Spiritual Disciplines

This may be my last post for a while.  I am going to begin using my web log time to write a book instead. So since it might be a while until I write again, I wanted to leave a post of more significance than petty politics or my views on some other single issue.  I chose to leave, even if only for a short season or sabbatical, with something that has transformed my life and challenge you to test its significance for your life.

I practice two daily spiritual disciplines.  These two disciplines have transformed my life.  So if your life is o.k., and you are not ready to change. Then ignore this advice. And if you all ready practice them stay with it.  But if you are weary and tired of trying your latest passing fad.  Why not give this one a try also? It may transform your life, also.

First. Daily Devotional Bible Reading

Several years ago, an elder, in my local church challenged the congregation to make bible reading a regular part of each of our lives.  Since that challenge, I have consistently and regularly read from the bible (almost daily).  That daily discipline has changed my life.  I am now a quarter of the way through my third reading of the bible (It has been 2 and a quarter years since that challenge).  The first year (2007) I read from the one year bible plan, last year (2008) I read from a plan I got from one of our pastors, this year (2009) I constructed my own reading plan.

It was not easy for me to get away from all the noise of life and to just sit and read from the bible.  So when I accepted this challenge I knew I had to exchange something.  I had to give up something I did to make room for this new discipline.  I gave up watching early morning news.  I used to start my day by turning on the television and watching the news for a few minutes to get ready for the day.  I imagine some of you probably do this out of routine.  I turned those news shows off in the morning and opened the pages of my bible and read from it.  After about three weeks, it became my new routine.

When I accepted this challenge, I had all ready been reading the bible regularly to make preparations for teaching Sunday school, but my focus was on reading the few verses related to that particular lesson and studying them carefully, and I still continue to do that.  My reading of the bible was task oriented, not relational.  But since I have added more time, devotional time, in the morning to read the bible and meditate upon the words, I have grown to see the intricate work that the Lord has done in giving us the bible and the beauty and completeness of it for everything related to the human experience.

It is not by chance.  Playing bible roulette as either a last effort or in jest will not change your life.  Cover to cover reading will.  As I read during my devotional time, my eyes are opened to insight and illumination in every area of daily living.  Trouble with work. Hard time with family relationships.  Daily reading of the bible helps.  I can not count how many times, that I come to a difficult circumstance in my life and then the Lord has illuminated the path from the lamplight of his words I read in the bible.  Example, this morning my daily devotion came from the final chapters of 1st Samuel.  All week I have been preparing a lesson on Micah chapter 3.  I was wrestling with how to describe divination to the class and from the pages of scripture comes the story of King Saul seeking out the witch in Endor to divine or call up a spiritual medium for Saul.  Illumination–my eyes were open to an example of divination, I could use.  You might be reading this and say, well that is really good for you, you are a Sunday school teacher, preparing for a class is not real world.  It is just more book learning not really helpful in the real world.  That is a nice story to tell in Sunday school to teach a point that is a what the bible is for, Sunday school.

Well try this example as it relates to personal relationships, about a month ago the relationship between my son and I was escalating into a raging wildfire.  We were having a lot of conflict, I was having a lot of trouble with my son.  My son was having a lot of trouble with me.  I did not know what what going on, then I read from Ephesians: Fathers do not provoke your children.  That message did what scripture does, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12, NKJV) Solution to problem (Illumination): don’t provoke your son.  Well after a month, things are better between me and my son, I am still learning about all the ways I provoke not only him but also my other children, and am asking the Lord to help me stop (more on prayer, in a minute).  God is faithful to answer and give me the help I need. Another example came from in reading 1 Peter 3:7 “honor your wife”, a lesson I need to hear when coupled with advise from Ephesians “love your wife”, these two messages from the Lord have begun to help me maintain and strengthen my relationship with her, as she has begun ministering to others outside of our home through offering care and concern for other women who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy.

So in summary, I wanted to issue that same challenge to you; Daily Devotional (Relational–not task) Bible reading–not reading the bible to reinforce your theological positions, but reading the bible to hear the voice of the Shepherd.  To recognize His revelation, so you can guard your minds and hearts from other distractions and voices.  Be prepared for your life to change.

