|
Featured Sections Headlines Opinion Obituaries Sports Crime Blotter Happenings Country Cooking Wandering Minds Classifieds Birthdays Off The Wall On The Record Church Listings Archives Featured Columns Pastor Howle Wise Tech Tips Editor's Column Carl Langley Dr. Skip Myers Edgefield Square Registered Sex Offenders for Edgefield County Contact us Contact Info or E-mail the Editor Phone: 803-634-0964 day 803-279-5041 eve 803-279-8943 fax Mail to EdgefieldDaily.com PO Box 972 Edgefield SC 29824 Video & Audio Updates Audio Archive Video Archive School System EC District Office School Board Strom Thurmond Charter Schools Fox Creek Private Schools Wardlaw Academy Public Offices Edgefield County Edgefield Johnston Trenton Political State and Federal Legislative Contacts Local Political Parties Republican Party Democrat Party Chamber of Commerce Edgefield County Chamber Historical Edgefield Genealogical Society News links The Citizen News Aiken Standard North Augusta Star The State Augusta Chronicle Atlanta Journal United Press Associated Press FOX News Reuters CNS News WorldNet Daily Newsmax Drudge Report GoogleNews Yahoo!News New York Times New York Post Los Angeles Times Washington Times Washington Post |
 Religion
Prayerful Bible Reading By Pastor Phillip Howle web posted January 27, 2010 RELIGION – Prayer, everybody speaks so highly of it, but no one really does it that much. I have read the average churchgoer prays less than four minutes a day. I myself am not a natural when it comes to prayer. But I am going to share with you what has impacted my spiritual life immensely in the past few years. That is reading the Bible prayerfully. I have grown up always thinking of prayer and Bible study as separate disciplines. But the fact is, they are integrally related. Prayer is an essential key to effective Bible study. I have found that when you strip prayer from Bible study you mess up both Bible Study and prayer. You see when you read your Bible apart from seeking to be connected and guided by God it becomes an academic drudgery. You wind up relying on your own knowledge and brain power. You rely on the flesh, and so when you do understand your Bible you can become prideful at what you were able to discover. When you seek to pray apart from the Bible you don’t pray well. You ask for things outside of God’s will as revealed in Scripture. You don’t know God’s forgiving nature, so you try to hide your sin and not confess. You have an anemic view of God’s power and so you don’t ask for and seek the great things of God. You don’t know God’s passion for your personal spiritual growth so you don’t seek God’s wisdom and strength in your life. Prayer is especially crucial when you come to a place in your study where you are hung up and confused. That's a good time to stop and carry on a conversation with God. "Lord, I can't make any sense out of this passage. I don't understand it. Give me insight. Help me to discover Your truth." Then be willing to let God guide you. Slow down, read it over, check out your study Bible notes, or call a preacher. Now, I use a great system of prayerful Bible reading daily that consists of a few steps. These steps are in no order and you will see all of them as go through Scripture. Request: Pray for yourself or others as they come to mind in Scripture. Sometimes you will see something that you personally need to pray about. Sometimes you are not struggling with a difficult area, but it brings to light someone who is struggling. So you pray for a friend’s marriage, or someone you know who is hurting. Stay open to the word of God and the Spirit of God. Rejoice: As you read scripture, you begin to see all the reasons that you have for praising God. You could spend the whole time in scripture just marveling over God’s greatness. This step allows you to see God for who He is and thank God for that. Be specific, not “God is great, God is good.” Look for certain attributes of God, your status as a believer, God’s provision, God’s protection, and God’s discipline. This will help you to understand and appreciate God more. Repent: As you allow the light of Scripture to shine on your life, you will feel the burden of your own sinfulness and your inadequacies. I used to almost rush past verses that bothered me, but now I stop and I allow God’s word to rebuke and correct me. The great thing about this is that Scripture will bring to light sin in your life that you did not even know that you were struggling with. Scripture will dig down deep in your soul and really extricate stuff that you have not dealt with in a long time. As Scripture shines light on sin, repent, asking for God’s grace to turn you around. Readjust: As you read you will encounter ordinary sinners like yourself that God used. As you do, focus on their kindness, love, care, courage, honesty, and faithfulness. As you see these attributes, know that God intends for you to walk in these and that these traits should characterize your life as well. Ask God to be specific to show you how you can better cultivate these qualities and take the necessary steps to apply them to your life. Now, I do these daily. This is a great way to read Scripture. Please give this a try. This overlaps with last week, because prayerfully reading Scripture is also a patient reading of Scripture. So, I asked you to read the book of Philippians or a part of the book daily. Did you do it? My notes are just for direction; don’t let them substitute for God directly speaking to you in His Word. My Observations on Philippians Chapter 1 • Vs.1 God considers all Christians saints. I need to be in practice who God has declared me to be in truth. • Vs.2 Grace has to precede peace in my life. • Vs.3-4 I need to repent of not praying enough for the people in my life who I love. • Vs.5, 7-8, 15-18 The world works together great to further their agenda, why can’t Christians cooperate better to accomplish more? • Vs.6 I am so thankful that God began His work in my life and that He ensures me that He will complete it as well. • Vs.9-11 My prayers are far too shallow, I focus too much on the physical needs of people. This is the prayer I should be the praying for those people God has placed in my life. • Vs.12-14 I am amazed with Paul’s perspective. Paul’s imprisonment is not a cause for depression, but cause for joy and furtherance of the Gospel. • Vs.19 I pray for the faith of Paul, he rests his release from jail on prayer and God’s presence. How sadly do we neglect God’s presence in our life. • Vs.21 Notice what Paul did not say "For me to live is wealth, and to die is to leave it behind for my kids to fight over." "For me to live is pleasure, and to die is nothingness." "For me to live is fame, and to die is to leave my mark." Can we completely live out Paul’s assertion? • Vs.22-26 Between now and heaven, we have a lot work to do! • Vs.27-30 Paul’s advice is not to fight those who desire to malign him, but to live the life of Christ. • Vs.27 Is my life worthy of the name I claim as a Christian? • Vs.29 Suffering is a gift from God. 2Corinthains 12:9 But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may reside in me. I pray that you are growing in your knowledge of God and His word and how it applies to your life! Pastor Phillip © Copyright 2010
EdgefieldDaily.com All
original material is property of
EdgefieldDaily.com and cannot be reproduced, rewritten or redistributed
without the expressed written permission of Edgefield Daily.com
|
NOTICE:
We still need recipes for Cooking Section WEBNEWS – Send in your favorite or favorites. There is no limit to the number of recipes you can send in. With the Editor’s wife being the driving force behind her own personal section, help her create an exchange of local favorites, home cooking, grilling, sauces, and deserts! Send in your submissions here. |
