What I'm Reading to Kylee and Makenna - The Organic God

I posted a little over a month ago about reading The Organic God by Margaret Feinberg to Kylee and Makenna. We're still reading it and still enjoying it. We are on chapter 7, out of 10.

A few weeks back, I read this passage to them (which takes place on an airplane,)

"So where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm going to get my daughters," he replied.

His sobriety and seriousness was striking. My interest was piqued by the sense of urgency that surrounded him. I gently asked him to explain. After his divorce, his ex-wife took custody of his girls. She had recently become unable to care for them, and the situation had become abusive. He was on a mission to save and protect his children.

I sat in silence. An uninvited thought popped into my mind. You need to pray with him.

The thought was fueled by a surge of energy. I knew it was God-thought.

But I didn't respond. . . .

Reading this passage was déjà vuish, because the same thing had happened to me. Right away, I told Kylee and Makenna about my similar experience. They were along when it happened.

We were at Home Depot in Mishawaka late one night in fall of 2005. Other than us, the store was almost completely empty. We pushed our cart to the check out at the lumber-end of the store. The clerk was on the phone and it quickly became clear that her conversation was disturbing. We waited (and couldn't help but listen) for maybe a minute. When she got off the phone, she looked distressed and said something about being sorry and how it had been a rough evening. She even offered a vague detail about the problem she was going through.

I felt the surge of energy. I heard the uninvited thought, "Ask her if you can pray for her."

I ignored it. I ignored the voice of God.

The clerk crosses my mind from time to time. I wonder, did my disobedience cause her additional hardship or worse, hinder her journey toward having a relationship with the Living God?

I guess I can take comfort in Margaret Feinberg's later words, "More and more I'm learning that recognizing God's voice is a process complete with highs and lows, successes and mistakes."

I might add, "and obeying" after the word 'recognizing.'

My blog offers a clue that listening for God's voice is something I am intrigued by, I've mentioned it in at least four other blog posts now.

• Life Action Family Camp - Tuesday
  
  
• More Barbarian Way Thoughts
  
  
• Daily Time Alone with God
  
  
• 25 Random Things About Me

The Stand

It's not my favorite blog, but I do enjoy reading Stuff Christians Like. And back in July when I read #2 on Jon's list of "Hand Raising Worship - The 10 Styles," it kind of made me mad. Then I read #10 on the list and I sort of got it.

Which was cool, because not too long after reading that post we started singing The Stand at church, and for this song, at least, I've become a YMCAer.

The Stand

You stood before creation
Eternity within Your hand
You spoke the earth into motion
My soul now to stand

You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all

So I’ll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

My Most Significant Spiritual Moment Since My Salvation

This post is in response to Rob's, Posts I'd Like To See....

So, what is the most significant spiritual moment since my salvation? I know when it was, but am not so sure I can describe it sufficiently. As a matter of fact, I didn't seem to be able to describe it very well when I journaled about it on April 11, 1991. Here's what I wrote:

"I think it is important to say that in the past few days I have just completely rededicated my life to Christ. I realize that I just haven't been living my life the way God wants me to."

Not much of a description, but actually, probably pretty accurate.

On April 1, 1991 Brent Warren and I went to the NCAA basketball championship game in the Hoosier Dome. We had a good time, but I know for certain that I didn't demonstrate to Brent that I was someone who was at all concerned about living my life for Christ. Why not? I wasn't that concerned about it.

So something happened between April 1 and April 11. And I probably lack the ability to describe it because I'm not sure exactly what did happen. But, here's a glimpse of what happened: a number of people had spent years praying for me, some Christian friends peaked my interest in what a closer relationship with Christ could be like, God moved in my heart, I didn't resist.

Just a few days after going to the NCAA championship game, my friends Jamie Prenkert and Lori Holdeman (future sister-in-law) arrived at Anderson for a college visit. Jamie, Lori, Debbie (Jamie's future wife, fellow Anderson student and friend) and I spent a number of hours over a long weekend discussing Christian spirituality, my interest was peaked.

