More on Praise

Thank you readers (and now listeners) for the comments on Praise Basics. Back about the time that I originally preached that sermon, I had really gone through a learning curve around praise. I discovered that I was great about saying thanks, but praising God was a very different activity that yielded a very different result. Initially, I struggled to find words to adore God. Then I happened across Psalm 18 and observed David praising God in three ways. He told God he loved Him. He voiced who God was to him. Lastly, he spoke of the many deeds God had done.

Those lessons learned are the inspiration around the March 3rd post from earlier this year. That post sheds more light on the model, but if you really want to understand it better I recommend listening to the sequel sermon More on Praise. I hope this puts some practical teeth to the principles I shared with you in Praise Basics.



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To download a copy go to my podcast site, http://thepracticaldisciple.podbean.com/

Praise Basics

Increasing the amount of time you spend in prayer simply adoring God can have a transformative effect on your relationship with God and on your daily living. In this podcast, which was originally a sermon that I offered January 13, of 2002, I describe 3 benefits of improved praise and 3 guiding biblical principles for praise. In short, we experience greater intimacy (see March 3 post), peace, and joy. We do so by praising God more frequently, corporately and musically. To listen just click on the embedded player below. You can download a copy of this sermon at my podcast site, http://thepracticaldisciple.podbean.com/ Blessing to you from The Practical Disciple. Approx. run time 23 mins.



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Eradicating Spiritual Virus

This past week I have spent an inordinate amount of time isolating virus's and spyware that have wreaked havoc on my computer. I got lax about security and failed to scan regularly. I found myself saying those huge horrible words, "if only I had..." Fortunately, I lost nothing. I just found my life unnecessarily complicated. The time and productive lost was less than helpful. I find myself wondering after the experience, "How often does this same drama play itself out in my spiritual life?"

Disobedience and neglect of God is like an awful virus slowly creeping into our lives. I am realizing more and more how much I need to spend time in self-examination as a sort of scan of the soul. This past Lent when I used the Book of Common Prayer to help me pray an hour a day, the model included a prayer of confession for each day. I tried to make sure that I did not rush through this. Just the act of saying something like, "I have sinned not only in what I have done, but what I have left undone. In thought, word and deed I have disobeyed You." caused me to slow down and think of the specific ways I had neglected God or my neighbor. The resulting peace I experienced by consistently having this practice in my life is hard to describe. I slept more soundly, functioned better, and most importantly my sense of intimacy with God swelled.

The near crash of my computer system has brought to my awareness my spiritual lack of diligence in consistently bringing before God the many attitudes, actions, and words that are simply wrong. Do you have any type of daily self-examination and confession time that you spend with God? If not, what could it look like? I suggest having something as a structure when you get started. A classic prayer of confession that I frequently prayed during my Lenten discipline went as follows:

Most Merciful God,
I confess that I have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what I have done,
and by what I have left undone.
I have not loved You with my whole heart;
I have not loved my neighbor as myself.
I am truly sorry and I humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on me and forgive me;
that I may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

The key here is for the prayer to be a guide for holistically considering your faithfulness to God. Do not mindlessly mouth the words like some magic formula. Read the pray one phrase or word at a time pausing frequently. Consider each phrase and how it plays out specifically in your life. For example, what have been the specific thoughts, words, or deeds that you have done or left undone? How have you not loved God with your whole heart?

Self-examination and reflection will shape you. Over time the Holy Spirit will reveal just how great the gaps are in your life and help you through them. If confession like this has not been a regular part of your life, then I encourage you when you finish reading this post to take some time and try it using the above prayer.

Lastly, one benefit of using a form to prompt our reflection is that often times will cause you to reflect on issues you would neglect if you only prayed about whatever came to mind. Blessings to you from the Practical Disciple.

New Recommended Resource

For those of you not using a daily devotional guide I highly recommend, "My Utmost for His Highest." it is a timeless classic and I have added it to The Discipleship Resource Center. Peace.

One Bag Down

"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for you whole body to go into hell." Matthew 5:29-30. Whoa, isn't this a bit extreme Jesus! is my first reaction when I read these words. Once I get over the extremity of it I realize that its just plain common sense which isn't necessarily so common. Jesus shared this principle of what I will call "dramatic expulsion" in the context of discussing adultery. It is a principle though we can apply throughout our lives of discipleship.



