Are You Prioritizing Your Personal Accountability?

[janetupnorth]

OK, I didn't know where to post this so I'm posting it in Prayer Requests since it is the closest topic.

Awhile ago, we had a wonderful 3-2-1 thread going of how to apply those principles to your spiritual life. I was doing great then! We've also seen some great things happen in many peoples' lives since then!

Now, I'm still doing good, but after this weekend at Women's Retreat, I've personally realized I'm spending too much time doing "other things" and not enough alone time in the Word. I spend time with the kids at AWANA, have no lack in prayer, teach my kids Bible verses for AWANA, attend church, take the kids to Sunday School, working at camp...the list goes on, but lacking on taking the time to dig in like I used to. :blushing:

Anyone want to check on me in a few days and see how I'm doing getting back to this????



P.S. As I was typing this, I just got an e-mail from a guy I work with in another state on our conveyor system here at work...it said,

"Hi Janet,
Have you and/or Steve read “Purpose Driven Life”?
Attached is an interview with author Rick Warren. An absolutely awesome testimony.
I don’t do this much (send spiritual articles via e-mail) but I was sorting through the e-mails and came across the article – and thought you’d enjoy it.

CE"

Now, what kind of timing is that?!?!?!?! (Other than God's timing).

 

[quiverfull7]

I'd love to partner with anyone who wants to help each of us stay on track with Jesus. I'm sensing an upcoming need for support ... so I'm with you!

 

[janetupnorth]

This is what just came in my e-mail box from a fellow businessperson:This is an absolutely incredible interview with Rick Warren, author of 'Purpose Driven Life' His wife now has cancer, and he now has 'wealth' from the book sales. In the interview by
Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said: 'People ask me, 'What is the purpose of life?' And I respond:
'In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made
to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.' One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of
my body--but not the end of me. I may live to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend
trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the
dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in
eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure
that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now,
you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go
into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your
character than your comfort God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in
making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the
goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ
likeness. This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also
the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go
through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and
forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's
kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times
you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always
something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always
something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your
problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into
self-centeredness, which is 'my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your
focus off yourself and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds
of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make
it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has
strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping
other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him
and to people. You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder.
For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book
sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal
with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for
your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money,
notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages
that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change
our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a
salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund
an initiative we call 'The Peace Plan' to plant churches,
equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate
the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24
years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It
was liberating to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions?
Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt?
Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's
purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and
say, 'God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to
know You more and love You better.' God didn't put me on earth
just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why
we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet
moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every
moment, THANK GOD. '

 

[ChefBeckyD]

The title of our Small Group Study yesterday was "NOISE" from a series of Small Group & personal studies called "Nooma" by Rob Bell. It was one of the best and most thought provoking studies I have ever done on listening for God's voice.....here are some notes I handed out to our small group that went along with the lesson:


Do you feel like God is distant?

Do you wish that God's voice would be louder in your life?

Is there a connection between the amount of noise in our lives and our inability to hear God?

Then Moses and the priests, who were Levites, said to all Israel, “Be Silent, Oh Israel, and listen!”
Deuteronomy 27:9

Search your hearts and be silent.
Psalm 4:4

But the Lord is in His holy temple: Let all the earth be silent before Him.
Habakkuk 2:20

Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Jesus, in Matthew 11

If I am not still, and if I don't listen, how is Jesus going to give me rest?

Have you spent the same amount of time worrying and talking about your difficult, confusing situations as you have spent in silence, listening to what God might have to say?

Why is talking so much easier than listening?

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Luke 5:16

These were regular disciplines Jesus had. Silence. Solitude.

When was the last time you were in a solitary place?

What is is about silence that is so difficult?

Why is it easier to surround myself with noise and keep moving than to stop, be silent and listen?

How much noise do I voluntarily subject myself to?

Does my schedule, my time, my life look like that of a person who wants to hear God's voice?

Maybe the healing and guidance we desperately need is not going to come from one more meeting or therapy session, or sermon or self-help book......

.....but from simply listening for the voice of God.

Do you really believe that God's voice is more interesting than the voices around you?

Is it possibly that you have been searching for God in the winds, the earthquakes and fires,
........and He is waiting to speak to you in the silence?

 

[janetupnorth]

Becky - I'm actually going to pass that on to camp. Before the Women's Retreat (and there is one this weekend again) there is a silence and solitude day for anyone who wants to come early. That fits in well!

 

[janetupnorth]

(Don't worry, I read it too! )