Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008

TWG - July 23, 2008

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TWG - July 23, 2008
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com
Leviticus 9; Psalm 60; Acts 16:1-15

Today is July 23, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. You are part of a devotional community where we put Christ first and our commitment is to spend time with each other and Time with God every day.

Groan! I went to Ed the Engineer’s house yesterday morning. Absolutely nothing accomplished. I have to be back there this morning as well… Groan! I sure hope we get this boundary line adjustment finished soon. It’s really getting old! (like 3 years old). Then it was off to work. I worked on Don’s memorial service for quite a bit of the day. The Rescue Mission truck came and so did Carl & Sonja. We got rid of all the excess Garage Sale stuff. Cary dropped in for a long talk and prayer. We had a great time! Back at the house we had eleven kids for our 5 day club! Pray for them. After work I quickly dispatched Phil in two sets of tennis! Yahoo! Then it was off to men’s meeting with the guys. Had a great time! I put a picture of frowning David on the Blog at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com. I don’t think he wanted his pic taken. Check it out.

This week’s theme verse is 2 Peter 1:5-10 giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble

OK… how did you score yesterday? Do you have room for improvement? Me too, Lots of room! I have lots of work to do. It takes hard work to produce character, especially if you have years and years of bad habits to break. It’s not going to be easy. In order to develop character you have to develop good habits, or in the biblical way of saying it, you have to “bear good fruit.” But Dumping bad habits and developing good habits must take place at the same time. In order to put off the old man, we have to put on the new man. In order to stop eating poorly, I have to start eating right… etc. So how long does it take to ingrain a new habit? Some people say 30 days, some 100 days; but that’s the crazy thing about a habit… once you stop, it’s no longer a habit. So the answer is you have to keep doing it as long as you shall live. In the vernacular of 2 Peter 1:8 you need to make it “yours.” It needs to be in you and abound. For example, don’t just be satisfied with a little self-control, become a Vulcan! (Remember Spock? Star Trek for those of you who don’t know what a Vulcan is!) Determine to become a master at controlling your passions, not just an average “Trekee”… make it abound! The best way to make it abound is to make it worth your time. One reason we don’t develop good habits is because we can’t see much progress or we don’t experience the value of it. We must define what we want to become in terms of value: #1 “I don’t want to be barren” (negative). #2 I do want to “be fruitful” (positive). What benefit will dumping the old habit and getting the new habit have? I hate to say it, but one of the reasons we can’t dump bad habits is that they feel soooooo good when we do them (not so good later)! Instant gratification is a huge habit making machine! The high! The buzz! The adrenaline rush! Oh what a feeling! Recent research from MIT shows that the brain lights up like the Los Vegas strip when we get these rewards! But learning a good habit can be very slow. It takes many repetitions and must be reinforced with positive feedback. If you don’t get automatic immediate gratification for the good habit then you may need to find a way to reward yourself in it’s place. Throw a personal party! Take a cookie break! Slap yourself on the back! Call an accountability partner and scream, “wooo ha!” together – or something like that! Keep at it. Keep reminding yourself of who you want to become. Repeat it over and over! And you will be on the road to character. Oh, and one other thing… “Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.” Nice.

Dear Father. I want to be like you. I don’t want to be barren. I do want to be fruitful. I want to make these character qualities “mine” and I want them to abound. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I can exhibit the fruits of the Spirit. Make me just like Jesus.

Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

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