Stop and think about what you need to purge from your life. What do you need to get rid of to stop enabling yourself over and over again in some misguided behavior that you know is wrong. This morning I got rid of my tote bag. That doesn't sound so dramatic, but for me it is. As some of you will have read, my tote bag on Monday was so loaded with junk that it set off my passenger seat belt alarm. My tote bag enables me day in and day out to bring things from work to home and vice versa. These things are like silent burglar's entering our house. In little ways they steal valuable time and attention away from my family or they rob me of my peace. The peace theft is very subtle. Truth be told I actually work on very little out of my bag. That's where the peace thievery comes in. I bring it home self-deluded in thinking I am going to do something with it and then when I inevitably do not, I feel a sense of failure or guilt. The feeling isn't dramatic. I don't flog myself or enter into weeping or gnashing of teeth. Nevertheless, the whole delusional game is wrong.

Today I left my tote bag at home. I don't think my tote bag is going to cause my whole body to be thrown into hell, but it certainly isn't bringing more of heaven into my home. Today I went to work only carrying with me what I could carry in my open hands. I only brought what I knew I absolutely needed to act on. This evening I brought nothing home. The experience was both freeing and uncomfortable.

What is one piece of unnecessary baggage you could shed? What is the hand you need to cut off or the eye you need to remove? Do it. Just do it. Your bag may not be literal. Your bag may not be extraordinary or dramatic. Get rid of it. You may find the experience freeing, but don't be surprised if there is some discomfort as well. Purging involves breaking a relationship. Your connection to what you purged fed or met a need in your life. The withdrawal though is an investment in your relationship to God.

Blessing as you make this important step.

Excess Baggage

Just how much stuff do we need? I keep getting taught over and over that we don't need much. I am not sure though that I am listening to the lesson. When I packed to go to the beach a little over a week ago, I thought I was being consevative. I pack all four of us plus a cooler and some fun gear into the trunk of our Toyota Corolla. I thought I was doing well. Nevertheless, at the end of the week some of the 'fun gear' never left the trunk and about one-third of my clothes never got touched! I was reminded of how little I need and how much I tend to over compensate.

The lesson came home to me again this morning as I transitioned back to work. I wrote a 'to do' list of epic proportions and crammed a tote bag full as I headed off to the office. Something nagged at me about both. It wasn't that I didn't want to do the things on my list. I think my discomfort was more how self-deluded the whole process seemed. Who am I kidding with my massive to-do list other than myself? And what purpose does it really hold?

God-incidentally, as I was driving to work thinking about writing a post on this phenomenon, my seat belt alarm spontaneously went off. The random alarm confused me at first and then I realized that my tote bag was so heavy that the passenger seat thought someone was sitting there. Good grief! Am I really carrying so much stuff it can be confused for another person? The sad answer is 'yes.'

So what to do? First, I am going to toss my to-do list as I currently have it. I am writing down five things that I know require my attention. When I am done with those I will renegotiate a list of three to five new things. I am going to see how that goes. I am thinking it will be very freeing in many ways.

The idea came to me from a new game I learned this past week called bananagrams. It's a game somewhat reminscent of Scrabble in which you race against other people creating crossword puzzles from lettered tiles. One afternoon I decided to make a massive crossword puzzle from all of the tiles. I would have been overwhelmed if I had flipped all of the tiles at once and tried to create the puzzle. Instead I started with a twenty one tiles and once every tile was used, I would draw seven more. If I couldn't figure out how to use a letter I would dump it, but had to draw three in its place. That gives you a high incentive not to dump. This is going to be my new to-do strategy. I will be doing five from my epic list and nothing gets considered until those five are done and then I will draw a new set. My traditional bottomless list that keeps getting re-configure is out of the picture for at least this week.

To me all of this boils down to--How do we practically live out Jesus instruction, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." In a way my truncated list is a one day at a time approach. I am letting go of imposing unrealistic if not impossible expectations.

I would love to hear from any of you who have tamed the to-do list beast. I will report soon on my progress. Until then, I just finished one thing on my list and am moving on to the next. Blessings from The Practical Disciple.

Fighting Depression

A friend of mine recently e-mailed me about being in a depressed state and it reminded me of just how many people are out there fighting depression. Two or three years ago, I too went through a rather significant bought with depression. Several red flags helped me realize that I was not functioning well. So, what did I do?

First, I went to a counselor and he ran me through a diagnostic tool to see just where I ranked in terms of my depression. I was at a moderate to high level of depression. I tend to be a minimalist regarding medications, so I decided to make some lifestyle adjustments before resorting to medication. Although, I will be the first to say that had my depression been any worse I would have immediately sought an antidepressant. Specifically, regarding my lifestyle, I got very intentional about what I have dubbed my 'Core 4'. They are 1) Sleeping 2) Eating 3) Being physically active and 4) protecting significant relationships.

Sleep is a big one for me. It is the first to go if my system is out of whack and it is the one that once its gone precipitates everything else declining. I got very intentional about getting proper sleep. This meant changing some routines and sometimes using melatonin or some other supplement to help me rest.

