Using a Prayer Notebook

Are you ready to learn the most important secret to my personal spiritual life?

I have a deep sense- I believe that it comes from God- that our congregation is to focus on spiritual growth for 2012. This does not mean that we will neglect worship, or mission, or the administrative parts of the church. It just means that I am going to spend the rest of this year encouraging you to grow spiritually. In reality that's the most important part of my job anyway. I am supposed to convince pre-Christians to accept Jesus and join the faith, and to get those who are already committed to the way of Christ to grow in it.

There are a lot of ways that we can do this. One of the easiest is to join in our congregational resolution of reading the New Testament this year. By reading God's word it will become clearer how we are to live, behave, think and believe. But Scripture reading focuses on the intellectual part of spiritual growth. There is more to it. We also need to be praying.

So, here is the big moment. This is the secret to my spiritual life and growth. (I hope you are sitting down as you read this.) I pray in a spiral notebook. Revolutionary, huh?

Most days I write my prayers to God on one page in a regular spiral bound notebook. I know this is anti-climactic, but it makes a huge difference in my life, and I think it could in yours as well.

• Writing my prayers forces me to slow down. I write more slowly than I talk, so when I am writing my prayers I often hear God speaking to me about an answer, a solution, or even something else altogether.

• Writing my prayers forces me to be a little bit organized. I cannot just sit down with my notebook and make words magically appear on the page. I am more intentional about my prayers.

• I limit myself to one page of prayer. I never want praying to seem a burden or an overwhelming obligation. I write one page each day (which gives me 15-20 minutes with God) and then I close my notebook.

• I use a variety of types of prayer in my notebook. On Monday I might use a prayer list and pray for needs of friends and family members. On Tuesday maybe I will write a love letter to God. Wednesdays might be used for writing Scriptures that I have memorized.

• I do not limit my prayers to my notebook. I pray way more than my 20 minutes of notebook time. I pray for needs that arise throughout the day. I pray for meals and for other things. When I close my notebook I am not done praying.

Give notebook praying a try. It is pretty inexpensive and can change your life.

Favorite Books: 2011

I used to make a list of my ten favorite books of the year. For the past few years, because of various things happening in my life, there has not been as much time for reading. Therefore, I could not find ten "best" or "favorite" books. I read a lot more than 10 books in these years (including 2011) but too many were unmemorable, or merely filler books.

So this year I am again offering my favorite books. These are not the best books of the year, but the ones that I enjoyed the most. That means that they made me think or feel in a new or exciting way. Most of these books were not written or released this year, but I read them for the very first time. Let me know what you think of my list. What would you add? What would you take off?

• "The Simple Faith of Mr Rogers" by Amy Hollingsworth
• "The Confession" by John Grisham
• "The Woman Who Wouldn't" by Gene Wilder
• "An Object of Beauty" by Steve Martin
• "Love Wins" by Rob Bell
• "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg
• "Sold" by Patricia McCormick
• "CS Lewis, My Godfather" by Laurence Harwood

One more thing:

I was given a Kindle for my birthday in March. I will write soon about what I see as the shortcomings to electronic reading, but for now suffice it to say that I love reading digitally. In fact, two of the books on my list of favorites were on my ereader. My reading habits are changing, and I don't foresee them ever changing back.

Favorite Movies: 2011

It is time for round two of my end of the year (beginning of the year?) recap of pop culture. In 2011 I watched a lot of movies. Some were great, several were alright, and there were some that were so bad that I will deny having seen them. What follows is my list of my favorites.

These are movies that:

• I saw for the first time in 2011.
• Entertained me more than any other movies I saw last year.
• Were not necessarily made or released in 2011.
• Are not necessarily the best movies of 2011.
• Are listed in no particular order.

So, here is my list of the top 10.

• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• Cyrus
• The Wrestler
• True Grit
• Secretariat
• The Rat Pack
• Bottle Rocket
• Get Low
• Black Swan
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Favorite Music 2011

It is time once again for my year end (or beginning) analysis of the pop culture trends that caught my attention. As usual, my lists are completely subjective. I am including on this list the albums that I enjoyed most in 2011. That means that several of these- most, in fact- were not recorded or released last year. However, I heard them for the first time in 2011. (There is one album that I heard several years ago, but this year's listening was like a revelation, a completely new thing.

Another thing, I do not have any notion that these are the best albums of the year. These are merely the ones that I enjoyed the most. They made me think, or they made me happy, sad or angry. In any case, I will be listening to all of these for many years to come. Finally, I put these in no particular order.

• Joan Baez- Noel
• 77 Sunset Strip- Soundtrack
• Smith- Minus-Plus
• Jim and Jesse- Berry Pickin' in the Country
• Bruce Springsteen- 18 Tracks
• Roots of Rock: 1945-1956 - Various Artists
• The Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble- The Wild Field
• Huey Lewis and the News- Soulsville
• Mumford and Sons- Sigh No More
• Etta James- Matriarch of the Blues

Resolutions 2012

It is that time of year that I look toward goals for the coming year. Each year I try to improve my life- like many others, I am sure. Often the results are mixed at best. Recently, I have been posting my resolutions here in the hope that it will increase my accountability, and therefore, cause the likelihood of my success to improve. It has not worked over the past few years, but I am ever hopeful.

* In 2012 I will continue my 'writing the Bible' project by copying Hebrews, Habakkuk and Obadiah.

* I will read the King James Version of the Bible.

* I will attend more concerts (of all types).

* I will read more consistently than I have recently.

* I will continue to study prayer and to pray more consistently.

A New New Year's Resolution

It's that time of year again. Like it or not the pressure is building to change your life, make a difference, do something new, right, better. You may have already decided what you want to do for this coming year. Hopefully you are not trying to accomplish the same thing that you failed to do last year. I resolved to lose weight for several years in a row before I finally gave up.

I have a suggestion for your resolution this year. It is something new for most of us. It will not take much time or sacrifice but it will dramatically change your life. It is simple and almost anyone can do it. In fact, if you are reading this, you are qualified to take part in a congregational resolution. I want for all of us to read the New Testament this year. There is a schedule in this newsletter to help guide you.

If you are conscientious to follow this program each day, by the end of the year you will have finished all 27 books of the New Testament. There are 260 chapters in the New Testament. That means that you will have to read less than one chapter each day. There are 7,956 verses and 138,020. Don't even ask me how many that would be each day. This seems like a very manageable challenge.

But I can already hear those who are hesitant. The resisters will argue, “I just don't have time to read the Bible.” I fully appreciate how busy people are these days. I am busier than I have ever been. But with around five minutes a day, reading the New Testament doesn't seem impossible to me. So let me give you some suggestions for getting your reading in.

Mute the television when the commercials come on and read your Bible then.
Do your daily ready while you are waiting in line at the BMV, the doctor's office or the WalMart checkout lane.
Set your alarm and get up five minutes earlier each day.
Give up reading People Magazine and devote that time to the Bible.
Do your reading while you are waiting for the movie, concert or ball game to start.
Do the daily reading as a family before anyone gets up from the supper table.
Take your Bible with you to work and read it on your lunch break.
Do your daily reading while in the restroom.
Read your Bible while waiting to pick your kids up at school.

You get the idea, right? In fact, I bet that you could come up with some suggestions of your own to accomplish this resolution. I am hoping that everyone will be reading the Bible in the New Year. I will be.

The Work of the Devil (with my tongue in my cheek)

There are some things that have been invented by men, but are clearly the work of the devil. There are other things that may actually be good, but the applications with which they are used have made them prone to the work of the devil. When you read the preliminary list that I have compiled, I am sure that you will agree that these items do qualify as being unequivocally the work of the devil.

• Heelies
• Skateboards
• 4 Wheeler ATVs
• Pinatas
• Liver and onions

Is there anything that I am missing?