Can list making be a Spiritual Discipline?

 

Maybe you are like me and you get fed up with how much you want to remember but the reality is that so much of it gets forgotten. So you make lists. You have lists on your counter at home, on your bedside stand, on your desk at work, on your iPhone, on your laptop...soon you are swimming in post-it notes of various lists.

I started two new spiritual disciplines this morning as part of my morning quiet time and I hope they will not only bear much fruit in my life, in my marriage and in my walk with Christ. But I also hope it will help me to better remember the beautiful things of God!

My wife loves praise and worship music and we have many CDs so I decided to take what I do well (making lists) and take what I don't do well (remembering music lyrics) and pair them together. The hope and plan is to listen to one or two songs a day and really focus on the lyrics and discern the maid ideas or themes of the song. What is being said? What Truth is being conveyed? And then write the song title and album on a list for future reference when I'm looking for that right song for someone in need or when planning a worship service.

Today I started with The Gospel Song and The Glories of Calvary by Sovereign Grace Music which can be found here. Or you can listen to the entire album here for free.


To take my list making a step further (I know, I know, my best friend from college is probably laughing right now saying your OCD is definitely coming out :) as I was reading through Nehemiah 11-13 and Esther 1-2 this morning I also started lists of themes from these chapters. Themes like: The Precedence for Choirs in Worship, Confrontation and Guarding the purity of God's People, the Precedence for the Involvement of Children in Worship, Tithing, How Women/Wives and Men/Husbands are to be Treated and to Act, God's Sovereignty, etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing music lyrics and Scripture passages come alive today in a new way... in the form of lists!

Long live the journal and post-it note! :)

Thoughts on Nehemiah's "Arrow" Prayers

It's been said somewhere in Christian literature, or maybe Christian folk lore :), that if Martin Luther had a lot to do in a day he would wake up 2-3 hours earlier JUST to pray! The busier he was, the more he prayed and the earlier he woke up!

Certainly we could all learn A LOT, myself included, about the discipline of prayer from Martin Luther. After all we see in the Book of Proverbs the following:

⁹ How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
    When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest —
¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man (Proverbs 6:9-11).

Didn't Jesus spend the night praying on the mountain before: selecting his disciples (Luke 6:11-13) and before walking on the water (Matthew 14:23ff) and before his journey to Golgotha in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36ff)?

Certainly there is Biblical backing for long prayer times like what Jesus did here and what Martin Luther lived out. But we also see many references for short prayers, what I call (or more likely, I heard this from someone else but can't remember who) "arrow prayers." 

After all, didn't Jesus also say, "and when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:7-8)? After that comment he then went on to teach them "the Lord's Prayer."

So there is also Biblical support for short prayers and I was again reminded of this by Nehemiah's prayer life in Nehemiah 5:19; 6:14.

"Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people" (Neh. 5:19) and 

"Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me" (Neh. 6:14).

Short, sweet, to the point. God, be with me for all the work I have done for your people. And God be with my enemies for vengeance is yours (see Rom. 12:18ff).

What a great reminder it was for me this morning as I was folding laundry and walking our dog that I could say quick, short prayers - arrow prayers.

Maybe you are in a season where you need to be in your prayer closet for hours, leaning into God and asking, seeking and knocking (Luke 11:9)? But maybe you are in a season where arrow prayers to our gracious Heavenly Father would be helpful as you look at your prayer lists?

Either way, I encourage you to pray, pray, pray!

Making the front page of our local newspaper

Cari and I made the front page of the Staunton, VA newspaper this past weekend, you can check it out here. It's a great little article about a B&B that our good friends run here in Waynesboro! If you are looking to come visit us you are more than welcome to stay with us, but I PROMISE the breakfasts are much better at The Speckled Trout B&B!

Kirkin' o'th' Tartans Church Service

This past Sunday our church had their second annual Kirkin' o'th' Tartan service and it was a wonderful time to celebrate God's faithfulness to our families, all done with a Scottish flair. Kirk is Scottish for church and it was quite the celebration for us. We had a wonderful bagpiper who played multiple songs, including Amazing Grace at the end of the service. I was able to preach, we read the 99+ names of different Scottish, Irish and Welsh clans that are represented in our church, and we remembered those saints who have gone before us during the "Necrology" part of the service. Pictured above is me, our Senior Pastor and the Saint who helped plan this entire service and was the mastermind and worker bee behind most of it.

If you are interested in seeing part or the whole service click here. It is the top episode.

And how can you not love the opportunity to wear a kilt! :)

Death and Music

 

Death is a reality I have had to confront recently. With the passing of Cari’s grandfather in February, some church members here recently, some people Cari has served at work and now a missionary friend in Bolivia I find myself thinking about death a lot. Not in a grim way, or in a scared way, but in a realistic way. Death comes to all, whether we are ready for it or not. I was recently reminded at a wake of the classic passage in Ecclesiastes, “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die” (Eccl. 3:1-2).

As we know Easter is a season, not a day; and it is a season that is celebrated between the resurrection of Christ and Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came. Tertullian, an early church father (200 A.D.) said that Easter is “a most joyous space.”* While this is certainly true, life and its struggles and even death are still a reality during the Easter Season. And it’s during those struggles, and wrestling with death, where Basil of Caesarea’s words from 380 A.D. are most encouraging. He said that Easter “reminds us of the resurrection which we await in the other world.”*

As we await that resurrection we are continually reminded that we live in a broken world, a world in need of healing and hope. To help remind me of the hope we have in Christ’s resurrection, and in our one-day resurrection, I have been listening to a CD entitled "Risen" put out by Sovereign Grace Music. From the liner notes in the album we are reminded of these important truths, “Christ’s resurrection was more than a display of raw supernatural power. It was the single event that assures us that his payment for our sins has been accepted. God’s wrath is satisfied. Death is defeated. The powers of darkness are overcome. Sin’s dominion has been broken. And the life of the age to come has dawned.”

These songs dealing with Christ's Resurrection have been encouraging, especially "To Live is Christ" and "Jesus Lives." As I listen to this CD, and let the lyrics wash over my soul, I am continually reminded that death has been defeated, and that it holds no power over the believer who loves and follows Jesus Christ.

I encourage you to take some time and listen to all the songs for free on their website.

Whatever we may face this Easter Season may we remember this truth from Paul: "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him" (1 Thess. 4:13-14).

*From Robert Webber’s Rediscovering the Christian Feasts © 1998, pg. 92.