Day 6 – Personal Evangelism

Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB)

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Day 5 – Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Day 4 – Sensitive to the Holy Spirit

Acts 16:5-10 (NASB)

5 So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily. 6 They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; 7 and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; 8 and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.9 A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Day 3 – Spiritual Maturity

1 John 2:12-14 (NASB)

12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.  13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.  14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Day 2 – Increased Biblical Knowledge

Psalm 119:11  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

As I consider today’s prayer topic, I am floored by God’s generosity.  He has given us His Son for our salvation, the Holy Spirit for our guidance, and the Bible to learn of Him.

The Bible has been given to us so that we can learn who God is and not just what He can do for us.  Scriptures provide instruction for life’s twists and turns.  It convicts us of current sin, and warns us of impending sin.  The Bible is a source of comfort, peace, joy, and hope.  It serves to remind us that our Father in heaven is Lord of all things, and nothing is impossible for Him.

What a sweet, precious gift God has given us in His Word.  Let’s not take it for granted.

Father in heaven, thank you for the Bible, your word.  Help me to continually read it and glean wisdom from it.  Because I love you, I want to know you more each day.  This year, as I dig in to your word, I pray that my knowledge of you would grow.  And, like David, I hide your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.  Thank you, Father.  Thank you.

Day 1 – Personal Revival

During our 21 days of prayer and fasting, I am planning to post each day about the prayer topic for the day.  Today’s topic is personal revival.

Webster’s dictionary definition of “revival” is:

1. Bringing or coming back in to use, attention, or being, after a decline.
2. Restoration to vigor or activity
3. A bringing up or coming back to life or consciousness
4. A stirring up of religious faith among those who have been indifferent.

5 Things I Hope We Understand in 2010

Yesterday I posted four things I hope that God does this year.  Today I wanted to quickly post five things I hope that we all understand more fully in 2010.

These things may seem like no-brainers, yet our tendencies and our choices reveal that we still have much to learn still about them.

4 Things I Hope God Does in 2010

I’ll admit that January is my favorite month of the year.  The turn of the year has a way of lifting the burden of the previous year.  2009 was a very hard year for a lot of people, myself included.  Many people lost jobs, lost homes, lost family members, and some lost hope.  However, January seems to make it easier to shake off the dust of the past year, and look forward, with hope, to what will be accomplished by (and because of) the grace of God.

I have a page of disjointed notes that I am going to attempt to put in to one cohesive post.  So please bear with me as I jot down some thoughts as we go in to 2010.

Light and Darkness

In my reading this morning, I was really struck by this passage in the book of 1 John.  I’m going to just quote the whole thing instead of paraphrasing it.

1 John 3:6-10

No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

Conflicted

With the current events between Newspring’s press release and Dr. James Duncan’s rebuttal post on his blog, I am conflicted.

I have been a long-time follower of Perry Noble’s blog (he is the lead pastor of Newspring), and have regularly watched their church services of from their website. I appreciate being challenged by Perry to dig deeper, follow harder, and serve more passionately. From the outset, I didn’t agree with some of his methods of speaking, but the content was good even if it was replete with anecdotes and personal stories.

Now with this whole mess being made completely public, I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut, but at the same time had my eyes opened.