Tag Archives: spiritual growth

Tips to Start Reading the Bible on a Regular Basis

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Tips to Start Reading the Bible on a Regular Basis

Tips to Start Reading the Bible on a Regular Basis

After writing the previous post about reading the Bible by “spiritual cramming”, I was hoping that nobody would feel condemned or have that feeling of “yeah, yeah, I hear that all the time.”  Those same thoughts and feelings are all too familiar for me so by no means do I want to impose them on others.  My hope is just to encourage people to start somewhere and to make having a regular quiet time a routine.  I really just want to share about it and encourage others because of the difference it’s made in my life.

Let me share how I got started…

When I first started reading the Bible regularly it was really out of desperation and despair.  It was the summer before my sophomore year in college, and my boyfriend of 3 years had just broken up with me.  I’m pretty sure he was cheating on me too because not too long after our breakup he was engaged to the girl that he swore was just his “friend”.  I was devastated.  It seems a little silly now, but I truly was in pain then.  (Side note: Never minimize or make light of the pain somebody is feeling because their hurt is very real and very consuming to them at that moment.)  Even though it seems silly and trivial now (and I’ve gone through MUCH worse since then), it really was a pivotal moment in my life.

During that time I was an emotional hot mess, and I couldn’t sleep.  I started reading the Bible at night along with a devotional book, My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers to find some comfort and to help me get to sleep at night.  It honestly was the only way I could get to sleep and deal with the anxiety and panic attacks.

I often fell asleep reading the Bible, and then I would later feel guilty about it.  One time I had a thought come to me though.  I now know it was God talking to me—though I didn’t know it at the time.  The thought was, “What better way to fall asleep than by spending time with me?”  It was true.  I could have fallen asleep watching TV or listening to the radio, but instead, I did so by reading the Bible or praying.  It really did give me peace.

My Bible reading practice slowly waned

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Do You Practice “Spiritual Cramming”?

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Do You Practice Spiritual Cramming?

Do You Practice “Spiritual Cramming”?

“And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you–and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.” Mark 4:24 (AMP)

“spiritual cramming”  /’spir-i-choo-uh l kram-ing/ VERB 1. The act of attempting to pray and/or to study hastily or learn biblical information in a short period of time and at the last minute due to an impending test, trial, struggle, problem, or hard time. Cramming is often discouraged because the hurried coverage of material tends to result in poor long-term retention of material.

It seems like most Christians know that we should read our Bible.  Most also probably realize that it should be done on a regular, daily basis.  The problem is, most don’t do it.  Maybe it’s because we think it’s hard to understand.  Sometimes it’s because we think it’s boring or that we don’t have time.  Maybe we think getting “Bible” on Sundays or in church is enough.  Any additional study we pursue is frequently just “spiritual cramming”.

I had the same problem.  Being raised in church my entire life, I heard the children’s church teachers, youth ministers, and pastors consistently say “read your Bible”.  I just never did—except for when I was in church on Sundays or Wednesdays.  Regular, daily Bible reading was not a habit of mine until about 15ish years ago (with the exception of a short stint in college).

Until then I was just a spiritual baby even though I was a grown adult with children of my own and even though I had a decent amount of knowledge from the Bible.  I was spiritually immature and had an underdeveloped understanding of spiritual life.  I expected everyone else to “feed” me, and any independent study often consisted of spiritual cramming.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready” 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 (NLT)

It’s like college students…

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“Test Me”…Caution: Invites Harsh Conditions

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Test Me-Caution Invites Harsh Conditions title image

“Test Me”…Caution: Invites Harsh Conditions

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 139:23-24

I’ve mentioned before that it’s a good practice to start your quiet times or Bible reading times with these verses in Psalms as a prayer:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 139:23-24

It’s a great way to do a regular heart check and listen for God to reveal anything to us that we might need to work on. I actually have these verses written inside the cover of my journals as a daily opening prayer. First, I’ll pray these verses. Then, I’ll try to sit quietly and just listen and pay attention to anything that comes to mind. If something does, I’ll confess it right then and repent, asking God to basically clean me up!

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 (ESV)

Recently I saw Psalm 139:23-24 from a different perspective and realized that there might be a little more to this request than just sitting and listening for God to show me areas that need some work or improvement.

“Test”: Hebrew (H974) בָּחַן bâchan

A couple of weeks ago as I was going through this process of saying the verses, the words “test me” stood out to me. That’s usually a prompt for me to dig in a little deeper. So I did! I looked up the Hebrew word for “test” used here in this verse.

