The Bible Experience-20 minutes-5 days

The Bible Experience is a unique opportunity for you to draw close to the author of the Bible. The Bible is a collection of books that have been inspired by God and left for us as a tool to get to know Him and be transformed in the process.

On this journey we will read through select books of the Old and New Testaments two chapters a day, five days week, taking Saturday and Sunday off as days to rest and worship with the church.

This experience is a steady pace of reading that will allow you to soak in the Word of God and apply what you have read to your life. We are not trying to read through the entire Bible in a certain amount of time, rather we are developing a repeatable and reproducible pattern that will help you read the Bible for life.

As in any relationships knowing God takes time together. If you are just beginning, 20 minutes a day is a good way to start. Find a quiet place and a workable time when you can regularly be alone. Then…

Pray (5 minutes) Talk from the heart abou the things that matter most to you. You might follow the well-known pattern of “ACTS”
-Adoration: “Lord, I’m amazed by Your
-Confession: “Lord, I was wrong when I…”
-Thanksgiving:”Lord, I’m grateful for…”
-Supplication: “Lord, I need…”

Read (10 minutes) Follow the Bible Experience reading Guide, read two chapters a day. (5 days a week)

Journal (5 minutes) After you’ve read your chapter go back and ask, “what is God saying to me?” In just two or three sentences write what you are hearing.

Join in and experience a more intimate fellowship with God.

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Ending a Fast-Six Things to Remember

The fast is over, now what? Earlier I passed on 27 Biblical Reasons to Fast and also 8 Biblical Reasons to Stop Fasting. Let's look at six things to remember when ending a fast.

1) The fast may be over but the purpose of the fast is continual.
2) Don't gorge yourself, ease back into your regular eating.
3) Any new habits that you developed keep them throughout the year.
4) Continue to pray without ceasing
5) Stay attune for other times God may inspire you to fast
6) Take time to evaluate your fasting period by asking your self these questions:

-What have I learned about myself?
-What have I learned about God?
-What were some breakthroughs in my life or in the life of others?
-What contrary attitudes or behaviors came to the surface while fasting?
-What did I discover about my pace of life?
-What did I discover about my ability to focus on God?
-What were some obstacles that I had to overcome?

Biblical fasting is a means not an end. There is really nothing that you were doing while fasting that you should stop doing, short of abstaining from food or drink. The expereince of fasting may not be as good of a teacher as an EVALUATED fasting experience. Use the questions above to evaluate your fast. May your season of fasting be a platform for a fruitful year.

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Fasting-27 Reasons

January is often a month of prayer, fasting, and consecration. At Church Ablaze and many other churches often a Church wide fast is called by the leadership. When taking on a fast the big question that comes up is, "Why am I doing this?" My family did a little Bible study together and came up with 27 biblical reasons to fast.








1) Intensify the effectiveness of prayer Isaiah 58:9, Ezra 8:23
2) A means to seek the Lord Dan 9:3
3) A means to accompany confession Dan 9:3; I Samuel 7:6; Neh. 9:1-3
4) A means to accompany returning to the Lord Joel 2:12-16
5) A means to serve or worship God Luke 2:37, Acts 13;2-3
6) A means to accompany prayer Neh. 9:1-3; Luke 2:37; Acts 13:2-3
7) A means to accompany bible reading Neh. 9:1-3
8) A means to train our bodies 1 Cor. 9:27
9) A means to invoke humility Ezra 8:21
10) A means of mourning I Sam 31:13; II Sam. 1:12; 12:16
11) To accelerate physical healing Isaiah 58:8
12) So righteousness will go before you and glory behind you. Isaiah 58:8
13) To overcome strong temptations Luke 4:1-2
14) To strengthen obedience to God Luke 4:1-2
15) A response to being led by the Spirit Luke 4:1-2
16) To enhance personal devotions Matthew 6:16-18
17) To loosen heavy burdens and wickedness Isaiah 58:6
18) To free the oppressed Isaiah 58:6
19) To respond in times of crisis and seek deliverance 2 Chron. 20:3-4
20) To develop a hunger for God’s word over food. Matt. 4:4
21) To focus your hearing in making decisions Acts 13:2-3;
22) To find and set forth leaders Acts 14:23
23) To hear directions from God clearer Acts 10:30-32
24) To increase faith to overcome evil spirits Matt. 17:19-21; Mark 9:28-29
25) To seek God's protection Ezra 8:21-23
26) A reminder to share with the poor Isaiah 58:7
27) A reminder to help your family with needs Isaiah 58:7
Incorporating fasting as a spiritual discipline is like injecting an accelerator into all of the other means you pursue God. It totally is an example of offering your body as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1). A great ebook on the subject of prayer and fasting is available for free from John Piper called "Hunger for God". Take these 27 reasons to heart and make fasting apart of your spiritual growth. Also you can read a blog I did on Journaling that is a very effective spiritual discipline too. What has been your experience with fasting?