Second. Daily Personal Prayer

God speaks to me daily when I am reading from the Bible.  I am still learning what the voice of the Shepherd sounds like.  But communication is two way.  I speak to the Lord through prayer.  There are many different types of prayer.  But morning prayer, the giving of our first words and thoughts to the Lord set our hearts for the day.  In the past I have had a difficult time with what words to use when I pray.  But recently I have been taught a new method of prayer that works really well for me.  It is a beginning place and it is related to my deep hunger for reading the scriptures.  It is to begin my prayer time with praying scripture.  I begin in my private prayer closet from what I had just finished reading in scripture, I start with what stands out from the page like a flashing or blinking red light, a single word, a phrase, or an entire verse, and then move outward from that starting point.

This has helped me in transitioning from reading and listening to God talk to me through scripture, to me interacting with Him using the scriptures as the beginning point.  I understand and see why and how this works.  God is the author of all scripture, it is His voice or message to me.  It joins my two daily disciplines into really just one.  Communication from God to me, and then communication back from me to God.

So I want to increase the challenge I offered to any one that reads this: Not only do I challenge you to read the bible daily, but I also challenge you to prayer.  Now if you are the opposite of me and have an easier time praying and harder time reading the bible, then just reverse it.  Start with prayer and then open your bible to read from it second.  Do it both ways. and see which way works best for you.  I say do and not try.  Because I recently had my eyes open to an exercise I want you to all do.  Place a pen on table and try to pick it up. (Just try, don’t pick it up, but try to pick it up).  What happens to the pen if you only try? It is unchanged and still on the table.  One of my favorite movie quotes from all time comes from a little green Jedi master, “Do, or Do not; There is no try”

So from the words of a shoe company, “Just do it!”

So, If you see another web log entry soon, then you will know that my effort to write a real book died a tortured death, and I returned to web log writing which anyone can do, because it has no rules or standards.

Healing Light

The only complication baby Marissa had after her birth was a higher than normal level of bilirubin. But medical technology came to the rescue with a very interesting device. A bilibed that looks like a lite brite. Remember the old toy with the light bulb and little pegs to create lighted pictures of trees, houses, and other simple pictures. The device gives off a blue light that helps the baby break down the bilirubin toxin into less complex chemicals her little body can break down easier. The light was breaking down the toxins in her body. After only 30 hours on the light the amount of bilirubin in her body dropped to normal levels and continues to break down.

This analogy compares to the toxin of sin in all our lives. Only by having the Light (Jesus) shine on our bodies can anyone have sin broken and cleansed. Its toxic affect of death and eternal seperation from God are removed by Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus provides the healing Light we need to remove the toxin of sin. He gives us a healing light our souls need. Our only requirement is to rest in His healing light and believe nothing else, just like a baby.

picture was borrowed from my wife’s web log and inspired this entry.

My Spiritual History: Part 3

This is part 3 of my spiritual history: from Mormonism to Biblical Christianity. It is highlighted by the divine light of God directly intervening into my life. My apologies for the length, but it is a story thirty-two years in the making. It is subtitled A New Life. It is about coming to Logan, Utah and growing in Christ through joining the body of believers.

Part 3.
A New Life
Around the same time my wife had given me a New King James translation of bible. I began reading it. I asked the home teachers from the Mormon church to stop coming to my home. We would continuing going to different Christian churches until we left Twin Falls and moved to Logan. During those early months Bob, another member of Grace Baptist Church would come to our home regularly and taught from the Gospel of John. He was sharing the power of Jesus through the stories of the woman at the well and the Blind man being healed. Finally, I had decided to formerly request to severe my ties to the Mormon faith. It was around the same time, I decided to move to Logan to earn my college degree.

I addressed a letter to my bishop and several days later receive a letter from him and another from my stake president annulling my affiliation with the Church and rescinding all my future blessings from God. The next month, I moved to Logan, Utah with my wife and two small children to start a new life outside the Mormon faith.