“test”: Hebrew (H974) בָּחַן bâchan

The Hebrew definition stated that it means to try, improve, examine, scrutinize, tempt, try/trial, to investigate, or to test (especially metals). Then the part about testing metals stood out to me. Immediately an analogy came to mind.

We like to watch the show “Forged in Fire” on the History Channel where they make weapons, typically knives and swords, out of metal. Throughout the show, which is a competition, they test the weapons (and therefore the metal). This testing phase is to see how the weapons hold up, to see where weaknesses or imperfections are, and to make sure the weapons can withstand use in battle.

Therefore, when I am praying Psalm 139:23-24 not only am I asking got to point out things in me that He doesn’t like, I’m also asking Him to test me like the metal of those weapons on “Forged in Fire” to find any flaws, weaknesses, and imperfections. These are things that may hinder me later which can cause me not to be able to fight any physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual battles properly. Additionally, weaknesses or flaws could potentially cause me to “break” if not identified and dealt with.

Our strength can be tested like that of metal weapons to find any flaws, weaknesses, and imperfections.

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The “test me” phase

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Is God Enlarging Your Capacity?

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Is God Enlarging Your Capacity?

I mentioned recently that I’ve been coming across a lot of opposition in a variety of areas. At times it’s seemed a bit overwhelming, and it started getting me to question why I was getting hit with so much. My boss at the college where I teach even joked with me not long ago saying, “Why are you always the one getting all of these weird, off-the-wall situations?” To which I responded, “You know, I’d really like to know the answer to that!” Well…I think I got it.

One morning after teaching one of my classes at Glory House, I was visiting with Ms. Susie, the Executive Director, about all the junk that I had been dealing with lately. During our conversation I said, “Why am I ALWAYS the one getting this stuff and having to deal with this stuff?” Ms. Susie answered quite frankly, “God is enlarging your capacity.”

Then I was like, “Oh no! I’ve been praying exactly that–for God to enlarge my capacity!” (insert face slap) I had prayed those exact words “enlarge my capacity”. These things were happening as an answer to my own prayer…an indirect answer of course! God didn’t just enlarge my capacity. He allowed me to encounter challenges that would stretch me and force my capacity to increase, to make my normal capacity boundary lines larger. I guess this is kind of like when people warn you not to pray for patience! Because you don’t just automatically get patience, you get opportunities for your patience to grow.

Our capacity must increase

About a month prior to this conversation, I had done a Bible reading plan about growing leadership capacity. In the plan, it said that in order “to see our dreams fulfilled and to continue having influence in God’s Kingdom, our capacity must increase.”[1] It talked about facing challenges, pressure, and stress to adjust our ability to manage those things (because we need to reach our potential). We don’t get rid of these things by running from them.

“The key to increasing your capacity is to decide you will allow God to work in your life, to stretch you beyond your comfort zone and enlarge your capacity to overcome challenges.”[2]

Easier is not always better. This reminded me of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. It HAS to go through the struggle and the challenge of fighting its way out of that cocoon. Those stresses and pressures against it are what enable it to become stronger. Without that process, the butterfly would be too weak to do what it was intended to do, and the same is true for us at times. Sometimes we need the struggle to make us stronger and to enlarge our capacity and ability to accomplish the things that God has called us to do.

Sometimes we need the struggle to make us stronger and to enlarge our capacity and ability.

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Making room for growth by enlarging capacity

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Are You Flowing or Stagnant?

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Are You Flowing or Stagnant?

Are You Flowing or Stagnant?

We’ve had an insane amount of water lately due to all the rain in our area. Unfortunately, heavy rains and debris caused our culvert at the end of our drive to get clogged. Subsequently, this caused water to back up and become stagnant in a ditch/creek bed in our yard. After a while, the stagnant water started to smell and accumulate algae, mosquitos, and even a moderately-sized alligator snapping turtle. We could see that it was going to be a major problem if we didn’t get the water flowing again soon.

Looking back through my old journal entries, I saw a page where I that I had labeled “Flowing not Stagnant” at the top. On the page I had written myself a note of how I should be like a river of living water flowing and not stagnant, stale, or still. I had then listed some of the problems with stagnant water.

