I was reading my Bible a couple of months ago and got hooked on this little phrase. It is "so that." "So that" is sprinkled throughtout the Bible. Some times it doesn't have a lot of meaning to it, but sometimes it is one of the most powerful phrases I have ever read. See, when you read a statement that has a "so that" in it you are getting to see the reason behind whatever you are reading. When Paul said he was praying for the Philippians to have wisdom and then said "so that" they could discern what was best and be pure you can more clearly see Paul's heart for them specifically.
So I was going through life underlining all of the "so that"s I could find and learning some neat things. Then, last week at LIFE Group I was sharing the "so that" idea with John and Meghan and Nancy and Josie and Stacy. Only this time, we started talking about using "so that" in prayer. We talked about all of the times we pray for people, but we really don't know what we are trying to accomplish in our prayers. If we prayed with a "so that" it might add passion to our prayers. Not only that, it might cause us to be able to see if our prayers were answered. It could help us make sure we are asking God for things for a reason and not just rubbing a magic lamp.
I pray that you will grow in your prayer life SO THAT God can reveal Himself to you and others over the coming days.
Love,
Michael
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Simply a Good Idea
One of the insights that we have come to as we have gone through our January semron series called Motive '08 is an understanding that we, as a church, need to simplify how we do things. More is not always better. Life has gotten so full of choices and ideas that sometimes it is simply overwhelming. Think about how many messages you hear throughout the week. How many commercials, slogans, thoughts, ideas, lessons and you have to try to process them every day. Wouldn’t it be great if life would get simpler?
How about your faith? You to church on Sunday and you hear a sermon. Hopefully, as you are leaving, you are trying to think about what you heard and how to apply it in your life. You jump in the car to head home and your son or daughter tells you they learned about Daniel and the Lions Den and they begin to ask you questions. To be honest, you don’t know the Bible really well, so you start wondering about the answers to your kid’s questions. You read your Bible on Monday and it is about something completely unrelated to anything you have been thinking about the last 24 hours. You head out to LIFE Group Monday or Tuesday evening and they are talking about something completely unrelated to what you heard Sunday or what you read Monday. You try to engage your mind and heart into the discussion, but it is really hard. You go home from LIFE Group and you are over saturated with ideas. Wednesday and Thursday you feel mentally fried. Sunday rolls back around and you struggle to get back out of bed to come back and hear a brand new message about a whole new idea that is just going to feel like one more think to try to process. Have you ever been there?
What is the answer? Simplify the process and tie it all together. I have been reading a book called "Made to Stick" and my buddy, Matt, has been reading one called "The Big Idea" and both have pointed us to the same thing. What most Americans need to grow in their faith is a simplification. We need to hear and wrestle with the same thing on Monday that we heard on Sunday. We need to talk about, try on and think about one thing at a time.
It may be that your faith could be dramatically changed by a simple commitment to simplify faith. If you could narrow it down to one idea at a time you would find yourself a whole lot further along in the process. My challenge to you is to do your part to make faith simple for those around you whether you are a mom, dad, teacher, church planter, leader or friend.
How about your faith? You to church on Sunday and you hear a sermon. Hopefully, as you are leaving, you are trying to think about what you heard and how to apply it in your life. You jump in the car to head home and your son or daughter tells you they learned about Daniel and the Lions Den and they begin to ask you questions. To be honest, you don’t know the Bible really well, so you start wondering about the answers to your kid’s questions. You read your Bible on Monday and it is about something completely unrelated to anything you have been thinking about the last 24 hours. You head out to LIFE Group Monday or Tuesday evening and they are talking about something completely unrelated to what you heard Sunday or what you read Monday. You try to engage your mind and heart into the discussion, but it is really hard. You go home from LIFE Group and you are over saturated with ideas. Wednesday and Thursday you feel mentally fried. Sunday rolls back around and you struggle to get back out of bed to come back and hear a brand new message about a whole new idea that is just going to feel like one more think to try to process. Have you ever been there?
What is the answer? Simplify the process and tie it all together. I have been reading a book called "Made to Stick" and my buddy, Matt, has been reading one called "The Big Idea" and both have pointed us to the same thing. What most Americans need to grow in their faith is a simplification. We need to hear and wrestle with the same thing on Monday that we heard on Sunday. We need to talk about, try on and think about one thing at a time.
It may be that your faith could be dramatically changed by a simple commitment to simplify faith. If you could narrow it down to one idea at a time you would find yourself a whole lot further along in the process. My challenge to you is to do your part to make faith simple for those around you whether you are a mom, dad, teacher, church planter, leader or friend.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
A Good Friend
Recently my oldest son and I have been having some really neat conversations surrounding the Bible. He just read through the Bible in a year and decided to do it again this year. In addition to that he is reading a couple of different Bible studies written for his age. He came up to me this morning and told me he had a friend who wanted to read one of his books "Weird and Gross Stuff in the Bible". It was really neat to see how excited David was to help Jake. David said, "Dad, maybe this will make Jake want to read through the Bible too." WOW! What an awesome thing to hear your son say.
I tell you that because I need to confess something. Sometime when my son comes to me and asks me Bible questions I get irritated because I am watching TV or reading or trying to take 5 minutes to not think. I don;t want to answer his questions. I want to be lazy. I confess that the one thing I want for David is the one thing I get irritated at. I want him to have a hunger to know Jesus and understand and apply the Bible to his own life and then I get frustrated when he tries.
I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to really listen to David when he asks me Bible questions. I spent some time reading through Deuteronomy 6 where God tells the people who follow God to talk to their kids about faith, to impress upon them the truth of the word of God and to help them grow up with God branded in their lives.
What would happen in your kids' lives if you decided it was not just important, but critical, that you personally spent time each day impressing Biblical things in their life? I think we would give our kids an incredible head start in faith.
I tell you that because I need to confess something. Sometime when my son comes to me and asks me Bible questions I get irritated because I am watching TV or reading or trying to take 5 minutes to not think. I don;t want to answer his questions. I want to be lazy. I confess that the one thing I want for David is the one thing I get irritated at. I want him to have a hunger to know Jesus and understand and apply the Bible to his own life and then I get frustrated when he tries.
I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to really listen to David when he asks me Bible questions. I spent some time reading through Deuteronomy 6 where God tells the people who follow God to talk to their kids about faith, to impress upon them the truth of the word of God and to help them grow up with God branded in their lives.
What would happen in your kids' lives if you decided it was not just important, but critical, that you personally spent time each day impressing Biblical things in their life? I think we would give our kids an incredible head start in faith.
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