I have this devotional that I like to use, it's Experiencing God Day by Day by Henry & Richard Blackaby. I absolutely love this thing because it's like a magic devotional--it always seems to speak directly about what's going on with me currently. I previously blogged about how discernment and discovering God's will are a major theme in my life right now. This devotional is one of the sources of that. I'm not saying it will speak so powerfully and directly to everyone, but it my case God is certainly using it as a megaphone for His voice.
Ephesians 5:15-16 admonishes us to make wise use of our time. While this is certainly good advice on any given day of the year, the fact that it was the topic of Sunday's devotional is another instance of my recurring themes these days. The portion which spoke most directly to me is: "Multitudes are dying each year without hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Investing your life wisely is critical to you and to those around you. Foolishly spending your time in sinful or wasteful pursuits can cost you and others dearly." While it's easy to see how time invested wisely benefits ourselves and others, it's much harder to discern the good not done by inactivity and inaction.
This struck a cord with me with regards to Wycliffe Bible Translators. As I've considered bible translation as a possible ministry, I am more and more convicted of the importance of bringing Scripture to people groups who don't have it in their native language. How important an investment of time is it for someone gifted in languages to use their abilities to do this? The more I consider it, the more the idea thrills me! And while this idea makes sense in and of itself, that doesn't mean that it's God's will for my life. Were Ann & I to become Wycliffe members, it would mean HUGE changes for our family. The more I think about this, the less it scares me. The more I continue to think about it, the more I feel willing to endure dramatic life changes in order to be a part of a team that brings Scripture to a people group who have never had it before.
So is this a call from God or a passing interest? As the saying goes I guess, "that's for God to know and me to find out."
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Video: How can I discover God's will for my life?
Again, how amazing is it that on the morning when I take time to blog about discerning God's will in my life, I come across this video on Facebook? God is simply amazing!! He's smashing me over the head with a hammer these days, making it clear to me that my spiritual job right now is to seek His will. :)
My Prayer Council
It's probably been a week since my last post and I know it's been a week since I spent some morning devotional time with God. Not surprisingly--though amazingly, for the Lord is so awesome and loving--today's devotional picked up where I left off with God last week.
Today's devotional was entitled "Daily Bread" and stressed our daily reliance on God and our trust in Him, one day at a time. The scripture quoted was Matthew 6:11: "Give us this day our daily bread." This isn't an echo, but a thunderous roar that connects with the last scripture I blogged about: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:34 ESV)
One of my greatest prayer needs these days is to make the time time daily to spend with God. I keep coming across quotes and references (on Facebook, books I'm reading, etc) that emphasize that the most important thing a man can do to lead his family is to spend daily time with God, seeking His will. I want this SO much but I struggle mightily to find the time to do this. With a four on, four off work schedule of 12 hour shifts I find that my working days are the hardest in which to find time for God. Then on my four days off I'm doing doing doing to catch up with all the worldly things I didn't have time for while working, yet I struggle to make time for Him in the busy-ness of my day.
So what do we do when we have to do something but can't do it ourselves? My children know this mantra well: we ask for help! So that's what I'm doing. I'm expanding this blog to include some folks that I'm asking to be my Prayer Council. No meetings of the council are necessary and there are no committees to join. All I'm asking is that you subscribe to this blog and pray for me and my family as we travel this journey. If you want to leave comments that's great but not required. If you're not interested in subscribing that's fine too. I'm simply reaching out to some folks in my life with whom I feel a connection and (I'm pretty sure) will be willing to pray for us.
I know you all have your own time to spend with God and your own worldly demands eating up your time. I've selected you because I admire your faith and trust in God and your dedication to prayer for daily needs.
Thank you in advance for entertaining my request. :)
Today's devotional was entitled "Daily Bread" and stressed our daily reliance on God and our trust in Him, one day at a time. The scripture quoted was Matthew 6:11: "Give us this day our daily bread." This isn't an echo, but a thunderous roar that connects with the last scripture I blogged about: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:34 ESV)
One of my greatest prayer needs these days is to make the time time daily to spend with God. I keep coming across quotes and references (on Facebook, books I'm reading, etc) that emphasize that the most important thing a man can do to lead his family is to spend daily time with God, seeking His will. I want this SO much but I struggle mightily to find the time to do this. With a four on, four off work schedule of 12 hour shifts I find that my working days are the hardest in which to find time for God. Then on my four days off I'm doing doing doing to catch up with all the worldly things I didn't have time for while working, yet I struggle to make time for Him in the busy-ness of my day.
So what do we do when we have to do something but can't do it ourselves? My children know this mantra well: we ask for help! So that's what I'm doing. I'm expanding this blog to include some folks that I'm asking to be my Prayer Council. No meetings of the council are necessary and there are no committees to join. All I'm asking is that you subscribe to this blog and pray for me and my family as we travel this journey. If you want to leave comments that's great but not required. If you're not interested in subscribing that's fine too. I'm simply reaching out to some folks in my life with whom I feel a connection and (I'm pretty sure) will be willing to pray for us.
I know you all have your own time to spend with God and your own worldly demands eating up your time. I've selected you because I admire your faith and trust in God and your dedication to prayer for daily needs.
