My Daily Pause

Blog

  • Reaching our Potential

    Reaching our Potential

    God has been very exact about what kind of people he wants his followers to be.

    God wants us to think of him first. When he taught the children of Israel how to sacrifice, he required the best of the flock for that purpose. (Leviticus 1) When the Corinthians needed guidance for using their spiritual gifts, they received the definition of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

    Sometimes we forget these things …
    Our acts of worship become just a habit …
    we forget to actually connect with God…
    love turns up missing…

    And everything we are falls short of our potential.

    Follow the Jews through the Old Testament, or read 1 Corinthians all the way through to see what I mean.

  • The One Body

    The One Body

    Paul talks a lot about the one body. In 1 Corinthians 12, he begins a discussion that last for a few chapters on working together and avoiding the kind of thinking that inhibits unity.

    The case in 1 Corinthians is dealing with some specifics regarding spiritual gifts, but we can make application within our own congregations. How do we bring our group closer to unity?

    We practice selflessness since we are a group that needs each member to function as a whole. We attend all meetings. We fellowship. We study together. We care for each other. Laugh. Cry. (1 Corinthians 12:14-31)

    The more we are together, the more like Christ we become.

  • Wearing the Uniform

    Wearing the Uniform

    1 Corinthians 11:2-15 is one of those difficult passages that either gets ignored in Bible study or applied in a very wrong and different ways. If you try to research it you’ll see what I mean.

    The church in Corinth evidently had some members that made themselves up like the pagan worshippers and never bothered to abandon that fashion after they were converted. Paul didn’t want his fellow Christians looking like sinners! Wearing the uniform of a group identified you with that group then and it does now.

    I’ve heard it said that followers of Christ will find themselves conspicuous enough without trying to stand out from the cultural norms.

  • God’s Great Works

    God’s Great Works

    Imagine how deep the thoughts of the Lord must be – even able to see perfectly into tomorrow. It is the fool that looks past God and credits his own intelligence. The psalmist in Psalm 92 reminds us that – though the foolish and wicked might flourish now, their time is coming. (Psalm 92:5-8)

    It is hard to know what God has in mind for us, especially when bad things happen all around and our lives appear to be a mess.

    But then, don’t we always discover later how wise God is after all and how shortsighted we are?

  • Your Calling is Calling

    Your Calling is Calling

    While job hunting I’ve noticed that monster.com has used the catch phrase “Your calling is calling.” It is somewhat of a hobby of mine to find the Biblical principal that a successful enterprise based their business model on (whether they know it or not). As Christians we can leverage our faith in God’s plan by building a life around the examples He has given us in His word.

    Take for example Esther, and the opportunity she seized to save her people from destruction by performing a risky action. Her cousin Mordecai had asked her to plead with the king to cancel an order to exterminate the Jews living under his rule. She was afraid to do so because to appear before the king without being summoned was punishable by death. Mordecai responds in Esther 4:14 with what I consider the thesis statement of the book of Esther:

    “…and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

    In other words, “Your calling is calling”

    Put another way, wasn’t Esther saved or put into a prominent position to serve others? Esther is convicted by this statement and ultimately saves the Jews. We have another example of “Our calling is calling” in the context of being saved so we can serve others in Mark 1:30-31:

    30But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her. 31And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.

    Notice that Simon’s mother-in-law immediately got up and began taking care of the group gathered at their house after Jesus healed her. If we are to live by the examples the Scripture gives us, then serving others so that they too may be saved should be one of the cornerstones of our lives. Didn’t Jesus do the same for us?

  • Biblepalooza – Group Bible Reading

    Biblepalooza – Group Bible Reading

     

    That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. –  2 Timothy 3:17

    Biblepalooza

    As I write this, I am still fresh from a Bible reading experience I wanted to share with you.

    At my church, we have been experimenting with extended Bible reading sessions. We call it Biblepalooza because we totally go for it and read through large portions of the Bible in one sitting. So far we have met twice and read large portions of Scripture as a group. Several of the men take turns reading aloud while the rest of the group follows along. Since the main goal of this site is to develop Bible reading skills and habits, I have given a lot of thought to the impact this has had on the participants and some tweaks I would recommend to another group that wants to try it.

    Length of Session

    By extended session, I mean we read for hours at a time. The first time we started around 6 on a Friday evening and read until after 1 am. The reading included Luke, Acts, Hebrews and selections from Daniel, Psalm 119 and Isaiah 53. The second time (today) we read through the Minor Prophets (Hosea – Malachi) and it took a little less than four hours.

    I know you think I’m going to say that the shorter session was better. It was easier for sure, but in all the important ways, the longer session was the better one.

    There is something about God’s word that just doesn’t happen with short, bite sized daily devotional readings. When complete books of the Bible are read at a time, without comment, without stopping, in context – it moves you! I want to think that the followers of this site are veracious Bible readers, but when was the last time you sat and read an entire book in one sitting? When comparing the shorter session today with the previous one – I was left wanting more. Once we got going, I was entirely focused and hearing each and every word. I wasn’t ready to stop so soon once I reached that state of mind.

    It only makes sense – most people who read novels for fun, read for hours at a time. It would be difficult to follow a murder mystery in 10 minute sessions.

    Bible Version

    I know everyone has a favorite version, but it is very important to choose one version and everyone use it for this exercise. That state of mind I was just talking about above is very fragile and disappears when the reader’s text doesn’t agree with yours. We had this happen in both of our sessions and I noticed the restlessness of the group almost immediately. I was lucky enough to have a matching version loaded in my Kindle both times, but not so for everyone. We used the NKJV and had very good results from it in terms of the ability of the readers to read aloud smoothly and crisply.

    Comments and Section Headings

    Be sure to make this a pure reading session of God’s word. The NKJV and others have introductions to each book, section headings, and other such distractions, but they are not part of the Bible. When doing a Bible study these tools are fine. When doing a straight reading these things are intrusions on the Spirit’s communication to us.

    Commentary by the readers is tempting, especially among the experienced Bible teachers. It is in our nature to make sure your students are getting what they are being taught. I promise you there is no need for it in a session like this. When totally immersed in the purity of God’s word, comments from outside of it are nothing short of abrasive. Once again, it is definitely a distraction to that special state of mind.

    As we do more sessions, I’ll add to this write-up any new thoughts or ideas I have, but don’t wait on that. Get started and plan your own reading soon!