Spiritual Growth – Page 2

In Spiritual Growth

Revive

March 22, 2012 No Comments

Last night was one of the first events that I was apart of in my time here with Liquid Church. We had the first of three prayer and worship nights, which we are calling Revive. The goal of the evening was simple:

Gather together to worship God, and call on His name in prayer.

Being new here, I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know how many people would show up, or how the evening would go. At 7:30 people were streaming in and the line wasn’t stopping. We ran out of programs and we were adding chairs to the room till it hit capacity!

The truth of Hebrews 4:14-16 was declared, and realized by many.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16

I am excited to come before my Lord and ask Him in confidence for the things on my heart. What about you?

~Peter

In Spiritual Growth

Dangerous Tools…

March 3, 2012 No Comments

I have a lot of tools in my garage. There are countless tools. I have tools to fix cars, tools to work the ground, tools to fix plumbing, tools to work with wood, and tools to fix electric and tools to do a ton of other tasks.

Several of these tools are ridiculously dangerous. I’ll never forget the time when I saved my dad’s pointer finger from being severed on a table saw. (That story later) I have another friend who nearly lost his finger to a table saw. Every time I operate a table saw I think about lopping my finger off. I have a chainsaw that loves to rip through wood. This thing is mean. Since I heat my house with wood, I have spent a lot of time cutting up trees with this saw. I have heard horror stories of people who have done incredible damage to themselves with their chainsaws. Those thoughts run through my mind every time that thing rips!

As I have a garage full of tools to fix my house, garden, or vehicles, as a follower of Jesus there are certain tools that I have at my disposal. I think that one of the most dangerous tools is prayer.

In the voice of prayer we can diminish others and elevate ourself. Jon Acuff has a pretty funny blog post about the prayer shot block. (quite the funny read) Because we know and believe that prayer is powerful it can be incredibly tempting to use it like one uses a tool to fix their home, car, or yard. Too often I use prayer as a tool to change God.

I can focus a majority of my prayers on changing God instead of praising God. I can spend 80% or more of my time asking God to change this person, or give __________ to that person, or even to help me do __________. It is good and right to be praying for others. But it seems to me that we miss the boat when all we do is direct God to do this that or the other thing.

What about spending time praising God for who He is? What about spending time thanking God for what He’s done in your life and the life of others? What about spending time asking God to forgive you? What about just being silent before God and listening to what He has to say? Must you really hear yourself talk the whole time?

When most of your prayers begin with Dear God, please… there may be a problem.

I might even go out on a limb and say that this is an effort to play god. In a sense to be god over God. Every time I see someone trying to be god it never ends well.

I am afraid that this is the pattern of my prayer life far too often! It’s time to make a change. Anyone else with me?

~Peter

In Spiritual Growth

You do and I’ll do _

September 1, 2011 1 Comment

Does anyone else have a problem when someone is talking with you and they say, “Sure, I’ll do that but only after you do ____________.”

That drives me crazy.

I feel like saying, “well, are you going to do it or not? Yes or no. It is rather quite simple. Just make up your mind.” But, I don’t.

We see this all the time. It seems to show up in every area of life. This mentality pops up in our relationships with one another, in the work place, in our neighborhoods, and in every other corner of life.

It may look like this:

I’ll mow the lawn when you make dinner.
I’ll play baseball with you when you clean your room.
I’ll listen to you after you drop me off at the movies and let me spend the night at my friends house.
I’ll tolerate you if you keep your dog off my lawn.
I’ll be your friend only as long as the popular people approve of it.

What would you add to that list?

In Genesis 28, Jacob adds one more to the list. This one drives me crazy. It just irritates me. Check out what he says,

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God.”

That seems to be a tall order! I want to be comfortable on my trip. I want my clothes to be provided, and I don’t want to experience any problems in travel. These three items are no small task. Think about the time in which Jacob lived. That would be no small thing. I’m in no way challenging the power of God, but why does Jacob feel it necessary to?

It seems to me that there are times when we put stipulations on God. We say, God only when you do this, that, or the other thing will I turn to you and acknowledge your plan for my life. In my opinion this is a dangerous way to live life. This is a dangerous way to set up your relationship with God, one based solely upon stipulations.

