Category: Ministry Musings
Cardio exercises for the spiritual hearty
Today’s focus in our Psalm 119 study was “How Can I Ever Be Clean?” This is the beth passage, verses 9-16, each verse beginning with the 2nd Hebrew letter, beth.
I talked about pornography. Yep. I really did. In church. You can hear it or watch in here on the web site. I think the video is usually up on Mondays. I also think they still video the second service, so if you go to one of the others it might be interesting to watch and see what I left out or added to the service you attended. 
Addiction to pornography is at epidemic proportions in our country. What i had to say about it can be applied to most any addition. They are bears to break! But, there is hope and there is help available.
Here is the complete list of spiritual cardio exercises from the second stanza of Psalm 119. You may not have had a chance to write them all down. I’m going to list them and you see if can match them to the corresponding verse in Psalm 119:9-16
- Live the word
- Memorize the word
- Learn the word
- Speak the word
- Prioritize the word
- Contemplate the word
- Remember the word
I repeat the word of caution I gave this morning. This list should not be viewed as “Seven Simple Steps to Victory over Addictive Sin.” These are simply some very effective practices to exercise your spiritual heart in the word of God. As you do, your exercised heart will grow in love for God and his word.
Think of these exercises like the circuit of exercise machines in the gym. I don’t know about you, but I don’t use every one of them, and I’m not a slave to any particular order. Over the years I have learned what machines are available to address particular issues of need in my body and exercise program. Same here.
Will doing these spiritual cardio exercises guarantee you victory over addictive sin? Not necessarily. This is a tough problem. What can you do?
- Recognize that you have a problem and seriously reflect on how it affects the people you love the most (spouse, children, etc.).
- Get help (professional counseling, care ministry at church, mature spouse, trusted friends, etc.).
- Be prepared to step up and responsibly work hard. You don’t gain favor with God by hard work, and you don’t overcome sin by trying harder. But, as you grab hold of God’s grace in a biblical manner, you will be required to give it your best. (Sort of like physical exercise, huh? No pain, no gain).
- Growing in your walk with God and you walk in his truth will strengthen you for the challenges of the road ahead. As you come to understand just how much God and others love you, you will be equipped to respond in kind. In time, you will replace one addiction with another as you become addicted to God’s love and his truth.
Don’t think of the above exercises as a check list. Just look it over, compare each exercise to the corresponding verse in Psalm 110. Think about it. Does this address a need in your life? What would it look like to exercise this area of your spiritual heart?
Here we are a little over two weeks into our journey through the Bible. Many of you have already missed a day or two. Don’t make a big deal of it or knock yourself out trying to catch up. Just pick it up where we are on the schedule and press on. Just make it a priority (see list above) and don’t give up.
Jeff Cox sent me a cute link that addresses some of the perils of reading through the Bible in the year. Funny, but really true.
Ya disponible – Direcciones (English below)
Direcciones es un libro que escribí hace algunos años como instrumento básico en el hacer discípulos. Muchos de ustedes me han preguntado cómo se puede conseguir una copia o muchas para uso en su iglesia. Aquí en los Estados Unidos, con mucho gusto les servimos a través de nuestra librería Reality Living. En el Cono Sur, nuestros amigos en el CEC, Centro de Entrenamiento Cristiano han publicado este libro desde hace un par de años, y es bello lo que han hecho. Por la cantidad que producen, el precio es bastante cómodo hasta para comprar en cantidades. Aunque el sede central está en Córdoba, el CEC tiene oficinas en varios lugares en todo lo que es el Cono Sur y en su sitio web uno puede encontrar su información de contacto.
“Pero”, dicen mis amigos en México, Centro América y en los países Bolivianos, “y ¿qué de nosotros?” Hasta la fecha no hemos encontrado un grupo como el CEC para aceptar la responsabilidad de publicar y distribuir estos libros en los otros lugares.
Jamás hemos tenido fines lucrativos en nuestras publicaciones. En lo personal, ni un centavo he ganado a través de los años en los varios libros que he escrito en inglés y español. Nuestro objetivo ha sido siempre servir al cuerpo de Cristo. Así que para ustedes que no viven en el Cono Sur ni en los EE. UU., hemos puesto un archivo pdf que se puede bajar a través de Reality Living. Después ustedes pueden hacer lo que sea más conveniente.