Both Tina and I knew we needed to find a home church. The first week of our move, we found the oasis book store. From behind the counter, Brad talked to us about our spiritual history and about the local churches. We decided to go to Maranatha Baptist Church because it was one of the larger bodies and had a program for our kids, as well. We were warmly welcomed and even accepted an invitation to lunch on our first visit. We continued going to Maranatha on and off for several years always enjoying the great bible teaching given by Pastor Don. One Sunday, prompted by Pastor Don I again heard the voice of God calling me to baptism. God wanted me to be counted as part of His church family. I was baptized in December of 2001.

I am thankful for an elder in the church and the effort he took in mentoring my early walk with Jesus and through demonstrating and teaching me what being in Christ meant. I wanted to have more connection to other believers and my new church family, So with my young family we began going to small groups. They have been a blessing to me in sharing my life with others and connecting to the body of Christ.

Divinely guided circumstances lead me to substitute teach an adult Sunday school class. I discovered my gift for teaching God’s word and continue using my gift to strengthen the body. Exercising that gift has also strengthened and matured my walk with Jesus. My journey continues and I enjoy my morning bible study study group and our common thread and love for Jesus. My journey also continues as the head of my family in guiding (shepherding) them under the direction of the Good Shepherd.

My Spiritual History: Part 2

This is part 2 of my spiritual history: from Mormonism to Biblical Christianity. It is highlighted by the divine light of God directly intervening into my life. My apologies for the length, but it is a story thirty-two years in the making. It is about God calling me to salvation and my struggle to answer.

Part 2.
My Damascus Road
Then one day my wife proclaimed that she had been saved. She had been arguing on the internet with some Christians for weeks. Now she told me that she was a Christian and had made a confession of faith to follow Jesus. The next few days puzzled me. No more fighting. The change in her was visible to me. It was like a beam of light testifying of the peace she had found. She was invited to attend an Assembly of God church to met a relative of the women who lead her to Christ. I agreed to go with her to the church out of my arrogance to show her the folly of other Christians and out of her promise to go to the Mormon church with me. Neither of us would go to a Mormon church again except to visit family on rare occasions.

At the beginning of the meeting, I stood mumbling the words to unfamiliar songs and listened to the praise by energetic worshipers that surrounded me. After singing and a few announcements an elderly gentleman spoke in tongues. Moments later another voice gave an interpretation which sounded like a prayer praising God. Never had anything struck me so powerfully. It was like a bright beam of direct divine light. It was God’s Holy Spirit convicting me and witnessing to me. I was in awe and dazed.

My wife, our baby, and I continued to attend that church for several months, the most memorable impression was that of a Sunday School teacher that taught a new believer’s class. It reshape my view of God and exposed my need for Jesus. I was not saved, but the soil around my heart was being tilled and seeds were planted. During my attendance with the congregation at the Assembly of God church, I continued to have home teachers from the Mormon church come to my home. Now I was having questions about my faith. Questions, I could not find the answers to.

A co-worker, Brad, had begun breaking the soil of my heart, also. He was able to give a reasoned defense of the hope he had. His hope was anchored in the God of the Bible. He invite my wife, daughter, and I to visit his church. He apologized that his church did not have a senior pastor, while the congregation was in transition, but said there would be a preacher to share the good news with me. He was right about the preacher. My eternal soul according to the bible was in jeopardy. I had to decide to either trust the bible or not.

I continued going to the Grace Baptist Church to hear the bible preached for several weeks. One week, nothing seemed any different from past weeks, but aided by the voice of an interim pastor and with my eyes closed, head bowed and heart pounding-God’s divine light came and He called me. I answered by raising my hand as a sign of the commitment I made at that moment to follow Jesus. Later an elder of the church would guide me down the Romans road to confirm in my heart and mind my authentic salvation. I was on a spiritual hill top for several days.

My Spiritual History: Part 1

Our church body is still searching for a new senior pastor. In that search some from my church family have been writing the spiritual history of our church. I decided I would look at my own spiritual history once again. I have recounted this story in early entries, but I want to tell it again. Hopefully in this telling, God’s work in my life will be manifested. It was not through my intelligence or great work that I was rescued from eternal torment. It was God shining His light into my life in powerful ways.

