings with salt.  Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings."  Lev 2:13

     We must make an offering to God.  We don't make grain, or fellowship, burnt or guilt offerings today as they were prescribed back then, but this description given of the grain offering means everything compared with the offering we are asked to give today.  Jesus told us to sacrifice ourselves by taking up our cross daily to follow Him.  Paul describes the Levitical instruction in greater detail in Romans 12:1.

     "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship."

     And when we offer our bodies, we should be applying plenty of salt.  Does this mean we should shower each morning in saltwater?  I don't think so, but Jesus referred to us in Mw 5:13 as the salt of the earth.  We don't want to lose our saltiness, so should be bathing in the light of Jesus each day to salt our living sacrifices in the Spirit.

     We can't produce the salt ourselves.  From where does it flow?

     "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."  Lev 17:11

     This verse referenced the restrictions of eating blood given to the Israelites, but we can see God's message that becomes clearer this side of the cross.  It is the blood of Jesus that makes atonement for our sins.  Jesus is THE salt of the covenant.  That is why we must salt our lives with Christ.  He makes us holy,   set apart,   as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory both now and forever!  Amen.

Dealing with Pain and Struggles

We are studying Luke 17:3-4 and the need to forgive those who have sinned against us--those who have caused us pain and struggle.

Luke reads:  "So watch yourselves.  If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.  If he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him."

This is a powerful section about Jesus' instructions for approaching sin in others and the power of forgiveness and repentance in our Christian relationships.  We all fall short of the glory of God, so we will find ourselves both on the repentance and forgiveness sides of our relationships; and Jesus is calling for us to set ourselves apart from they way the world handles pain and retribution.  "Don't get mad, get even," is a common ideology from the world.  Jesus is commanding us:  "Don't get mad, forgive; Don't get even, repent."

Jesus calls us to be holy--set apart from the world.  In studying this week's subject, I read through 1 Peter 1:15-16 as well:
"But as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written:  'Be holy because I am holy.'"

When I read "...for it is written..." I searched for the references from where 'it' was written.  I found the command in an Old Testament book that loves commands:  Leviticus.  God commands this multiple times in chapters 11 and 20, but chapter 20, verses 7-8 resonated most with my study and the scripture from 1 Peter.  The Holy Spirit directed my attention:

"Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.  Keep my decrees and follow them.  I am the Lord, who makes you holy."

In this brief scripture, God says much on the combination of faith, works, grace and forgiveness.

First, He commands us to be holy--set apart for Him.  If we are to be in communion with His Spirit, our spirits need to be set apart from the pursuits and logic of this world.

Secondly, He explains why.  He is the Lord our God, but He isn't our God if we are setting up idols and alternative thrones here on this earth.  The world preaches to place ourselves on the throne and seek to be served.  God commands that we serve and worship Him on His throne, recognizing Him as the giver of life and creator of all matter, anti-matter; seen and unseen.

Third, He explains the definition of a holy life.  A holy life is keeping God's decrees and following His ways.  We can try with all our might, but no man has proven to be able to follow all of God's commandments wholeheartedly with perfection.

So how can we follow His decrees?  How can we forgive those indebted to us?  How can we seek true repentance?

In verse 8, God states that He is the Lord, "who makes you holy."  God does the work!  Way back in Leviticus, God alludes to the power of the Gospel and His everlasting grace!  How cool is that?  Through the sacrifice of Jesus, our sin debt is paid.  Through His resurrection, He conquered death, which was our debt to sin.  Through our trust placed in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we repent and are baptized into Christ.  The Holy Spirit then indwells our spirit, resurrecting to life our formerly dead spirit!  God in us then goes to work, setting us apart, guiding us to forgiveness, to repentance and growing us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory, now and forever!  AMEN!

Nabeel Qureshi

www.acts17.net

I shared a youtube video of Nabeel's testimony with our high school youth group...I also heard him speak at church.  He's got a powerful story and is eloquent with apologetics and the Gospel.

Creation

     Create what is uncreative
set out for ordinary
     navigate normalcy
Stand out to be whacked
Back to the safety of mediocrity
     Passive language
     Describing being rather than action
Raze the foundation of safe
     uncreated creation
Raze perception of the uncreated
Demolish ordinary, annihilate passivity
     The uncreated created all
Breathed life into something from nothing
     Seek the uncreated for meaning, truth
beyond human mediocrity, exceeding language
     into space, time, passing through
safety of parameters
     into holes of everything but nothing
through dimensions emitting nothing
     Nothing but curiosity
Is being active
     producing an active being
or being, abiding
     action to behold
Behold the uncreated
     Creation holds You as nothing
Nothing from which came everything!