Entre cristianos, les pedimos mantener la integridad del material y dar crédito a quien(es) le(s) corresponda. Además, les ruego entender que este libro no es “el discipulado.” Es una herramienta nada más para servir en el proceso de crecer en el Señor y hacer discípulos según la misión que compartimos con el Señor. Espero que esto les sirva.
Nuestra meta es poner otros idiomas en esta misma forma, menos el inglés. No pensamos hacer lo mismo con el libro en inglés simplemente porque así podemos proveer los recursos para hacer disponibles los demás idiomas. En nuestro país es más fácil imprimir, distribuir y vender estos materiales a nuestra propia gente. Actualmente, Direcciones se está traduciendo o se ha traducido al árabe, farsi, behdini, sorani, francés, portugués, japonés, mandarín, rumano, y posiblemente otros más.
[English] For those of you who are curious or confused by your software translator, I am simply telling my Spanish-speaking friends that Directions, our basic tool in disciple making, is now available online in a pdf format in Spanish, downloadable through our bookstore, Reality Living. It is already available in printed form in the United States and in the southern part of South America where we have a partner in publication and distribution. We aim to do the same thing with other languages as they become available. Several translations are nearing completion and others are in process.
We will not be doing this in English, however, because our English sales make it possible for us to do this for our friends around the world. Our goal with our materials has never been to make a profit, but to make possible other literature ministry in other places. You can get your own copies of Directions in English in the normal way through Reality Living. Every copy you purchase is a help toward getting good literature into the hands of believers who speak other languages. Personally, I’ve never made a penny from any of the several books I have written in English and Spanish. It’s a joy to be able to serve the body of Christ in this way.
Two Steps
Psalm 119 is officially kicked-off! The introduction behind us, we launched out this morning by studying the first 8-verse stanza of 22. It all boils down to this – what do you really want in life? what’s keeping you from it? will you decide to learn God’s word and live it?
At the end we talked about two basic steps to take toward learning and living the word of God. The first was simply to make the Psalm 119 study a priority. Be there. Encourage each other by what you are learning and applying on the Psalm 119 blog. The second step was to press ahead in our commitment to read through the Bible this year.
We are now nine days into the New Year and it has been fun to hear some good input. Several have commented that they are going through the Bible reading schedule with colleagues at the office. A lady this morning was so excited that she said she can’t stop reading. She’s entering the story! After a lifetime of being in another church where teaching the Bible did not hold a high priority, she is thrilled to be finally seeing the Bible as a whole.
Another gentleman has a business connection to a prison. He had shared a hard copy of the Bible reading schedule with an inmate a week earlier. When he returned later, he was amazed to see that the schedule had been copied and was being circulated through the inmate population. I have received emails from people in other states and countries who are with us.
Reading through the Bible in a year is not a cure-all, nor is it a way to become a Bible scholar. It is amazing, though, how many people have never read through the Bible in its entirety. Many pastors, missionaries and Christian leaders have never read through the Bible completely. Let’s not be among those who base their eternity on a book they have never completely read.
Change of Perspective
You’ve probably heard me say that KCBT will have the privilege of hosting a rare Intensive of the Perspectives course in conjunction with The Summit at the end of February. This college level course is without question one of the most powerful tools in the world today for mobilizing believers in Jesus Christ.
This week I started getting ahead in my reading, because I will be taking this course myself! I have taught sections of it before, used the materials for years and will even teach a session during the Intensive at KCBT. But, I’ve never managed to be in the same spot for 15 weeks to go through the course myself. A week from Monday I will kick off the first full scale Perspectives course to be offered in the Spanish-speaking world. The reading will have to be in English until all the translation is finished, but I and the other professors will be teaching in Spanish. I am very excited to be teaching and very excited to finally get to go through the entire course as a student!
The first Perspectives Reader was published in 1982 and I have one of that first edition that still has my Salvadoran address in it. Looking through the current 4th Edition, I am amazed at how much is still the same and also how much is changed.
Let me share some good stuff from today’s reading. This is from an article by Tim Dearborn.