What do you think?

~Peter

In Spiritual Growth

The Habit of Desire

August 29, 2011 2 Comments

This morning I read an interesting article over at Catalystspace. The title was, “A Lifestyle Of Enough” by Eugene Cho. In it he writes:

In our hope to honor a conviction of the Holy Spirit to give up a year’s salary, we had begun the two year process of saving, selling, and simplifying in 2007. Our goal was to come up with our then year’s wages of $68,000 – in order to launch One Day’s Wages. With only a few months left to come up with the total sum, we were a bit short and decided to sublet our home for couple months and asked some friends if we could stay with them on their couches or their guest room.

I still remember crying the night I told our kids of our plans. This wasn’t what I had signed up for; This was by far more difficult that I had imagined. Had I known, there is no way in Hades I would have agreed to this conviction.

This made me think about our habits of desiring more and more. We live in a culture that screams the more you have the happier you’ll be. Our culture bases success on how much you have, how many you manage, and how big of a salary you receive. We are taught from a very young age that newer is better. Just about every eight months a new edition of that ‘thing’ that you desperately longed for has come out. Now it is mandatory that you have the newer version. This is a marketing ploy, playing on the conditioned American response to long for more!

We easily form habits of desire. The problem is that we are also a culture that does not celebrate in any form or fashion denying yourself anything. It is no wonder that when our habits of desire meet up with our habits of satisfying our longings we end up in great financial ruin. Our homes are feeling too small. Our attics are buckling in the middle from all of the weight up there. And our garages no longer house cars but extra stuff!

My wife and I watched a chick-flick the other night. The romantic male character challenged the lead female to think about what she would grab if her home were on fire and she had 60 seconds to get out.

Pretty fair question if you ask me.

It makes me wonder if my desires and focus are in the right direction. Believe me I like my toys and my luxuries like the rest of you. I can’t wait for the iphone 5 to come out. The problem lies right in front of us when our balance is off and we long for those things more than we long for Jesus. Can we say along with Paul that we want to know Christ, and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead? Do I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death as Paul writes in Philippians 3:10? Or am I more consumed with my expressions of wealth and comfort?

This is what the LORD says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!

Jeremiah 9:23-24

It is time for our posture to change from that of comfort to that of a disciple’s.

So, what would you grab if your house was on fire and you had 60 seconds to do it?

~Peter

In Spiritual Growth

Habit of the Soul

May 12, 2011 No Comments

“Trust in the dark,

trust in the light,

trust at night

and trust in the morning,

and you will find that faith

which may begin by mighty effort,

will end sooner or later

by becoming the easy

and natural habit of the soul.”

~Hannah Whitall Smith

In Spiritual Growth

Wakeup!

January 28, 2011 No Comments

In a few short hours our Senior High youth group will gather together and pack up the church van, load up the bus and head on up to Glen Spey, NY for our winter retreat! It is going to be a really awesome trip. Our theme for this year is: Wake Up. I am super excited about our speaker this year. His name is Clint Ussher. Clint has been given the task of challenging our students to wake up; to wake up to what God has for them! This is going to be an exciting weekend.

Will you pray for us?

Here are a few things that you can pray for…

1. Pray for safety as we travel. We are headed to New York State. You never know what kind of weather you are going to get up there!

2. Pray for the hearts of teenagers. Would you pray that their hearts would be open to hear what God is trying to say to them? Often times it is on a weekend away where there are less distractions that we get a chance to actually hear what God is saying.

3. Pray for no distractions! Distractions can come in all forms. Will you please pray that there would be no distractions this weekend? That means no girl drama, and no smelly guy gas!

4. Pray for fun! One of the other reasons we get away together is to just flat out have fun! Pray that we have fun, and lots of it!

Thanks!

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Exciting News

October 19, 2010 No Comments

A while back I shared with you that my sister and her husband are moving their family overseas to Bangladesh to serve the people of Bangladesh and bring the light of Jesus Christ to a very spiritually dark and dimly lit country. Well when I first shared with you about their aspirations and desires they were somewhere around 8% supported. It excites me to share with you today that they are 100% supported! They have received 100% of their travel expenses as well as their monthly support.

