The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me!

While in high school I became quite fond of reading books on theology and the Christian Life. I can remember many days (while doing school) wanting to go read a book on biblical relationships, biblical femininity, God’s holiness, etc. But I can’t recount many days that I ran to my Bible with excitement. When I did read my Bible I viewed it as a daily chore… Though all the books I read were great and helpful, it didn’t take long for me to realize that those books were not where my true source of joy was going to come from.

Over the past few years, by His grace, God’s placed a desire and delight in my heart to read scripture and learn more about Him. One of the greatest means of helping me get to where I am now was listening to a message John Piper spoke at New Attitude 2008, “Fighting for Faith with God’s Word.” If you haven’t already, I HIGHLY recommend you listening to it! Recently at a church singles meeting we listened to that same message again. One thing John Piper encouraged us to do was memorize and write out scripture. Shortly after New Attitude I began to memorize different passages of scripture that I felt would be helpful for me to have in my head while struggling in different areas or verses I found to be encouraging while journeying through different seasons. I've benefited greatly from doing that!

One thing I’ve always been prone to do when reading the Bible is jump straight to The New Testament. There are books in the Old Testament that I enjoy reading (especially The Psalms) and many verses I love, but I’ve never read completely through it. If I did read the OT it would be something I would read over really quickly and then wouldn’t spend much time afterwards studying or meditating on it. So with that said, something I’ve recently started doing and have found to be a tremendous help, is writing out scripture. I’m not just talking about writing down a verse here and there, but writing large passages. This practice has required me to think hard about what I’m reading especially if it’s really early in the morning. :) I started in Genesis and have been working my way through. Yes, it does take more time than just reading the passage, but it’s totally worth it!

Maybe this is something that would be helpful for you too! May I encourage you to try… it doesn’t take much, just a pen and paper. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes!

Rising Early

Something I’m trying to be more consistent in this year is rising early to spend extended time with the Lord every morning. Recently I’ve found myself to be very busy with lots of traveling, work, holidays, church activities, and keeping up with daily tasks such as laundry and cleaning. Through all of this busyness I’ve been reminded of the importance and necessity it is to spend time with the Lord FIRST thing in the morning. Mainly because if I don’t do it first thing in the morning there might not be extra time to read and pray later on in my days. Though recently I’ve been able to spend quite a bit of time with the Lord at work and at night I know soon that won’t be the case as my family is about to enter into another very busy season. There is a HUGE difference in my days when I don’t get up and have a quiet time first thing in the morning. When I say a difference in my days, I mean a difference in my attitude! I know as I get busier rising early won’t be something that will happen over night. It will probably take time to get into a different sleeping pattern, but will definitely be worth it!

I’m telling you all this because I would love for you all to ask me how I’m doing with “rising early”! =) Thanks!

Psalm 5:3-” O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.”

Mark 1:35-“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he (Jesus) departed and went to a very desolate place, and there he prayed.”

“I earnestly recommend that it be in the early morning, unless there are some extenuating circumstances. Entering the day without a serious meeting with God, over his word and in prayer, is like entering the battle without tending to your weapons. The human heart does not replenish itself with sleep. The body does, but not the heart… We replenish our hearts not with sleep, but with the Word of God and prayer.” –John Piper

Here are some helpful tips from the Mahaney Women:

1. Place your alarm clock in a strategic location, preferably on the other side of the room from your bed.

2. Set your alarm for the same time every day.

3. Never, never, never hit the snooze button or lie back down to catch a few more winks. The second your alarm goes off it is the most critical moment in getting up early.

4. Proceed directly to the coffee pot of caffeinated drink of choice.

5. Be prepared to feel absolutely miserable for about ten to fifteen minutes. But the misery soon turns into pure gladness as your experience the delight of meeting with God and reap the benefits the rest of the day. Fifteen minutes of misery is certainly worth fifteen-plus hours of peace and productivity.

6. Remember that our bodies eventually respond to a standard wake-up time. In other words, it gets easier.

A Deeper Longing

Here is the last and final post from Jerry Bridges book “The Fruitful Life.” I pray the posts have been a source of encouragement to you!