We often focus on the question: What must we do to obey the Great Commission, make disciples of all nations and hasten the return of our Lord?” This is the wrong beginning point, for it locks us into a human-centered perspective. If we begin with the human-centered orientation, we continually feel constrained by insufficient resources – and the tasks are far greater than we can possibly fulfill.
Biblical priorities reflected again and again in Scripture ask us to begin instead with these questions:
- Who is the triune God?
- What is God doing in the world?
- How are we to participate with God in his redemptive purposes?
Mission is ultimately not a human response to human need. THe Church’s involvement in mission is its privileged participation in the actions of the triune God.
Here are a couple of more excerpts:
Mission must never have first place in the Church’s life. The Church is to have but one Lord – one passion – the One in whom all the fullness of God dwells, who has reconciled all things to himself.
It is insufficient to proclaim that the Church of God has a mission in the world. Rather, the God of mission has a Church in the world. Grasp this inversion of subject and object, and participation in God’s mission will become a joyous, life-giving privilege. Miss it, and mission involvement will eventually degenerate into a wearisome, overwhelming duty.
Cultivating Prayer
Prayer is very often reactionary. It’s what we do when facing a problem or obstacle. Too often, it is our plan of last resort.
Going to the doctor is often reactionary. It’s what we do when we are very sick. I’m trying to learn that it is far better to give more attention to staying well, eating right, taking care of myself and all that other stuff.
We still need to go to the doctor when we are very sick. And, just as obviously, we still need to pray in the face of any crisis, emergency, problem, etc.
But, what can we do to get ahead of the curve, so to speak, when it comes to prayer? How can we learn to pray more normally and naturally simply enjoying being in fellowship with God?
It seems that so often corporate prayer times revolve around the following categories: those who are sick (major and minor); those who have lost a job or have financial problems; and, those who have relationship problems. We SHOULD pray about those matters! But, we should also pray about big picture, strategic, global matters, like when Paul admonished Timothy that prayers should be offered for those in positions of authority (1Timothy2:1-3). An examination of Paul’s prayer requests in the New Testament reveals that most of them boil down to prayer for protection from evil, for open doors in ministry, and for boldness in proclaiming the Gospel message.
I like to call this type of praying Kingdom Praying. As we begin a new year of our prayer ministry this evening, I want to focus on this type of prayer. There will be opportunities to pray for those dealing with sickness, finances and relationships. However, even in those important areas, our prayer should include seeking God’s will as to the big picture of what he wants to do in and through those problems.
Sometimes, not always, people get sick because they don’t take care of themselves. We can pray for healing as long as we want, but maybe we should also pray that we would learn to be more responsible in taking care of our bodies. Even in cases where the sickness has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of responsibility (a horrible cancer, for example), how can God be glorified even in this tragic situation, or how can his kingdom be advanced?
Sometimes we pray for those in financial difficulty or who have lost their jobs (and we should pray), but never take into account that some people (not all) are in financial difficulty because they refuse to grow up in this important area of responsibility, or they have not performed well on the job but have been lazy or simply irresponsible. Our job is not to judge them, but to be honest with each other and help bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6) and point them in the right direction to apply biblical truth to grow in these areas. The same can be said in cases of relationship problems.
James 5:13-20 is an important passage on prayer. As part of the instruction, James holds open the possibility that what we are praying about just might be the result of sin or some fault of our own. Hmmmm.
These are some of the things on my heart as we approach this new year of prayer. We have moved our prayer time back to Tuesday from Wednesday because we felt that it was not as effective as we had hoped by combining it with the several other activities on Wednesday nights. So, tonight at 7:00 we gather in Worship Falls on the second floor of the new wing. We’re going to try to keep mixing things up, keep them interesting, effective and strategic. I’d love to see you there.
In the months ahead, look for a renewed emphasis on our mission prayer teams that revolve around the missionaries or special projects that we support. Many cannot be part of Tuesday prayer, but almost anyone can find a prayer team to fit their schedule. There, also, we want to make actual prayer the major focus. And, we want to make it strategic and global by having each team include in their prayer time focus on the K people, our special church-as-the-missionary project.