Wow, I really needed to read this post from Kem Meyer this morning. I have been pretty discouraged lately for a myriad of reasons. I don’t want to simply use this blog to whine to the 3 1/2 people who might read it, but I have been in a particular whiny mood lately.
However, I have been trying to immerse myself in the Word lately to combat the negative thoughts out of my mind. Several of the tools I use are on the iPhone…pretty cool…and I have it with me pretty much all of the time.
Bible Reading::I am using YouVersion from the LifeChurch.tv guys to read the “Professor Horner’s Bible Reading Plan.”
It is very similar to the 5 Lane Reading Plan I have used in the past.
Hear the Word::Another cool app that I have on my phone to listen to the Word while I am working is Bible.Is from Faith Comes from Hearing. It is really cool. There are several versions of audio Bibles that you can listen to through your phone. I have found that to be a great way to really immerse my life in the Word rather than immerse my life in sports talk radio. (That doesn’t mean I don’t still get my share of talk radio, however.)
Memorize the Word::A fellow pastor friend of mine showed me this app and how it has helped him so much to really live out the Word and it has been a great thing for me as well. I am using Bible Verses to memorize Scripture. There are several different versions out there, but I like this particular app because I can choose which translation and it is also put together like the old Navigators Bible Memory System with different categories, etc. There is also a cool feature that allows you to make the verse all blanks and you can click each blank to reveal the correct word to help you memorize better.
Reading books::I am currently reading The Land Between by Jeff Manion on my Kindle. I saw his talk at Leadership Summit a couple of weeks ago and it really resonated with me while I am waiting in this “Land Between.” It is based on the story of the Israelites and the Exodus. Great stuff!
We also got a “well-timed” letter from some great friends that was a photocopy of a chapter in A Gentle Thunder by Max Lucado. One of the key passages in the chapter that really spoke to me was a summary of the Exodus in Deuteronomy 8.
2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
So tell me, how do you deal with discouragement in your life? Feel free to leave a comment.
I’ve been wrestling with this idea lately in “waiting on the Lord.” I know all the verses and everything about “those that wait on the Lord will they renew their strength,” but… the great theologians Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers said it well–It is the hardest part!
But the beautiful thing about waiting on Him is that he will renew our strength and give us a hope. Some Scriptures that I have been meditating on this week talk about this hope and the fact that God hasn’t forgotten or left me in my struggles.
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that[i] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:18-27; 37-39 NIV)
I’m preaching on these verses in a couple of weeks…good stuff.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Reading Radical:Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream by David Platt. It is really good. But as Russell Moore, Dean, Southern Baptist Seminary writes in his endorsement…I have wanted to set it down several times–ouch!!
Sometimes people will commend a book by saying, ‘You won’t want to put it down.’ I can’t say that about this book. You’ll want to put it down, many times. If you’re like me, as you read David Platt’s Radical, you’ll find yourself uncomfortably targeted by the Holy Spirit. You’ll see just how acclimated you are to the American dream. But you’ll find here another Way, one you know to be true, because you’ve heard it before in the words of the Lord Jesus, perhaps most forcefully in the simple call ‘Follow me.’ Read this book. Put it away for a time, if you need to, while your conscience is invaded by the Spirit driving you to repentance. And then pick it up again. After you’re done reading, I think you’ll know better how to pick up your cross and follow Christ for the advancement of the kingdom and the destruction of false dreams. —Russell D. Moore, dean, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
David Platt sets up the book to explain the vast difference between what the modern church in America holds dear and what the Jesus of the Bible taught and held dear. There is a huge difference. Here is a great example of his wonderful writing style (emphasis mine):
Whenever the crowd got big, he’d say something such as, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”[John 6:53] Not exactly the sharpest church-growth tactic. I can almost picture the looks on the disciples’ faces. “No, not the drink-my-blood speech! We’ll never get on the list of the fastest-growing movements if you keep asking them to eat you.” By the end of that speech, all the crowds had left, and only twelve men remained.[John 6:66-67] Jesus apparently wasn’t interested in marketing himself to the masses. His invitations to potential followers were clearly more costly than the crowds were ready to accept, and he seemed to be okay with that. He focused instead on the few who believed him when he said radical things. And through their radical obedience to him, he turned the course of history in a new direction.
Soon I realized I was on a collision course with an American church culture where success is defined by bigger crowds, bigger budgets, and bigger buildings. I was now confronted with a startling reality: Jesus actually spurned the things that my church culture said were most important. So what was I to do? I found myself faced with two big questions.
The first was simple. Was I going to believe Jesus? Was I going to embrace Jesus even though he said radical things that drove the crowds away? The second question was more challenging. Was I going to obey Jesus? My biggest fear, even now, is that I will hear Jesus’ words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience to him. In other words, my biggest fear is that I will do exactly what most people did when they encountered Jesus in the first century.
That’s why I’ve written this book.
Check out the book’s promotional website here. You can go and download the first chapter there as well as view promotional videos. Also, each chapter has several of Platt’s sermons that you can listen to along with the reading of the chapter. There is also information on the “Radical Experiment” that his church, The Church at Brook Hills is carrying out to practically apply these teachings.
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