Thank you in advance for entertaining my request. :)
Sunday, August 12, 2012
What God is Teaching Me
While doing an assignment in The New Joy of Discovery in Bible Study by Oletta Wald (a book assigned for our NT and OT survey classes) I was able to articulate what God's up to in my life these days. The assignment was to apply Discovery skills to Matthew 6:25-34. My "summarized finding" was this: "worry and the inability to see our value from God's perspective is a result of a lack of faith; put aside the world for the Kingdom." The Application & Actualization phase challenged the student to complete this statement: If I really took Jesus' teaching in this passage seriously, the difference it would make in my life is . . . . While I'm one of those folks that tends to blow off these application steps in a book in lieu of devouring more text, I sat back and thought about this one a bit. I've always been a worrier, so I couldn't pretend that this application wouldn't apply to me.
I have realized recently that I am gaining a greater sense of peace about God being in charge of and aware of all the bad stuff that goes on here on the Big Blue Marble and in my life specifically. I first became aware of this truth on a personal level when my position as a Training Officer was eliminated by budget cuts and I was sent back to work in the jail. This meant giving up my own office and a flex schedule to work four days on, four days off, two months on days, two months on nights. This meant I would only be able to attend church part time (four Sundays on, four Sundays off) and would not have the flexibility I previously had to adjust my work schedule to accommodate important meetings, functions, etc. As I growled, griped and gnashed my teeth about this imposition on my schedule and my ability to serve anytime I was needed, it occurred to me out of the blue that God was already aware of this. My new work schedule was not going to ruin God's plans for my life, even though this is how I initially felt.
Did I truly feel that God was currently hard at work in my life, drawing me into and preparing me for future ministry? Yes. Could any human plan, circumstance or change of work schedule thwart the plans of God? Of course not. Did I need to exert extraordinary amounts of human effort in order to overcome worldly circumstances so that God's plans wouldn't be ruined by them? Again, of course not. Given all this, WHAT WAS I SO UPSET ABOUT THEN? (There is the issue of not being able to watch college football every Saturday due to my rotating work schedule, but I've come to agree with Him that that's not part of His plan for my ministry).
At Manfest 2012 I was able to spend some quiet time alone with God. I came away from that with an awareness of just how much effort I've spent throughout my life making sure my plans turn out well. The fact that I'm a control freak means that I probably spend more time and effort than most in this regard. This life-long habit didn't abate once I became a Christian, I simply turned my efforts toward making sure God's plans for my life were able to be realized. It wasn't until some worldly circumstance which I couldn't "fix" by my own effort came along that I realized that I'd been fooling myself all along. Part of giving your life over to God and His plans involves giving up human effort to make them come to fruition. It also involves giving up self reliance and, through faith and trust in Him, relying on Him to guide us into the plans He has for us.
So what's my take-away from the assignment mentioned at the beginning of this post? It wasn't until God allowed "negative" circumstances into my life over which I had no control that I realized that my peace needs to come from my firm belief that He's aware of and not the least bit worried about the things that worry me. And why isn't He worried? Because He knows that it's His diving will--and not my human efforts--that will make His plan for my life come to fruition.
I have realized recently that I am gaining a greater sense of peace about God being in charge of and aware of all the bad stuff that goes on here on the Big Blue Marble and in my life specifically. I first became aware of this truth on a personal level when my position as a Training Officer was eliminated by budget cuts and I was sent back to work in the jail. This meant giving up my own office and a flex schedule to work four days on, four days off, two months on days, two months on nights. This meant I would only be able to attend church part time (four Sundays on, four Sundays off) and would not have the flexibility I previously had to adjust my work schedule to accommodate important meetings, functions, etc. As I growled, griped and gnashed my teeth about this imposition on my schedule and my ability to serve anytime I was needed, it occurred to me out of the blue that God was already aware of this. My new work schedule was not going to ruin God's plans for my life, even though this is how I initially felt.
Did I truly feel that God was currently hard at work in my life, drawing me into and preparing me for future ministry? Yes. Could any human plan, circumstance or change of work schedule thwart the plans of God? Of course not. Did I need to exert extraordinary amounts of human effort in order to overcome worldly circumstances so that God's plans wouldn't be ruined by them? Again, of course not. Given all this, WHAT WAS I SO UPSET ABOUT THEN? (There is the issue of not being able to watch college football every Saturday due to my rotating work schedule, but I've come to agree with Him that that's not part of His plan for my ministry).
At Manfest 2012 I was able to spend some quiet time alone with God. I came away from that with an awareness of just how much effort I've spent throughout my life making sure my plans turn out well. The fact that I'm a control freak means that I probably spend more time and effort than most in this regard. This life-long habit didn't abate once I became a Christian, I simply turned my efforts toward making sure God's plans for my life were able to be realized. It wasn't until some worldly circumstance which I couldn't "fix" by my own effort came along that I realized that I'd been fooling myself all along. Part of giving your life over to God and His plans involves giving up human effort to make them come to fruition. It also involves giving up self reliance and, through faith and trust in Him, relying on Him to guide us into the plans He has for us.
So what's my take-away from the assignment mentioned at the beginning of this post? It wasn't until God allowed "negative" circumstances into my life over which I had no control that I realized that my peace needs to come from my firm belief that He's aware of and not the least bit worried about the things that worry me. And why isn't He worried? Because He knows that it's His diving will--and not my human efforts--that will make His plan for my life come to fruition.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
(Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
(Matthew 6:34 ESV)
(Matthew 6:34 ESV)
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