Have an Intentional Devotional Life in 2010

As we get ready to launch into a new year, I'm been thinking a ton about what 2009 has held and what I want to be the same and or different about 2010. The one thing I keep coming back to is our calling to relationship with our God. John 17:3 defines it incredibly well - "This is eternal life, that you KNOW HIM." So regardless of what your relationship with Him has looked like in the past, it can and should look different in the future. Prov. 4:18 teaches us this very truth -- there is alway more of Him to be had in our lives. I found an article written by an Acts 29 pastor on this very topic. I thought this was incredibly helpful and wanted to share it with you. The content is below or you can access the attached link. Will you join me in 2010???

Planning an Intentional Devotional Life for 2010. Do you have a plan?

by JR Vassar, Pastor of The Apostle's Church NYC

The most important thing you can do in 2010 is cultivate a devotional life that facilitates the intimate nearness of God. You won't accidentally get close to God. So, for 2010, I wanted to encourage you to embrace a focused intentionality in your devotional life. Here are some things I have been thinking through with regards to my devotional practices in 2010.

Have a no exemption time and place to meet with God. If you do not schedule in focused time with God, everything else in your life will schedule it out. Have a time and place and treat it as an appointment with the most important person in the universe. And, keep it; no excuses. It might be morning, evening, night, whatever. Just pick a time that you devote to seeking God with uninterrupted focus. If you have to put it on your calendar, do it.

Have a plan. What will you do during that time? The obvious answer is that the time will at least include contemplative bible reading and prayer. But, what will be the content of that contemplative reading? There are several options and no one option is best or right. You need to find what keeps you engaged and maybe even mix it up a little. Here are some options that some friends have shared with me on Twitter:

The M'Cheyne Reading System. Robert Murray M'Cheyne was a minister in the Church of Scotland from 1835-1843. He died at the age of 29 but left an amazing legacy. This is a plan he developed. The esv.org site explains this plan as "featuring four different readings for use in both family and personal devotions. Each day has two passages from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from either the Psalms or the Gospels. In one year, you read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice." You can subscribe theRSS feed and have it delivered into your google reader every day. Or you can download a printable version here.

ESV Study Bible Reading Plan. In my opinion, the best study bible available today is the ESV Study Bible. The Doctrines section in the back exceptional and the notes are very helpful. There is also a reading plan in the back of the ESV Study Bible. The esv.org site describes it as "readings every day from the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, Pentateuch and History of Israel, Chronicles and Prophets, and Gospels and Epistles." You can subscribe to the RSS feed and have it delivered to your google reader everyday.

The Book of Common Prayer. For those of us from the free church tradition, this seems a little foreign, but I have found the BCP daily office to be a great approach. Every day the BCP gives you a morning and evening Psalm, an OT reading, a Gospel reading and an NT reading. The great thing about the BCP is that Christians all over the world are reading the same Scriptures everyday together. You are reading with the Church. The BCP daily office is a two year cycle, each cycle beginning in the season of Advent. We just started Year Two. You won't read through the entire bible in those two years, but you will get a wide and diverse diet of the Scripture. For more information on the BCP visit this site and click on the Daily Office Lectionary. You can also subscribe the RSS feed and have the readings delivered to your google reader everyday.

Customize Your Own Reading Plan. If you want to customize your own reading plan so that your reading is heavier in one area than the other, you can use this website and have your customized plan emailed you to every day.

Choose Individual Books. Some prefer to stick in a book and go deep with it for a season. For instance, you might want to spend a month or two in the Gospel of John focusing on the glory of Christ. It is a good idea to alternate between OT and NT and different genres. Again, which plan you choose is not the most important thing. Don't stress over it. Just have a plan.

Begin your time with prayer and confession. Confess your sins to the Lord and ask him to cleanse your heart (of things you have done and things you have left undone) and open your eyes to behold wonderful things in his word (Psalm 119:18). You want a heart that is open and responsive to God and confession and prayer postures us in that way.

Read out loud. Maybe it is just me, but if I don't, I get really distracted.

