To help with this, I’ve put together a simple tool to help you plan for growth in 2010. It covers areas of your life with God (based partially on Renovare’s six streams), your personal sphere of influence, and other areas of life that you may want to grow in.

I encourage you to download it, take some time to prayerfully think through it, and start your new year by planning for growth.

Feel free to share what some of your growth plans are in the comments section below.

Download the New Year Growth Planner

(if you find that you would like some assistance, please feel free to contact me or just leave a comment below)

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Check out these links too…

• Examen.me - an online devotional and prayer guide
• Michael Hyatt’s 7 questions to ask about last year
• Donald Whitney’s 10 Questions to ask to start the new year
• Donald Miller’s thoughts on living a better story this year

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In this brief series, I’ve discussed what could be seen as a Rule of Life Tripod. Three simple things to build our daily life around: Prayer, Scripture, and Service. In this post, I’ll wrap it up by looking at the third leg: Service.

Service – following the example of Jesus, the one who came not to be served but to serve

Kevin Hart: I’m a Grown Little Man on dvd I think that living a life of service is just as central to following Jesus as prayer and Scripture are. The example Jesus set for us was one of living for the sake of others. Consider these Scriptures that point the way to a life of service:

Mark 10:45 – For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. скрытая камера женщина мастурбирует

Philippians 2:3-5 – Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus

Ephesians 6:7 – Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men,

If we are following Jesus, then we will naturally begin to look outside of ourselves and to how we can serve and help those around us. However, though this should begin to happen naturally, we also need to intentionally serve people. We can’t just wait until we want The Unforgettable Benny Hill move Fargo movie to serve, we have to learn to discipline our self and practice Christ-like service.

Just as we make prayer and Scripture a normal part of our daily rhythm, we ought to live each day with our eyes open and our hearts willing to serve those we come in contact with.

So, how can you live a life of service to those you work with, your neighbors, your family and friends? How can you serve with an attitude of love and as if you are serving God?

Here is a simple prayer to help us open our hearts to God in service:

“Lord Jesus, as it would please you bring me someone today whom I can serve.” from Celebration of Discipline

So, to recap our Simple Rule of Life:

I want to shape my daily life around the rhythms of

• Prayer – an ongoing relational conversation with God
• Scripture – a reading, studying, and meditation on the Message of God
• Service – living everyday with an open heart, eyes, and hands ready to serve and help others in the way of Jesus

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The second leg of the Rule of Life Tripod is Scripture.

Scripture – not just a quick reading, but an immersion in Scripture that cleanses and transforms us as we read, study, meditate, memorize, and live it

We begin with prayer in which we learn to develop an ongoing conversation with God and now we move to Scripture in which God continues to speak to us and bring about the life transformation we need. In seeing Scripture as part of a rule of life (a rhythm for daily living) we need to go beyond just thinking in terms of a quick reading of a holy book to an understanding that Scripture is the God-breathed Word that is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,  so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

In order to give Scripture the “space” it needs in our life, we should learn to regularly read, study, meditate and memorize it. We do all of this in order that we might learn to live it out. James 1:22-25 tells us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Those who listen to the word but do not do what it says are like people who look at their faces in a mirror and, after looking at themselves, go away and immediately forget what they look like.  But those who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continue in it—not forgetting what they have heard but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

But, we must also see that Scripture is not just another rule book with a list of commands we learn. Scripture is alive and through it, God speaks to us each individually and shaped us personally into the person He envisions us becoming. Therefore, we need to practice listening to the Bible as well.

As Christians, we need to become “People of the Book” – people who hold the Bible in the center of their lives. As George Mueller said…

The vigor of our spiritual life is in direct proportion to the place we hold the Bible in our thoughts.

Some Tips

• Start each and end each day with the Bible
• Learn to study the Bible in a more in depth way – our minds conform to what they study
• Learn to read slowly and try to memorize Scripture
• Write Scripture on a note card and take it with you so you can continually refer back to it throughout the day
• Talk about what God is teaching you – Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

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What are some of your ideas of how you can make Scripture a central part of your daily life?