Thinking back, I remember that when I wrote that I was kind of in a state of sitting around and not doing much spiritually…not a lot of growth, not a lot forward motion or of stepping out of my current comfort zone. Honestly, I was in a place of sitting still, stewing, and complaining. I was starting to get kind of nasty and gross, a lot like stagnant water. I felt that God was impressing upon me that I needed to get moving and stop sitting spiritually idle.

Flowing not stagnant

Stagnant water, stagnant spirituality, and the effects

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Slow Growth

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Slow growth

Slow Growth

Well, it’s nearly springtime. I love the spring and planting season. It’s almost time to start thinking about my spring and summer garden. I absolutely LOVE gardening, and I’ve learned so many practical spiritual lessons from it. One such lesson is that of slow growth and gradual progress.

Like a plant, I should always be growing. Sometimes growth is slow and not as noticeable though. It’s often only detected in hindsight.

Consider a plant…

Most of the time, when I go out and look at my garden every day, I rarely notice a significant difference in size from one day to the next. It’s a slow growth that is unnoticeable without a time-lapse camera or video. However, if I look at the plant just every now and then and then think back to that same plant a month ago, I can definitely see a difference in size and growth. The same is true if I were to take a picture and then compare the plant to a month old (or more) picture of that same plant.

We usually can’t see the growth as it’s happening. It’s only in hindsight and retrospection that we can observe some of the progress.

We often can’t see growth as it’s happening–only in hindsight do we recognize progress.

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Consider kids growing…

I don’t notice my kids growing from day to day. I can look at them each and every morning and they look exactly the same to me. However, if a friend or family member who hasn’t seen them in a while sees them, they always comment on how much they’ve grown.

This past school year my son went up 4 sizes in clothes all in one year! We even had to buy him new baseball pants and cleats midseason because he outgrew the others just since the start of the season. He was quite obviously growing. I just didn’t notice it daily. It’s a slow growth process. Though my bank account might not have considered it too slow having to buy new clothes so often!

Spiritual slow growth

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Rebuild Your Spiritual Fire

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Rebuild Your Spiritual Fire

Rebuild Your Spiritual Fire

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands” 2 Timothy 1:6 (NIV)

I absolutely love a good campfire. It’s so peaceful and mesmerizing. I love the crackling sounds, the dancing and sometimes colorful flames, and even the glowing embers as the fire starts to die down. It’s always a little sad when the fire goes out, and all I see is just a gray pile of ashes. There are times in life that I feel like those leftover ashes have mimicked my spiritual life…those times when I don’t really feel like I’m “on fire” anymore.

Have you experienced this too? Has your spiritual progress, growth, or walk with God at times seemed to have waned or died off a bit? Does it seem like God is more distant or that you are farther from God? The good news is that the fire or passion you may have once had is not really gone. It’s still IN you (see verse below). The embers are there. It just needs to be fanned back into a flame.

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is IN you through the laying on of my hands” 2 Timothy 1:6 (NIV)

“That is why I would remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner fire] that is in you by means of the laying on of my hands [with those of the elders at your ordination].” 2 Timothy 1:6 (AMPC)

Embers are still hot enough to catch flame

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Is it Time to do Some Spiritual Plumbing?

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Is it Time to do Some Spiritual Plumbing?

Is it Time to do Some Spiritual Plumbing?

Something very gross, yet insightful happened at our house this past week. Something having to do with a sewer backup. Now before you get completely disgusted and click elsewhere, bear with me because I promise you I found some spiritual relevance and life lessons amongst the muck. I know…leave it to me to find an analogy in something so revolting. However, maybe it took something so despicable to open my eyes to some of my own undesirable behaviors and attitudes…my own need for some spiritual plumbing! 😉

A sickening experience

Our house sits on a very wooded piece of property. I love my trees, but there are a few disadvantages. One of those drawbacks is tree roots finding their way into our sewer lines on occasion. Unfortunately, that was the case this past week. We noticed the line was starting to back up…I will spare you the details.

You’re welcome.

As Eric and I went outside to the drain cleanout location, we knew that tree roots invading the line were the likely culprit because we’ve dealt with this before. Eric removed the cap to the drain cleanout. As soon as he did a gush of putrid filth emerged up and out onto the ground (and nearly on us). Needless to say, I quickly got sick to my stomach and had to fight my gag reflex. Again, I will spare you the gory details. Ultimately, we located the blockage, which was indeed roots, and we were able to clear the line and cut out the roots with a drain auger.

I was in need of some plumbing help too…some spiritual plumbing

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