Brother Lawrence

One of the things that has really helped me in my devotional life is not always using a devotional book. I think that they can be very good tools but, I just don't work well with them. Most of my time with God is while I'm walking around campus and things of that sort, just thinking about God throughout my day. Thinking of what he would want me to do in certain situations, whether I'm in that situation or not. I try not to make my "devotional time" an actual set time. I try to make it like a lifestyle. Spending valuable time with God everyday is very vital, but try to make every moment you have a time with God, even if it's not super spiritual, recognize him in everything.

John Calvin

I think that quite a bit of what our culture is trying to tell us ties back to the way we look. On TV, in magazines, on the radio, in music; aesthetics are very, very important. Most people identify themselves in the way that they look or how people look at them. I like to think that appearance doesn't have a huge impact, but it truly does. Impressions mean everything and unless you talk to and get to know everyone you've ever had contact with, what has been drawn from your appearance is what people think about you. The media tells everybody that they have to be a certain body type and if they aren't then they are not beautiful. There has even been a study that claims that people who are "attractive" are more successful than people who aren't very "attractive." It's terrible that it has such an impact, but it really does affect many aspects of life. The world tries to make us think the same way. It seems as though we've been brain washed by a life of being sold lies. And the truth is, we eat it up. I have personally conformed to the way of this world in this. Not really towards others, but mainly towards myself. I am so critical on myself and on the days I feel ugly, it's bad news. The passage in Philippians really pounds on humility. It's so important for me to understand that the most important thing to do is to love God and to love people. To some extent it matters how people view me, but first and foremost I should be concerned about how God sees me. I should be pleasing him and not other humans. It's more important for me to consider others as better than myself and serve them than it is to boast in my self image and have a hope that they will serve me. Ultimately that's what it boils down to; loving God or wanting others to love you.

Annie Dillard

A few weeks ago I noticed a tree close to the quad for the first time ever. It's not a very big tree, but it's big enough that it would have been near impossible to move it from a different location to the one that it is now in. I searched through my memories trying to recall seeing that tree before. But I couldn't. The tree is kind of grey and at the time of it's appearance it was growing new leaves, which was very odd since all of the other trees were starting to change colors due to the changing season. I imagine that this tree was brighter than ever before since it had just caught my attention. Over the past few weeks I've been observing this tree in order to get to know it. It was new and somewhat exciting to me. A few days after I noticed it for the first time, the new leaves started turning yellow. And a few days after that it was very windy outside, and I noticed that the half of the tree that was facing the wind was mostly bare while the other half still had it's leaves. Now, almost all of the leaves are gone, but it is still just as beautiful, maybe even more than it was on the first day I saw it.
God has been revealing to me how my relationship to that tree is similar to the relationship I have with him. I don't worship the tree or anything crazy like that. But, when Jesus first appeared to my life, it was the brightest, most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Through the time I have spent with him, things have been bare and ragged, but all the while it has been beautiful. And no matter what season I go through with him, although there will be change, I will still always be in awe of him and what he is doing in my life.

Francis of Assisi and Watchman Nee

I think that there are different approaches to "sharing the gospel." Of course there is the obvious going out and blatantly telling people about Jesus and so on, but I much prefer presenting the gospel through your actions and everyday relationships with people. I think in evangelism, relationship is very important. Watchman Nee talked about how people need to know Jesus before they know of what he did for them. I've never really thought of the gospel in that way, but it matches how I like to present the gospel. From that perspective, I shared the gospel a few times over thanksgiving break to my mom. She is disabled and it's hard for her to do some things on her own but she doesn't get much help from people. Over thanksgiving break I did several tasks for my mom and I believe that her being able to see me love and help her, said a lot about Jesus and my relationship with him. Sometimes it's hard to engage in evangelism because it's hard to know where to start. Francis of Assisi was inspiring when he wrote about asking others for prayer to get an answer for a question that he had. I think it's important for Christians to communicate with one another and talk about relationships we are trying to build up and pray for each other and for the growth of relationship. It was also neat how he responded so quickly when he got the answer. Not only did he respond, but he got others to come and help him. I think that we should also work on getting other Christians involved in our relationships. So, talking with other Christians about opportunities I have to evangelize and receiving prayer and support from them would really help me be more active in evangelism.

