Sermon from FBC - The Power of Routine: Bible Reading

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, 

correcting and training in righteousness.”

2 Timothy 3:16

This week we started a new series titled The Power of Routine.  In this series we'll be looking at some of those spiritual routines, or spiritual disciplines, that can help us in our spiritual journey.  Last week we looked at some spiritual goals.  Many use these routines or disciplines to help reach their spiritual goals.  We start with looking Bible Reading, while concentrating on why and how we might begin reading the bible as a part of our daily routine. 

To read the message now, click here...

    http://fbcwaverly.weebly.com/sermons/the-power-of-routine-bible-reading

Thanks for reading, hope you have a great week - and remember to leave a comment.  I would love to hear from you!

New Year... New Look...

Happy New Year!

As we come to a new year, we are changing the look of the blog.  It's time for a redesign, something new, something exciting.

A new year is an ideal time to make changes.  Are you making changes?  Any resolutions? 

Perhaps more importantly, are you allowing God to make changes in you?  I'm not talking about resolutions here, I'm talking about the new life God wants to bring to you.  When you put your faith in Jesus, He promised to transform you into the very image of Jesus.  But you have to let Him.

I.  How do you let God work in you?

You let God make these changes in you by putting yourself in places where He can reach you.  the Christian Disciplines are those places.  Daily devotions, regular church worship, daily Bible reading, and Bible Study with a group of believers, are all examples of places where God can work in you.

In Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, he outlines three major types of discipline, all designed to bring into a place where God will change us into the image of Jesus.

II.  What are these disciplines?

Foster's three types include:

1.  The Inward Disciplines:  including meditation, prayer, fasting, and study - these are the things you do by yourself, things that no one else sees.

2.  The Outward Disciplines:  including simplicity, solitude, submission, and service - these are things you do in the company of others, how others see your life of faith lived out.

3.  The Corporate Disciplines:  including confession, worship, guidance, and celebration - these are the things you do together with other believers, often in worship services or prayer gatherings.


So as the New Year starts, I encourage you to think about where God is working in you, and make sure you're letting him there.  Reflect on your practices of the Christian Disciplines - that's where God is at work!

Back to the new look of the blog - What do you think? Let me know, leave a comment.  I'd love to hear from you.

And I truly wish you the very best of New Years.  May 2014 be the best yet!

Steve

When God seems distant...

In a book I’m reading, Sacred Reading, The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina, by Michael Casey, he brings out something that I think deserves some reflection.

He talks about times when God seems absent. There are times, I suppose when you start any new discipline, that spiritual growth comes quickly, and you feel it. But then there are times, often after doing the same discipline for some time, that spiritual growth doesn’t seem to come at all. It almost seems that God has moved on and has left you alone.

Aldous Huxley calls this phenomenon “induction” – the principal that “every positive begets its corresponding negative.” Casey writes, “Any striving after specific virtues is followed by an almost irresistible tendency to backslide.”

I don’t know if I agree with that exactly, but I know that in my own life my spiritual growth has been very cyclical. I experience highs of incredible growth and special closeness with God, followed by times of dryness and distance from God. I suppose all of you have experienced something similar to this.

Perhaps the positive in this is that this happens to everyone. Maybe it goes back to our sinful nature. Maybe any commitment toward God brings up an unconscious pulling away. Maybe it is a spiritual battle being fought, the enemy not willing to give up on us. Whatever it is, the key to moving on is persistence on our Bible Study, in our devotions, in our prayers, and in our disciplines.

God is there, even when you don’t feel him. Persist in moving toward him, and I bet you will feel him again…