Check out these other posts about the Bible

In the Mouth of Madness

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Prayer

We can think of prayer as an ongoing conversation with God that not only roots our day (by beginning and ending our day with him), but also weaves throughout it as we are in constant conversation with him. To make prayer a part of our rule of life, we need to learn to see prayer as more than just a few sporadic moments, but as a way of life. Prayer should involve devoted and specific times, but it should also be something we take with us throughout the day.

We can learn to pray as we work by continually turning our hearts and minds toward God and by doing our work as if we were doing it for the Lord. We can learn to weave simple prayers into our daily tasks by praying for God’s blessing on what we are doing, thanking God, and praying for others that are around us. We can be creative in our prayers as well since we each have unique ways in which our day unfolds – we can pray for family, coworkers, clients, customers, etc. We can also invite God into our day by having conversation with him about what we are doing – asking his opinion on things and listening for his leading at all times.

We can also practice what Frank Laubach called “flash prayers” – quick silent prayers for people that he saw and interacted with throughout the day, co-operating with the Holy Spirit to intercede on peoples behalf.

Prayer is central to the Christian faith, and it should be central to the life of every Christian. Prayer can sometimes be difficult, but we need to remember that prayer is something that we learn – it takes consistent practice. God wants to be an active part of our daily life, and by entering into an ongoing conversation with Him, we are opening up our life to his involvement. But, be forewarned when that happens, God just might start to speak to you and lead you in ways you’ve never experienced.

Here are a few recommended books for learning more about prayer:

Lastly, for discussion, how do you see prayer as a central part of your life with God? What are some creative prayer exercises that you can practice?The Secret Lives of Second Wives download

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Don’t let the name “rule” throw you off though! This isn’t about being ritualistic and legalistic, but it is about living a disciplined life of training. Really, if we think about it, we all already live by a rule of life. We have those daily rhythms that determine how we spend our time, energy, and where we put our focus. So, the point of a Christian Rule of Life is to train us to not be “conformed to the pattern of this world”, but to be “conformed to Christ”.

As I’ve been thinking about this, the following three things have surfaced as a possible Rule of Life “tripod”:

1. Prayer – an ongoing conversation with God that not only roots our day (by beginning and ending our day with him), but also weaves throughout it as we are in constant conversation with him
2. Scripture – not just a quick reading, but an immersion in Scripture that cleanses and transforms us as we read, study, meditate, memorize, and live it
3. Service – following the example of Jesus, the one who came not to be served but to serve

What might our daily life look like if we built it on these three simple things? Is this tripod missing anything to you? How could you begin to shape your daily living around these three things?

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Mark 6:31

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

In a world in which we are constantly tempted to “log in”, we need to become even more intentional about “logging out”. Jesus taught us that in the midst of the busyness of life, we must intentionally get away to refocus, slow down, and be with God. When we make this a regular part of our routine, it helps to center us and give us clarity in life. And as we experience this rest in God, we learn to not be so attached to the many other things that grab for our attention.

Here are some practical ways we can intentionally unplug, so we can “plug in” to God.

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• don’t check email after a certain time of day
• set a time limit for how long you spend online
• remember that you don’t always have to answer the cell phone
• do a “media fast” – turn off all media (TV, Internet, etc.) for a few days, learn to enjoy the silence
• when you go on vacation, go on a vacation from things like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace
• make one day a week a “log in free” day, when you don’t do things like check email, blogs, etc. – spend time engaging people face to face
• take a day and really get away with God – just you and Him
• let the last few moments of your day be spent in quietness and prayer, not in a noisy bombardment of television

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These are just some ideas, they are not legalistic rules. However, there is discipline involved, we have to make a choice to go against our ingrained pattern and that can be difficult. But, remember that discipline brings freedom.

Jesus is inviting us to come away with him, to unplug and learn to rest in God’s presence.