It has only been 51 days and they have received all of their financial commitments. THIS IS INCREDIBLE! GOD IS AMAZING! It is exciting for me to watch God provide and take care of them. 51 DAYS! You can follow what they are doing over at their blog, www.thelongfamily.org, I would ask you to subscribe to their blog, or check regularly, pray for them as they head out, join their prayer team. Their is no doubt in my mind that God is going to use them in incredible ways!

Check out their latest blog post here.

To learn more about their ministry there check out this video here.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Prayer part 2

September 23, 2010 No Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot since the last time I brought up prayer on this post over here. The question there was is ceasless prayer possible. I would still be interested in hearing your thoughts by the way… I haven’t been able to kick the idea of ceaseless prayer though. Prayer is such a vital part of who we are as those in the Christian faith. Truth be told sometimes I get frustrated with the amount and with the quality of my prayer life.

I was reading the other day an amazing quote by a fourth-century Orthodox monastic writer, Evagrius of Pontus, he says,

“A theologian is one who knows how to pray, and he who prays in spirit and in truth is by that very act a theologian.”

Many of us want to know God and understand the ways and workings of Him. Yet often we don’t dedicate ourselves to prayer. In my desire to understand ceaseless prayer I came up with one thought that may help. I wonder if ceaseless prayer would increase in possibility if we would take our focus off of praying for ourselves and realize/pray for the needs of others.

During our family vacation last week I was making it a practice to spend some time each day in prayer for my kids and my wife, as well as my extended family and then onto my church. I’m telling you it took time! It increased my prayer life! I was praying with more fervency and certainly regularity. Now to keep that habit going I have gotten a little black book. A small moleskin and it will be my prayer journal for my immediate family, my extended family, my friends, my church and the world around me. This is not the end all solution, but it is one way that I have found to help me since the last thought.

What about you? Have you found a specific tool or method that has increased your prayer life? Share with the rest of us so we can learn from your wisdom.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

It never ends… Or does it?

September 8, 2010 1 Comment

Okay, here’s another ‘true life’ moment. I grew up watching Lamb Chops Play Along with my little sister. I’ll admit it. Shari Lewis would get me everytime with that silly little sock puppet, Lamb Chop. It was a show that hit PBS in the early 90’s and at the end of the show there was always a rendition of this annoying little song. [Youtube has once again shown itself to be an invaluable resource.] Here it is…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNTxr2NJHa0]

The song that doesn’t end. It goes on and on my friend… and the rest of the song is history. Or something like that.

Last night I was involved in a discussion on a verse from 1 Thessalonians 5. It is simple. It is short, and it is memorable. The question is, is it possible?

Here’s 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing;” Just like that Shari Lewis, Lamb Chop song… It never ends. It goes on and on…

I want to hear from you… what do you think? Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you extended periods of prayer? Would you qualify any of your prayer times as ceaseless prayer?

This is a difficult thought. What do you do when your sleeping? What about when your on the phone? How can I pray without ceasing? There are several ideas that people have had to try and see this happen in their life. I like what Charles Spurgeon said in his sermon, “Pray without Ceasing” on 1 Thessalonians 5:17:

First, let us labor as much as we can to prevent all sinful interruptions. “Pray without ceasing.” Then if it be impossible to be in the act of prayer always, at least let us be as much as possible in that act; and let us prevent those interruptions which I mentioned in the early part of my discourse, the interruptions occasioned by our own sin. Let us endeavor to keep clear, as far as we can, of anything and everything in ourselves, or round about us, that would prevent our abounding in supplication. And let us also keep clear of interruptions from the sins of others.

While I don’t think that sin prevents you from praying even while you are in the midst of the act of sinning, I do wonder how much more we would pray if sin were further removed from our lives. I wonder what our prayer lives would look like if we allowed our schedule a little breathing room? What if we so valued communication with God that we built it into our schedule? I like how Spurgeon focus’ on removing the prayer interrupters. That may be a great place to start. Figure out what prevents you from praying and remove that from your life.

I am certain that prayer, and my commitment to prayer needs to be priority in my life.

What do you think? Is it possible? What habits have you found/created to help you spend significant times in prayer?

~Peter