At the beginning of the next week I spent hours in the Anderson library reading the Bible, God was moving in my heart. Late one night that week, I found myself sitting in an empty classroom in Hartung Hall. It was just God and me. I was praying, humbling my hardened heart, listening and telling God that I want Him to be Lord of my life.

Heartbroken

I was so shocked to hear that Lisa Lengacher passed away on Monday that my blog has been put on hiatus ever since. I wanted to post a tribute to Lisa, but knew that my feeble writing attempt would fall far short of the proper commemoration that her life deserves. And indeed, this post does fall far short of providing a suitable tribute to the life of service led by this dear servant of Christ.

During the summer of 2006, Lisa led a work team from our church to help with the recovery in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. I was a member of this team along with Lisa’s daughter Chelsea and another NorthWood student, Josh Stouder.

I had seen the devastation left in the wake of Katrina and I sincerely wanted to go to New Orleans to serve people in need. And sure, I got to do a little of that. But do you know what happened on my trip to serve others? I was served.

I was served spiritually by Lisa.

During that week, I saw Lisa pour herself into service. And it wasn’t so much her service to the rest of our team or even to desperate New Orleanais, but her service to her Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

I learned from Lisa that week.

I learned what it sounds like when someone prays with their whole being. I learned how it is possible for someone to be so focused on serving Christ that it simply encompasses who they are. I learned more about where I should be headed as a follower of Christ. I learned more about what it means to live a Christ-like life. All of this by her example.

When we left for the trip that week, Lisa provided each member of the team a journal. She had written on the first page of my journal when she gave it to me. I dug that journal out this week. Here is what she wrote:

July 8, 2006

Steve –
I’m so excited to be going on this trip. I have been praying for you and will continue to be praying for you, and your family, throughout this next week*. It will be a joy and privilege to serve alongside you, a brother in Christ!!
-Lisa Lengacher

*Romans 5:4 – 5 & Romans 5:2

P.S. If you would, could you please journal your thoughts, experiences & what God reveals to you this week - - so you have something to share with church once we’re home and so you can always remember what you did w/ God and what He did w/ you this week

I am heartbroken for Lisa’s family. I am blessed to have known Lisa and am grateful for the example she set.

Life Action

We got home yesterday from a week away at Life Action's Family Camp in Buchanan, Michigan. God is using Life Action's ministry to have a huge impact on families, reviving hearts for Christ. I feel blessed to have been able to spend the past week there.

This will be Life Action Family Camp week on this blog. There is no way I can recapture what an incredible week we had in a few blog posts, but I hope I can provide a glimpse of what a week at Family Camp is like.

I did get a chance to talk to Life Action's executive director, Byron Paulus. I asked him for permission to post a scan of the Time Alone with God page from their Spirit of Revival magazine, which he granted. I wrote about using this plan for my time alone with God here.

So, here is a pdf file of "Spend an Hour with God."

Daily Time Alone with God

During my years as a follower of Jesus Christ I have dabbled in various daily devotions, prayer time, and Bible reading. I say dabble because I never found anything that I could stick with. To be honest, most of the devotional time I had, seemed simply shallow. I guess I thought that if it was just shallow, do-it-out-of-duty "devotions," why bother? Still, I never completely gave up. I would try something new from time to time. Furthermore, I would sometimes feel guilty about reading books by Christian authors because "I hadn't even read the Bible yet today."

It's been a struggle.

In the fall of 2005, Life Action Ministries visited our church for two weeks of revival meetings. One of the things they taught was how to spend "a daily hour with God." An hour? I hadn't even managed a consistent daily five minutes at this point. My thought was, "Yeah right."

Earlier this year as I was reading an issue of Life Action's Spirit of Revival magazine, I came upon an article that re-outlined the Daily Hour with God.

