Title - "Pondering"
Scripture - Luke 2:21, 51
Observations - Mary is an awesome person. A teenager who loved God enough and was courageous enough to be the one to carry Jesus, all the while people thought she was an adulteress and wanted to kill her for it most likely. The part that strikes me about her character is her love and intimacy with God. She wrote that awesome song in chapter 1 that spoke of so many specific great things of God. In chapter two there are two places where it mentions all the things that Jesus did, and then it says, "and Mary pondered these things in heart." Mary seemed to be someone that had intimacy with God. Courageous enough to carry God's Son and so in love with God that she could write the wonderful song that she did and ponder the things of God in her heart. I'm pretty convinced God was on her mind a lot and that, just like we ponder our classes, who we want to marry, what we want to eat that day, what our future will look like, Mary pondered God's greatness and had a relationship with him that's to be desired.
Application - I need to spend a lot more time pondering God, getting my thoughts focused around him. To "gaze upon the beauty of the Lord" (Psalm 27). I'm going to try to spend some more time in my life doing that.
Prayer - God, help me to think of you, to ponder you, and be captivated by who you are just like Mary was. I pray this would be a year of great growth in my intimacy with you and I look forward to that being true. Thanks so much God for grabbing ahold of my life and being my greatest friend. May nothing satisfy me except you. In Jesus' name. Amen!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
The Context of Luke
Purpose – To present an accurate account of the life of Christ and to present Christ as the perfect human and Savior.
Author – Luke – A doctor (Colossians 4:14), a Greek and Gentile Christian. He is the only known Gentile author in the New Testament. Luke was a close friend and companion of Paul. He also wrote Acts, and the two books go together.
To Whom Written – Theophilus (“one who loves God”), Gentiles, and people everywhere.
Date Written – About A.D. 60
Author – Luke – A doctor (Colossians 4:14), a Greek and Gentile Christian. He is the only known Gentile author in the New Testament. Luke was a close friend and companion of Paul. He also wrote Acts, and the two books go together.
To Whom Written – Theophilus (“one who loves God”), Gentiles, and people everywhere.
Date Written – About A.D. 60
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Tips: Use SOAP
One great way to help you as you start to read the Bible is to use SOAP everyday. Not for showers, but as a tool to help you read the Bible. SOAP stands for Scripture, Observations, Application, and Prayer. The way it works is that you grab a notebook to keep as a journal of your thoughts from the Bible. We don’t read the Bible just to say, “look at what I did today God” and check off our spiritual box. God isn’t in to that kind of religious acts (Hosea 6:6). We read it to grow in relationship with God, and to know how to live our lives for him. SOAP is a tool to help you not just read the Bible but to slow down and really get something from it. This is how it works:
Once you’ve picked your scripture for the day from your Bible reading plan you’ll want to read through the text and make Observations. Ask the questions, “What is this passage teaching me about God?” “What phrases are jumping out at me that I need to take time to think about, meditate on their meaning and effect on my life?” Write down those observations. Don’t just think about them, put them down on paper so you can see all that you’re learning and thinking about before your eyes.
As you meditate on those passages that teach you about God or jump out to you, think about what effect they should have on your life and write down some specific “Applications” for what you learned from the text. Be specific about what you’re going to do, because otherwise it most likely won’t happen. Maybe it means memorizing a passage or verse, doing something for another person, walking an old lady across the street, sharing the Gospel with a specific friend, giving $30 to the Leatha Foundation, etc. Whatever it is, be specific!
Then write down or speak a prayer to the Lord, asking him to take what you learned, what you want to apply and to help make it happen in your life. Without him we can’t do anything (John 15:5), and so we have to bring things to him in prayer.
One last thing to do is to give your journal entry a title, so that you can remember what you learned from the week for that specific passage and look back, remember, and reminisce about what you learned from that passage.
The Salt Company staff will be using SOAP each day on the blog site that you can give comments on if you’d like at any time. Check out Luke 1 for the first example:
Once you’ve picked your scripture for the day from your Bible reading plan you’ll want to read through the text and make Observations. Ask the questions, “What is this passage teaching me about God?” “What phrases are jumping out at me that I need to take time to think about, meditate on their meaning and effect on my life?” Write down those observations. Don’t just think about them, put them down on paper so you can see all that you’re learning and thinking about before your eyes.
As you meditate on those passages that teach you about God or jump out to you, think about what effect they should have on your life and write down some specific “Applications” for what you learned from the text. Be specific about what you’re going to do, because otherwise it most likely won’t happen. Maybe it means memorizing a passage or verse, doing something for another person, walking an old lady across the street, sharing the Gospel with a specific friend, giving $30 to the Leatha Foundation, etc. Whatever it is, be specific!
Then write down or speak a prayer to the Lord, asking him to take what you learned, what you want to apply and to help make it happen in your life. Without him we can’t do anything (John 15:5), and so we have to bring things to him in prayer.
One last thing to do is to give your journal entry a title, so that you can remember what you learned from the week for that specific passage and look back, remember, and reminisce about what you learned from that passage.
The Salt Company staff will be using SOAP each day on the blog site that you can give comments on if you’d like at any time. Check out Luke 1 for the first example:
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Jan 18: Luke 1 "God is Really Good"
Title "God is really good"
Scripture - Luke 1:46-55
Observations
You see some awesome qualities of God that are listed in this passage in particular. God is mindful of our lives, mighty, merciful, just, sovereign, benevolent (loving and good), and he's faithful to his promises. There's so much to learn about God from the scripture. It's really cool to see these qualities of God jump off the page and to not just see this is a self-help book, but to really see God jump right off the page is really cool.
Application
I really need to believe God for who he is. I need to think throughout my day that God is really mighty and is really working out everything for good at all times. I think today that if I ever notice anytime that I'm not thinking that God is good, I'm going to open up this passage and read it and remind myself really who God is.
Prayer
God, help me to know and really believe who you really are all the time. I know that a right view of you will change the way I live my life, so help me to change my view to always believe rightly about who you are and please change my life to follow in your footsteps and to put on the great character qualities of goodness, kindness, and mercy that I got to see in this passage today. I love you Lord. In Jesus name. Amen!
Scripture - Luke 1:46-55
Observations
You see some awesome qualities of God that are listed in this passage in particular. God is mindful of our lives, mighty, merciful, just, sovereign, benevolent (loving and good), and he's faithful to his promises. There's so much to learn about God from the scripture. It's really cool to see these qualities of God jump off the page and to not just see this is a self-help book, but to really see God jump right off the page is really cool.
Application
I really need to believe God for who he is. I need to think throughout my day that God is really mighty and is really working out everything for good at all times. I think today that if I ever notice anytime that I'm not thinking that God is good, I'm going to open up this passage and read it and remind myself really who God is.
Prayer
God, help me to know and really believe who you really are all the time. I know that a right view of you will change the way I live my life, so help me to change my view to always believe rightly about who you are and please change my life to follow in your footsteps and to put on the great character qualities of goodness, kindness, and mercy that I got to see in this passage today. I love you Lord. In Jesus name. Amen!
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