Listen to a message here: Spirtiual Disciplines II-Fasting

Read: 8 Biblical Reasons to Stop Fasting
Read: Ending a Fast-Six Things to Remember

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Journaling-Five Things

I have been journaling since 1992. If I don't journal my thoughts I get into endless cycles that leave me unfruitful in life. I am not a "Dear Abby" journaler. I don't write everyday. It is not a "have to" event for me, whether it is a "want to" event. I have no form. I have no script. I just start writing whatever comes from my head, to my hand, to the paper. Personally I believe this is how the Psalms were written. That is why the Psalms are the most referred to book in the Bible when you need empathy for your feelings.
I know one day my children will go thumbing through my journals and will wonder if they had a schizophrenic for a dad. I tell it like it is. My frustrations, anger, disappointments all come out. Not only is it my dumping station for my feelings, but it is also my altar. I bring my sins to the altar on those pages. It is where I meet God. Sure I pour plenty of my garbage in it, but I also write all of the inspiration and revelation that God deposits through me as I write.
One of my favorite passages is Psalms 51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."
Through my brokenness God repeatedly showers me with wholeness as I write. When I mourn He comforts, when I am confused He brings clarity, when I am frustrated He calms me down.
I guess that is why I now love these social platforms for communicating my heart like Blogs, Facebook, & Twitter. I recently have taken a a few days off from Facebook and Twitter just because I can. I wrote in 2009 how it helps me (Click here). Some say that their blog has replaced their journal. But I can't cosign that, to me nothing replaces the old fashion pen on paper. When I type, I am automatically thinking about formatting. When I write on paper I just flow.
Five things I use my journal for:
1) I use them as scrap books. I staple articles or devotions in them that impact my life.
2) I write down key points from sermons, my thoughts, & impactful thoughts of others.
3) I write my prayers: the request and the answers.
4) I draw pictures of Biblical truths to help me understand.
5) I preach from it, Facebook from it, Tweet from it, and Blog from it.

Five questions you can answer when journaling:
1) What is going well? Why?
2) Who needs prayer? Your confessions? Marriage? Children? others?
3) What would I do differently, if I could do it again? Why?
4) What have I learned about myself and my leadership?
5) What areas do I need to correct, change or grow in? Where is God at work in my life?

Five reasons I would encourage you to get a notebook and write your thoughts:
1) You have a reference point to evaluate your life experiences.
2) It tames your thought life and helps to ends cycles of thought that rythmically beat you down.
3) It affords one more platform for the Holy Spirit to teach you.
4) It is a great collection point for all of the teachable moments that you encounter in your day.
5) It becomes a funnel that can take the broad array of your emotions and narrow it down to the heart of the matter.

These are my thoughts what are yours? How does journaling help you.

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Miscarriage

A miscarriage is a heart tugging event. My wife and I have had four. I am not writing this to prompt your sympathy cause I know most of you are very sympathetic and would be in prayer for us. I just wanted to put my thoughts out there. Our first miscarriage was back in March of 2007 with a loaded U-haul truck headed south moving from Iowa to Oklahoma. I remember the events play-by-play. They stick in my head so much because my human frailty became so evident during this time.

I have to share a little history, my wife and I had five children at that point practically by rubbing elbows the first 10 years of our marriage. :-) To conceive again and have complications was a shocker. When things were finally confirmed about the miscarriage I think I experienced every emotion known to man in a matter of 5 seconds (Anger, hurt, confusion, frustration, grief, sadness, etc.). This cycle of emotions left me numb and speechless, grasping for some form of context to try and comfort myself and comfort my wife. It was a tough time.

After some praying, tears, and hugs we proceeded back down the highway. My wife and I were in the bucket seats of our Chevy G20 van (named Old Betsy) when our second born son, whose was eight at that time, said, "I know why God allowed that to happen". We both looked at each other in amazement and said, "You do? Why?" Our son said, "Because God wanted to know if something happened that we didn't want to happen if we would still trust Him". As he spoke those words it is as if each word was being etched in my heart with a hot pen.