Jeremy Taylor #2

The easiest rule for me is number eighteen; "Do not expose others' weaknesses in order to make them feel less able than you." This has been done to me countless times so I know how it feels to be underestimated and told that you can't do something because of your faults, background, etc. None of us are perfect and all of us are broken. We shouldn't cause more damage to others to make us feel better.

The hardest rule for me is number fourteen; "Be content when you see or hear that others are doing well in their jobs and with their income, even when you are not." This is extremely difficult for me because I get to where I feel as though I deserve a break after working hard for so long. Not just when it comes to money, but when it comes to opportunities or grades and other things. I work hard for my grades and opportunities and it's hard to accept that some people are just better than you are at some things, no matter how hard you work. We were all gifted in a unique way. It could also be because I can get competitive, but mainly because I feel as though I deserve certain things after putting in a certain amount of time working for it.

Jeremy Taylor #1

I got my first job when I was 15. There were times in high school when I was working 2 jobs at a time. In a way, I was embarrassed by having to work to help support myself. Everybody else around me was well taken care of and most of them had never even had a job before. I just wished that my parents were stable enough to take complete care of me without having a worry in the world. But that just wasn't reality. Now, I am encouraged by the complications I had to go through because I know that I am a hard worker and that I worked for everything that I have. Nothing was handed to me so now I know that that isn't how life works. You have to be able to juggle priorities and know what things are most important. Because of my background, I have plenty of experience in the working world.

E. Stanley Jones

Jones understands conversion as "You cannot attain salvation through disciplines, It is the gift of God. But you cannot retain it without disciplines." He believes that the three basic habitual disciplines are reading the Word of God, praying, and passing on what you've learned. Jesus was the example for all three of these disciplines. This is a different concept of conversion than what we're used to because so many times conversion is focused only on the moment in which you "asked Christ to live in your heart." This is an important moment, but you also need to be changed in the way you live after accepting Christ. Disciplines are necessary fruits of salvation. I think that this is a more biblical understanding of conversion because Jesus desires for us to get to know him personally. He wants to walk beside us in life and share what he has done for us with other people in order to expand the kingdom of God. Conversion isn't meant to be an excuse to be able to live however you want without giving any time to Christ. It's a commitment to God.

Thomas Kelly

Thomas Kelly's approach to developing a genuine internal spirituality is to focus on the Jesus, or inner light, that is inside of you. It will take intention and it will feel weird at first, but we need to pay more attention to Christ being in us than our flesh. When you do this, you should live your life with worship at the base. Everything that you do, use it to worship. Remember Christ in everything and let him be a continuous background as you live from day to day. As you do this more and more, prayer and meditation focused on Christ will become more natural, and it will make all of the difference in the world to your spirituality.

William Law

According to Law, our faith is supposed to impact every aspect of our lives. He touches on the importance of prayer, and emphasizes that a holy prayer is no good without a holy lifestyle, and vice versa! One of the bigger parts of the reading is when Law explains that so many Christians get caught up in going to church that we don't act out our faith outside of the building! Going to church is very important, but Jesus never instructed us to go to church weekly, he urged us to live out our lives in love, acceptance, forgiveness, etc. Those things are more important.

In my life, I feel like my faith has influenced how I look at people in forgiving and accepting them. After all of the forgiveness that i've seen poured onto my life, I'm compelled to accept and forgive others. Christ and the church have loved me so well, that the way I welcome others into my life has been completely shifted around! When we let our faith impact our lives, our actions and thoughts are changed due to the shifting that has happened inside of us.