“As we concentrate on growing in our reverence and awe of God and in our understanding of His love for us, we will find that our desire for Him will grow. As we gaze upon His beauty we will desire to seek Him even more. And as we become progressively more aware of His redeeming love, we will want to know Him in a progressively deeper way. We can also pray that God will deepen our desire for Him.”

God loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can be found only in knowing and praising Him, the most magnificent of all Beings.” –John Piper

Wholehearted God-centeredness, or devotion to God, bears fruit in our lives. The practice of developing our relationship with God should never be thought of as drudgery. We are seeking to grow in our devotion to the most wonderful Person in the entire universe, the infinitely glorious and loving God. There is NOTHING that can compare with the privilege of knowing our loving Father in Heaven!

Psalm 16:11- “You make known to me the path of life; in you presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Fellowship With God

One of the greatest privileges of a believer is to have fellowship with God. We do this by listening to Him speak to us from His Word and by speaking to Him through prayer.

“There are various spiritual exercises we may want to accomplish during our quiet time, such as reading through the Bible in a year and praying over certain requests. But the primary objective of our quiet time should be fellowship with God- developing a personal relationship with Him. I talk to God about what I am reading. I like to think of the quiet time as a conversation: God speaking to me through the Bible and I responding to what He says. This approach helps to make the quiet time what it is intended to be- a time of fellowship with God. We are to train ourselves to be godly; and training involves practice.”

Something that I’ve found helpful is to view my quiet times as time taken out of my day to spend with my Father in heaven. It is an appointment every day to receive conviction, edification, and encouragement from Him. Just as I need food to keep me healthy, I need this food for my soul. Just as we would be excited to meet up with a friend, we should be even more excited to spend time in the Lord’s presence. It should be the delight of our hearts!

Psalm 119:15-16- "I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word."

Worshiping God

Another essential part of our practice of devotion to God is worship. Worship meaning, ascribing to God the glory, majesty, honor, and worthiness which are His.

“Revelation 4:8-11 and 5:9-14 give us clear illustrations of the worship that goes on in heaven and should be emulated by us here on earth.”

Bridges is talking about worship above and beyond a corporate gathering of worship. He encourages readers to bow down to God each morning before doing devotions and praise Him for all His glorious attributes.

Psalm 95:6- “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”

Philippians 2:10- “Every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God our Father.”

Meditating on God

“The Navigators use the five fingers of the hand as mental pegs on which to hand the five methods of intake of the Word of God- hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating. In our devotion to God, the Word helps us in three areas- the fear of God, the love of God, and the desire for God.”

It is evident that the Word of God plays a crucial role in our growth in godliness and a HUGE part in our practice of godliness. I don’t know about you, but it always seems to be so helpful for me to have a couple of Scripture references that I turn to daily to help get me through whatever situation/season I’m in. Especially when we are faced with situations that are temptation to sin, we should have a scripture verse memorized that we can recite in our heads when faced with that temptation. This has been extremely helpful for me!

God uses His Word to create in our hearts the sense of reverence and awe of Him that causes us to fear Him. The Holy Spirit must make His Word come alive in our hearts to produce growth, so we must meditate in prayerful dependence upon Him to do His work. Neither meditation nor prayer by themselves is sufficient for growth in devotion. We must practice both!

Preach the Gospel to Yourself

The single girls (and a couple married :D) in my Church are going through the book, “The Discipline of Grace” by Jerry Bridges and this morning we went over chapter 3 titled, “Preach The Gospel to Yourself” and it was an outstanding chapter!

He expounded on Romans 3:19-26 and verses 23-24 really stuck out to me, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

He sums these verses up as, “all who put their Faith in Jesus Christ are justified freely by God’s Grace”

He states, “We must keep in mind that our justification by God is based solely on the meritorious work of Christ and our union with Christ that what He did, we did when He lived a life of perfect obedience. When He died on the cross to satisfy the just demands of God’s law, it is just as if we had died on that cross. Christ stood in our place as our representative, both in His sin-bearing death.

“Grace, as we have already observed, is the undeserved favor of God shown to those who deserve His wrath. Grace presupposes guilt on our part. By definition, it is sovereign grace; that is, God is under no obligation to grant to any of us such undeserved favor. The decision to grant such favor to us originated solely within His own goodness.”

