Aaron

Hey everybody!  For those of ya who don’t know me, I’m Aaron Bither, a third year sports management major who can be very talkative so I’ll try to keep this short.  Pastor Thad preached about meekness this week and personally it really hit home for me.  I was a person who thought my plans were really important and that I was working towards those plans.  And then God had me transfer out here away from family and friends, which was soon followed by a not-so-nice knee injury that required surgery and my loss of ability to play sports (which was pretty much my life).

I’ve since realized how my plans don’t matter as much as God’s plan for my life.  This is where a gentle acceptance, also knows as meekness, comes in.  As Christ followers, we are called to become like Christ  Jesus us one of the best possible examples of meekness in Mark 14:35-36.  “Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. ‘Abba, Father’, he said, ‘everything is possible for You.  Take this cup from me.  Yet not what I will, but what you will.’”

Christ did not want to go through the suffering needed for our sins, yet he was still willing to accept the Father’s decision.  It doesn’t mean that he gave up his power or that we will have to give up all of ours, but instead that it all goes under God’s control.

It takes a lot of time and effort to be able to pray to God and be able to accept what he says.  but in the end, it can be one of the most rewarding things done in life.  We should also spend some time in solitude for our prayers, because I don’t know about you but I personally have a hard time just stopping to pray while others are around.

I want to leave ya with one quick question, “When will you be able to spend some quality time talking with God?”

Aaron Bither

Meekness

Many people asked for the full Serenity Prayer and the information for the prayer beads, so here goes:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen. –Reinhold Niebuhr

The information for the prayer beads is as follows:

http://www.solitariesofdekoven.org/Prayer_beads.html

May prayer become a habitude of yours!

PT

Robert

Confession – Well I should probably start this out by confessing that I am super late writing this blog. I told Pastor Thad that I would do it Monday night…..and its now Saturday morning. In all honesty I don’t have much deep insight on this topic because I’m not too good at it myself.  I do know this though, I sin everyday, and everyday Jesus Christ covers my sin. The least I can do is own up to mistakes and confess to him my sins. His love covers me, his blood cleanses me, and his grace delivers me.

Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.“

Robert Hilson

Chris

Confession and Repentance typed by Christopher Lash but inspired by God

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 (NIV)

Yunno, confession is a hard thing to do in this day and age. We, as Americans, are taught to keep everything hidden. Our culture tells us that when we sin or do something wrong, we should try to put it out of our minds. But, trying to forget our sins ends up just hurting us in the long run. Unconfessed sin just leads to destruction. We start to believe that we can handle everything on our own and we do not need God. This train of thought is not what God wants for His children whom He loves. He wants us to live every day to the fullest. But how can we do that when feel so bogged down by the sin that easily entangles us? The solution, as given in scripture, is confession. Guilt is a powerful thing that is brought on by the Holy Spirit. God wants us to confess our sins so that he can purify us from all unrighteousness. This is done by telling God the sins that we have done wrong and asking him to purify us. We need to want to be purified in the refiners fire. I am out of shape. I need to go to the Rec Center. I can confess that I need to go to the Rec center to work out more, but unless I actually change my ways, my confession for wanting to go to the gym does not really matter. The next step after confession is repenting. Repentance is seeking to change the wrongful behavior. So just as I confessed that I needed to go to the gym, the repentance is really what mattered. I needed to actively seek and change my harmful behavior (of just sitting on the couch eating Twinkies). We need to confess and repent. We need to tell Jesus that we are sorry for our sins and ask for forgiveness. Then we need to actively turn away from the sin. Turning away from the sins requires discipline and determination. It takes discipline and determination to do devotionals every day. It takes discipline and determination to resist temptation. It takes discipline and determination to seek God in all you and lean on Him all the time.

Meditate on these questions: What sins have I not confessed? Have I moved into the zone where I have actively sought to change my behavior? Do I dive into God’s word every day? Am I in a constant state of prayer? When was the last time I honestly poured my heart out to God and earnestly sought His forgiveness? Remember that Jesus loves you and there is always forgiveness. Through your confession also remember “Sin remembered fondly has not been truly forsaken.”

“He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” Proverbs 2:23 (NIV)

Chris Lash

Josh

A Psalm that I continually go back to when I confess is Psalm 51.  King David wrote it just after the prophet Nathan convicted him of his sin with Bathsheba.  Reading it helps bring me to my lowest state before God, a wretched sinner, so that I can be built up by the Lord’s forgiveness.

David does a few specific things while confessing in this Psalm.  First, he does not confess only his sin with Bathsheba.  Instead, he confesses all his sin, even saying: “I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin my mother conceived me.”  He recognizes his fallen state before God, not denying any sin.  Second, David asks to be cleansed from his impurity.  Not only does he acknowledge his wrongdoing, but he wants to keep it from ever happening again.  Thirdly, David knows what God ultimately wants from him, a broken spirit!  He realizes that God does not delight in burnt offerings, but in a broken heart.

Joshua Martin

Merton

Thoughts on solitude and silence from Thomas Merton (1915-168), a 20th century monk:

“The hermit, all day and all night, beats his head against a wall of doubt.  That is his contemplation.  Do not mistake my meaning.  It is not a question of intellectual doubt, an analytical investigation of theological, philosophical, or some other truths.  It is something else, a kind of unknowing of his own self, a kind of doubt which undermines his very reason for existing and for doing what he does.  It is this doubt which reduces him finally to silence, and in the silence which ceases to ask questions, he receives the only certitude he knows: the presence of God in the midst of uncertainty and nothingness, as the only reality…Beyond and in all this, he posses his solitude the riches of his emptiness his interior poverty: but of course, it is not a possession.  It is an established fact  It is there.  It is assured.  In fact, it is inescapable.  It is everything  – his whole life.  It contains God, surrounds him with God, plunges him in God.” – The Monastic Journey, Thomas Merton (Garden City, New York: Image, 1977), 206-207.

