Must be careful

In my effort to read the entire word of God I must be careful not to rush through checking of boxes as I go but give the word an opprotunity to work on my heart. I have been reading mostly the shorter books saying to myself "ah I have just read 4 books of the bible." And in so doing I am letting pride come to me. So now I admit my sin and am still making an effort to read the bible completely and methodically but with an emphasis on being prayerful and receptive to its truth.

My wife and I are going to start in a crown ministries small group study and I am looking forward to getting my view of wealth right with God. God owns EVERYTHING. I have had a difficult time realizing that everything means everything. I have been an unfaithful steward.

Grace and Peace Mark

Reading the Bible

I have read the entire Lord of the Rings tirillogy 6 times the Simarillion twice and Atlas Shrugged 3 times one of those being in a 24 hour sitting. Numerous books on eastern ideals. a 1400 page history of judaism.

The Bible nope. I have yet to read the whole bible. I have embarked on a one year bible reading plan from Discipleship Journal which I linked to from desiring God ministry.

Then I though about it. If I can read atlas shrugged nonstop surely I can read the Bible in less than a Year. So that is my goal.

Grace and Peace, Mark

mission statement

I went to the franklin covey website and did a mission statement builder exercise early last year and found it to be useful. Today as I was looking over it I wanted to make sure it was biblicaly inline with what the Lord would have me do. For the most part I was able to back it up scripturaly. here are the verses:
1 cor 12:25
luke 4:8
eph 5:28
1 tim 5:8
heb 3:13
heb 10:38
mt 5:9
1 pet 4:10
ps 133:1
phil 4:8
jhn 14:21
ps 105:5
ps 107:8
luke 12:48

Not that I get even close to living like this but It is what I strive for.

Grace and Peace, Mark

Psalms

So far this year I have read a proverb a day and the goal is to continue through out the year. Godly wisdom is what I hope to achieve through this exercise. My other readings and general studies of late have been very convicting of my sinful nature as well as the current state of my affairs. Not down playing my blessings but I find that I am missing out on some of the joy I should be feeling being in Christ. So to see joy in action I am going to start reading a pslam daily in addition to my other readings however sporadic they may be. I am praying that I will read more of the word instead of what others say about it.

Grace and Peace, Mark

Rock and roll is..

...such a collosal waste of time. Well at least it seems so to me. Last night I went ot see my brothers band play and was reminded of how I just don't get it. Even when I was a rock star I did not get it. That doesn't mean I did not enjoy it but I just did not get it. I do know it is for the young because I am way to old to maintain that kind of lifestyle. Just too much improperly used time. My brother has a long road ahead. His band just does not seem to have the magic that pop poppins had and I do not think it will. It's not that they suck no they are all very capable musicians in their own right but they havent gelled yet. Hopefully it will come in time they are still relatively fresh with only 4 gigs under their belts. We shall see. Well not me if they keep playing that late.

Grace and Peace, Mark

Pendulum Man

I think I wrote a poem with above title in high school about myself once. I did so on realizing that my two favorite essayists at the time were Gore Vidal and William Buckley. The same goes for my blog interests currently. I read reformed and emergent theologically baised bloggers concurrently. I have read "a generous orthodoxy:(large subtitle)" and found it all over the place kind of like myself except I did not keep all my wanderings within Chrisianity. ( See the parabola link.)

Family devotional time is not going as well as I hoped. Due intoto to my lack of leadership. I will continue on in pray and work at getting it going stronger. I think I initially bit of more that I couuld chew in trying to develope a devotional on my own so I am going to other resources instead.

I am reading a proverb a day and would like to continue to do so for the whole year.


Grace and Peace, Mark

By Faith and not by Sight

Now is one of those time in my life where a theme is developing and being reinforced by several avenues at once. I am wanting to work on leading my house in serving the Lord and my church service this Sunday was extremely relevant to my situation and the mens bible study is doing a series on biblical leadership.

I was like Abram in that I decided to get mey family in line biblicaly and when famine hit I went to Egypt(car sales) then repented. I am now in what I think is a promised land as do others and now must walk by faith that this is where I need to be(teaching martial arts). Though it will take much time and effort I am with my family in the mornings and most of the week ends. I dont have the nights to spend with them and I have some concerns about this but maybe it is not as bad as I think.

Grace and Peace, Mark

Counsel of wise men

I don't know many men of my age (mid 30's) that spend time with men that have been seasoned longer than they themselves have and I feel it is a big loss on their part. I have a few men that have done and seen more than I have and it is always a joy and a blessing to get their perspectives on issues. My father being one that I unfortunately don not seek often enough mostly because I would he rather not know of my mistakes of idiotic plans. But my father has always been there for support and encouragement.


In reference to my earlier posts on leading my family in worship the first one didn't go over to well but this mornings was a blessing. My 2yr old son was quick to point out that mama did not have her hands folded for prayer with his shouts of "mama mama pair" its hard for him to get that first r in prayer out but he's getting there and he enjoys singing Jesus loves me.

Grace and Peace, Mark