A Radical January

At the beginning of this year, I had posted about some "resolutions"/goals that I had for 2013; ways that I was planning on making 2013 radical. Well, I am not 1/12th through my year and what a month it has been! Chris and I have been crazy busy with work and enjoying our time together, but in addition to that, we have been focusing on God and aiming to grow in Him. So, with that said, how have I made January radical?

1. Praying for the World

I mentioned the website Operation World as a great resource for finding countries to pray for in my post at the beginning of this month. This website is still phenomenal  If you sign up to join their prayer challenge, they email a new country every day to pray for. While I have to admit, I am not the best at checking my email daily, I do find this such a blessing. As John Robb says in his article, "Strategic Prayer", "Because of the nature of evil in the world, prayer is essential." Praying for the world allows us to be on the front lines of fighting the evil powers in this world. Prayer allows us to have direct communication with the King of Kings and enables us to ask for His help at overcoming the satanic powers in force in all countries. Whether it's corrupt government, murder, rape, idolatry, the list goes on and on. One way we can continue to fight our battle against Satan, however, is through prayer; by calling on our God for help. We call on God because we know He hears and answers. Matthew 21:22 says "And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive  if you have faith". Now, this verse does not say that God will answer always in the way or timing we ask Him to, but it does say to have faith. After all, God created us, this earth, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, parted the Red Sea, the list goes on and on of all the miraculous things God has done, I know I can trust that He will handle my prayer request. God knows best, and He will answer it when and in a way that is right. He knows better than I on how to answer prayer, my job is to ask and He delivers.

2. Read Through the Entire Bible

This has been such an amazing experience! While I have only made it to Numbers, it is so amazing to be reading through what God did for the Israelites! Not only that, but the Old Testament is full of amazing things God did even back then for us! But I will get to that in the next few months...(keep you waiting in suspense so you HAVE to keep reading my blog...:) ) 

What I have found important in regards to reading through the Bible is to not set a goal...or put pressure on yourself. While I would love to read through the entire Bible in a year, I am more anxious to milk everything I can out of all the scriptures. Taking time to meditate on what I read as well as think about how I can apply it to my own life are more important than how fast you can read verses. The Bible is meant to be applied, not  to win a contest. I think this is a very important way to approach the Bible because I have gotten more out of my readings this way as well as I am not discouraged when I miss a few days. Plus, while everyone warned me that Leviticus could possibly be a little dry, Numbers has definitely been a test of perseverance. Those who think God is not a God of math has never read Numbers...It is a book that is rightfully named!

4. Spend Time in Another Context

For the next few months, I am going to be going about this in a sort of abstract way than I had thought 4 weeks ago. A couple of weeks ago, a wonderful woman in my Bible Study advised me of a class she was hosting called Perspectives. I had heard of this class before and how amazing it was so I decided I would attend since the first two classes were free. Well, let me tell you, within minutes of being in this class I was HOOKED! I was texting my husband immediately to get the OK to pay for the class! And those of you who know me, know my nerdiness and will be surprised to know that it was not the textbook/workbook nor the college level style class that hooked me, it was topics. The guest speakers. The articles. All of it is so informative, riveting, and enough to keep you going for months! First, however, let me explain a little about the class. Perspectives is a class about the Christian movement. A lot of it is spoken of in the format of missions. Let me tell you, you really will not be the same after taking this class. I am only on lesson 3 and the way I read the Bible, look at life, pray, worship...it is all so different! I could go on for paragraphs and paragraphs on this class and the topic and believe me, that is the plan, but that is for a post to come! As for now, I will just say that this class is definitely preparing the way for me to continue aiming to spend time in another context. My class goes through May, so until then, you get to follow me on this journey of learning about the Christian movement!

5. Commit Your Life to a Multiplying Community

You have heard me talk about our church, which we absolutely LOVE! What a great body of brothers and sisters to be surrounded, encouraged, lifted up, and loved by. This month, Chris and I have been blessed to be even more involved in our church body by helping with the teen youth group class! Due to work, we have only made it a few times, but due to a few blessings it seems that God is opening up more opportunities to spend with them!