Eating--I didn't become fanatically about a particular diet. I just increased my intake of water. Limited the amount of processed foods I took in and ate more frequently throughout the day. When depressed I found myself often times going long periods without eating or living out of fast food bags. That had to stop.

Being physically active--I didn't enter an exercise routine. That would have been unrealistic. The main thing was not being sedentary. I try to quicken my pace a bit when walking. I parked far away from entrances and started using stairs when I visited the hospital rather than using the elevator. I just made sure that I didn't stay immobolized.

Protecting significant relationship--I let people close to me know what was going on and tried to maintain regular contact. Depressed people often isolate. I didn't shove myself into too many social settings I didn't have to, but I made sure that I wasn't cutting myself off from friends.

God also blessed me with some grace in all of this. About the time I was struggling to figure out what was wrong, I felt called to introduce a recovery ministry to our church. This specific ministry was not limited to those suffering from chemical dependency. It was intended for anyone struggling with life, regardless of their particular hurt, habit or hang-up. This recovery ministry became a place of constant grace.

To all of you out there possibly suffering from depression. Get people praying for you. Let several people know what is going on. Get help if you need it and at the very least attend to your base line health. You are too important to be sucked down by depression. God needs you for other work and you can't do it when you are isolated, tired, and alone. If you are struggling with depression and you just aren't sure where to turn, please feel free to drop me a note on-line.

Blessings to you. God is bigger than any hurt you can have.

blogging from the road

This is bit wild. I am blogging from the back of a car zipping down the highway just outside of Memphis. I am headed to the beach in North Carolina and will be making blog posts most likely from my Amazon Kindle. Expect short and sweet entries. As I think about the beach, it strikes me that my life is a bit like an upside down wave when I am not centered in God. I tend to be all calm looking on the surface, while being all topsy turvy on the inside. Waves tend to be quite the opposite. Isn't it amazing how God can speak to us through such simple metaphors in our lives. What common object near you is your life like right now? Blessings to you from the traveling practical disciple. I am going to quit before my thumbs fall off.

Acts of Kindness

One of the most important aspects as disciples that we should nurture is a Christ-like love for our neighbor. One simple way to nurture this love is by regularly performing unself acts of kindness. following are some suggestions on getting started, as well as some helpful principles. Committing to acts of kindness for 40 days or even just a couple of weeks can slow you down dramatically and cause you to consider the needs of others. So if you want to flex your compassion muscles and get them back into shape here are one dozen suggestions on where to start:

1. Send flowers or a card anonymously
2. Volunteer at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen
3. Seek out a single parent and offer to baby-sit or do errands.
4. Mow your neighbor's lawn when they aren't home or shovel his or her driveway in the winter.
5. Clean up a neglected area in your neighborhood.
6. Call the Church office and volunteer to help with a mailing or answering phones.
7. Next time you go out to eat, ask the waitress for someone else's bill and anonymously buy a stranger's meal.
8. Find a family in need of food and clothing and begin supplying part of that need. (tip...school counselors are often aware of these types of needs)
9. Adopt someone home bound and visit, write, or call regularly.
10. Invite people who are apart from family to be a part of yours on holidays.
11. Volunteer at a community agency or non-profit group.
12. Fix and extra special meal for your family.

You get the idea. Now come up with your own list. Start by listing 10 people who need an act of kindness right now. These can be friends, family members, co-workers, neighbors, or even strangers. You might wonder, "What strangers could I list?" What about people who work late shifts? Imagine the joy it would bring if you brought fresh baked cookies to a third shift in the Emergency room at the hospital or to some fire fighters.

Once you have your list. Schedule when you will do it. Great intentions mean nothing until they become great actions. You may be thinking I will just do random acts when they occur. That is great but you are more likely to achieve more if you have written plan.

Blessings to you as you seek to be a blessing to others.

The PD (practical disciple) is adding audio!

Often times I speak on topics that are posted on my blog. Well now....drum roll please... for any of you audio learners or podcast fans, I will have audio resources for you. When I have a blog that has a related sermon or lecture I will embed a player directly in the post that you can click on to listen to a fuller audio version. It looks like this. Give it a try and click on the player right now.

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For those of you who are audio addicts that may want to download an audio piece to your ipod or mp3 player, you can hop over to http://thepracticaldisciple.podbean.com Eventually, all of my sermons, lectures and audio devotions will be available there. So check it out regularly. Thanks for reading The Practical Disciple and thanks ahead of time to all you listeners. May God bless you as you seek to grow in Christ.

p.s. These are new developing features so if you run into a glitch, please drop me a comment so I can rectify the problem. Thanks.