Lisa and I both looked at each other and at the same time teared up and then began to pray and affirm our trust in God. God just used an eight year old boy to secure our hearts and shore up our faith and put everything back in perspective. Little did we know seven months later we would face our second miscarriage and we didn't conceive again until January 2009. In a nutshell this is what I have learned:

1) That it is easy to trust and have faith when things are going my way, but the true test is when things are not going my way.
2) That control is an illusion. I am dependent. Jesus is not only savior but LORD.
3) Trying to figure out how and why in these situations can take you under real quick unless you truly stop trying to figure it out and cast the care on the LORD.
4) Either I trust God or I don't. Either God is sovereign or He's not.
5) To value the conception of a child at day one, and enjoy each day even as the baby is maturing in the womb.
6) To not allow a miscarriage to alter your plan or desire for more children. God can give you courage to move on. We are so thankful we proceeded forward and God blessed us with number six two years later!
7) This was a friendly reminder that the whole process of conception needs to be done in faith and shouldn't be taken for granted. It taught me to take the season of child bearing years as a gift from God and to be a good steward of this time.
8) That there is a real spiritual peace that God supplies,that has this mysterious way of comforting the human heart.
9) That God speaks through my children.
10)That God's ways are higher than my ways and his thoughts are higher than my thoughts. There are some things I may never understand but the lack of understanding does not have to cause me to doubt God's ability or His sovereign will.

Fear can truly attempt to take residence in a couples heart after a miscarriage. Moving forward with intimacy and moving forward in procreation has to be done in faith. Personally, I believe the worry and fear associated with a past miscarriage produces stress that hinders the child bearing process. I am no doctor, but I do know that fear is not from God and the atmosphere that fear generates is not productive. I told my wife to not assume and jump to conclusions that something is wrong with her physically. I have seen crack addicts have healthy babies. I have seen women that have intentionally starved themselves and tumble down stairs end up with healthy babies. So it still boils down to the sovereign will of the Lord. No matter how much medical science discovers about hormone levels it still boils down to this. DO WE TRUST HIM EVEN WHEN THINGS HAPPEN WE DON'T WANT TO HAPPEN.

I thank God for our four miscarriages they have drawn me close to the bosom of my Heavenly Father, closer to my wife and the children I have been blessed with. The picture above was the pregnancy of our 6th baby (who is now 2), which is proof that there is life after miscarriage. I am a gratefully, dependent man that is blessed with a wonderful wife.

This was an updated post from November 2010, hope it encourages at least one family.
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The Secret Place

There are thoughts and musings in my heart that are a secret that no one else knows. There are ideas, plans, and conclusions in my heart that have never been uttered out of my mouth. My heart has a chamber marked "secret". Frankly the things in this chamber of my heart I am not even fully aware of. Their are only special times that I even have the right keys to open the secret place of my heart. When I go into that room it is a deliberate act that is contrary to what the rest of my body wants to do. When I shut the door it is an intentional cutting off of all my minds activities. When I begin to pray to my Father something shocking happens. That chamber marked "secret" begins to open and I realize that the Father has been dwelling there all along. At first I am amazed and little ashamed that God has a totally different view of me than what I do of myself and what others have of me. The things I begin to discover as I talk to God are so liberating, comforting, reassuring, and challenging. I get this extreme safety to be transparent about my faults but at the same time this assurance that I'm forgiven. I get this freedom to share my confusions but at the same time this calm sense of guidance and direction. In the secret place is where God's thoughts towards me and what I believe collide and my faith is forged to tackle another day. I can now go about my day recieving rewards that I discovered in my secret place where the Father dwells.

Matt. 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in sceret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"He who fails to pray does not cheat God. He cheats himself."-George Failing
"The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer."-F.B. Meyer

Inspired by Oswald Chambers devotion: His Utmost for his Highest

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Ten Lies I almost believed about Parenting

Below are ten lies that I almost believed about parenting.
1) I couldn't afford to have children
2) I would be stressed out everyday.
3) That my children will grow up to hate me if I spanked them.
4) That you can't raise children to happily obey the first time.
5) That I had to get a bigger place and new car when the baby was born.
6) That yelling, threatening, and intimidating is the best way to demand compliance.
7) That God's ways for disciplining children are archaic and out of date.
8) That having more that two children is irresponsible.
9) That children desire video games and toys more than you.
10) That young children don't understand what you are telling them.

Some parents have been fed a bill of goods. Parents are limiting their family size, parenting out of fear, and altering they way they discipline all off of lies.

What are some lies you almost believed?


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