The other day I was squeezing in a quick workout and I thought, “What are some essential movements I can do?” I settled on push-ups, crunches and jumping rope. I combined these into a 30 minute routine. If I did nothing but these exercises regularly, I would see a significant improvement in my physical health. Similarly, I have three discipleship essentials that I strive to maintain so that my baseline spiritual health is strong. They are: Study, Prayer and Action. I like the fact that they form the acronym S.P.A.. It’s easy to remember and the word evokes images of somewhere peaceful and restorative for my health. These three practices can be a great simple discipleship guide to establish a solid foundation for your spiritual health. I find that each feeds an essential component of what it means to be a christian.
 

Study

Every christian is a disciple of Christ. A disciple by definition is a student and follower. You can’t be a disciple and not study. Being a christian also involves believing certain things. We come to know the truth and sound doctrine through study. THE most essential study we can do is studying the Word of God. First and foremost, I would urge you to read and study the Word daily. If you are already doing that consider studying the lives of great men and women of faith. This can be very inspiring and instructional. Studying one of your spiritual gifts so that you can grow in it is also another form of valuable study. At any given time you should be able to answer the question, “What are you studying?” So, “What are you studying?” If you can’t answer this, get in a Sunday School class or pick-up a book immediately that is going to help you grow in your faith.
 

Prayer

Being a christian also means being in a relationship with God through Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit. Relationships require communication. Relationships require listening. Relationship require interaction. Jesus, when speaking about the end times, once said, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Matthew 7:22-23. These will be folks doing all of the right things but lacking a living connection with God through Christ. Prayer is a discipleship essential for strengthening that relationship.  Every Christian should be able to answer the question, “So how is your relationship with God?”  Their answer depend heavily upon their level of communication with God at that time.
 

Action

“Faith without works is dead” James 2:20.  Out of grateful response for all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ, we should live lives pleasing to God.  We are called by Christ to follow.  Following involves loving and forgiving one another as Christ has forgiven us.  Following means laying aside every sin.  Following means striving for unity and peace with one another.  Following means taking up a new self in Christ.  So, being a Christian means doing certain things.  In fact, Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  Paul explains in that letter how God made some prophets, some apostles and some teachers.  He gifted those people specifically to build the body of  Christ.  God expects us to be in action for the kingdom of God.  At anytime you should be able to answer the question, “What are you doing for God?”
 
————–
 
So, how spiritually how are you doing right now?  Take a moment and examine yourself through the lens of these three discipleship essentials: study, prayer, and action.  Let these three activities be your discipleship guide for maintaining the essentials of your basic spiritual health.  I find these three core activities feed one another and lead me to anything else I need to strengthen my faith. It’s good to focus on the essentials.
 
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This quote, remembered from long ago, surfaced in my mind as I walked away from my car Friday morning. The car, parked in front of a stranger’s house, sat waiting with an empty tank for me while I trudged back home on foot. I wasn’t far, may be a mile and a half, but more than I had planned on walking. This is what happens when you get so over extended that you keep putting off getting gas because you “haven’t got the time now.” How ironic that it happened the morning I had set aside for working on drafts of my “time to change” mini-course on time management to help people get their lives back in balance. Knowing better and doing better aren’t always one and the same thing.
 
I was determined not to be undone by my stupidity though. When I got home I found an empty house. Our other car and my wife were gone and not responding to phone calls. So, I strapped a gas can to the handle bars of my bike and headed back to the car. The whole way, I praised God. Isn’t that what we are suppose to do? Praise him in all things? Well, I decided running out of gas qualified as one of those “things”. I praised God for the beauty of the weather. I praised God for the health of my body and the opportunity to walk and ride on a beautiful day. I praised God that it wasn’t far, that I had a bike and that I had a gas can with enough gas in it to get me to service station. It didn’t take long for me to find myself once again behind the wheel of my car, the tank full, air conditioner blowing and the bike tied in the trunk. Praise God.
 