Another Class of Treasure Hunter

In reviewing my post from July 31 on Treasure Hunting, I noticed that I left out a significant category of treasure hunter. If you visited Crater of Diamonds State Park you will notice mini-monuments erected around the field to great diamond finds. For example, as you enter the field almost immediately to your right you will notice a shovel mounted upright in a slab of concrete with a sign above it declaring that the "Uncle Sam" diamond was found on that spot in 1924 and a brief history of the discovery. I was amazed at how many people would walk by this sign give it a read and then begin digging around the spot immediately. Something in there head said, "Wow this must be a great spot." What they failed to slow down and think about was that for 84 years people have been picking over that same spot just like them.

What's this look like in the church? Some churches will say, "Hey, the Baptist Church added a gymnasium and they grew leaps and bounds." or "The Methodist Church is doing contemporary worship and they are busting out the seams." Then those churches will try to hop on that band wagon of success. If they adopt in early enough that may actually work. Frequently though, the church that took the first leap was responsive to a need that may or may not exist any longer. Or, it's meeting the need and there is not a need for other providers. I initially called these treasure hunters "coat-tailers." I think though that "wave riders" is a better term. They are trying to catch the wave of success, the only problem is waves have a life span. Eventually, a wave makes it to the beach and peters out. Wave riding can work if you catch the wave early enough, but it won't last forever.

Imitation of other people can be a valuable spiritual growth tool if we do it mindfully. Paul encouraged people to imitate his example. (2 Timothy 3:10-15.) The key is imitating the application of timeless principles rather than temporary trends. For example, building a gym in order to offer a basketball program may not be a valuable move if that need is already met in your community. On the other hand, recognizing an authentic need in the community and being responsive to it is a timeless principle.

Links Added

Please note that I have added a "Great Links" component to my site. You can find it near the top of the right column. My first link added is "Green Girl Blog." The author, Courtney Butler is a friend and inspiring activist. She is a Christian who blogs about environmental issues and I would say healthy faithful living. She lives out what she expouses. I recommend to anyone who feels overly busy to check out her blog entry "Inner Simplicity for Type A's" from June 26, 2008. This article addresses in part the issue I raised in an earlier entry regarding priorities. I think you will enjoy her.

Courtney recommends the book "Inner Simplicity" by Elaine St. James. It is now available in The Practical Disciple Resource Center.

Blessings from the Practical Disciple

The Seven Minute Difference

Identifying your purpose can be a tough task. Living into it can be even harder. Allyson Lewis's book "The Seven Minute Difference" provides a road map on how to do both more effectively. This book is not explicitly written as a spiritual growth resource. In fact, it is as readily applicable to your business life, family life, or physical fitness as it is to your spiritual life. I recommend it for several reasons.

First, I know Allyson and trust and admire her work. She is grounded in faith, has a caring heart and a rather amazing mind for how people learn, grow and move forward. She is a gifted financial manager and writer who knows her gifts and limitations. As I met with her this past Friday to discuss some investments I realized that I had really committed an injustice to my readers by not introducing her or her work earlier.

Second, the principles that Allyson explores and expands on are reliably true. If you read many of my blog post part of what you will begin to grasp is that spiritual growth is often best achieve through consistent incremental action--little steps taken repeatedly to enhance your faith. Alisson refines the practice of this principle very clearly in her work. I think you will that many of my suggestions to you hinge upon what Allyson describes as the seven minute difference.

Third, it is just so practical.

Well, check it out when you have a chance. Couple her theory and principles with my some of my suggested practices and you have a formula for incremental yet lasting and significant transformation in your life. God has blessed Allyson with some great insight and she shares the blessing well in The Seven Minute Difference.

So what is this Seven Minute Difference? I don't want to give it all away, but most significant changes aren't the result of radical sweeping actions, but rather they are the result of small decisions and actions repeatedly performed a few minutes here and there.

God's blessing to you as you step forward in faith.

Quick 'trigger' suggestion

I frequently use 'triggers' to prompt me in prayer and memorization of scripture. A trigger is some physical reminder to be aware, such as, praying every time a phone rings or reciting a verse when you pull keys from your pocket. I hit on one yesterday that I am going to use for a week or two. A friend of mine had her birthday yesterday (8-02) and I feel like she is in need of prayer, so I am setting an alarm on my phone for 8:02 p.m. and a.m. Whenever it goes off I will pause and pray for her. Once I get in a habit of praying for her I will probably stop, but until then my phone alarm set to her birth day digits will serve as a prompt. Just thought this tid bit of suggestion might come in handy for you. Peace to you from the Practical Disciple.