Category Archives: Personal Growth

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Taking Advantage Of Divine Appointments

Several years ago, I stumbled across the idea of divine appointments. I found the thought intriguing, and have worked it into my spiritual journaling to some extent ever since. But recently, the idea has been on my mind more, and I’m wondering how I can use this concept more effectively in my life.

Airport Waiting Room

The whole concept of a divine appointment is based around the idea that God brings people into my life on a regular basis for a moment, and for a reason.

Let me give you an example.

A few days ago, I visited a local restaurant. My waitress apparently knew that I was a minister, even though I’ve never met her before. In the process of waiting on us, she shared a few struggles she was facing in her life, tearing up as she did so. She was really having a hard time. With problems with her boyfriend, her kids, and her finances, she was facing some tough times.

As we paid our check, she asked if we would pray for her over the coming days. Of course, we said yes.

Most of the time, these kinds of interactions come into our lives for a brief moment and then out again. We normally don’t think much about them beyond the moment itself.

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5 Reasons To Hand Copy God’s Word

A few years ago, I stumbled across a passage of the Old Testament that I had probably read dozens of times, but never really noticed. But once it grabbed my attention, I haven’t been able to let it go. It has been on my mind ever since.

Fountain Pen

The passage is found in the book of Deuteronomy, one of the most encouraging books of the Old Testament. In chapter seventeen, at the end of the chapter, you find some instructions for the king. This is included:

Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

This passage gives the kings of Israel the instruction to hand copy the Scriptures.  And from this passage, I see a couple of specific benefits for our lives. And from my own practice of this discipline, I see a few more.

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Developing A Life Plan (ESD)

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A personal Life Plan is perhaps one of the best ways to help keep your life on track, and is a tool that can help you become the person that God created you to be. Developing a plan for your life is a critical aspect of spiritual growth, because it lays our a tangible blueprint that can help you achieve the goals that God has for your life.

Unfortunately, most people never stop to accomplish this simple task.

Blueprints

I’ve maintained a personal Life Plan for several years now, initially starting to develop my own after reading about it on Michael Hyatt’s website. Once I got my plan in place, I wrote a blog post detailing it slightly. You can read that post here.

However, over the years, I’ve tweaked my plan to fit my life like a glove. And the more I utilize this tool, the better it becomes. This one simple activity can be traced to a significant portion of my personal and spiritual growth over the last few years.

Creating a personal Life Plan is simple, but it’s not easy. It’s simple because it’s your life. You already know your plans and goals. You know yourself better than anyone else and what you want to accomplish in life, how you impact the people and things most important to you, and where you’d like to see yourself in the next few years, and longer.

But it’s not easy. It takes some work. It requires some effort. However, it is well worth the time invested.

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The Instability Of Possessions

I learned something this week. It’s something that I already knew, I think, but the lesson was learned all over again. I really don’t like that. One would think that teaching me the lesson once would be sufficient. But there are some lessons that need to be taught a few times before they stick.

Like this one…

Buick Rendezvous

My Car For The Past Six Years

You may already know that I have a fairly large family. My wife and I have six kids, ranging in ages from a fifteen-year-old to a one-year-old. With that many people, we seem to run like crazy most of the time; one of the kids will have practice, while another has something going on at church, while yet another one needs to be at Bible Bowl by 4:00. It gets pretty hectic.

And, as a result, our vehicles see a lot of use, and a lot of wear and tear. We have two vehicles, nether of which can seat our entire family, so in order to go anywhere, we usually take both vehicles. My wife drives our minivan, since it seats the most, and she usually has most of the kids with her. My car for the past few years has been a Buick Rendezvous, and it has been a pretty good car for us.

I fully expected that our van would be the first vehicle that needed replaced in the near future. It’s pretty worn, we’ve added a lot of miles to it, and it needs a few things done to it right now.

But over the weekend, my Rendezvous started making a noise. Monday morning, after having it looked at, the diagnosis was that my engine was shot, not worth repairing, and that it would take a few thousand dollars to replace the drive train, making this vehicle a stable resource for our family again. Otherwise, it was worth whatever I could get out of it as salvage. That amounts to less than four hundred bucks.

The stability of our possessions is a transitory, fleeting, deceit.

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Personal Retreat Days (ESD)

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Creating margin in your life is important if you are going to grow in your faith. Taking the time to develop space for God to work on your spiritual growth is a key aspect to maintaining that growth throughout your life.

One of the best ways I’ve found to do this is through a series of Personal Retreat Days.

Bear Trap Ranch, Colorado Springs

Let me state this right up front. This is not my idea originally. I wish it was. I would love to be able to claim credit for something that has impacted my life so drastically. But I can’t. I took this idea straight out of Leading On Empty, by Wayne Cordeiro. If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it. It is easily on of the most influential books I’ve ever read. You can find more helpful tools based on this book at LifeJournal.cc.

The tenth chapter of Cordeiro’s book is perhaps the most important. This chapter is all about developing the intentional life. Beginning with the daily flow, the chapter gives some incredible insights for creating a cadence for your life. From there, Cordeiro turns to the weekly life, and how to practice Sabbath. Both of those could be examined closely and give a lot of benefit.

But the next section is what changed my life. Looking at life from a seasonal view, one of the main activities is a Personal Retreat Day. My purpose here isn’t to repeat everything Leading On Empty discusses. You can pick up the book and see what Cordeiro suggests on your own. What I would like to share is a brief overview, a look at how I use the day, and the benefits I’ve gained in my life.

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Cultivating Solitude (ESD)

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Solitude is a necessity for anyone who wants to listen for the still, small voice of God. Just like any other discipline, it takes some effort and it takes some practice. The more you work at instilling opportunities for solitude in your life, the easier it becomes to shut out the noise and distractions of daily life and focus on listening to God.

But how do you do that? How do you cultivate solitude into your everyday life?

Cultivate Solitude

It’s not as difficult as you might imagine. In order to be effective at this, you need to remember that this is a twofold discipline. Every spiritual discipline is something that you do. But it is also a state of mind. Doing these things helps you to be who and what God has created you to be.

Understanding that, there are several things that yo can do to eliminate the distractions and instill solitude. There are many way to do this. Here are a few that I’ve found to be most effective in my own life.

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The Need For Solitude (ESD)

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We live in a very busy culture. And it seems as if it gets busier and busier all the time. Have you ever wondered why this is true? I Suspect that it has to do with our fear of loneliness. You may not want to admit that you fear being alone, but I believe that the fear of loneliness is one of most deep seated fears that we face. And I believe that more of us face that fear than we know.

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Because we are afraid to be alone, we surround ourselves with noise and busyness. We succumb to the crowds, and keep the constant hum of humanity around us at all times.

My generation was bad, but my kids’ generation is even worse. One of my daughters wears earbuds at all times, one in her ear, the other hanging down. My sons keep a radio station on in their room almost all the time. We even play white noise in the baby’s room. This keeps him asleep when the rest of the house is noisy. It masks the other sounds. I get that. But are we instilling in him from day one the fear of silence and aloneness?

But loneliness and noise aren’t our only options. There is another path we can take. We can develop the discipline of solitude and silence into our lives, and learn to live in that place, without the need for noise. Richard Foster, in Celebration of Discipline, says this: Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment.