iTrain30

Day 1
September 1

Phil. 1:1-11
Psalm 1
Prov. 1:1-6

Psalm 1 is one of my favorite Psalms of all. It is one of my greatest motivators to discover God through His Word. The contrast between the tree and the chaff blown by the wind is pretty stark. The tree that is planted by the river, brings forth fruit and its leaf does not wither. Like that tree, those who refuse to be carried by the current of influence that comes from the ungodly, sinners and scornful will prosper.

We live in a fog of information and communications. These voices are powerful influences. It is important for us to carefully sift through these messages that can very subtly pull us in wrong directions. I love this information age and the ability to communicate with so much ease. This Psalm reminds me to stay aware and and to keep the constant flow of God's truth going. This is done through the activities of church and this kind of personal Bible study. I often have to identify wrong thinking and distractions. Life is a battle not a picnic. Thank God for the way He alerts us to this battle. I praise Him for His patience, forgiveness and mercy toward us.

I also love to think that God actively watches over me and helps me in my effort. “The Lord knows the way of the righteous.” I don't always think of myself as "the righteous". I don't always get everything right. This Psalm identifies the righteous as those working to pay attention to God's Word.

Here is the reading for day 2 of iTrain30.

September 2

Phil. 1:12-30
Psalm 2
Prov. 1:7-9

Thanks to those who have left comments about your reading. It is encouraging to read them.

iTrain30

DAY 1 - SEPTEMBER 1

Welcome to iTrain30. A thirty day church wide effort to establish the discipline of a “quiet time”. I suggest that you begin with prayer. Thank God for 5 things. In your prayer tell God that you want to spend time with Him in prayer and in reading scripture. Read the passage and meditate on what you have just read. Respond in prayer to your reading. Admit areas of your life you need to correct and ask for help to change. Focus on that throughout the day. The psalms are great to personalize and turn into a prayer. Proverbs provide some thought provoking statements to ponder. While it is good to have questions, be sure you focus more on what you did understand than your questions. Share something in the comments. End your time with prayer for others and yourself. Let’s begin.

September 1

Phil. 1:1-11
Psalm 1
Prov. 1:1-6

iTrain30

iStreet Series

Over the last 4 weeks we have taken the time to understand and clarify what we do and why we do we do at Church. One of the challenges is for us to NOT JUST GO TO CHURCH, BUT TO BE THE CHURCH.

We have looked at iWorship, how Worship is an essential part of being the Church. We assemble weekly to honor God and offer Him worship.

Secondly we have looked at iConnect, the importance of meeting together in small group settings like our Sunday School and Small Groups.

Thirdly we explored iServe, the importance of serving others.

Today, our topic is iTrain. While we offer many Bible Studies and life training classes the heart of iTrain is something very personal. iTrain is about developing a personal walk with God. For many of us the centerpiece to that personal walk with God is what we call a "daily quiet time".

I want to invite you to join with me and others for the next 30 days in an effort we will call iTrain30. I am asking you to commit to this by sending me a comment. I will post a section of scripture on my blog for all of us to read. Read the passage and write down a thought that comes to you from the reading. Post that thought for others to read. It will help keep us all accountable and on track. One way to begin a new discipline is to do something for 30 days. Come and join me for the next 30 days.

Tornado misses HSBC

Last week in the middle of what looked like a picture perfect day, dark clouds from the North began to advance toward Springfield. While the sky was blue we heard the tornado sirens. I received a call from a panicked 16 year old sdaughter watching James at home. Mom was busy doing some things at church and could not be found. I was thinking that this was probably much to do about nothing, but the sirens were real and tearful call from my daughter did send me home. Within minutes of arriving home, the wind picked up and the hail started. What I did not realize at the time was that a tornado had formed over the strip mall called Furniture Row very close to the church. It took off the roof of part of that building and headed in the direction of the church. While we do have a list of things damaged by the weather, we can't help but be grateful to God for protecting us from the kind of damage our neighbors experienced. They had to close part of the complex and a tent sale has been up all week to clear out merchandise affected. Thank God we worshiped in our facility without interruption.

Gracious Giving

This morning at church I talked about outreach opportunities this summer.

I mentioned how inspired I was by my brother's efforts in the Philippines. This camp season he exceeded his goal of sharing the gospel to 50,000 young people. Thousands responded to accept Christ and many of them baptized. I have asked Troy to go to our young people and see how many of them have a friend who is unchurched and does not appear to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. My question was, if we could give these young people a week at camp would they come. So far we have 13 on the list. My appeal was simple, we need camp fee of $175 for 13 kids. We could see lives changed now and for eternity. After the service four people approached me and said they would help. One handed me a folded check and simply said, "This should help get things started." I thanked him for the check but did not look at it. I thought maybe there would be money for one camper. I was shocked when I finally looked to see the amount of $2000. God moved and in one service He touched hearts to provide for 14 campers. God is up to something and I can't wait to see it.

Can you believe...I beat the HULK!

Well there is this competition in JV under the able leadership of Corey O'Grady. The goal, as usual, is to find ways to capture the attention of our jv kids and so the superheros competition. I was surprised to be included in this prestigious group much less to actually win a round. I was expecting that the inclusion would be the reward in itself.

Somehow, I beat out the Hulk in the first round. The competition continues next week. I figured that since the competition is pretty tough; batman, superman, power rangers, TMNT, spider man (I am intentionally omitting the Powderpuff Girls because I never thought they were valid superheros) this is my one chance to celebrate a win. Anyway, SPECIAL THANKS TO ANY JV STUDENTS WHO ARE READING AND VOTED FOR ME. I will be watching to see how this all shakes out.

Learning from each other.

I love my Truth Project group that meets on Sunday night. There is nothing like time to make the relationships in a small group richer. As the group gets more comfortable with each other, interaction seems more natural and easy. One of the great things is being able to learn from each other.

During our discussion someone brought up John the Baptist. Here is what he said. He discussed how at the end of John's life he was sitting in prison. John must have been in some kind of a faithless fog. It all started out so wonderfully. He was the Holy Spirit filled introducer of the Christ. He had heard the voice from heaven after baptizing Jesus say, "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased". But John was not included in the twelve. His calling as a prophet kept him separate from Jesus and his disciples for some reason. John knew that he had to decrease while Jesus increased. But to disappear, to be forgotten, to end up in jail and ultimately beheaded at the whim of a dancing girl and her mother. Where was God in that cell? Where was the power of Jesus for him? And so John sends someone to ask "the question". Are you the one who was to come or should we look for someone else. It is almost like the painful circumstances of his life had squeezed out his faith. It seems that he had forgotten the powerful effect of his ministry that was a result of the power of God and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. It seems like he no longer could remember with confidence that he, himself, had heard the voice of God identify His Son. Circumstances have power to squeeze us in a way that diminishes our faith.

Jesus responds this way,

“Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

John already knew about the miracles of Jesus. It seems that Jesus simply reminds him.

John is a lot like us. Our faith gets squeezed out of us when life gets hard. That is why we need to hold on to each other. Hebrews tells us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We need to sit in church and be reminded of what we already know is true but sometimes find hard to hold on to. We need sit around living rooms in our small groups and borrow each other’s faith from time to time. God shows up in a very subtle but real way when we get together. I love my Truth Project group.