Elizabeth O'Connor

Last month my Dad gave me $600. That seems like a lot of money, and for a college student, it is! Out of my "allowance" far this past month $580 went towards a school payment, and the rest went toward other basic necessities...like toilet paper. I really don't feel as though I spent my money unwisely seeing as money was tight even with $600 in the bank. Sometimes I wish that I could put 20 bucks in the offering plate as it passes by but there wasn't enough flexibility for me to be able to do that. Although I can't give a consistent sum to God in the form of money every week, I try to tithe with other things...like my time or the resources that I do have. In doing these things I think that my heart is in the right place and I'm doing it as worship. I don't think that choosing to spend money on school says anything bad about my priorities with God, because I'm trying to glorify him with my schoolwork and trying to stay in the mission field that he has called me to, which is ETBU and the surrounding areas.

NAMB Video blog

http://www.namb.net/imagine_that/

In this video, a man shares a brief testimony about how he used to be homeless in Los Angeles, and how a little girl walked up to him one day and told him that Jesus loves him. After that experience, he gave his life to Christ, and cleaned up, leaving town. After he had sworn he'd never return to LA, God brought him back to Skid Row where he opened a church and ministered to a number of old friends and other homeless people. In this journey, this man probably received help from a church or many different churches, other christians had to band together with him and help him plant a church in a bad part of a dangerous city. Together, the pastor and other helpers have done community outreach and handed out food and other necessary supplies to minister to people. It's important for ALL baptists/christians to band together because many roles need to be filled. From the brave little girl who approached a drug addicted, homeless man to the churches and organizations that helped him get on his feet, to the other brothers and sisters who helped him out in his ministry and church planting. He would have never been able to accomplish all of that on his own. Everyone has a part to play in order to bring the kingdom of God to this dark world.

BGCT #2

I focused on the Advocacy/Care section. They have community ministries, counseling, and a few ministries to feed the hungry. The most shocking section to me was under the community ministry section under this tab. They had a large section on human trafficking. That's very encouraging to me because this is an issue that God has placed on my heart. It defines what human trafficking is, why there would be a need for slaves or how the victims got caught in it, and how you can keep yourself from supporting the slave-owners. They have organizations and websites on how to shop smarter, making sure you aren't buying all of you belongings slave-made. One of the coolest things I saw on here was an organization that the Salvation Army does, using material called "wise as serpents" they teach youth about this problem and gives them information and advice on how to keep themselves from being potential victims of human trafficking.

BGCT #1

http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14331&Itemid=53

I read an article about a church in Olney going to Africa after extensive fundraising to supply orphans with mattresses. FBC Olney went through an organization called Sweet Sleep. After they learned of the severe need of mattresses for orphanages in Africa, they "didn't have to sleep on" what to do. The church sent a team that distributed 559 beds and mosquito nets, since many children die from Malaria every day.

The Baptist Standard is a cool ministry that is important because it's one way to keep us connected to what's going on in the christian community locally, state-wide, nationally, and world-wide. It's a neat reminder of the wider picture that God is working in, not just our narrow vision of what's happening in our lives. In our culture we hear so much bad news, it's nice to be able to read about good that's happening in the world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In the excerpt, Bonhoeffer states that we need other christians so we can see and hear the word of God being played out. We can memorize scripture and study the word, but all of us will have doubts. We will end up doubting ourselves and when we reach that point, other believers will be able to speak truth to us and it will be easier to believe because we will see them standing firm in their faith.
"But God has put this Word into the mouth of others in order that it may be communicated to us."

We are to relate to each other as only having a relationship with them through Christ. We are brothers and sisters to other people because of what Christ has done to us. And they are brothers and sisters to us because of what Christ has done for them. This means that we don't only have to have community with believers that we get along with, but we are to have community with believers who we don't exactly see eye to eye with. All because of what Christ has done for us. Jesus has forgiven us, when we realized that we were then enabled to forgive others. We are brothers and sisters in Christ for eternity, so we need to love them through Christ and have community with them because of everything that Jesus has done for us.