Yada -- Knowing God More

After some encouragement from others desiring to see my journal on this experience, I am sharing my journal notes from an exercise in prayer, listening for God rather than talking.  I encourage you to spend an extended period of praying to God to know Him more and then listen for Him, patiently, and with not only your mind or your ears open, but all of your senses to how He may want to communicate with you.  Here's Day 1:

Praying to know God—to see His face, to know Him more… 

Day one: 
In prayer today my mind wandered a bit and staying focused on God rather than self was difficult, but as I struggled, a rain-soaked chunk of soil entered my thoughts. Dark black dirt bleeding water beside a stream poured through my heart. Though plain and dirty, grass grew lush green on the banks, and the mud and muck screamed life. God creates. He uses muck to produce life and beauty. The darkest, dirtiest soul, once saturated to bleeding out living water glorifies the Creator with the beauty of fresh life. 
He breathed life into all—into me. My breath is the breath of God our Creator—Who created everything. What then shall I breathe but God and His word, that I may inhale Christ and exhale life to a suffocating world? Sola Deo Gloria! 

Yada -- Knowing God More Day 2

Day two: 
Today again, my thoughts were running wild rather than listening for God. I sat outside, and with my eyes closed, every twitch or breeze set my mind on thoughts of bugs hopping all over me. Then I thought and perhaps boasted to God that at least I’m not like those legalistic folks who feel they need to pray on their knees. Then God said, “Submission.” I quickly understood this was God’s intention for me to learn of Him today, but while Jesus submitted to His Father, is God really the face of submission? 

“Get on your knees.” 

Surely that’s Satan playing with my mind. I’m not legalistic and I’m quite comfortable praying in the chair. 

“Submit.” 

“Got it…I kneeled.” 

I am prideful even with no one around. After getting on my knees God brought to mind bigger submission failures on my part. Submission is the key for today. Follow His prompting. Don’t wait for God to explain Himself or beg—just submit in humble obedience.

Kneel. Pray. Write. Tell. 

Yada -- Knowing God More Day 3

Day three: 
It’s taken me a couple of days to revisit this exercise. The delay could be blamed on “busyness” and fatigue, but truthfully, after two “wow” days of God revealing Himself, I feared what would come next. In my mind, I expected that I couldn’t be and don’t deserve to be in tune with God every day. What if God is silent and won’t talk to me? How would I interpret that? 
He was not silent. Today—He is not silent still. When I sat to pray, fatigued and pessimistic about prayer this morning, He reminded me of our chats earlier this week and led me back to my knees. The breeze on my face reminded me of His breath and as I turned to my knees, He gently blew on my back. 
Encourager. 
He didn’t waste any time this morning, as if anxious to let me know—God has my back. God you are in me and with me and as I breathe in your Spirit and submit to your instruction, you encourage my soul. In His Word God told Abram to get up from His father’s house, go to the land “which I will show you…And I will bless you.” 
No matter what stands before me, Lord you permeate me, you instruct and guide me; you encourage me. With the One who created everything so involved with me, what fears then should I have—only the reverent fear of God to listen for His voice, Wisdom. 

Yada -- Knowing God More Day 4

Day four: 


I Am Infinity. 

“Meow!” And I Am a joker—Infinite humor! Sending a cat 


up behind me, You might as well have just said, “Boo!” 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 5

Day five: 
I’d been flying since 7 AM and gained three hours coming to the West Coast. I then drove around 40 miles into Los Angeles, only receiving two honks and one exasperated gesture. 
After getting checked into my hotel, I decided to go for a bite to eat at a Burger King in walking distance. I’d only had coffee and a muffin within the last 10 hours and was hungry. 
Why do I note this? 
After getting my meal, God prompted me to give it to a homeless man passed out on the side of the road. After walking towards him, away again, back and away, with a war of thought in my mind, I dismissed God as merely self-imposed guilt from recent discussions of the homeless. Besides, I was hungry! 

God is compassion! I am not! I’m still working on submission. Lord, in the past week, I’ve prayed like a Pharisee, and shown the lack of compassion as a Pharisee! How wretched am I?! 
Still You are with me. Abraham gave Sarah to another and still you were with him. I’m reminded also having realized I’m checked into room 777. God, You don’t just have compassion on the homeless, but on me as well. Everyone needs compassion, forgiveness of a savior. Thank you for your compassion. Forgive me please of my callous, rebellious heart. I pray today for a heart of submission filled with compassion for others. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 6

Day six: 


God is affectionate. Sometimes He doesn’t want to say anything. He just wants to give a big hug. I’ve been struggling in my emotions lately and after babbling a bit in prayer, God gave me a hug—unexplainable to a point, but it was not as if I was in some hallucinatory state or physically hugging myself…somehow God’s arms were around me in hugging fashion and I knew it. I know Jesus used the sense of touch in His ministry on earth; He still touches today! His Spirit is within me, yet also around me, with me, touching me and comforting me. I can’t wrap Him up with crisp, pretty paper in a package with a nice ribbon, but somehow in prayer this morning, I know He hugged me because I needed it and because that was His desire. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 7

Day seven: 

The Way, the Truth and the Life. 

