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My Bible Study Plan

For the last few years I've used the New Year to try something different for my daily Bible time. This past year I decided to get "knee deep" in a book or two of the Bible, and I spent a lot of time in Ephesians and John. 

In the past I've done the The One Year Bible  a couple of times, once using the chronological version , once the ESV translation, and once the NLT (my favorite translation for daily reading). 

I've decided this year to do The One Year Bible daily reading (NLT translation) and to try something new. I'm also going to use The One Year Bible Companion to get myself thinking some more and The One Year Praying Through the Bible to help shape my prayer time. It's going to take some more time, but I've been wanting to expand my daily time in the word and prayer and this will give me a framework to do this. We'll see how it goes! (And by the way - in case you are wondering about me carrying all those books around, I'll be reading them on my Kindle which quickly eclipsed my iPhone as my favorite electronic gadget this last year - grin.)

So - how about you? What's your plan to get deeper into the Word every day this year? HOW ABOUT JOINING ME IN READING THROUGH THE ONE YEAR BIBLE??? It doesn't matter which translation you use and you certainly don't need to use the companion books like I'll be doing. Anyone willing to join me as I read through the whole Bible this year?

Merry Christmas!

May the celebration of Christ's birth bring you joy, and may you always trust in Him to make your life as it should be - as he created you to be, by His amazing grace!

To Pray or Not To Pray?

About five years ago I made the decision to stop shaking hands with everyone as they left the church service every week. Instead, I stay in the front of the church to pray with anyone that wants to pray with me - about issues the service that week raised in their hearts and minds or anything else that they want to take to the Lord at that time.

As you can imagine, that decision has not met with everyone's approval. Even though I do all I can to greet people as they enter worship, some people still would rather shake my hand and greet me as they leave. We send out a random worship survey and this week, five years after I made the change, someone still raised the issue as a concern. The comment this week, and others I have heard from time to time, made me question again whether I made the right decision.

And then today a couple stopped by my office. They had a tough year this year, and there were a number of times we had big things to pray about together after worship. They came by today to say a special thank you for those times. Through those times of prayer they saw God at work in their lives in a big way. God's presence was very real in those times of prayer, and they wanted me to know it. 

Their visit was a huge blessing and encouragement to me. It left me with no doubt whatsoever. Sharing a time of prayer with a few people each week rather than a superficial greeting with a lot may just be the best thing God guided me to do in my ministry!

What's the worst Christmas Gift you ever got?

Here's the video we shot for our service this weekend... Our goal this weekend was to help people think about giving presence (themselves) to others instead of presents (stuff no one will care about before too long) for Christmas this year. What was yours? Leave a comment!

And here is what we are giving to make happen as a church:  

Thank God for a shower!

Well - I finally gave in to the cold I was fighting and spent yesterday on the sofa sick. I didn't have enough energy to do anything, including take a bath or shower. 

This morning I'm feeling a little better, and a shower was the first order of the day. Man, did it feel good! But I was thinking about all the people we are planning to help with the Advent Conspiracy this Christmas season. So many people don't have clean water to drink - and here I am standing in the hot, clean, steamy water that I normally take for granted.

It made me all the more excited to see what God does through our church this Christmas. So many families have committed to spend less and use the difference to help others have clean water. This weekend we hang little buckets on the Christmas trees to remind us of the opportunity we have to make a difference.

Thanks, God, for the shower! And for the chance to be used to help others.

Sick...

It's the gift that keeps on giving...  Our son was sick for weeks, and he finally succeeded in giving it to both Betty and me at the same time. Now we're all sick! Our house is a symphony of coughing.

Aren't you glad you can't send a virus through the computer? Oh, wait...