1together: Blogthoughts on church, life, and emerging culture…
From Garden to City
Today is the first day of a Bible reading plan that I am pretty excited about. And, for this season of Lent I have decided take on this year-long reading plan, which is great because there’s no way I could give up meat or sweets…or coffee! I am far too weak for such sacrifice.
I have set out many times to take on yearly Bible plans. Granted, I have read the Bible several times but for the past few years I’ve noticed that I tend to stick to my favorite areas, like Paul’s epistles…or Paul’s epistles. Breaking my trend and reading the Good Book from cover to cover in one year is an idea that has always appealed to me.
There was the specialized Daily Bible that was popular in the early 90’s. I tried it, but was still in junior high and had not yet discovered my passion for reading; then came high school and the year-long Chronological Bible. As it turned out, for me anyway, it was a cool idea but required too much personal discipline. I got bogged down in Numbers, and eventually put it back on the shelf for good.
When I was in YWAM, there was yet another 365-day plan to read through the Bible. Each day had a reading, a prayer focus for a different societal sphere of influence (e.g. government, education, business, etc.), and each week highlighted a different unreached people group for further prayer. It was set up like a journal so you could write thoughts and prayers throughout the year. While the YWAM prayer journal was a great tool for some, it proved too complicated for me. After a couple weeks of falling behind and promising myself I’d read ten chapters a day to catch up, I stopped.
So last night NCC had a GREAT worship service and launched the reading plan. They’re calling it “From Garden to City.” What really appeals to me about this plan, over any gimmicky one I’ve tried before, is that it contains one crucial element the others did not: community. We are reading together. The more I grow as a Christian, the more I understand that my faith is not built on my own efforts so much as it is fortified through fellowship with other believers.
For more information on National Community Church’s Bible reading plan, you can visit the reading plan’s website.
Malade du péché, la grâce abonde
This is a repost, in French, of a previous blog entitled, “Sick With Sin, Grace Abounds.”
Je conduisais la voiture l’autre jour dans la campagne qui entoure mon village, une chose que j’aime bien faire pour laisser couler mes pensées – c’est SI bon pour ça, cela me donne l’occasion de me dégager et de réfléchir à la vie. Mes pensées ont continué à venir et couler avant de s’accrocher sur pas mal de poubelles enterrées au fond du lit de la rivière. Ah oui, des péchés passés, des erreurs, et des choses que j’aurais préféré oublier, feindre qu’elles ne…
The Good Old Days
Daily Bible reading and I have not always gotten along. Back in the day, I used to feel like a bad Christian for going one day without studying Scripture. After I more fully understood God’s message of grace and freedom, I embraced this whole new “just-need-a-break” approach to devotional life.
Don’t get me wrong. I pray all the time – I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have that trust that God is ever-present and actually concerns himself with the smallness of our lives. So when it came to reading the Bible, I would give myself the…
Why the Hateful Street Preachers?
C’mon, we’ve all seen them, those crazy sounding, homeless and half-drunk looking street preachers, holding up giant signs and megaphones, proclaiming the impending wrath of God. Is this really how Jesus engaged society? The teachings of Christ contain universal truths that are life-changing, and my friends who live outside the tradition of my own faith would unabashedly agree with me. Peace, love, respect for one’s fellow man (or woman), and even proper environmental stewardship are principles that stream out of the life of this man who walked the Earth two thousand years ago.
He preached wherever people would listen, wherever…
Beyond Unaccountable: Finding a Place for Disabled Orphans
Several years ago I was on an ICN outreach to Uganda, out in the bush registering kids for child sponsorship. It is a difficult process having to dig into a small child’s painful life, trying to find out why he or she is an orphan or completely destitute and unable to pay the minimal fees required to attend school. But, that is why I was there. In the kids’ minds, the simple act of taking their photograph means that they automatically have a sponsor and will soon be going to school just like everyone else. What they don’t realize…