Category: Christian Perspective (Page 4 of 4)

I’ve decided that I need to improve my daily devotional life by adding some structure. Since Pastor Bob is about to start his sermon series on Romans 9-11, I thought that would be a good thing to study on my own each morning.

So, beginning today and continuing every single day [hopefully] for the five weeks, I’m going to begin each day having a little spiritual breakfast. I’m following the schedule that Bob has suggested, with Saturday being a review day and Sunday introducing the passage on which his sermon will be based.

I’m going to spend time digging in deep, reading and contemplating the passages and journaling my thoughts here on my blog.

I don’t presume that any of you would want to join me in this journey. But if any of you also need structure and would want to go on this journey with me on some of these days, that would be wonderful. I’d love it if you posted some of your own comments on the day’s passage–we could learn from each other!

Here’s the reading schedule I’m following.
I’m going to print it out and make a bookmark!

Series Title– “Exchange: Relationship”

Week 1 – Gaining a Right Perspective, part 1″
Sun, Feb 1 Rom 9:1-13
Mon, Feb 2 Rom 9:1-2
Tue, Feb 3 Rom 9:3-5
Wed, Feb 4 Rom 9:6-7
Thu, Feb 5 Rom 9:8-9
Fri, Feb 6 Rom 9:10-13
Sat, Feb 7 Rom 9:1-13 review

Week 2 – “Gaining a Right Perspective, part 2”
Sun, Feb 8 Rom 9:14-18
Mon, Feb 9 Rom 9:14
Tue, Feb 10 Rom 9:15
Wed, Feb 11 Rom 9:16
Thu, Feb 12 Rom 9:17
Fri, Feb 13 Rom 9:18
Sat, Feb 14 Rom 9:1-18 review

Week 3 – God’s Justice
Sun, Feb 15 Rom 9:19-33
Mon, Feb 16 Rom 9:19-21
Tue, Feb 17 Rom 9:22-24
Wed, Feb 18 Rom 9:25-26
Thu, Feb 19 Rom 9:27-29
Fri, Feb 20 Rom 9:30-33
Sat, Feb 21 Rom 9:1-33 review

Week 4 – “The Only Road to Righteousness”
Sun, Feb 22 Rom 10:1-13
Mon, Feb 23 Rom 10:1-2
Tue, Feb 24 Rom 10:3-4
Wed, Feb 25 Rom 10:5-8
Thu, Feb 26 Rom 10:9-10
Fri, Feb 27 Rom 10:11-13
Sat, Feb 28 Rom 9:1-10:13

Week 5 – “Without Excuse”
Sun, Mar 1 Rom 10:14-21
Mon, Mar 2 Rom 10:14-15
Tue, Mar 3 Rom 10:16-17
Wed, Mar 4 Rom 10:18
Thur, Mar 5 Rom 10:19
Fri, Mar 6 Rom 10:20-21
Sat, Mar 7 Rom 9:1-10:21 review

Week 6 – “There’s Always Hope”
Sun, May 3 Rom 11:1-24
Mon, May 4 Rom 11:1-6
Tue, May 5 Rom 11:7-10
Wed, May 6 Rom 11:11-16
Thu, May 7 Rom 11:17-20
Fri, May 8 Rom 11:21-24
Sat, May 9 Rom 11:1-24 Review

Week 7 – “Our Great and Glorious God”
Sun, May 17 Rom 11:25-36
Mon, May 18 Rom 11:27-27
Tue, May 19 Rom 11:28-32
Wed, May 20 Rom 11:33-34
Thu, May 21 Rom 11:35
Fri, May 22 Rom 11:36
Sat, May 23 Rom 11:25-36 Review

On our Winter Retreat, our teaching theme presented the “Sacred Pathways” described in the book by the same name by Gary Thomas.   I’m going to summarize the book here so parents will know what we talked about, but I also think every believer would benefit spiritually by learning the insights presented in this book.

 So here’s a quick overview to clue you in.

Gary Thomas is one of my very favorite authors.  He is, a marvelous church historian who gleans spiritual gems from the forefathers of our faith and puts them in easy to understand language.  In his historical research, he has identified nine spiritual “temperaments” or ways that people are wired to best love and connect with God.  Knowing how you’re wired to worship helps you experience God in more meaningful ways.

The nine pathways are

• The NATURALIST — worships God through experiencing God’s creation
• The SENSATE— worships God through the five senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, & taste)
• The ENTHUSIAST — worships God expressively through joyful passion and expectation.
• The INTELLECTUAL— worships God by studying Truth and establishing firm beliefs.
• The TRADITIONALIST— worships God by enjoying historic practices of the church, symbols, creeds, and hymns.
• The ASCETIC— worships God by living a life of simplicity, solitude, and self-denial.
• The CONTEMPLATIVE— worships God by meditating on an intimate, loving, personal relationship with Him.
• The CAREGIVER — worships God by loving and serving others.
• The ACTIVIST— worships God by making efforts to change the world.

All the “pathways” are valid and necessary in the church.  We’ll each have several that are dominant–and knowing that helps us to avoid judging others’ ways of worshiping.  It also helps to know that it’s ok for me to worship in a way that may be different from others.

It’s also useful to try other pathways to expereince God in new ways.  During the retreat after presenting each pathway in detail we had a time to experience each one (nature prayer walks, contemplation, reading a CS Lewis piece, etc.)

I’d encourage parents of retreat attenders to sit down and talk about your son or daughter’s pathways.  It would be a great way for you to get to know them better.

For the same reason, I presented this material at the Parents of Teens class two weeks ago.  Click here for the chart I passed out there, which explains the nine pathways in more detail if you’re interested!  sacred-pathways-overview.pdf

Click here if you’d like to take the simple Assessment Quiz that I shared with the group. Sacred Pathways Quiz

By the way, in case you’re wondering about my pathway mix–I’m an Ascetic, and a Contemplative, who’s becoming more and more of a Traditionalist!  That explains my previous post below!