So, how does a guy researching and writing about time management manage to run out of gas? It’s easy. He failed to practice what he preached when a surge of unexpected activity came his way. This past week became a crunch week despite my very best efforts at planning. Sometimes a crunch is unavoidable. I only get concerned if I start living from one crunch into the next, so that it becomes a life cycle. God never intended for us to just go non-stop. Having a Sabbath is a commandment and for good reason, without it you will find yourself out of gas, not unlike my car. You will implode mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually if you don’t give yourself pause from time to time. You will also fail to honor God. I didn’t necessarily implode. In fact, I think I handled the whole self-imposed mess fairly well. Nevertheless, the whole inconvenience could have been avoid if I had been living just a wee bit slower.
 
I had the presence of mind to take some corrective measures. I ditched some productivity goals I had for the day and instead took my son out of school and out to lunch. This morning (Saturday), I snuck in a half hour of yoga and later in the afternoon snuck in a short jaunt into the woods. I found a nice tree and sat beneath it just breathing for about a half an hour. I almost fell asleep. The soothing sound of wind in the trees along with the joy of solitude was incredibly restorative. In order to make time for this respite I had to scrap a few goals for the weekend or at least push them back. I don’t regret it at all. I needed the time with God. The Lord is so good and kind when we will just give Him a little time. My moments in the woods were precious and put everything else into perspective. When I first sat down I actually had a hard time resting. My internal momentum was still rather cranked up. By the time I left I was un-cranked. I was carrying a new found peace. Actually, I was allowing an old and familiar peace to breath inside of me once again.
 
As for my goals: I was going to launch my mini-course on Monday, but realized that frantically pulling it off would be antithetical and a bit hypocritical to the whole point of the course. I have opted instead to hold off and launch it on September 15th. This will give me time to both do it right and not forfeit being a human being because I am too busy being a human doing.
 
Lastly, don’t forget to listen in on my conversation with Laurie Beth Jones about growth barriers. That will be Monday, August 30th, 10:30 a.m. C.S.T. Here is the link for it. You can click on it to listen during the show or go there now and set up an automatic reminder.

Click here for the Laurie Beth Jones Show with John Arnold, discussing barriers to growth.
 
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A workers hands photographed by David Grays, I spotted this on Reuters at this link http://blogs.reuters.com/photo/2007/08/13/less-is-more/

Back in June I wrote a post about hiring a homeless man to clean my air conditioning unit. His name was Tony. A couple of weeks ago I was serving dinner in a homeless shelter and encountered Tony again. I told him to stop by when he had a chance. A few days later he dropped in the office. We visited and caught up with each other.
 
A couple of days ago, Tony came in again. He was looking for some possible work to make money to get a prescription filled. A recent electrical accident left him with a skin issue that needed treatment. We had some service work at the church that was long overdue and within Tony’s capabilities, but was outside the norm of what our custodian could do. We hired Tony to work for about 3 hours it was once again a win/win. He provided us needed service at a price that saved us a good deal and we were able to pay him significantly more than we would have given him for the prescription.
 
As he got ready to go, he came into my office and was curious about what Presbyterians believe. I gave him a little booklet that explained the basic beliefs of Presbyterians and a few distinctions. He was curious. Tony is now out of the homeless shelter and has managed to get a room in an apartment a few blocks from the church. He is rather seriously considering coming to church next Sunday. I hope to see him. I would love to worship with Tony as a new brother in Christ.
 
I am going to close this post with the exact same lessons I posted back in June because, frankly, I am still learning them. God seems to think I need some repetition and as usual God is right. So here they are…

THE LESSONS LEARNED

1. I don’t have 60k to loan, but God puts people on my step that I can help with what I do have.
2. It takes some time and creativity to figure out solutions that help everyone. You can’t be in a hurry and figure out a solution like Tony and I did. You have to work at it.
3. When there is an exchange for assistance it helps preserve someone’s dignity. I don’t have any problem giving without any strings attached. We do it all of the time. Sometimes though someone needs the gift of work as much as they need the money.
4. Entering into partnerships to help someone yields a very different relationship. Tony and I have a different connection from the people that I have given gas to in the past. I haven’t found words to describe it.
5. I still have a lot to learn about giving.