Look for Gospel patterns. As you read, realize that Jesus and the Gospel is The One Story of the Bible. Look for Gospel patterns, grace on display, as you read. Especially in the OT. Every story has Christ as the ultimate hero. For example, don't read the story of David and Goliath and leave your devotional time "ready to face your giants." Realize that you are Israel in the story, not David. You are weak, powerless, cowering before your enemies of sin, Satan, and death, and you need an anointed King to defeat your enemies and cause you to rise up in hope and courage. Jesus is the true and better David, and he is the point of the story of David and Goliath. Look for these patterns in everything you read and rejoice in what God has accomplished for you in Jesus. We don't have devotions and pray in order to avoid the guilt of not having devotions and not praying. We have devotions and pray to know Jesus and his Gospel, and revel in all that he is for us and all that he has won for us.

Journal your thoughts and prayers. Journaling helps us process what we are reading and learning from the Lord. It is good to go back and read your journal to remind yourself of how God has been at work in your life in the past. Get a moleskin or a cheap equivalent and just do it for a season and see if it helps you.

Realize that this is a community project. You need to share what God is saying to you and have others share what God is saying to them. Consider doing one of the above plans with a group of people, a spouse, a roommate, or your church staff.

Don't give up. I have missed meals in the past, but never gave up on eating. I just made sure I did not miss the next meal (and usually made up for it). You are going to miss days, often times multiple days. Repent of your neglect of God and press on in knowing him. Your righteousness is not in how consistent your devotional life is; it is in Jesus Christ who is constant and ever faithful. So, relax and pick up where you left off.

The beauty and joy of 2010 will not depend upon your circumstances, but upon your experience of the One you were made for. As much of him that you want to experience, you will experience. He promises to reward those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Friday, Merry Christmas!

Friday Love::

Read Luke 2:1-7

Love is here. The reading today is intentionally short. All of these readings are intended to connect your heart with THE COMING hope, peace, joy and love that is found in Jesus. Reflect on the simplicity of the story you have just read in Luke 2:1-7.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Thursday Christmas Ee

Thursday Love::

Read Luke 1:39-56.

Starting with verse 46, this is Mary’s song of praise, also called The Magnificant. The title is derived from the first line of the song, “My soul magnifies…” Mary’s song is intended to make larger the love that has come to her and is COMING to the world.

As you read, know that Mary is a teenager and of no worldly significance. Also know that Jesus comes to those who seek Him and who are humble and hungry.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Wednesday

Wednesday Love::

Read 1 John 4:10

God is the love; not us. Jesus is the love; not us. When Jesus was born to Mary in that stable, true love that gives of itself for the betterment of another was born. True love that has no motive other than the object of love was born.

You might need to know what propitiation means. Simply put, it means "paid for." Jesus is loved defined. That definition is to come and bring to us what we could not bring to ourselves, which is the payment for sin and reconciliation with God.

Pastor and author John Piper says, “"Love is bringing the object of your love to a place where they are enthralled with that which will eternally satisfy the soul, namely Jesus."

Jesus is love. Christmas truly is THE COMING of love.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Tuesday

Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Think of the person that you love the most. For me it is my wife. I am a pretty decent husband. My wife tells me I am. She tells me that I love her well and that she feels loved by me.

When I read the verses in 1 Corinthians that you just read, I am embarrassed of my love. I am not always kind or patient. I am often proud and rude and easily angered. I hold wrongs against my wife. I am not always protective, trusting or hopeful. I am a failure at the Biblical definition of love.

I am that way with the person I love the most. The bad news is that you're the same way. The good news is that Jesus does not care. He came as love to show us how to love, knowing we would not ever do it fully. But He came anyway.

That is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our failure does not diminish our acceptance. I want to say that again in a more personal way. Your failure does not diminish your acceptance. The love of God overcomes your failure, and it is not dependant upon you in any way. Jesus is the perfect love; it is love that has no condition.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Monday

Monday Love::

Read Romans 5:8

The greatest act of love this world has ever seen is God giving His son Jesus. John 3:16 says that God sent His son because He loves us so much, and that if we would just believe in Jesus we would have eternal life.

There is more to this love than just that familiar verse. Read Romans 5:8. There are two striking phrases that are here. The first is easy to miss without knowledge of the Greek language. The phrase is, “God shows his love…” The word that is translated as “shows” is profound.

The word picture that is painted is placing something within your reach. This book that you are holding is within your reach. When my children were very small, we had to make sure things that would hurt them were outside of their reach. There was nothing sharp left too low.

The second phrase is, “still sinners.” As sinners, we are repulsive to God. God cannot be in the presence of sin; it would contradict His holiness. Romans 3 says that as sinners our mouths are as open graves and filled with disease. In our most wretched and repulsive state, love came to our world.