At that point I was up to a usual 15 minutes of some prayer and a little christian-author reading. So, I decided to give this "daily hour" a shot. Getting out of bed 20 minutes earlier and getting ready for work 10 minutes quicker would give me about 45 minutes. That was about three months ago. I can honestly say that during the past three months I have spent consistent, meaningful, daily time with God.

I think I have only missed four days during the three months. I don't say that to brag. I'm just super excited about what God has shown me through Life Action. . . how to spend time with Him.

Here's the Hour with God outline:

• Confession: Sin is the greatest roadblock to prayer; early in your prayer time, confess and ask for forgiveness - agree with God about your sin. (Psalm 139:23-24; 51:10-11; 1 John 1:9)
  


• Praise: Dwell on God’s attributes. He is an awesome God! (Psalm 34:1-3; 63:3)
  


• Waiting: Quiet your mind and heart before God; focus on Him, being quiet in His presence. (Psalm 37:7; Isaiah 40:31)
  


• Scripture: As you open your Bible, ask God to bless you with concentration and understanding as you read His word. (2 Timothy 3:16; Psalm 19:7-8)
  


• Intercession: Develop a list of names of others to uphold in prayer. (1 Tim 2:1-2; Psalm. 2:8)
  


• Petition: Make a list of your own personal needs, and check them off as God answers prayer. (Matthew 7:7; James 4:2)
  


• Thanksgiving: Thank God for what He has done. We have so much to be grateful for!
  (Philippians 4:6; Psalm 100:4)
  


• Singing: Sing Scripture back to the Lord, or use your favorite hymnal or worship CD.
  (Psalm100:2; Ephesians 5:19)
  


• Meditation: Actively ponder and digest a passage of Scripture or a character trait of God. (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-2)
  


• Listening: Ask God for specific direction concerning the day’s activities. (1 Kings 19:11-12; Psalm 46:10)
  


• Psalms: Read a psalm, and pray back portions to the Lord. (Psalm 95:2; 147:1)
  


• Praise: You began your time with praise. What better way to end it? (Psalm 50:23; 150:1-2)

A few thoughts.

• I usually spend 25 - 45 minutes for my Time Alone with God. (Not a whole hour.)
  


• Three of the days I missed were Saturdays, when I'm not in my usual routine. I don't have much of a routine during the summer either, so it will be more of a challenge. (August 2008 Update - Summer was more of a challenge. A lot of days Landen was awake before me, which really threw off my routine. I did lousy in July. I'm ready for the routine of the school year again.)
  


• I usually skip the Singing one. I would like to get an MP3 player or something I could use for that though. (August 2008 Update - We did get an MP3 player with speakers so I can listen to it in the shower.)
  


• Sometimes I read Proverbs instead of Psalms. If I read Proverbs, I read the chapter that corresponds to whatever day of the month it is.
  


• Having 12 items to work through during this daily time helps keep the time focused, although I still have to fight against simply daydreaming. (Yesterday, during the Waiting time, I had half of a novel written about two sets of twin sisters, the "good" set and the "bad" set, then in the end one of the members of the bad set accidentally kills a member of the good set.) I know, hardly quieting my mind and heart before God. But like I said, I have to fight against daydreaming.
  


• My favorite parts of this Daily Time Alone with God are Confession and Listening. Confession, because it removes barriers to God and helps me live according to God's will. Listening, because I get the chance to practice listening for the Voice of God.
  
  
• I'm not rigid about how long I spend on each, skipping here and there or being interrupted. (I always appreciated how my mom would drop her "quiet time" for me if I needed her. Maybe she was setting the example of how God is always there for us.)
  


• If daily time with God is something you struggle with, I hope you will give this method a try.
  


• I will ask Life Action if I can post a scan of the page from their magazine. But for now, here is a link to a pdf file of the plan. (August 2008 Update - Life Action did grant me permission to post their magazine page - here is the pdf of that page.