January has been such an amazing month! We look forward to seeing what February has to provide! It is also my hope that February will present the opportunity for more blogging...but worst case scenario, that will happen in May after my class. In the works for February are potential blogs about the Church and prayer! Look forward to sharing February with you all!

How Do You Love?

I have stumbled across a great blog. Now, I am subscribed to more great blogs than I can handle, but me being an addicted reader, I cannot help but take on more reading than I can handle. Occasionally, I get close to being caught up in my blog curriculum (*key word to note here is occasionally) but that is personal problem of mine I do suppose.

My somewhat recent addition to my blog collection is Fancy Little Things. This blog is a great blog for all women but is especially designed for women of the faith. As I was playing catch up with my blog notifications, I came across a new article of theirs, and let me tell you, the title was EXACTLY what I needed! The blog is titled "5 Tips for New Bloggers". GOLD! This newbie to the blogging world was stoked. So, I clicked the link and read.

Now, out of the 5 tips, I am only really moved by one of them. (*I am purposely staying away from tip 2...Write Often. If you look at how long I take between posts, you will see that tip 2 is intimidating so we are going to pretend it does not exist for now....). Tip 1 was the tip that had me thinking the most. This tip is tip 1 and rightfully numbered. Be Passionate. This tip is for blogging about the things you are passionate about. Things that make you you. Oh. What options! Now, we all know how this ends, because before I ever read this article, I knew what I primarily set this blog to be about. I blogged about this within my first few posts. My passion, my purpose, my thrill....Christ. Our Savior.

This point, I have rewritten once and debated on multiple times as to what direction I want to head down next. Do I tell you a little bit about my journey? I think I save that for another day because when I envisioned this post, I envisioned it heading down a different course. So let's continue, because dear brothers and sisters, if I veer off course now, it would be a never ending cycle and we could very well end up in Never-Never Land by the time I am done.

I have had the vision of this post for awhile, but battled with how to start it. Then, I read "5 Tips for New Bloggers" and God provided my intro. Passion. What does passion look like? The best definition I could find  is in Matthew. "Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind'" Matt. 22:37, NKJV. Wow! What a profound statement! If that is not a strong enough verse alone, keep in mind that it is also repeated 2 other times in the Bible (Deut. 6:5; Luke 10:27)!

God tells us to love Him with all  of our heart. This is where we "store" our feelings, as we like to think. We love our husbands, kids, family with our "whole heart". We identify love to being stored in our heart. It is the unit that encompasses our love. We are to love our Lord with ALL of our heart. Every last ounce of love, we are to give it to God.

We are also to love Him with all of our soul. Our soul is more than the ghostly image we like to imagine exists in us, it is our very being. It is what makes us us. It identifies you as who you are. Those other passions you have, those people and items that make you get up in the morning, those are driven by your soul. And we are to love God with our whole soul. Luke 10:27 tells us to also love God with all of our "strength". So, we should not only love God with our very being, but with also all that we have! Our whole being is to love Him. In all that we do, we are to love Him in everything. "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" 1 Thess. 5:18, NKJV. In everything. At our job, while we cook, when we drive, when we are reading, we are called to love Him and thank Him.

Love Him with all of our mind. We are to be loving God even in our thoughts. How do you love your spouse  and children in your thoughts? You only think things that would honor them. You think about them often. Think of things you could do to bring them joy. God wants that. Jesus calls us to do this. In our day to day lives, we are to think of God. Honor God in our thoughts. Think of ways to glorify and praise Him. We are to make our mind about God.

So, we are to love God with every ounce of love, make our life about Him, and think things that glorify Him? That is a lot to do! How do we do this as well as work our jobs, prepare meals, keep the house presentable, raise children (in our case a puppy that is wayy to cute), and still spend time with family and friends? We practice. We change our views. We start by praying more and more everyday (1 Thess. 5:17), singing hymns in the car on our way to work (Eph. 5:19), and read your Bible daily (Psalms 1:2). Then, it all becomes habit and starts happening naturally.