Silence and solitude plunge us into the presence of God in ways we can only imagine.  If you are missing a real presence in your spiritual life…find time to plunge yourself into solitude.

PT

Randy

This week has been by far one of my toughest this year. I’m here trying to write a devotional on solitude when I can barely find time to have some. Looking back through this week, I am noticing that merely pathetic reasons such as homework, classes, and outright laziness are in my way. Why do I go as far to use such a strong word as pathetic? Well, only recently have I come to the realization of the eternal mindset versus the temporary, and more specifically, how the eternal matters more. I have come to understand how spiritual disciplines reflect the eternal while the laziness and the other reasons only relate to things of this Earth. Matthew 14:23 talks of Jesus after the beheading of John the Baptist, and reads:

“After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, he was there alone…”

Jesus was distraught at the loss of his fellow brother and disciple. But regardless of the situation, he made time to go off by himself and pray. Jesus got away from all the noise of life, the distractions, the GPA’s, the gossip, everything. He slowed down to focus on what was important: spending time with his father to pray and meditate on his current life situation. Solitude is a time where we can pray just as Jesus did and communicate with our Heavenly Father intimately among a host of other practices. I myself like to worship and sing familiar songs as a praise to my God and also spend time focusing on his bigness and his nature and mystery through Scripture and books like Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. (If you’ve never read it, I encourage you to do so. It’s one of those books that will “slap you in the face” and change your God perspective.) With these times, I hope to grow deeper in the knowledge of who God is and hear his voice. Another interesting moment occurred in my Christian Spirituality class taught by Umfundisi, which is basically this series in class form.  Umfundisi I thought put it straight when he said seeking God and spiritual disciplines are at times more important than the academic grade. Take time to digest that. In closing, I challenge you to obtain the eternal mindset and accompany that with the spiritual disciplines so that in the end you, through time and process, will grow to become a person who not only knows God, but knows him deeply.

Randy Mahoney

Nick

Everyone has been involved in a conversation with a group of people and then had an awkward silence occur randomly in the middle of it.  The people involved just kind of stare and hope that somebody says something to break the silence.  After long enough someone will start laughing or do just about anything because the silence makes people feel very awkward.  It seems weird that something as little as silence can be almost scary.  As Pastor Thad put it in his sermon Sunday night, at almost all times we want to have noise in our life.  Some people even desire it while trying to sleep.   I feel that we desire this noise in our lives to make us feel not so alone.  When most people are truly in a place of solitude they feel trapped and even a little scared.  That is one thing that makes solitary confinement in prisons so bad.  Noise is blocked out and the prisoner truly feels helpless.

This noise we put in our lives is just there to block out the lonely feelings.  The only problem with these feelings is that we actually aren’t alone.  Isaiah 41:10 says “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  I hear all the time how God may speak through someone to somebody else, and I also see how some people just wait around for God to speak through someone to them about their problems, but taking a time of solitude can simply cut out the middle man.  There is no need for God to “have to” speak through someone in order to communicate with you. (not saying its bad when he does)  Having a time of solitude can allow God to speak to you in a direct way.  So if you’re looking for an intense time with God and a way to grow in him, get into a quiet place, leave your stresses behind, and let God just direct you/comfort you/ do whatever you need.   It’s hard to hear Gods wisdom while it is cluttered in with all the nonsense around you.  Take time in solitude.

Nick Brown

Courtney

The mission- write a blog about solitude. So I thought, what better place to write about being alone than at McConn? I can support my coffee addiction while at the same time become, as Kutless so eloquently put it, “lost in a sea of faces.”

Kidding. Right now I sit locked in the laundry room, no friends, no music, just me and my thoughts. Have you ever noticed how when you try to clear your head and think of nothing, eventually your mind is filled with a million random thoughts zipping at light speed through your consciousness? The human brain can think at a rate of up to 800 words a minute, and since nobody in the world talks that fast, we sometimes have difficulty listening to others; we become lost in a daydream about the cute guy/girl sitting three rows in front of us to the left, or homework overload sends us into a mental panic as we try to remember which of our three classes that day had a paper due.  Psalm 41:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Consider this- if we have such a hard time paying attention to someone standing right in front of us, how are we supposed to hear the voice of God, who is invisible, who speaks through gentle nudges of the heart?

The answer, of course, is practice. Practice being alone, practice waiting on God. Yes, it may sound lame, but is it really too much to ask for a few minutes of alone time with the One that created you? Your friends will still be there; your computer will still be running (better plug it in just to be on the safe side). But if God’s calling you to something, an assignment for his kingdom and his glory, he might not want to wait around for you to finish all three High School Musicals.

Courtney Koeser

Habititudes

We hear stories all the time of people who “heard” from God or were led by God to do great things, inspire great visions, think great thoughts.  Why is it that others seem to be able to tap into seasons of spiritual inspiration and you and I don’t?  It may because we are not taping into the disiplines that were laid out by early church fathers and we are dependent upon all the new ideas and concepts of spiritual growth.

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, message ever preached by our Lord.  In it, he describes the person that God is after.  In it, he describes the attitude, character, and actions of one who is sold out for the Kingdom of God.  If we could develop habits (disciplines) in our daily lives that would allow us to hear from God, inspire great visions, and think great thoughts, perhaps it would also create the transformation that God wants and that we dream about.

Sunday nights, starting January 11th, we are going to tap into those habits that can transform you and allow you to hear again, the voice of God, in our busy and chaotic lives.

PT