 
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Periodically, I write a post that really seems to hit people. One that stands out in my mind is a post that I wrote almost 2 years ago explaining growth barriers called “10 Signs that You are Resisting Change.” I had an overwhelming response to this post. Numerous people read that post and said, “You are describing me.” This coming Monday, August 30th at 10:30 a.m I am going to revisit those signs on the Laurie Beth Jones Internet Talk Radio Show and go further by discussing how we break through growth barriers. If you are not familiar with Laurie Beth she is an awesome author.  ”Jesus, Ceo” and “The Path” are probably her two most popular books.  And…if you are not familiar with internet radio, stick around until the end of this post.  I have put together a quick step by step video tutorial to show you exactly how to listen to the show.
 

About the Interview

Well anyways, come Monday morning I am going to be on her show talking about how to get through growth barriers.  This is one of my favorite topics and something sorely overlooked in most spiritual growth materials.  Most materials tell you all the wonderful changes you will experience growing in God, but often times neglect to tell you about the pain sometimes associated with stepping away from the old you. Growth barriers are actually a normative part of how we grow.  We all have them.  In fact, just knowing that discomfort and resistance is normal to growth can make a huge difference.  When we learn, grow and begin changing, the identity shift can be quite painful.  Many people misdiagnose the discomfort of growth and then unwittingly avoid growth.  It is not that they don’t want to grow.  They are just trying to get away from the discomfort and they don’t realize the huge opportunity cost.  I will unpack this more in the interview on Monday, August 30th at 10:30 on Monday.  Click here for details or to listen on the day of the show.
 

How To Tune into the Show

Okay, I have to confess…as net savey as I can be in some ways, until about a month ago I had no idea how to listen to internet radio. It should be as simple as clicking on the link I provided above, but life isn’t always as it should be so let me quickly show you how to hear the show. I also show you in the video how to share the show with others or have a reminder sent to you.

Well, I hope you tune into learn more about breaking through growth barriers. Blessings to you from The Practical Disciple

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Giving Thanks

Today was the first day of school for my children. All the prep was finished late last night. First day clothes were selected and laid out. I made a quick run to the store for a couple of items that still needed to go in backpacks. The most important preparation of all was prayer. Just before bed we all gathered in our room. The kids and mom piled up on the bed. We took a few minutes to first take turns giving thanks for the summer. Everyone shared favorite memories with God and one another via a prayer.
 

Painting a Picture

Next, we shifted to praying for one another for the school year. We took turns. We prayed for good friends, good grades and good times. We lifted up new experiences and asked for the best. We prayed for protection and guidance. Through prayer we painted a picture of our hopes for the new year. Everyone prayed for everyone. We were very specific in our prayers. Our prayers reflected the unique nature of individual hopes and fears as we stand on the threshold of a new year. It was a great way to go into the year.
 

A Prayer Answered

Today, when I picked up my son and asked him how the day went, he felt it went very well. We were concerned about a conflict in his schedule. The available changes weren’t very appealing. He was really excited when he got in the car because he discovered that he misunderstood what one of the classes was and that he really liked it. He told me how cool the class was. I reminded him that the night before his mother had prayed that this problem would have some cool creative solution. A cool creative solution came that we never saw. We talked about how we should respond when prayers are answered. I encouraged him to give thanks for a quickly answered prayer. It was a mentoring moment in recognizing God at work. It was a mentoring moment in thinking about how we should respond.
 
If you have children that you can pray for and with about school. I highly encourage you to gather for a few minutes as a family to do it. We had never done this as a family at the beginning of the year. You can bet it will become a beloved tradition now.
 
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I try to enter every day with what I call my ‘Big Five’ list.  I use to sit down and write out a bottomless list of meetings, commitments, tasks, and sundry chores that needed attention.  The list was never realistic.  So, it was demoralizing when I never finished.  Far too many items got carried over than I care to admit.  One day, I realized that what I was doing was idiotic.  I decided to limit my list to five things.  I called it, ‘My Big Five.’  I would only work on those five things until they were done and then I would move onto a new big five list.  It was very liberating and helped me focus and kept first things first.
 