Richard Rolle

I believe that a person who is actively engaged in vocational ministry could simultaneously be struggling to maintain a healthy relationship with Jesus because as people it is easy to become discouraged when we don't see the fruits of our labor blossoming. When we work and pray for God to move and for improvement and we don't see it, we could start to give up on God because things aren't going how we thought. While this is happening we could continue to work in vocational ministry because it's all the we know, we could be jobless if we left, and we want to keep our personal status at a high level, so we don't talk about struggling, we just drift further and further from God.

This could potentially be dangerous for the minister, their family, the church because the minister could lose his or her passion and start to misuse their gifts, trying to work for God but losing the fruits of the spirit. For example, while working with people you could be trying to do the right thing and share the gospel but some small mistake happens and you get angry in front of whoever is around without handling the situation with patience. This could damage peoples view on christianity and ultimately Christ himself. The minister would notice this happening and just get angrier and angrier with himself and God, eventually this spiritually misery would leak out onto his family and potentially spiritually, emotionally, and sometimes physically scar the other members of the family.

Some steps we could take to prevent this from happening would be to realize that it's not your ministry but God's. If the ministry fails, it's not always your fault. Also, we should stop putting expectations on our lives, when we don't meet the expectations placed on us, we automatically think we've failed. That simply is not the case. The most important would be to humbly present yourself before God every day, letting him guide you through everything that happens. Make time for him, to talk to him, aside from your ministry, just for your personal relationship.

Baptist History Reflection

First principle: "Every Baptist a missionary"
This quote from Johann Gerhard Oncken is like music to my ears. I love the fact that this is one of the ideas that the Baptist denomination was founded on. In that time and even still today, I feel like Baptists were one of the most mission oriented denominations around, but I had no idea that missions was one of the foundations ono which it was built. It's very important for us to keep this principle because clearly peoples souls are on the line. We have a hope in Jesus that plenty of other people do not have, it's encouraging to know that we are some of the leaders in giving the great commission movement.

Second principle: The importance of reading scripture for yourself
It is crazy to me that Baptists actually broke off from the rest of the church because they understood the responsibility and importance of reading scripture for yourself. Not that the church was lying to them, maybe in some cases they were, but people needed to figure the word out for themselves to grow deeper with God. Not just relying on the preacher or bishop to explain the text to you, but getting in there and figuring it out and letting the Holy Spirit guide you. It is still important for the church to do this today because we need to have personal walks with Christ, not just one big walk with Christ as the church, although we should be able to come together and talk about the word. God gives different people different convictions, we are all different and won't agree on every single detail, which is why the Spirit needs to influence us, not only the church.

Georgge Buttrick

In my personal prayer life I am too formless. A strategy to fix that would be to keep lists of things i'm thankful for, I struggle with, people, and situations so I can stay on task while in prayer. Buttrick's guide-map of prayer will really help to keep me focused as well. Prayer is one of the things in my walk with Christ that I struggle with the most. This excerpt reminded me how to pray. It had some ideas that will help me out greatly in my relationship with God. But as I go along with this new plan, I will have to be careful not to go to the opposite side of the spectrum that i'm on now. It will take effort to keep a healthy balance between giving my prayers form and not getting too formal.

Sadhu Sundar Singh

In singh's excerpt he addresses using your time wisely. In my life, especially at school, it becomes very easy to spend any extra time that I have just relaxing. Watching TV, listening to music, going for a walk, anything that I can do to just let my brain rest. Although this is what I usually do when I have time, it's not exactly the best thing to do. I feel like I need to use my time extra time to build up more relationships. Instead of doing fun things that only benefit myself, I could talk to people that i've never talked to before and gain the opportunity to share Christ with them. Personal time is very important, but other people should be more important. Ways to practice this could be just saying hi to people that I walk past every single day and start a conversation with them. You never know what someone is going through, you might be just what they need. They will probably even help you grow, too.