I also hope that by speaking of my history with God like in Nehemiah chapter 9, were God’s people recounted their spiritual history before they made a new covenant to follow God. The telling will commit me to the current journey I am traveling with my church family in searching for God’s shepherd for His flock at Maranatha Baptist Church in Logan, Utah.

This is part 1 of my spiritual history: from Mormonism to Biblical Christianity. It is highlighted by the divine light of God directly intervening into my life. My apologies for the length, but it is a story thirty-two years in the making. It is about my old life and struggles and victories I had as a Mormon.

Part 1.
The Old Life
I was born into a home guided by my loving parents. Together we lived an active life centered around the teachings and practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints; The Mormon church. My life was filled with happiness and love. My life predictably progressed through the Mormon faith for seventeen years. At age seventeen, my family encountered devastating events brought about by sin. Exposure of these events and their consequences shattered my faith and my health. I lost my connection to reality. I spent a month in a mental hospital with the broken pieces of my life. Occasionally, I would see dark shadowy figures surrounding me and felt their eyes and presence upon me. Evil ones were directly causing me pain and anguish. It took over a year for me to recover and regain a sense of reality and for these demons to leave me alone. It was reading in the bible that pushed my demons away.

I recommitted myself to my Mormon faith and began rebuilding my faith starting in the beginning with reading the Old Testament, besides my seminary class was going to be studying it. During my final year of high school, I fell in love with one of my closest friends and future wife. I challenged her to listen to the restored gospel. During our first year of college, she converted and was baptized by me into the Mormon church.

We had discussed going to the temple and getting sealed, but church rules forbade it. We wanted to get married, but had not set a date and then tragedy struck. Her father died. She was alone in her new faith, and was surrounded by questions. I tried to help her find answers. We set a date and were married. My answers to my wife’s questions did not satisfy her. The combined toll of life changing events became too much for her. She became frustrated with her inability to accept some of the truths taught by the Mormon church and left the church before the birth of our first child.

I arrogantly reasoned that my faithfulness to the Mormon faith would win her back based on the promise found in 1 Corinthians 7. We had many months of open war. Although it was a physical struggle of words and emotions, Its roots were spiritual. Our marriage was severely strained and was in trouble. I continued attending the Mormon church with our new baby for several months. I even blessed and named our baby into the church. I prayed God would reward my faithfulness to the church by restoring my wife. I waited for a miracle. It came. It was not what I expected though.

Bible Translations-Which one Do I use?

After I became a born-again Christian, I faced an ocean of various bibles. If I was going to read and study the word of God, Which one Do I use? My hunt for the perfect translation of the bible began. I believe that God’s word as recorded in the bible is perfect, unchanging, and correct. I was raised with the formal and archaic language of the King James Bible with the filter of Mormonism. I was guarded in trying to read from that translation for fear that many of the false teachings and unsound doctrines I had learned as a child would creep back into my life. I wanted to guard against that from happening. Before too long, my lovely wife, bought me a New King James Version of the bible in 1996. It had a black leather cover with the words of Christ in red (Not that it matters that much to a red-green color blind person) but It was perfect. Even the name was great. I was a new creation having been born-again, so why not use a new translation of a bible I was partially familiar with. I still have and adore that New King James Bible.

Ever since my college physics course, I have been completely fascinated with light. Its complex properties continue as a small proof of God’s great craftsmanship of the universe and it does testify that there is a Creator of the universe and it did not just randomly or haphazardly fall into place.

As the reader of this blog, you might be asking, How does light relate to Bible translations? I am glad you asked.

In your mind’s eye picture a rainbow. It is a refraction of light through a raindrop. The various colors are born from the seperating of light by wavelength. Red having the longest and Violet the shortest that our eyes can see. The bible is like a rainbow. The word of God is lamp unto my feet and light for my path (Psalm 119:105). The various translations provide different perspectives of the full spectrum of God’s words.

There are two basic types of Bible translations the first like New International Version or New Living Translation bibles are called dynamic equivalent translations. Back to the rainbow, these translations try to maintain the full spectrum and combined beauty of God’s words. They try to convey the sense or the dynamics of the words.