Some days I would write on my big five list, ‘Bible reading and TRAF.’  TRAF stands for toss, refer, act and file.  It’s something I picked up out of a productivity newsletter years ago.  The idea was that I would get my Bible reading done near the front of the day when I was fresh and I would take ten minutes to purge miscellaneous crud out of my office.  It’s a great practice.  One day though as I finished my Bible reading, I closed my bible, set it to the side and leaned over to check it off of my list.  As I checked it off, I realized  I had not taken any time to reflect on what I read.  I hadn’t really paid attention as I was reading either.  I had just crammed through reading four chapters so it could get checked off my list.  My Bible reading had just been relegated to nothing more than a chore to be done like feeding the dog or watering the plants.  What was I thinking?  I wasn’t.
 
I turned back to my Bible and re-opened it.  I skimmed back over the passage.  I gravitated to a few verses and allowed my attention to tarry there.  I thought about what God might be saying to me as I went into the day.  I wrote some thoughts in my journal.  The Word wove its way into my thoughts and actions.  It influenced a devotional I offered the next morning.  This is the way it ought to be.
 
If you are trying to get in a habit of daily bible reading, putting it on your list or in your day timer can be a great strategy.  Just make sure that you are giving God the attention God deserves when you do it.  I find I don’t  have that attention when I get so busy that I become a human doing and stop being a human being.  Slow down and tarry with the Word.  Try not to treat your reading as a chore that you are getting out of the way.  Bible reading is an opportunity to: commune with God, bathe in His mercy and His presence, encounter His Son, be guided by his Holy Spirit, be fed and nurtured, encounter the truth and a host of other grand holy adventures.  I hope you never loose sight as I did.  May God bless your reading.
 
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In a prior post I had recommended an inductive bible study method by the campus ministry Stumo and I had links to there handouts.  I recently revisited my post and discovered that the links in the post and on my  resource page were broken.  Seems Stumo decided to rework their site which left my links dangling with nothing on the other end.  Well, the links are fixed and I have copies of the method stored on my server so this won’t be a problem again.  I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone.  Here are the new links.

Stumo Inductive Bible Study, page 1

Stumo Inductive Bible Study, page 2

If you are unfamiliar with inductive bible study, essentially you study by first making observations.  Then, from your observations you try to understand the meaning of the text.  Lastly, you seek to apply what you have learned.   The Stumo outline is a rather thorough template for studying a passage.   I highly recommend you take the time to look it over and give it a try.  Working your way through this method with a group can be a great bible study exercise.

Photo by Ruth Arnold

Any prayer discipline can be improved just by applying a few prayer tips.

1)  Schedule your prayer time. You can prayer at anytime and all the time, but have you set aside a time just to be with God?  We make time for what is important and having a daily time just for God improves your consistency.

2)  Pray outloud. I use to like to pray on long drives.  Unfortunately, I found that my mind frequently wandered, until I started praying out loud.  I am sure some passing motorist thought I was crazy talking to myself because this pre-dated handsfree cell phone devices.  Neverthess, I found that I could sustain my attention if I would just pray outload.

3) Pray on paper. Writing your prayers out will physically engage you in prayer like praying outloud.  Journaling your prayers not only will help you maintain focus, but I find that the process of writing is very clarifying. If you are not sure where to start on writing prayers, try just writing a letter to God.  ”Dear God, ….”

4) Use a devotional guide. Using a prayer guide will prompt you to pray for things you normally wouldn’t.  One my favorites is a little book called a A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie.  It’s an inexpensive paperback that provides morning and evening prayers for a month along with blank pages to write your own prayers.  While the language is a bit dated the spirit of the writing is so amazingly fresh.