Jonathan Edwards

Your passion for Christ should impact your studies because you should be doing everything as if you are doing it for him. In my case, I don't really care for school. I don't like studying or going to class or spending thousands of dollars every semester on something that I don't like. But God has given me the opportunity to further my education. Not everybody has that opportunity. So I do school with my whole heart because I know that God has put me here for a reason. Likewise, my studies here at ETBU help me grow closer to God because I have to rely on him to get me through the classes and because he has blessed me even more with the choice of getting to learn about him in school. So, my teachers and classes encourage me on my walk with God. I'm not sure if my spiritual life represents a life marked by intellectual rigor because I'm not self motivated when it comes to learning new things in school. I'm motivated by Christ. Because of that, though, I feel as though my spiritual life could and does reflect a life that has been touched by passionate pursuit. My schooling isn't about me at all. It's about him.

Henri Nouwen #1

For my hour sanctuary prayer I went to FBC Marshall. The gym where the contemporary service takes place was locked, so I did my prayer in an empty sunday school room. This prayer time was very interesting for me. It brought new meaning to things that I already know. When i pray alone, it can be kind of awkward because I don't know where to start or what to say. I learned how terrible I am at praying and at staying focused. At the same time, it finally clicked that if we go before God with something residing on our mind, that thing can distract us from being focused in on prayer. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing....it may be both. Knowing that I was distracted, I was forced to bring my thoughts before God, and things were sorted out. In the middle of being distracted and being distracted by the fact that i was distracted, I turned to the scripture to draw near to God, and he spoke to me about being self-controlled for the sake of my prayers. Through all of this, I felt as though I had a deeper desire of wanting to hear from God during the Sermon. Somehow, my focus was in the right place. Overall it helped me feel God and hear from him.

John of the Cross #1

Out of the five virtues mentioned in John of the Cross's devotional I think i'm most in need of contentment. According to the reading, I struggle the most with spiritual wrath. Most of the time I am very impatient between different seasons that God brings me through. When a good season or opportunity ends I get mad and wonder if I did something to make God mad. I am well aware that I struggle with being content. This ties back to another blog that i've done. Contentment is one of the three things that I ask God for.

Ignatius of Loyola #2

In Donnie's 3rd blog, he talked about how loving people can be difficult but we have to share God's love with everyone and not just hold it in. He explains how he took up the challenge of saying hi to as many people as he could and how he doesn't always feel like doing it, but it's God's love and not ours so we need to share it anyways.
I feel like this is an important concept for Christians to grasp. Even though we aren't perfect, we have a hope and a love that not everybody has. God first loved us, but he then called us to love others. He didn't say "When you feel like it you can love others", he just said to love others. We need to push ourselves to do that even when we don't feel like it, because it goes beyond our feelings, ultimately God needs to be glorified and we need to be good stewards of his love.

Ignatius of Loyola #1

In section 7 of Ignatius of Loyola's study it says that the enemies biggest fear is confession. When he throws lies at you and it has you bogged down, the best thing to do is to confess to somebody what he's telling you. He doesn't want his plan to be known.

Whenever Satan puts ideas in my head about other people or situations I usually go to that person and talk to them about it. I steadily lift it up to God and confess my sins and thoughts to another believer and we usually pray through it. When you do this, it brings secrets and darkness into light, at that point, the enemy will flee because he doesn't want to be revealed.

Julian of Norwich

The three things that I desire from God are:

1. Passion- I want God to give me a burning passion for the things that he is passionate about. Break my heart for the things that break his. A flame for him and his kingdom that burns through my life and completely reveals him and his passions.

2. Humility- I want God to remind me daily of how small I am and how big he is. I never want to get in the way of his plan and I always want to remember that it's never me doing his work, but it's him working through me. All of the glory is his, I am only a vessel.

3. Contentment- I want to find my contentment in God alone. I don't want my self-worth to rest in the hands of other people or activities I do. I want to be fully satisfied in having him and nothing more. I desire him to be my defining factor and only live for his works and not the works of myself or others.

