July 2019 – In Step With God

What is the point to morning devotions? This is a question that I have pondered before and others have ask me the same question. Jesus was our perfect example for us to follow if we want to live the best life possible and to establish an eternal life with Him. Since He is our best example we see that He chose to rise up early in the morning to spend time with His Father everyday so that He would remain connected no matter what happened throughout His day. The reason for this is to start your day right, right with God in it. Through spending time with God is how we draw closer to Him and when situations arise during our day we have God at the forefront of our minds to help us, to know how to deal with it and to send the devil packing. When the day starts and we haven’t spent any time with God, we get too busy with work or everyday daily living, that we often forget to spend any time with Him at all and how do we expect to have a relationship or grow in our faith if we leave Him out. Like any relationship, if we don’t communicate or communicate often enough, it soon breaks down and withers away to non existent.

I wrote this list to help someone I know who was struggling with having a devotional time. As we all have struggles, knowing what to do for our morning devotions and being motivated to get out of bed, haha, I thought that I would share this, so I hope this may help you too:

Get to bed at a reasonable hour even if you don’t want to. Allow a day like Saturday to be your late night unless there is an exception like you’ve gone out for someone’s birthday meal etc. Otherwise it makes getting up in the morning harder, especially if we are always tired.
Wake up early and just start off with 15mins if that is all you can do to begin with. That’s better than doing nothing. Then you can slowly build up to a time you feel your able to do.
Pick what you would like to do in your devotional time prior such as the night before or beginning of the week, so that you don’t have to figure it out in the morning. Here are some ideas to help you get started:

a. Read a chapter of Proverbs every morning. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs so this will last a month if you read one a day. Read over each chapter and carefully look at what each verse is saying. You can even write down what you get out into a journal if you are someone who keeps journals to help you remember the key points.

b. Buying a devotional book or e-book and read this through the month/year (how ever long that one goes for). You should be able to get these at your local Christian book store or online at book depositary etc.

c. There are devo plans if you download the Youversion Bible app (it’s the little brown Bible). There are lots of different devo plans that you can do on a range of different topics. They also vary in how long they go for, such as some last 5-7 days while others go for 13 days.

d. Lesson Book if your church does one. My church does one for our Bible study hour- read each day’s lesson and look up the Bible verses with it. You can also read up on the verses in a commentary to help you understand the context and meaning more. I sometimes do this and write certain key points in my lesson book for easy remembering.

e. Could choose a book of the Bible that you really want to study or a Bible character. I often like doing this along side the Bible Commentaries and I write it down in a journal. (Not all the time). This isn’t my specific way of studying, but this could be one of the ways that you really want to do every morning. I do this not as a morning devotional but rather if I am just studying something in particular.

f. Write in your prayer journal every morning or once a week. There are a few websites now with people creating prayer journals or devotional writing journals for quiet times that you can order to help you. (www.wholeheartedquiettime.com, www.findwondrousthings.com/heyfriend– are a couple of those sites) I will write up a post sometime of how I made mine.

g. Get little study books and read a page every day and fill it in as you go. (Manna Bookstore has some. I have 3- Prayer, Joseph and one on the Prodigal Son). You may even be able to buy study books for Kindle.

Other ideas of staying in tune with God:

Reading a good Christian book every night just for a little bit, helps you stay in tune with God also right before you fall asleep. This helps you to think on good things and to have God always on your mind.
Memorizing scripture- write on big pieces of paper, stick to drivers wheel and when you stop at lights etc, you can start to read and memorize some. You could also place one on your fridge so you read the verse every morning as you have your breakfast.
Change the music you listen too. This is one I am trying to work on haha. And also the entertainment you watch or involve yourself in. Don’t let the devil in, in any small or big way. We don’t want to give him even an inch. What ever you see, hear or taste moulds us.

Hope this helps you in some way :).

There it was! The same universal, worldwide sign, so recognisable and even though the words may sometimes be in another language, I can still tell what it reads. It was my church family on the other side of the world. With great anticipation and excitement, I walked across the street and stepped in the doors to fellowship with those of like faith, my brothers and sisters in Christ, on the other side of the world. I walked in, sat down, no one came near me and no one spoke to me. Suddenly someone approached me and sat down. This was nice I thought, only to have them ask and gesture for me to move along the pew so that their friends could sit next to them. When I was unable to move any further as I had reached the end by the heater, I received a dirty look because this now meant that there wasn’t enough room for all their friends to be able to fit and they wanted me to vacate my seat. The sanctuary was so full that day that there was actually no seats left for me to even move to as some members were having to stand at the back due to it being all full. Throughout the service I kept on getting glared at so in due course when the service ended, I quietly got up, walked out of the church unnoticed, and off down the street the way I came.

