Connect & Equip (Page 2)
How to Read Your Bible (Part 3)
Over the next many weeks, I am giving you my tips as to how to go about developing a habit of reading and mediating daily on God’s Word—the Bible. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. Today’s focus—Tip #3: Use a Study Bible as your primary Bible to read from each day I highly recommend that you find a good Bible (I always recommend a printed Bible, not just electronic) to be your “go to”…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 2)
Scroll to the end for a full explanation of the previous tip. Today’s Focus—Tip #2: Choose the location of where to read When I say “location,” what I really mean is, “Where should I start in the Bible?” The Bible has 66 books—39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. There are multiple subsections of the Bible as well. The 39 books of the Old Testament are divided into… The Pentateuch & the Law: the first 5…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 1)
One of the best practices in a growing disciple’s life is the habit of reading God’s Word personally on your own. There is everything good about a Bible study group with people, or listening to a sermon out of scripture. But none of this replaces the value of you personally sitting down in a quiet place and reading God’s Word, then reflecting on it—in other words, letting God speak to you. For several weeks I am walking you through some…
The Only Way to Be Set Free
I want to give examples to our church family on how to build a lifelong habit of reading and absorbing the Scripture on your own. Over these few weeks I’m showing you how I read the Bible each morning; maybe you will be able to develop a similar pattern. This is just an example of my devotional thoughts—not so you can use my devotional, but so you could instead cultivate your own time with God. Currently, I am reading every…
Is There a Reward for Hard Work?
Psalm 127 Last week I told you I wanted to share a few weeks of personal devotion time with you—not to show you what I have learned while reading the Bible, but to encourage each of us to learn how to have our own personal time with God, letting him speak to you. As an example this week, here is a simple devotional that I had a few days ago, and what God showed me. Psalm 127:1 ”Unless the Lord…
Developing Your Own Devotional Guide
Hearing God Speak to You Every Day One of my greatest desires for our church family is for each of you who calls LifeWay Church home to develop the life-long habit of picking up your Bible personally every morning (or evening, or during your noon lunch break) and listening to God speak to you. To borrow a phrase from youth director Kevin P: “If you want to hear God speak, then open your Bible. If you want to hear God…
Entering LifeWay Church Through One of Three Doors
Someone I have known a long time asked me the other day, “Is your church meeting yet?” It’s not an uncommon question these days. I even had a local pastor friend ask me the same question when I saw him at Costco. In turn, he told me what his church is doing in these unprecedented days. Here’s my answer to both them, and a reminder to you: Our church has never closed! Yes, indeed—we are open, and will remain open…
Longing for God
What does it mean for us as Christians to long for God? Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst” ( John 6:35). This is a perfect example of how we need to further our relationship with God. Longing for God is having a hunger and thirst to get to know him and to live a life according to his will.…
A Quick Word from Billy about the GIC
A decade ago, LifeWay Church felt led by God to make a major shift in the reason for our existence. We committed to remaking ourselves into becoming… An equipping and sending church A going church A Great Commission church A missions church In 2012, we started what has become the most important week in the life of our church calendar: the GLOBAL IMPACT CELEBRATION (GIC). Since 2012, for every GIC we have invited guest missionary workers from around the world…
Repairing What’s Broken: How to be a Relationship Mechanic
You know that sinking feeling you have when you’re driving, and your car starts making a funny sound? That sound signals something broken that’s now going to cost money and time to fix. But you take the car to the shop because the car is valuable to you. You need it to be repaired, so you pay the money. You take the time. That same sinking feeling when you are in conflict with someone you care about signals that something…
Serving a Cup of Cold Water in His Name
Where do I begin this journey of serving in disaster relief? Thinking back, God has been definitely leading me in that direction. Before my family and I came up to the PNW, we attended a church in California. One week, we had a celebration for missions outreach. At the end of the week during the church prayer, the pastor made a calling that whoever felt led then and in the future to pursue missions outreach should raise their hand. Yes,…
Testimony: How scripture can change us
Spiritual disciplines are an extremely important part of the life of any believer. It is the time spent on the part of the believer deepening and growing their faith and their understanding of who Jesus is and who they are as individuals. Spiritual disciplines like Bible reading, meditation, quiet time, prayer, journaling, and fellowship with other believers all aid in the sanctification of believers. It is no different for children, youth, or adults alike. One of the students in LifeWay…
Growing in Maturity in Relationships
Do you know how many times the word “discipleship” appears in our English Bible? If you guessed zero times, you are correct! While the word “disciple” appears over 250 times, there is no “discipleship,” not one. If you searched for the word “discipleship” in the entire Bible, you would not be successful. But more importantly, what does the word “discipleship” even mean? In the Christian world, everyone uses it, but what are we trying to say? And what does a…
For Mercy’s Sake
TL;DR: Humans are merciless. God is merciful. Humans can show mercy. Showing mercy is important; a good place to start is with immigrants. When I was asked to write a blog about mercy, my first thought was, Oh, no. Maybe I was a bit overeager. My work as a therapist might indicate that I have more to say on the subject than most. If I were a merciful person, that might be true. But I’m just not. If you Google…
Three Front Doors
It has been 22 weekends now since we have had a “normal” church service inside our facility. Can you believe it? I would have never dreamed that we would be doing things this way. I realize there are many opinions and strong feelings about whether we gather or not, and how we should do this. Politics can easily get involved. Opinions fly in all directions. The madness of school closures is frustrating. These are confusing times, for sure. We have,…
We Got This!
What a world we live in! As we all know, it is summer, and it’s pretty normal for summer to feel weird and different as people are traveling and heading out on vacation. Students are generally slowing down and sleeping in and staying up late. Summer is usually filled with bike rides, hikes, video games, late nights with the bonfires, and family time. This summer is obviously different. The news of our local schools staying closed for the start of…
Love Amidst the Tears
For many people living with or raising someone with a disability, suffering is an inevitability. Expensive medications and doctor consults, societal stigmas and discrimination, and physical discomfort and pain caused by chronic health conditions often characterize the lives of people with disabilities and their families. This suffering is intensified in high-poverty regions where medical services are inadequate and families are struggling to survive. So how should we respond? What can be done to support these community members who experience hardship…
Becoming a Bridge Builder
Billy’s sermons these past couple of weeks have helped me to consider my role in the issues being highlighted right now, specifically the racial injustice that has once again been thrust out of the shadows into public light across the nation. It is true that real and eternal reconciliation is only possible through trusting in Jesus and his death on the cross and resurrection. As Billy has preached, meeting at the foot of the cross with all our brothers and…
Lamp to Our Feet
I was talking with one of the students recently and asked him how he was processing the current events. His response was, “World’s crazy.” The world is crazy at times. The world, marred by sin, is extremely broken and hurtful. So often, life is crazy. It has been discouraging at times. These past few days, weeks, and months have been so difficult in so many ways. It is hard to hold on to hope when all seems hopeless. It is…
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