Bernard of Clairvaux

Since God IS love, it only makes sense that seeing his love for us would drive us to love, since he is love. It seems as though nothing else could ever enable us to love anyone or anything, except for God, because without God we wouldn't even know what love is. Knowing that God loves me pushes me to love him because of how powerful he is. God is so big that I should be scared when I'm in his presence. We are supposed to fear God, but he is love and he is perfect, therefore, he gives us peace and comfort when we are in him. His characteristics draw me in to him and give me no other choice but to love him. When we are truly in God, love is in us. This should compel us to love everyone else because God's love is perfected in us when we are in him. His loving us when he has all the power to crush or accept us entitles us to love people and not punish them because God has loved us in that way. We have to be sure that we understand how huge God's love for us is, so that truth can transform our hearts and lives, otherwise it would be very easy to only "love" God because of what he can do for us. Ultimately, we need to try our best to persistently live in the third degree of love; "so that we now love God, not for our own sake, but for himself," and to do that we must love God for who he is and understand the way that we are supposed to live in order to show our love for him through everything that we do.

Dallas Willard #2

Out of the 10 commandments found in Matthew 5, two of the most important are these:
1. If you are angry with someone, get right with them before sacrificing to God.
2. Love all of your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

If you are angry with a brother or sister then your heart is not right. God's biggest command was to first love him with our entire being and to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we love God, the second part of that command will happen out of our love for him. If we try to sacrifice something to God while we are angry with someone, our heart is in the wrong place. God wants us to love him so much that our relationships with other people are important to us. If we do not straighten our feelings towards a person out, we will likely be distracted while trying to interact with God. I'm scared that we would even be acting the role instead of being genuine.

We are called to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Doing so will show our love for others. I feel like this commandment implies that we need to be genuine about the prayers and the love. That means we should be so close to God that our love for others should match his love for them. We need to love them like Christ and really care about our enemies and persecutors. If we don't love and pray for them, then we are shown that our anger is triumphing God's love when ultimately it should be the other way around. We would miss out in the blessing of seeing their relationship with God grow and we would be robbing them of a blessing.

Dallas Willard #1

10 Commandments given by Jesus in Matthew 5:

1. Let your light shine before others.
2. If you are angry with someone, get right with them before you sacrifice to God.
3. If your right eye/right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
4. Let your yes be yes and your no be no.
5. Do not resist the one who is evil.
6. If anyone slaps your right cheek, turn to him also the other.
7. If anyone makes you go one mile with them, go two.
8. Give to the one who begs from you.
9. Do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
10. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

C. S. Lewis #2

The church that I went to for most of my school years is called Central Baptist Church and it's located in Kirbyville, Tx. I made the decision, for myself, to go to church in the fifth grade. I tried a few different churches and found myself being drawn to Central in Kirbyville. I didn't know what to truly watch for in a church since I was young and church was never really a big part of my family life. The generosity and patience of the members there was so evident that I was drawn in. When I felt I was called to missions, I was offered a position on our Ukraine mission trip team. Desiring to go I knew that it would be difficult since I didn't have a way. I had no passport, no clothes suited for Ukrainian weather, and definitely no money to pay for all of it. My church family knew the situation I was in and everything was provided for me without even having to ask. Central Baptist Church in Kirbyville genuinely made me into a "little christ." They were lead by the spirit to provide ways for me to fulfill my calling in life. They continue to do things for other people and find joy in doing so. So many camp scholarships, school supplies, hot meals, transportation opportunities, and clothes are given out. Most importantly, numerous lives have not only heard the gospel, but they have seen it played out by a faithful group of Christ-followers.

C.S. Lewis #1

In the excerpts from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, a few different things are covered. Giving it all to God, dangerous thiings and impossible parts of our walk with Christ. For me the hardest part of giving my whole life to God section 5 titled, The almost impossible thing. Lewis pulled scripture saying that thistle cannot produce figs, Grass fields cannot produce wheat. I often find myself acting out the part and playing christianity instead of letting God plough and resow me. It takes desire and self control to push back our desires and let Christ fully change us from the inside out instead of just making the outside look pretty.