For me, I had to find something in my life that always kept me motivated. That was time consuming. It didn't take long before I realized what had been the most time consuming activity in my life for awhile was school. I would spend HOURS on homework. Doing coursework, studying. I would turn down watching the next episode of a show with friends because I had that paper to write. I would stay up way later than I should to cram in that extra bit of studying and sacrifice my hours of sleep (*Thus leading to living off of an amount of sleep that no human being should have to do....man do I NOT miss college sometimes). Now, let me back up and say I do not think God wants us to live off of 3 hours of sleep but I do think He wants that passion. Not to mention, this life is for God. We are here for Him. If He is our life, why would we not want to take a break from that T.V. Show and take a few moments to pray, to worship Him, to spend some time in His Word. I mean after all, if this was for Biology 101 we would. We spend numerous amounts of hours preparing for the final at the end of the exam, why are we not spending even more time preparing for the final at the end of our life; for Judgement Day. James 2:12 tells us "So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty" (NKJV). I do not want anyone to read that and be scared. Rather, to read that and realize that how we act out our religion is important, and does not go unnoticed. If I would spend hours preparing for a career in business, but give God the "spare time" I have after I watch a movie, what does that say about where my heart is? Is my heart, soul, and mind all for God?

For me, it boils down to this: We are commanded to love God with all we have. What is it that I love the most in life and do I love God with as much energy, passion, and time as I do the earthly thing I love? How do I love what I love? Do I give God that same love and time? How do you love?

Make 2013 Radical

The past 3 months, I have been slowly but surely working through reading David Platt's book Radical. As of recent, I have finally finished the book! While there are quotes up quotes that I wanted to post as my Facebook status numerous times, the one thing that I loved the most about the book was the last chapter.

On New Years Eve 2012, I started the last chapter of Radical. I have to say, it could not have been any better timing. The last chapter of Radical is a challenge. It is a challenge to change your life for a year. What a more perfect New Years Resolution than this?!

There are 5 challenges that Platt poses as an over all year challenge. I offer for you to join me in either these challenges or encouraging them as I make 2013 radical!

The 5 challenges are:

1. Pray for the entire world.

Platt starts out his explanation of this challenge by saying: "In a world where more than 4.5 billion people are without Christ and more than a billion are on the edge of starvation, we have to begin somewhere." (p. 186). Prayer is a great way to start impacting the world. I mean, I cannot think of a better way to help the world than to talk to the One who can save. We are told "And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." (Matt. 21:22). This does not mean that we receive in the exact way that we pray. It means that our prayers are heard by God (1 John 5:14) and he responds in the way that he sees fit.

So, how to pray for the world? My goal is pray everyday for the world, and then also pray for some place specifically. Platt gives a suggestion in his book and I am definitely going to be taking advantage of it! Platt suggests either ordering the book, Operation World, or checking out their website, operationworld.org. Operation World gives you information about countries as well as their prayer requests. The website has some great tools for achieving challenge #1. They have a Prayer Calendar, 60 Days of Prayer option, or can you choose a country on your own and pray for that one specifically. Whatever way you want to pray for the world, this website provides information about what is going on in the world or country so that you know how to pray for them! What a blessing!

I am going to start off my first challenge by doing the 60 Days of Prayer! Today, the country listed to pray for is Afghanistan. According to operationworld.org, only .05% of the Afghanistan population is Christain. Majority of them are Muslim. Prayers are needed for the Afghanistan population to be reached by the Christians, by us. Operationworld.org also lists health risks, disability, continued threats of violence, drugs and poverty and living standards as areas that need attention with prayers.

2. Read through the entire Word. 

This is actually a challenge I started for myself shortly after Thanksgiving! I am currently working my way through Exodus and thoroughly enjoying the Israelite's journey from Egypt and reading about Moses interacting with God. How amazing would that have been?! But I digress!

Platt's reasoning as to why this is a challenge is the same reason as to why I decided to read through my entire Bible a few months ago. "Our brothers and sisters around the world often gather at the risk of their lives to hear and know God's Word. If you and I are going to join them in radical obedience to Christ, we need to start with our Bibles open and our minds engaged." (p. 191).