One last thing,

this guy also blogged about Life Action's Spend an Hour with God plan. He's got a slightly different take than me. But it seems to work for him too. And hey, he typed the plan so I didn't have to. I think I owe him a link.

Family Camp

I just got an e-mail from Life Action Ministries. Here's an excerpt.

Kicking Off a Summer of Ministry

Greetings from Michigan! We want to take a moment to give you an inside scoop of some exciting things happening at the Life Action Camp.

Family Camps
Nearly a thousand people will soon be here for family camps. Lots of planning is taking place, from meals to activities to enriching times of spiritual refreshing. Pray for us as we minister and refresh these families this summer.

A New Ministry
A great new ministry began when we hosted our first Couples' Getaway in February. We invited a few family camp alumni to be our guinea pigs and give us feedback about its effectiveness. The retreat was so fruitful that we have scheduled four of them to be sprinkled throughout the 2009 calendar year.

Last summer was the first year our family attended the camp. We're going again this summer. I thought their e-mail summed up a week at family camp pretty well, "meals, activities and enriching times of spiritual refreshing." It's a great place to take time out from life as usual and concentrate on building your family and your relationship with God. I can't wait to discover what God has in store for us this year.

Some of our pictures from last year's family camp adventure.

A Nagging Question - Answered

Soon I want to do a post about the procedure I have for my daily Time Alone with God. Having a consistant, meaningful time I set aside for God has always been a struggle for me, but God has blessed me the past month with a fresh approach.

Today during the Listening portion of this time, God laid something on my heart and answered a nagging question.

Did you read yesterday's post about The Barbarian Way? If not, you may want to read that first.

I have had this doubtful thought sneaking up on me occasionally the past four or five months. The thought goes something like this:

"Why does God seemingly miraculously cure some dieing, pleading cancer patients, but not physically pluck cars full of drowning, pleading passengers out of ponds?"

I know that probably sounds like a ridiculous thing to waste my time pondering, but lets face it, God could pluck a car out of a pond just as easily as He could cure a cancer patient. Why does he seem to only do the less obvious of the two?

Remember yesterday's "Cool thing to remember?" God reminded me of it during my time with Him this morning.

"Do not fall away from Christ because of the great things He has done for some, but knows would be better left undone for others."

Those are the words I wrote regarding Matthew 11:6.

Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me. Matthew 11:6

I was thinking in the exact way that Jesus told John not to think in this verse.

I'm thankful I was listening when God spoke to me this morning. God does know what would be better left undone.

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

Matt Terui does a great job leading the music ministry at church. I especially appreciate how Matt sometimes pauses between songs to offer what I'll call a "thinking point." These thinking points provide insite to the lyrics and obviously give you a point to think about and more importantly a chance to listen to God. Today we sang, Chris Tomlin's Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone.) After the song, Matt had us consider what chains we had. Well I have to admit, I didn't totally understand singing "My chains are gone," then pondering what chains I have. I do know what God said to me though, "comfort." I'm too concerned with my own comfort. I want to watch the game, I want to take a nap, I want some peace and quiet, I want time to sit at the computer, I want Landen to take a long nap so I can finish this post (as I begin to hear crying come from upstairs.) I, I, I, I, I.

I need to think less of my comfort.

(Later)
Kristi and the girls are at Grandma Alice's. So I went and got Landen up. He's had a fever most of the day. Honestly, a lot of times I would have stuck him in front of the TV and got back to what I wanted to do. Well, it would have been a little bit hard to do that in the middle of this post. So, we sat on the couch for a while, cut paper for a while and played cars. Well, I would have totally missed out on a great time with my son had I stuck him in front of the TV. We got to playing with one of those cars that sort of winds up when you push it and it keeps going. Eventually our game turned into: Put your face by the floor. Let the other person aim the car for your nose.

We had a ball. I was blessed.

"Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways."
Proverbs 8:32 NIV