Other translations like my favorite the New King James and even the King James bible are a word for word translation. Back to the rainbow again, these try to maintain the individual power of each word. They try to emphasize each color in the rainbow and seperate and admire each color of the rainbow.

Both types of translations are valuable in displaying the full spectrum of God’s words. It comes down to the reader. Do you like to see the entire rainbow all at once and enjoy the great experience of the combined words? Or do you like to focus your attention to each word and really experience every word one at a time? My personality falls into the second type of person. Maybe yours falls into the first type. Either way, I highly recommend reading and meditating on God’s word regularly.

The Christmas Star

Light has behavior similar to both energy and particles. Light may be packets of particles called photons. Light may also be energy. Light is electromagnetic radiation. Light is both visible and invisible. The human eye can see light with wavelengths ranging from 400 nanometers, blue-violet light, to 700 nanometers, red light. There is light with wavelengths longer than this, Infrared and is most associated with heat and microwaves. There is light with wavelengths shorter than visible light, Ultraviolet, It is most associated with danger as well. Giving us sunburns and cooking the tadpoles. The visible spectrum is divided into seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. White light as seen from distant stars and our sun is composed of this spectrum. The black of space is the absence of light.

The Light for conScience.
Jesus is the light of the world (See John 8:12)

Like light, Jesus has seven divine attributes (Hebrews 1:2-3) that are visible to us. He is heir of all things, He made the Universe, He is the brightness of God’s glory, He is the express image of God in person, He sustains all things, He purged our sin, and He reigns in Majesty seated in a place of honor beside God. There is prophecy of the coming light of the world and its effects. In Isaiah 10:17 “So the Light of Israel will be for a fire, And his Holy One for a flame; It will burn and devour His thorns and his briers in one day. “ (NKJV) Like light, Jesus is a Judge burning away the stubble separating the wheat from the tares, with fire, just as Infrared or Ultraviolet light is dangerous and can burn and or destroy. Many scientists that fear Global warming, understand the real source of Global warming is our sun’s electromagnetic radiations, light and energy being trapped in our atmosphere. In a world without light and full of darkness, we need Jesus just like we need the light from our sun. The sun provides 99.9% of all light and energy on this world. Plants grow from it and are the foundation for all food chains. It sustains the life of our physical bodies. We need Jesus to be the light and energy of our souls. Micah explains this with the words the Lord be a light for me.” (7:8-9) Jesus said, Matthew 5:14-15, we are the light of the world and should not hide our light under baskets but shine on the hill tops. The source of the light in us is Jesus. (see Ephesians 2:14-19) The Lord from the beginning was a light for His people. In Exodus 13:21 the Lord was a pillar of fire by night that lighted the path for the children of Israel to travel by night. Songs of worship were sung of the Lord being a Light (Psalm 18:28). Even Job in his deepest despair turned to and looked to the Lord as his source of light (Job 29:12). Only one more word need to be said, Shekinah.

The Christmas Star.
Finally, we have the Christmas star found in Matthew 2:2 several wise men followed His star. Where did this star come from. At first thought I considered it maybe a new star created by God, but He was finished with creation centuries before this star was visible to earth. This left three options. I will divided them by the people who may chose which one they prefer. It may even be all three. The intellectual or mind focused person may prefer the long way away theory. God created a star 2,350 Trillion miles away and it finally became visible to earth after its light reached us. Since, I took the time to make the following calculation of 4000 years x 365.25 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds x 186,000 miles per second, I probably fall into the intellect or mind focused person category. The passionate or dynamic person may prefer the exploding heavenly body theory. A star or other object in the heavens exploded and briefly light the sky with a newly visible light. What is more dynamic and passionate than God entering His World. The harmonious person might prefer the heavenly alignment theory. Multiple heavenly bodies aligned to create a bright light in the nightly skies. Other heavenly hosts also marked the birth with their harmonious singing.

Either way there was a Christmas star and its light guided the several wise men to Bethlehem from the east. They understood that the world had been given a light and they wanted to come and worship him. How are you celebrating this Light during this joyous season?