Shake The Dust Off Your Feet Series

"We begin a new series this morning inside the Gospel of Luke but more on that in a few moments. It’s the time of year when people are considering New Years Resolutions and changing some of their old habits. In light of this, I want to talk about our church and a personal challenge for you in 2015 for just a few minutes before we get started.

1. Personal Responsibility Matters

I had a conversation this week with a friend, a grandfather and old enough to be my father. My friend’s life and counsel has had a significant impact upon me over the past decade. I noticed he had received special recognition for his work and I hadn’t talked to him in a couple of years. Throughout the conversation of catching up, he stepped out of the room where he was in to share something personal with me. He shared how his wife of fifty plus years had recently been diagnosed with the early stages of dementia. Of course, an sadness came over me as we talked and later prayed over the phone together. I know there are numerous people here today who’ve battled this terrible disease in your family and we grieve with you. But in comforting and caring for his wife during the disease, my friend told me something significant. He said, “What you put in early, stays.” “What you put in early, stays.” In his wife’s confusion, she wouldn’t recognize her husband of a half-century. So at times, she thought he was her father or her brother. But then, almost humorously, she thought her husband was her boyfriend. And this grandmother would say, “You know you can’t stay over the night, don’t you? You’ll have to go somewhere else tonight as we can’t spend the night together.” Her principles of purity were coming back full-circle from her days as a young lady. And even in her confusion, my friend told me his wife still reads her Bible each evening as was her practice all these years. Seeing this my friend, said, “What you put in early, stays.” You should understand this principle in life, the first in is the last out.

1.1 Read Your Bible

Read the Bible if you’re a skeptic and read if you’re a disciple. The average person reads 200 to 250 words per minute; there are about 775,000 words in the Bible. Putting this altogether, it takes less than 10 minutes a day to read the whole Bible in a year.

Our Church’s Plan

We have chosen to place in front of you a ninety day reading plan through the four gospels. One chapter a day for ninety days. Each Sunday, we’ll read together a portion of that week’s upcoming reading. And each Tuesday, we’ll post a two minute video explaining a difficult passage in the upcoming week’s reading. You maybe aware that you can listen to the entire Bible and you’ll a number of options with a simple internet search. Take personal responsibility of your spiritual growth this year by reading and meditating on the pages of Scripture. Meditating on the pages of Scripture is like oil for your spiritual engine. Systematically and habitually failing to read and mediate on God’s Word is like bringing black widow spider’s nests into your life. Reading, studying, and feeding yourself is essential for spiritual growth.

1.2 Your Personal Prayer Life

I spent nearly the entire summer of last year talking about prayer. Things happen when you pray that don’t happen when you don’t pray. I had several aborted attempts at journaling in my younger years. But over the course of the past couple of years, I’ve been using a journal that I purchased off the internet called Ecosystem. It’s ruled, it’s on recycled paper, and it costs between $10 and $20. Look online at http://www.ecosystemlife.com and you’ll find all kinds of options. You’ll find other options at a office supply store or a local book store as well,. About once a week, I journal usually on Tuesdays where I write down my prayers to God. This disciplines my thoughts and helps me from running off in every direction. I can review past prayers and see how God is working in my life and in those around me. It’s the place where I often pray for my family and for many of you. But don’t just take my word for it, take the counsel of Flannery O’Connor. Some of you know the famous Southern writer, who at twenty-one years old, sought to deepen her prayer life by using a prayer journal. It since been published and here’s where we find why journaling was so helpful to her:

Dear God, I cannot love Thee the way I want to. You are the slim crescent of a moon that I see and my self is the earth’s shadow that keeps me from seeing all the moon . . . what I am afraid of, dear God, is that my self shadow will grow so large that it blocks the whole moon, and that I will judge myself by the shadow that is nothing. I do not know You God because I am in the way.