This is what is happening here. As sinners, we are dead and unable to move toward God. But God’s plan to redeem us was to place His life-giving love within the reach of a dead man. Jesus is that love personified, and with the birth of Jesus that love is within our reach. That is what we celebrate this season and what we celebrate in THE COMING of love.

Advent 2009:: The Coming PEACE Wednesday

Wednesday Peace::

I have a good friend in Afghanistan who flies attack helicopters in the war. He gets a chance every now and then to send me pictures and emails about some of the stuff happening. He asks me to pray for his wife and kids who are home without their husband and father. He asks me to pray for the people that he serves with who have been wounded. And he asks me to pray for the families of those who have died in the battles.

As I do that, I reflect on the pain that he and his fellow service men must be facing and that his fellow service men face. I also reflect on the stress and fear that has to overcome these guys’ families. This is not the first time my friend has been in Afghanistan. When he returned home the last time, the reunion of my friend and his family was cherished because they knew intimately what it meant to be apart, to be separated. The peace they have in those moments of reunion is a peace that I cannot fully understand, because I have not been in an attack helicopter over enemy territory.

I think we cannot truly appreciate the peace we enjoy unless we know the pain, fear and difficulties of what it means to be at war. In today’s reading, we see the place that we are before Christ comes into our lives with his peace.

Advent 2009:: The Coming PEACE Monday and Tuesday

Monday Peace::

The following comes from a sermon by Tim Keller given on December 21, 2001 at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York.

At some point in all relationships, you get in a conversation that goes something like this:

“You’re to blame!”
“No, it’s your fault!”
“No, it’s you.”
“No it isn’t. It’s you.”

What’s happening? The relationship is falling apart because neither side will take the blame, budge an inch or make any concession. Neither side will admit wrong or drop defenses. And as long as defenses are up, the relationship is going awry.

But then something happens:

“You’re to blame!”
“No, it’s your fault!”
“No, it’s you.”
“No it isn’t. It’s you.”
“Okay, it’s me.”

One person drops defenses. The relationship starts to come back because one person is willing to say, “Yeah it’s me. I am to blame here.” One person makes himself/herself vulnerable, and the relationship is restored.

Why would a person do that? Because in midst of all the yelling and all the hostility, one person decides that, despite how distorted the other person has become because of anger, he/she wants the other person back. He/she wants the relationship to be restored.

The only way to do that is to take down the shield, become vulnerable, and let one of the verbal blows land. It hurts, but it’s the only way. It’s a costly act of redemption. And it works because we were created in the image of the One who gave the ultimate expression of this part of his own nature at Christmas.


Tuesday Peace::

In this passage we see interaction between Mary and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Mary are related in some way. We are never told how exactly; they are probably close cousins of some sort. In these verses, Mary is pregnant with Jesus and Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist.

Read Luke 1:39-45

"Blessed (in Luke 1:39-45) is to be brought back to full shalom, full human functioning. It makes you everything that God meant for you to be. What Elizabeth is saying is that if Mary believes and owns this incarnation that the angel is speaking to her, she will be totally changed, transformed…blessed." -Tim Keller

This is peace that is offered. We were made to enjoy eternal peace with God. We were made to enjoy Him and His creation and be enjoyed by Him. But the fracture of self dependence and self provision has come. That fracture has taken away our peace, leaving us longing for something more and different.

Even the irreligious would admit that there is something within each of us that longs for something more. We are longing to get back this “full shalom,” this full peace that came in the form of a baby. Celebrate this baby today and the peace that He brings.

My prayer for you this week is that you will have a deeper knowledge and experience of the peace that Jesus came to bring to you and to the world.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Friday

Friday Joy::

Philippians is book that deals greatly with joy and greatly with Jesus. It is a short book. Take a chance this weekend to read the entire book, more than once, if you can. The Apostle Paul wrote the book and uses a form of the word “joy” 12 times in this short book. Many scholars consider joy to be this book’s theme.

Here’s some background for you on the book: Paul’s major job was to start churches. He would go into a town and draw people with his teaching about Jesus, and then he would appoint pastors and invest in them and help them start a church. He’d then go into the next town. Paul did this thing in the city of Philippi . Years later, he wrote this book to the people of Philippi .

