If you have hung around our congregation any length of time you have heard us mention the 3Bs and perhaps you were wondering what that is all about and where it came from...
The 3B challenge is something we encourage ourselves to do as a part of our discipleship lifestyle. It is Bible Before Breakfast. It comes from Job 23:12:
“I have not departed from his commands, but have treasured his words more than daily food.”
(Job 23:12 NLT-SE)
To show that the Word of God is more important to us than our daily good we simply read it before we eat our breakfast in the morning - pretty simple huh? But we believe it says something pretty powerful...
Around our fellowship we use the One Year Bible as our daily reader because it is broken up into 365 daily reading portions that take about 15 or so minutes to read.
There you have it the 3B Challenge... are you up to it?
Blessings
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
WoW... The Value of Children in the Old Testament...
I was reading the One Year Bible this morning (Bible Before Breakfast of course - Job 23:12 - The 3B Challenge) and I noticed something... They did some insane things when it came to having children because it was so important to them...
Abraham had an intense discussion with God because he didn't have children of his own... God promises him children and it is taking a while so he and Sarah come up with this plan to help God's promise come to pass because they wanted children NOW - Hagar and Ishmael... But then after still doing things that produce children at the ages of 90 and 100 the child of promise came through Sarah - Isaac...
Rebekah was barren so Isaac made it a spiritual matter and prayed then she conceived and had twins...
Jacob had all kinds of things going on with Leah and Rachel when it came to children... even to the point of Leah trading food for a night with the old boy and she conceived that night...
I am not saying any of the insanity was God's plan or way of bringing children about for them but man were they serious about having some children...
Then I was reminded about Joel's prophesy which was echoed by Peter in the book of Acts... I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters will prophesy... Am I as serious about having spiritual children so as to be able to increase the vessels for Holy Spirit to be poured into?
In Galatians it says that we are heirs of the promise that God gave to Abraham because we are in Christ. One of the promises was for a multitude of descendants - not just a lot of church goers, but descendants - sons and daughters... what lengths would I go to to have more spiritual children? How insane would it seem to others who do not understand the necessity of having multitudes of descendants?
Just a thought...
Abraham had an intense discussion with God because he didn't have children of his own... God promises him children and it is taking a while so he and Sarah come up with this plan to help God's promise come to pass because they wanted children NOW - Hagar and Ishmael... But then after still doing things that produce children at the ages of 90 and 100 the child of promise came through Sarah - Isaac...
Rebekah was barren so Isaac made it a spiritual matter and prayed then she conceived and had twins...
Jacob had all kinds of things going on with Leah and Rachel when it came to children... even to the point of Leah trading food for a night with the old boy and she conceived that night...
I am not saying any of the insanity was God's plan or way of bringing children about for them but man were they serious about having some children...
Then I was reminded about Joel's prophesy which was echoed by Peter in the book of Acts... I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters will prophesy... Am I as serious about having spiritual children so as to be able to increase the vessels for Holy Spirit to be poured into?
In Galatians it says that we are heirs of the promise that God gave to Abraham because we are in Christ. One of the promises was for a multitude of descendants - not just a lot of church goers, but descendants - sons and daughters... what lengths would I go to to have more spiritual children? How insane would it seem to others who do not understand the necessity of having multitudes of descendants?
Just a thought...
Monday, January 12, 2009
Well Which Well?
“Isaac’s servants also dug in the Gerar Valley and discovered a well of fresh water. But then the shepherds from Gerar came and claimed the spring. “This is our water,” they said, and they argued over it with Isaac’s herdsmen. So Isaac named the well Esek (which means “argument”). Isaac’s men then dug another well, but again there was a dispute over it. So Isaac named it Sitnah (which means “hostility”). Abandoning that one, Isaac moved on and dug another well. This time there was no dispute over it, so Isaac named the place Rehoboth (which means “open space”), for he said, “At last the Lord has created enough space for us to prosper in this land.””
(Genesis 26:19-22 NLT-SE)
This was part of the One Year Bible reading for the day and as I was reading it I felt like the Spirit said, "Which well will you camp at?"
Many times things happen in our life that we do not understand. We work and labor and things don't go the way "we" planned.
Issac's men had dug the wells and they had expected to be able to drink from them but things didn't go as planned.
The first one they called "argument." How many times have we labored for something and when all was said and done the only thing we had was an argument against God because He didn't what we expected Him to do?
The second well was called "hostility." When we have an argument, many times it will take us to the place of being "hostile" towards spiritual things or other believers when they try to encourage us because we are camping at the wells that are not open to us.
But Isaac and his men did not camp out at the first two wells but moved on to the third well "open spaces." The bible says that God closes doors that no man can open and opens doors that no man can close. If we will learn to live by that truth we will see "wells" that we dig and that don't pan out as closed doors that mean - this is not the right place or it is not the right time for this and then keep moving on until we find the wide open spaces that lead to our spiritual prosperity... remember if we stay at the wells that are not for us we can pick up an argument and even become hostile...
Let's look for the wide open spaces of spiritual prosperity that God has for us...
Blessings
(Genesis 26:19-22 NLT-SE)
This was part of the One Year Bible reading for the day and as I was reading it I felt like the Spirit said, "Which well will you camp at?"
Many times things happen in our life that we do not understand. We work and labor and things don't go the way "we" planned.
Issac's men had dug the wells and they had expected to be able to drink from them but things didn't go as planned.
The first one they called "argument." How many times have we labored for something and when all was said and done the only thing we had was an argument against God because He didn't what we expected Him to do?
The second well was called "hostility." When we have an argument, many times it will take us to the place of being "hostile" towards spiritual things or other believers when they try to encourage us because we are camping at the wells that are not open to us.
But Isaac and his men did not camp out at the first two wells but moved on to the third well "open spaces." The bible says that God closes doors that no man can open and opens doors that no man can close. If we will learn to live by that truth we will see "wells" that we dig and that don't pan out as closed doors that mean - this is not the right place or it is not the right time for this and then keep moving on until we find the wide open spaces that lead to our spiritual prosperity... remember if we stay at the wells that are not for us we can pick up an argument and even become hostile...
Let's look for the wide open spaces of spiritual prosperity that God has for us...
Blessings
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Wisdom 4 Life
As I am sure many of you have read this morning in the One Year Bible reading the Proverbs have an awesome purpose of transforming our lives...
“These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel.
Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles.”
(Proverbs 1:1-6 NLT-SE)
1. To teach us wisdom and discipline...
2. To help us understand the insights wise people have...
3. To help us do the right things...
4. To give insight when we don't get it naturally...
5. To give knowledge and discernment to young people (like me)...
6. To give more wisdom to the wise...
7. To help people give guidance to others...
WoW - meditate on that... I would encourage each of us to increase our daily spiritual diet with a proverb a day... there are 31 of them so we can do one a day and on 30 day months do two on the 30th... it is just a suggestion not a command - we may never track it on accountability cards and such but I think our lives and ministries will reflect it over the course of time...
Happy New Year...
“These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel.
Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles.”
(Proverbs 1:1-6 NLT-SE)
1. To teach us wisdom and discipline...
2. To help us understand the insights wise people have...
3. To help us do the right things...
4. To give insight when we don't get it naturally...
5. To give knowledge and discernment to young people (like me)...
6. To give more wisdom to the wise...
7. To help people give guidance to others...
WoW - meditate on that... I would encourage each of us to increase our daily spiritual diet with a proverb a day... there are 31 of them so we can do one a day and on 30 day months do two on the 30th... it is just a suggestion not a command - we may never track it on accountability cards and such but I think our lives and ministries will reflect it over the course of time...
Happy New Year...
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