My thought on this is how can I bring others to Christ if I am not continually in communication with Him and reading what all He has done for us? If I want to share the gospel of Christ, I feel like I need to know and have read all of the Bible. After all, how many of us try to be a doctor without first learning all that we can about it? Or how many of us try to sew without reading how to do it? Now, this does not mean that I do not try to reach those who need the gospel until I finish reading the entire Bible. That is not it at all! I mean why would I not want to read everything I can about God? The Bible is the one book sent straight from God. It holds all the answers. If I am going to go and make disciples of nations (Matt. 28:19), should I not be continually reading and growing in the Word of God? Not to mention, the Bible is full of knowledge and brings only the kind of peace to you that God can. Why would you not want to make this part of your daily life? We are here FOR God, I want to live like it and for me that means daily surrounding myself with the Word.

3. Sacrifice money for a specific purpose. 

Platt does not say in his book to give more than we can afford. He does not encourage us giving so much that we cannot afford our own rent or food. Instead, what is encouraged is to give our success in order to help the world. To reach the world. Platt states on page 194, "We are an affluent people living in an impoverished world. If we make only ten thousand dollars a year, we are wealthier than 84 percent of the world, and if we make fifty thousand dollars a year, we are wealthier than 99 percent of the world. Meanwhile, more than a billion people live in desperate poverty, lacking food, water, clothing and shelter." Now, combine these statistics with what is said in James 2:14-16, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?"

Everything we have is from God, why should we not use it to do as he commanded? Not only does God tells us to care for the needy, orphaned, and widows (Matt. 5:42, James 1:27) but He also tells us to give (2. Cor. 9:7).

My goal for this challenge awaits a discussion with my husband. This challenge, however, is definitely one I accept. When my time on earth is done, there will be no more use of mine for my money. Why not use the money to help those here on earth with me; why not use it to help my fellow brothers and sisters in this world?

4. Spend time in another context.

This challenge is a challenge to spread the Good News. "If we are going to accomplish the global purpose of God, it will not be primarily through giving our money, as important as that is. It will happen primarily through giving ourselves" (p.198). Platt challenges us to spend time outside of our community spreading the gospel. It is definitely on Chris' and mine agenda to sometime (sooner rather than later) do a mission trip. At the time, the funding for such a trip is very minimal for us. So, while I cannot travel outside of my community right now, I am taking the challenge but applying it to my community for the time being. Now, if Chris and I come about the means to go outside of our community, I know that will be a well accepted adventure for us. In the meantime, I plan on finding a way to spread the news of God to those who need it. My ideas include helping out in a homeless shelter since that is something I have always wanted to do. Some shelters I am thinking/praying about looking into include Bethlehem Inn and Shepards House to name a few. While I would love to be able to spread the gospel outside of my community, I think starting somewhere is better than no where.

Platt also proposes the idea of giving at least 2% of your time to this task (p. 200). After all that Christ has done for us, I think this is manageable! Not to mention, we are here for God. Our sole purpose is to bring others to God and worship Him. 2% of my time I am more than happy to give to the One who gave everything for us.

5. Commit your life to a multiplying community. 

This challenge means spending your times with a "universal body of Christ," (p. 204), AKA church. Chris and I have been so incredibly blessed to be part of an amazing church body, Powell Butte Christian Church. What started out as Sunday morning church attendance has lead to bible studies, helping around in areas needed in the church, and being blessed with amazing friends/family through Christ.

Platt discusses how important church is to believers and I cannot stress this point enough either. Being surrounded by fellow brothers and sisters is just the encouragement and support you need through sad times, the reassurance you need through hard times, and the shared joy through good times. Not to mention, I have grown so much not just as a person but as a Christian thanks to this amazing body of Christ.

So, this is what 2013 looks like for me and let me tell you, I am SO excited for this year! I encourage you to join me on this challenge! Whether it's one challenge or all 5, what a difference we could make! I would also like to add the challenge of reading Radical by David Platt. What an amazing, life changing book! Otherwise, I will be posting throughout the year updates on my challenge! I look forward to you following me on this journey!