Paul is in prison and in very poor health as he writes the book. He expects to be killed for his belief in Jesus and the things he’s spoken about Him. Paul hopes to see the Philippians again, but he expects to be killed by his captors.

There is a man named Epaphroditus, who was one of the pastors of the church in Philippi . The Philippians sent Epaphroditus to Paul during his time in prison. While Epaphroditus was with Paul, he developed a nearly fatal illness.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Thursday

Thursday:: Joy

Joy is not found in the circumstances of your life. Circumstances can change; health can fade, the economy can fall apart, jobs can be lost. If your joy is found in these things, it can fade, fall apart or be lost. The joy that THE COMING of Jesus brought to this world is deeper than that.

Scripture says in 1 Peter that the follower of Christ has an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. That same passage says that we are strangers in this world and that we were not meant to live in a broken and fallen world. It is a world with death and disease and heartache. But God has given us a hope and a peace that is the epicenter of our joy.

I have a friend named Denny. Denny had a son named Jon who died in a tragic accident just after his junior year of high school. The days and weeks following his death were very difficult on Denny and the rest of his family. I do not remember a father and son closer than Denny and Jon. They were best friends.

As time went by, Denny began to talk about how grateful he was that God gave him the 17 years with Jon and the great memories that would never be lost. He was grateful for the fact they were best friends. There is a lot that Denny likes to talk about in regards to Jon, but this is the most profound for me. Denny doesn’t simply mourn the loss of his son. Denny celebrates his son. Denny celebrates the God who allowed him to spend 17 great years with Jon.

Denny’s joy was not and is not bound by his circumstances. In John 14:6, Jesus calls himself the truth. The definition of the type of truth Jesus uses here is a truth that is unaffected by circumstances. Think of a concrete pillar holding up a great bridge. The waves and boats that pass by do not affect the pillar. This is Jesus. This is the kind of joy THE COMING brought.

If the joy in your life is bound to the circumstances in your life, I invite you to investigate this Jesus that came to bring you real joy that is unaffected by circumstances. Think on that joy – the joy brought by THE COMING of Jesus.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Wednesday

Wednesday Joy::

In Genesis 22, you find the story of Abraham and Isaac. You might know this story. Abraham is over 100 years old when the story takes place, and his son Isaac is just a boy. God has promised Abraham that he will be the father of God’s people. Isaac is the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise.

Then God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Sin is a big deal to God, and in the Old Testament times, God’s people offered sacrifices to appease the wrath of God toward sin. So Abraham trusted God and resolved to surrender his promising-fulfilling son.

The Bible says that Abraham traveled to a mountain and bound his son on an altar and took a knife to slaughter him. As the knife in Abraham’s hand reached its apex, an angel of the Lord commanded him to stop.

In the moments between the command to sacrifice Isaac and the command to stop, Abraham had to be filled with fear. As a father, this story always brings great sorrow to my heart. One of my greatest fears is the loss of one of my children. The scriptures say there were four days from the command to sacrifice until the command to stop. Fear had to grip Abraham. He had to have fear of God, fear of people and what would they think of him, fear of Isaac’s mother, fear of being misunderstood, and fear of the culture having a backlash at God and blaming him for this death. Fear gripped that man on that journey to that mountain.

Imagine what had to be running through Abraham’s mind for those 96 hours. Think on it deeply. Think also on the joy that filled his heart when God stopped the sacrifice. God provided a ram that was nearby to be the sacrifice. Abraham called the name of that place, "The LORD will provide," as it is said to this day.

The Lord will provide, and has provided. Celebrate the joy that God has provided for you today.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Tuesday

Read Luke 2:8-10

God is aboout replacing fear with joy. That is what happened that night on the hillside with the shepherds. Luke 2 says, "the glory of the Lord shone around them." The glory is the presence of God, and it caused them to be afraid. The angel's first words were, "fear not." The angel then said, "I bring you good news of great joy." The angel is speaking the words of God, and essentially they are: "I want to replace your fear with joy."

Their fear came from the knowledge of themselves. When faced with the presence of God, the immediate response in scripture is fear. From Abraham to Moses to Isaiah to these shepherds, they were all afraid when the encountered God. They were afraid because of their sin. But the message of Christmas is: "Fear not, the long expected Savior is here."

That is joy! Moving from "I am dead" to "I have been completely accepted" is God replacing fear with joy. It is the message of Christmas.

