Finding my Christian Chakra!

Opening questions:

How do you discern/decide if a choice is good or bad?

Where do you get your standards for life? (Parents, Friends, Self, Pastor, Bible)

Look at this verse:

“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.”

(Psalms 1:1-3 NAS95S)

Do you really think that people find joy in the Law of the Lord? it seems to me that more people find their joy in the open arms of the, "counsel of the wicked," and run like a scared middle school kid from the Law of God. I have often wondered why people seem to find the, "counsel of the wicked," such and attraction. I have often wondered if it stems from a lack of TRUE understanding of the word of God. What I mean is that people tend to stay far away because they have been convinced that the Bible and God are only for certain, good, people or that the Bible (law of God) is just a list of rules and regulations that continually remind us of our wretchedness. Why do you think that people prefer the, "counsel of the wicked," over the Law of God?

Also, this scripture speaks of meditating on the word or law of God, day and night. Sadly this word has been lost in modern translation. Today is seems to mean that you are some weird dude sitting cross-legged on a matt mumbling chants and trying to find you inner chakra! This is not what David was referring to or meant. David wanted to live a life that was in continual contemplation of the words of God. A life that pondered deeply the things of scripture. So, why don't we do this? What keeps us from living a life of deep contemplation of the things of God?

Let me know whatcha think!

Psalm 102

I am not sure where these devotionals will go. I am merely trying to offer some type of Biblical thought/conversation for you guys and gals on a weekly basis. These first few weeks will be a morphing time. I may try a few different ideas. Please BE HONEST, let me know what you think.

This weeks verse is Psalm 102:

Read Psalm 102 –

What are some verses that stick out to you?

What makes them stick out?

Here are my thoughts:

The psalmist begins with, “Hear my prayer, O Lord,” Have you ever felt like God does not hear your prayers? Have you ever prayed for days, weeks, months and maybe even years and still never felt like you hear back from God? I think to often we believe that God is too busy for our minute problems or that He has no concern at all for what’s on our hearts. I personally think that there are at least two areas that tend to help us come to the conclusion that God is not listening. One area is that we tend to use God only as a problem solver. I find it interesting that we, like the psalmist, tend to cry out to God in our times of distress and very rarely continually have a conversation with God. Not to steal the often used cliché’ but God becomes our, “Genie in a bottle,” (Please refrain from singing any songs that pertain to being a genie in a bottle, that would not be beneficial to your spiritual walk!) God is like our cosmic daddy who is suppose to bail us out of jail every time we end up locked up in some situation. This leads to a horrible relationship ship. No relationship can be one sided. Think about it, as you and I use God for our own needs, we will soon begin to either neglect God and become indifferent to him, almost like those girls on the Sweet Sixteen show on MTV, or we become abusive to God. He becomes that junior higher we pick on to do our great will and when God says no or remains silent we become angry at the thought that He would not listen to us. If we don’t become indifferent then we tend to become ashamed. This may be do to lack of continually praying or the fact that we only show ourselves to God, even though He sees and knows everything, when we are in a weak situation. This leads to the only communication being done in a state of brokenness. We only know of God from the perspective of being down. How depressing of a relationship is that? Who wants a friend that only complains and calls you when they are down?

God wants to hear everything. God desires to have an ongoing conversation with you. Think about it, why else would He take the time to make us in His own image? Why else would He go to an, “Old rugged cross?”

What are your thoughts?

Questions for discussion:

· What is the purpose of prayer?

· Is there a time that God does not hear or listen to our prayers?

· Does God listen to the prayers of those people who are not saved?