One of the most exciting things for me on my ‘big trip’ was this moment, where I was about to go to a church in another country other than my own, but only to come away with questions, disbelief, and amazement. This was only one of my experiences.

What do you think of your church? Is it a friendly church? Welcoming? Hospitable? Or do you feel that it may be only because you already know people there and have friends that attend? How would a visitor feel about your church whether they be a member from another church or someone off the street?

These were just some of the questions that I started asking myself during and after my big overseas trip. Growing up in the church, I always knew people. Through attending youth camps and other church gatherings, I developed great friendships with others in different parts of the country. Whenever I visited, they would welcome me into their church, introduce me to other church members and plan social events. I always felt welcomed! I was really excited to visit other churches in different countries and to experience their church as every country may do things slightly differently even though we share similar beliefs. It would be the first time that I was the observer and the visitor that no one knew. Unfortunately my thoughts were only to be completely changed.

Now don’t get me wrong, not every church I visited was lacking in hospitality, as I did have great experiences also and met some really great people whom I still keep in touch with. I am truly thankful for those amazing memories and great experiences. But I can’t say the same for all the churches I visited. Now thankfully I am someone who doesn’t mind spending my day of worship to myself in another country and I don’t rely on others to do that for me. I am also someone who doesn’t get offended easily so these experiences haven’t changed my faith in God and I still 100% believe in the faith. This experience was great and has taught me a number of things and made me question, what is my church like?

Now I am not saying that you all of a sudden have to open up your homes to every visitor who walks through the door, but i know that if it was someone else who experienced some of these receptions and a lack of interest or welcoming, that this could’ve really affected them. I looked the part of a well-groomed Christian all dressed in my best. But I wondered if I wasn’t, would people have made more of an effort, thinking that they could convert someone or win a soul to Christ? But because I was already a Christian, does that mean that I didn’t need that welcome?

We have no idea where other Christians or non-believers lives are headed and what they have been going through. What if I had walked away from God and just decided to try and come back, so yes I looked the part because I already knew about dressing right, but I walked into a church as unfriendly or as rude as I experienced. Would that person have stayed or become discouraged again?

We need to remember the principle spoken about in Matthew 25:31-46, when Jesus was talking to His disciples about how others are treated, which in turn was showing how you were treating God:

“The righteous will answer Him, saying ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see you a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothed You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” (vs 37-39)

The key point we need to remember is:

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, You did it to Me.” (vs 40).

We know this verse but how many of us stop to ponder it and its meaning. If you keep on reading from verses 40-46, you will find out how upset God is when others are not taken care of by those who know God. Just like the verse above, Jesus also says:

“Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” (vs 45).

As God’s followers, we are called to care, look after, welcome all those whom we come into contact with, as we are a reflection of Christ to others and we may be the only Bible some people see, through our actions and words.

So I want to encourage you to take a serious step back and look at your church. our churches should be one of the happiest places to come to as we are all coming together to worship our Creator with the amazing truths that we have. We are a helping and healing ground to all that we come in contact with. What can you do to make your church more welcoming? or what can you do personally even if other members won’t get on board? What you do or don’t do will have an affect on others lives.

Let our churches be praised for being the inviting, welcoming place that new or old comers love to dwell as we dwell in the presence of God.

Much Love

Sash

Shame It Needed To Be Said

She was on holiday and called in to your church to worship, but oh dear me,
No friendliness was shown, so after the service she left immediately.
She wasn’t impressed, and no doubt God wasn’t either, for it’s His church, you know,
And His church isn’t exclusive, so back again she’s hardly likely to go.

She had the whole day to kill, could’ve done with an invite to lunch, some friendship,
But no one seemed to care, and why lack out the front door she was soon seen to slip.
And no one feeling guilty — some witness, I must say — so why’s anyone there?

Well, for the little good they’re doing; and I thought that Christ we’re supposed to share.
Oh, she visited another church to worship. Was it yours? Fared better there,
Because at least one person responded, maybe you, but I still thought, “Oh dear.”
Only one person? And how many others were there? Yes, what a tragedy,

So I guess they might as well shut shop, for why would Christ want to be there? Or me.

By Lance Landall

(www.poetrywithamission.co.nz)

Month: July 2019

How to have a devotional time with God

Other ideas of staying in tune with God:

Visitors, will they be back?