Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Point to the Light at Home for the Holidays

On Sunday, I mentioned a sermon that I found very helpful from Charles Spurgeon about going home for the holidays and how to strategically seek to share the gospel.

You can check it out on C.J. Mahaney's blog.

I hope that you will find it helpful as well and that God will use you to point to Christ, the true light, this holiday season.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Let Us Read in 2011

Have you ever set out to begin new habit or discipline in your life and failed? And then you tried again and then failed again? I know I have done that more times than I care to remember. That cycle is certainly difficult and disappointing but it doesn't mean that we must always fail. I can also look at some areas in my life where after failing numerous times I finally made real progress. I have found that it is helpful to remember that just because I haven't done something doesn't mean that it's impossible, it simply means that I haven't done it yet.

The discipline that I would encourage all of us to think about today is the discipline of consistently reading the Bible. I mentioned this in the sermon on Sunday and I challenged all of us to consider how we might seek to be more disciplined in our intake of the Scriptures in 2011 in order that this would be a means for us to grow in the knowledge of Christ as well as growing in His grace.

Here are few questions to consider:
What would it look like if I set aside a regular daily time to read the Scriptures? Where? When?
How much time should I try to carve out at the beginning? If you aren't reading at all right now don't try to set a goal of one hour a day. Start where you are and then seek to expand upon that.
Should I consider challenging myself to try to read through the entire Bible in 2011? Believe it or not, it takes less time each day than you might think.
Who could I invite into my life to bring some encouragement and accountability in this area?

If you would like to consider reading through the Bible in 2011, here are some links to some reading plans:

http://www.esv.org/resources/reading-plans-devotions/
http://www.bibleplan.org/mcheyne.htm
http://www.bibleplan.org/

Let's struggle with all the strength that God gives us to take in more of the Scriptures in 2011!