So, what are some ways that you can practice the discipline of detachment (attachment to God)?buy Father of the Bride беркова и третьяков секс

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, Pastor Coon preached about sowing to the Spirit so that you can reap a harvest in the Spirit. This comes from Galatians 6:7-9 which says,

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Here the Apostle Paul is using the analogy of farming to give us an idea of how the spiritual life works. But, how exactly do we “sow to the Spirit”? The answer is to practice what have typically been called Spiritual Disciplines (you can call them exercises, habits, practices, etc. the idea is the same). Spiritual disciplines are the things that we can do (the seeds that we sow) that we offer to God so that he can grow them into something beyond our imagination or capability of growing on our own. We have to remember that the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) are fruit

. That is, they are a natural outgrowth. We don’t force the fruit of the Spirit to grow, we sow the right kind of seed so that the fruit will naturally grow. This is where the spiritual disciplines come in. We can’t force the fruit of patience (everyone wants that fruit!), but we can practice particular exercises, such as intentionally slowing down and allowing others to go ahead of us, that will give God a good seed and good soil to begin to grow the fruit of patience in our life.

I’ve written quite a bit about spiritual disciplines here so check it out by clicking here buy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

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If you want to reap a harvest of spiritual fruit, you’ve got to first learn to sow the right kind of seed.

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The Station Agent Spiritual formation is primarily concerned with the transformation of a person into the image and character of Christ. This transformation process involves the progressive change of a human being becoming like Jesus in their “being” and “doing”; their understanding of identity and the way they live out that identity.

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As stated earlier, I believe the primary role of Scripture is to shape and transform the reader in Christ-likeness. Both in terms of personal spirituality as well as leadership, God’s desire is to use the vehicle of Scripture to speak into the life of the reader. Mulholland points out that each one of us are a “word” of God that God wants to shape with his Word. He writes in Shaped by the Word, that the “focal shaping of our “word” into wholeness in the image of Christ comes by allowing our “word” to be shaped by the Word of God” (p. 37).

In Personal Spirituality

In personal spirituality, Scripture acts as a “living and productive scalpel in the loving hands of One who penetrates to the core of our being in order to cleanse and heal our garbled, distorted, debased word and transform it into the word God speaks us forth to be in the world” (Mulholland, p. 41). As we personally interact with God, the Scriptures are used as a primary tool to speak, teach, correct, rebuke, and train us. God speaks through Scripture to each individual in the transforming process.

In Leadership

Our spirituality is not entirely personal in that God moves us outward into community and “speaks us forth to be in the world”. Personal spirituality should naturally bleed into roles of leadership and service as we seek to live for the sake of others. The role of Scripture is primarily the same here. God uses Scripture to shape and transform the life of the leader. The Bible is not just a storehouse of leadership principles to be applied, but is the primary Word that God uses to shape the “word” of the leader. Disciples of Jesus are commanded to pass on the things that they have been taught. I do not believe though that this simply means passing on principles, but to pass on the character that has been shaped by the submissive and humble engagement with the Scriptures. Now, character itself cannot be passed on, it must be formed in each person individually, but the leader is responsible for being a living example of what a life that has been shaped and transformed looks like. As Paul instructed Timothy, “set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”

part 4: Leading to Life

Discussion: How has the Bible shaped and transformed you? How would you like to see it do so in your life?

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Friday the 13th rip

A lot of the time we approach the spiritual life the same way. We make resolutions to read the Bible more, pray more, go to church, be a good person, etc. But why is it that we so often feel like nothing changes? I think that a major part of the problem is similar to why our new year exercise goals fall to the wayside – we don’t make it a way of life.

The Spiritual Disciplines are like the exercises that we do at the gym, but if they are to truly make a difference than they can’t simply be extra things that we do on occasion. Just like regular visits to the gym must be accompanied by a healthy diet and other lifestyle changes, spiritual disciplines need to become a way of life.

I often do not feel like going to the gym, but I know that in order to see results I need to make it a habit and part of my way of life (that’s part of what makes it discipline). In the same way, if I only pray or meditate when I feel like it, there will be little difference in my life. But if the spiritual discipines and exercises become “habit” (not to be confused with dull routine, but something that is a regular part of my rhythm) that is when things start to happen!

So I encourage you, practice the various spiritual disciplines, but don’t simply do them as sporadic exercises but seek to make them a way of life. Incorporate them into the regular rhythm of your daily living. Practice them even when you don’t feel like it. Get a “training partner”, someone who will keep you moving when you feel like giving up. Make it a way of life and begin to truly experience life!

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