5) Pray with someone. Particularly, having a small prayer group can be a very powerful experience.  Be sure that you spend the bulk of your time actually in prayer.  I have been in prayer groups that rapidly became discussion groups about prayer and then spent only a few minutes actually praying. Some groups passively resist moving into prayer by spending a long time gather prayer requests from one another.

6) Keep a prayer list. Do you ever tell someone you are going to pray for them and then forget about it until you see them again?  You had all the greatest intentions in the world, but just forgot. Keeping a prayer list can help prevent this from happening.  A prayer list also prompts you to watch for how God is responding.  It hones your spiritual awareness.

7) Be sure to listen.  Have you ever been in a one-sided conversation with someone who can’t shut-up?  Make sure that you aren’t being that person with God.  Learn to take time in your prayers to be still and listen.  If your not sure what that might look like read the post, Do we really expect God to answer?.

You don’t need to do all of these at once.  Pick one or two prayer tips and periodically mix up your prayer life in order to keep your awareness high.  The key is to stay very intentional in your prayer life so you don’t fall into a rut.  In fact, take that as a bonus tip…

Mix it Up.

My prayer for you is that you experience ever deepening conversations with God. Blessings from The Practical Disciple

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Do you ever feel as if you are praying the same things over and over again?  Or, do you find yourself at a loss for words only minutes into praying?  Does your mind wander when you pray?  These are extremely common problems which can readily be addressed by simply adopting a prayer model.  I have found that praying an A.C.T.S. prayer is a great way to both focus my prayer and expand my prayer vocabulary.  It is one of my favorite prayer disciplines.  A.C.T.S. stands for:

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication

Adoration

What does it mean to adore someone?  It means that you love them.  You love who they are and what they do.  When I adore God I use what I call the formula of praise.  This formula is a recurring pattern I noticed in the Psalms.  David adores God in three ways:  First, he tells God that he loves Him.  Second, he praises God for who God is.  Third, he praises God for what God does.  To learn more about the formula of praise and to see examples click here and read the post, The Formula of Praise.

Confession

When I extol the goodness of God through adoration I find myself humbled.  I am reminded of my sins.  So I move from adoration into confession.  When you confess try to be specific about acknowledging what you have done wrong.  Get beyond generic confessions such as, “I haven’t been as loving as I should be.”  Be specific, “God I have been avoiding Janet because I am angry with her.  Forgive me for pushing her to the side so that I don’t have to deal with my anger.  It is sinful for me to not give her the grace I have received.”  Being specific will help you change.  Notice in the example that I actively acknowledged my action as sin and why it is wrong.  That sort of processing your actions within your prayers will help you change, but you only get there by being specific.  To learn more about confession click here and read the post, Eradicating Spiritual Virus.

Thanksgiving

I am not sure I need to say much about thanks because most of us readily know how to say thank you and what gratitude is.  I do want to point out two things.  First, my experience has been that having thanks in my prayer model forces me to consider what I am grateful for on the days I feel less than grateful.  Paul told the Colossians, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:16)  Second, I actively give thanks for the whole of creation.  I don’t only focus on the people and circumstance of my life.  I give thanks for the earth, the plants, the trees, the animals, the birds, the stars, the sun, and the moon and all of these amazing pieces of creation that God has intricately woven together to make life possible.

Supplication

To supplicate simply means to ask. At this point in your prayer offer God the concerns of your heart.  Pray for friends, family, community, situations and yourself.  Pray for whatever concerns you.  Take time to intercede for others.  I used to think that intercession just meant praying for someone else in general.  However, as I studied the scriptures about interceding, I noticed that intercession almost always means praying about someone’s spiritual well-being.  You may want to adopt someone specific to pray for daily.  I find that to be a very powerful prayer discipline.

Lastly, when trying a new prayer discipline like praying A.C.T.S. prayers, do it for several weeks before judging the merits of the practice.  Your entire first week you may be just getting comfortable with the practice.  I highly recommend living into a practice a minimum of three weeks.  Research suggests that it takes as much as 18 days for something to become a habit or norm for us.  Persevere for a season so that you can see the fruit.

Blessings from The Practical Disciple.

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