Sin is born in our mistaken thought that we can provide pleasure for ourselves. All sin is a conscious or unconscious statement to God that we know how to give ourselves pleasure better than He does. The result is a disconnect with God, from the source of true joy. God has not come to ruin you; He has come to get you back. Our King is here.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Monday

Monday Joy
Joy is and elusive concept. Because it is elusive, we will spend our first day just thinking about the word and what intends to communicate.

Joy, as a concept, is especially elusive for us in the western world in 2009. The inclination of the mind is to bind happiness and joy together. This is a legitimate binding, there is happiness that comes from joy. However, happiness for the western world is bound up in our health, our bank accounts and having enough time to enjoy our hobbies. It is bound in our pursuit of the American dream. Our happiness is tied to how we are doing in that pursuit.

The joy that Jesus brought to the earth with his birth is so much more than the American dream.

The dictionary defines joy as the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying. The joy definition from scripture adds the word gladness. To be filled with joy is to be glad, to have pleasure, to be delighted, to be exceptionally happy.

Think of it like this: Happiness is something you feel on the surface. Joy is something you feel in your bones. It is not easily wiped away. The opposite of happy is sad. The opposite of joy is sorrow. There is a depth to joy. Joy is what Jesus brought into the world.

Advent 2009:: The Coming HOPE Friday

Friday Hope::

Reread Luke 2:1-21. Again, pay special attention to verse 11. Today we will look closely at the phrase “Christ the Lord.”

When you see the word “Christ” in the New Testament, it is the same word as the Old Testament word “Messiah.” It means anointed one. All of the Old Testament points ahead to this anointed Messiah, who will bring this eternal hope to the world. Here in Luke, with this proclamation of “Christ the Lord,” the angels are proclaiming that this long-awaited anointed one is here.

God’s plan to redeem the world to Himself has always been through this Savior, this Messiah, this Christ. He is here, and we are celebrating the hope that has come in Jesus.

Advent 2009:: The Coming HOPE Thursday

Thursday Hope::

If you watch the television show 24, you know who Jack Bauer is. For those who don’t, Jack works for the U.S. government, and his job is basically to be awesome and kill bad guys. He finds himself in situations where death is certain and the safety of his family and country is in peril.

In one particular season, Jack volunteered to fly an airplane filled with nuclear devices that had to be destroyed. The plan was to crash the plane and detonate the devices in a secluded desert where no one would be hurt – that is, no one but Jack. So Jack takes off in the plane and is prepared for this suicide mission. How will Jack make it? There was no one else on the plane, and the plane had to go down or millions of people would die. Maybe Jack was going to die.

However, I had just read on some entertainment website that Kiefer Sutherland (the actor who plays Jack) had just signed on for three more seasons. So Jack could not die. He had to be around for three more seasons. So while I did not know how this subplot would end, I did know that it would end with Jack being alive.

This is the sort of hope that Jesus came to bring to this earth. There is death all around, and at times all looks hopeless. Jesus is a tiny baby in a dirty barn with poor teenage parents who are in a strange town. But, even as that tiny baby, Jesus is destined to live and teach about truth and be killed and then rise from the dead. This is hope.

Advent 2009:: The Coming HOPE Wednesday

Wednesday Hope::

Read Romans 4:13-21 and connect with the hope that was in the heart of Abraham (God made a promise to Abraham that he would have many children and that they would be the foundation of God’s people). Pray that God would allow you to push this hope to the front of your brain this week.

Pay special attention to the last verse in this reading. Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Let those words ring in your head today and this week. God is able to do what He has promised.

Advent 2009:: The Coming HOPE Tuesday

Tuesday Hope::

Read Luke 2:1-21. It is the traditional Christmas story. It may be very familiar to you. If it is, read it several times today. Pay special attention to verse 11. The titles for Jesus are profound. Do not miss them.

In this verse, Jesus is called “Savior” and “Christ the Lord.” Today we will look at the word “Savior.” This word means “the one who rescues from danger.” There are difficulties in this world. We live in a world of broken relationships and physical and spiritual pain. We live in a world where evil is present and prominent. But it is not God’s ultimate plan.

God created us to live in deeply intimate relationships with Himself, with each other and with nature. But there was a fracture that broke the rhythm of those relationships. That fracture is sin. That fracture leaves us in this world of brokenness. But it does not leave us without hope, because Jesus has come as the savior of this world. This season, we celebrate THE COMING of that hope.