A good way to study the Bible

I'm so excited that 100 people from our church are already taking the 90-Day New Testament Challenge! If you'd like to sign up for it and haven't already, then just let me know. It will be so cool to have so many people doing this together. We'll have to celebrate at the end of July when we've completed it!

There's definitely a difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible. We'll be reading it every day for the next 3 months, but I want to encourage everyone to take time to study it at least once a week. There are a lot of good ways to study the Bible, but here's one that works well for me. It's my adaptation of the "devotional method" that Rick Warren put together. Here are the steps:
1. Prayer – Pray for insight on how to apply what you’re about to read. Ask God to help you understand the Scripture and to show you specifically what He wants you to do. We don't want to read the Bible just to become smarter: we want to hear from God and apply what we learn.
2. Read – Read whatever Scripture passage you’re decided to study.
3. Reflection – Take a moment to process and digest what you’ve read. There are several practical ways you can do this, depending on the passage that you’re studying. You could:

• Visualize the scene of the narrative in your mind
• Emphasize certain words in the passage & consider how that affects the meaning
• Write a paraphrase of the big idea of the passage
• Say parts of the passage back to God as a prayer

4. Application – Write out a specific application. Make it personal and practical. Think through the SPACEPETS (it’s an acronym) questions as you consider what God is saying to you. Is there any…

• Sin to confess?
• Promise to claim?
• Attitude to change?
• Command to obey?
• Example to follow?
• Prayer to pray?
• Error to avoid?
• Truth to believe?
• Something to praise God for?

5. Memorization – Memorize a verse that connects directly with the application you have written. When you pick a verse that is really meaningful to you, it becomes a lot easier to remember.

Easy way to make a difference

It's sobering to realize that 1 in 6 people on the planet don't have access to clean drinking water. I drink way too much Diet Pepsi. What do you tend to chug too much of: Starbucks? Gatorade? If I replaced my Diet Pepsi with water, I'd probably save $4 a day. If I did it for five days, then I'd have $20 to give toward enabling people to have clean drinking water for the rest of their lives. What if the 200 adults in our church last Sunday did it for 5 days, too? And what if they spread the word to some of their friends?
In a couple of weeks I'll be talking about the 5 Days in May project. It's an easy way to make an impact through Water Missions International. I'm going to plan on doing it May 4-8. I'll be getting myself healthier & helping others at the same time. It's a no-brainer win-win. Are you in?

Getting to the root

My third grader has been learning about the parts of a plant lately: leaf, stem, root, fruit. As I've helped him with his homework, my knowledge of words like 'photosynthesis' have come rushing back like a bad dream.
Today I was reading Deuteronomy 29:18 - "Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit." Sometimes I see "bitter fruit" in my behavior and attitude. When I see that in myself, my instinct is to try to get rid of the fruit. But to really deal with it effectively, I need to do what this verse says: get rid of the root. Otherwise I'm just dealing with the symptoms and never treating the disease. Let's figure out the "root" cause of our bad habits and ask God to show us how to deal with them!

Back on the blog

Wow - I got way out of the habit of writing a blog. I figured April Fool's Day was as good a day as any to start back. I'm in 4th place out of 35 in my March Madness pool. It looks like I might finish 2nd if Connecticut wins one more. Usually I'm in last place by now! I got 2 of the Final 4 right since I had Connecticut, Villanova, Lousiville, and Oklahoma. How about you - who did you project to the Final 4? Be honest!!