I noted this morning in Genesis 46 how Jacob sent Judah ahead to show the way to Goshen. In the same fashion, the Lion of Judah was sent ahead to show us the way to salvation from spiritual famine and death. (He went ahead to conquer death and show us the way!) 

In prayer, God kept directing me back to “the way.” I knew I had just noted this in my reading so I asked God to shut up my thoughts that I may see Him today. Do I not believe He speaks through His word? 

The Way—The Way, the Truth and the Life. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14) God is Trinity. I can attribute the components of the way, truth and life to the Son, Father and Holy Spirit; but they are all three all three. The Trinity is a great mystery to me, yet I know more clearly today that Jesus, who is the Word, is God the Father revealed to me from the Spirit indwelling my heart and directing my response to the Word. 
Jesus is the Way!

yada -- Knowing God More Day 8

Day eight: 

Seed. Seed? God, You are seed? A small, hard nut producing life in the right conditions? 
When a seed is planted in good dirt (kind of oxymoronic, right? Rich filth, fertile filth, righteous mud….) given water and sun, it breaks forth from its burial to brilliant life. It uses the soil, yet there is nothing dirty about a daisy other than from where it is rooted. 
I am righteous clay with God’s holy seed planted in the depths of my dirt, fed by His Word—the Son, the living water; and pruned by the Gardener, the Father. Another view of the Trinity in a single seed. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 9

Day nine: 
It’s so noisy in here this morning. The TV is pounding a dark song through the house, through my thoughts, my attempts to pray. 
To the back deck I must go! God, the birds won’t shut up out here—I can’t concentrate this morn---- 
Wait. The TV had orchestration from man—dark and ugly music. These birds have incredible songs! Incredible morning music orchestrated and directed by the One who created music. Listen to the symphony! God, this music is so cool! I want my music to resonate Your song because it is not my music but Yours placed in my soul. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 10

Day ten: 
Why worry? God provides. 

Easier said than believed. In my darkest heart I believe God's providence is insufficient--like coriander cakes when I crave meat. God sustains me; my wanton desires stretch me thin. Why do I struggle with faith that God's manna is enough? He is the bread of life; God, You are my bread of life. Please, God, sustain me even as my sinful appetite hunts for variety in my diet--food that will make me ill in my greed and steal the life You have breathed into me. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 11

"Day eleven: 
I am the Lord your God." 

He is my lawgiver and judge. 

"I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord your God." 

God saved Israel but still burned in anger when they sinned. Sin angers God. 

Lord, may I desire You and revel in your commandments rather than pursuing my own gods and laws; that I may be as Caleb and Joshua, ready to enter Your rest by Your power and grace. 

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord your God. 

Spiritual Block: Read and Listen

Sometimes we have struggles keeping in step with the Spirit. I seem to be going through the motions sometimes going to church, praying for dinner, saying, "God Bless you," when someone sneezes. You could list a few going-through-the-motions activities yourself--I could list many more here, but the purpose of this block is to offer exercises in getting back in touch with the Holy Spirit--to find life in Christ and Kingdom living here on earth now!

Choose a book from the Bible.  If you normally find yourself in the New Testament, choose one from the Old; if you normally find yourself in the Old, choose one in the New.  Divide the number of chapters by 30 and read that many chapters per day.  Pray before reading for God to open His word to your mind for the day.  Then read intently.  After reading, pray to God, listening for Him and what He brings to your mind of what you just read.  Be patient and as your mind may get distracted, direct your thoughts back to what you just read and listen for Him.  Now journal your thoughts for future reflection and reminders of God's voice.

In Christ, Andy

yada -- Knowing God More Day 12

Day twelve: 
Clean. Pure. God, You breathe life into all life. Therefore, life itself is clean and pure, holy--sacred. Death is unclean, dirty, unrighteous and rebellious. Life screams love. Death screams nothing. Life abundant sheds entanglement with sin and death, solely focussed on the Giver of life--our clean, pure, holy, perfect God, the Wellspring of life. 

yada -- Knowing God More Day 13

Day thirteen: 
Keep the faith