“To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you. To preach the gospel to yourself means that you take at face value the precious words of Romans 4:7-8-“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

“To live by the gospel, then, means that we firmly grasp the fact that Christ’s life and death are ours by virtue of our union with Him. What He did, we did.”

What truth! Thank you, Lord for once again revealing to me, how little I am and how big you are!

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

My Plan

At New Attitude John Piper spoke a message titled, “Fighting for Faith with God’s Word.” This message was outstanding and I highly recommend you to listen to it. You can download it here!

After Piper’s message Josh Harris got up and challenged all of us to come up with a “plan” that we would follow for our daily devotions. Here’s what I came up with:

This is what I feel the Lord is calling me to do for this particular season of life I'm in right now.

What Time: I’ve always enjoyed reading my Bible at night before I go to bed. In doing so, I have let myself stay up so late sometimes that I have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning to do devotions. I would like to be spending more time in God’s word in the morning. I definitely still want to read my Bible at night but, I need to be more diligent in getting to bed at a descent hour so I can wake up rested in the morning to do devotions.

What Place: Personally I've found that I need to be in a place where I’m not distracted from other things around me. I’ve started doing devotions on our back deck and sometimes walking down to the dock in my neighborhood when the weather permits to do so. Otherwise I find a place in my house that isn’t too loud or comfortable. I’ve found that if I stay in bed to do devotions I will find a reason why I need to go back to sleep. So NO devotions are aloud in my bed!!!

What Plan: Here are a few things I would like to accomplish during my morning devotions:

1. Start reading through the Old Testament. I definitely want to have a greater knowledge and understanding of all that took place in the Old Testament which is something that I’m not too strong in.
2. I would like to start memorizing some of the Psalms and scriptures that have to do with Joy and Trusting God.
3. Finally, I would like to spend more time praying. Praying for grace for my day ahead of me and for other people. Like I’ve said before, I would love to know how I can be praying for you! Please let me know!

It will probably take me a little while to get into the habit of following this plan everyday. I’m definitely going to need God’s grace to help me be motivated! My prayer is that I wouldn’t use this plan as a daily chore for me to do but, that it would be a delight as I rise in the morning to spend time in God’s presence. If you ever see me, please feel free to ask me how I’m doing with all I mentioned above.

2 Corinthians 12:9- “For Jesus said, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Delighting In God's Word

Throughout the New Attitude conference the Lord convicted me of my lacking in studying His word. I might have been reading the Bible daily but I was viewing my time with the Lord as a duty, not a delight. In our community groups on the first morning we meditated on Psalm 119. Here are a few verses that stuck out to me while reading:

V. 2-“Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.

Vs. 10-11-“With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Vs. 15-16-“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in you statutes; I will not forget your word.”

Going into the conference I was definitely not someone that was seeking the Lord with my whole heart! In doing so, I was sinning against God and ultimately not honoring Him! My prayer since I returned home from New Attitude is that I would be one that “stores Gods word up in my heart”
With that said… I will share more tomorrow about the plan I have created to help me accomplish “storing God’s word up in my heart.”

Devotions or Devotion; Duty or Delight

The other night at our corporate women’s meeting Mrs. Calabello spoke a message titled, “Devotions or Devotion; Duty or Delight” and for me, this was a very timely message. You see lately devotions have not been a delight and they have not been very persistant. I have been getting too involved with my very busy life lately and devotions most definitely have not been number one on my priority list. Thanks to the wonderful message Mrs. Calabello spoke the other night God has convicted me very much so!

She opened up the message with scripture out of Matthew…

Matthew 11:28-30-“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Yes! That is me! I have become to feel weary and burdened and there are times that I begin to think that my busyness has robbed me of my joy. But no, it is not my busy life that has robbed me of my joy in the Lord. My joy in the Lord has been robbed simply because of my sinful heart! As Jesus goes on to say “I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” I have found that there is absolutely nothing that will get me through my stressful days besides humbling myself before the Lord and asking Him for guidance and strength.

“I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend to every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.” George Mueller

Open the eyes of my heart Lord and help me to remember that your glory is to be my ambition in whatever I do! Thank you Lord for once again convicting me!