Month: June 2009

Here we find a personal guidebook on how to reap a harvest from the Scripture. Using very specific inductive study methods, this approach will help us to discover the meaning and application of the scripture. Don’t miss this, it is absolutely foundational to being strong in the Lord and growing into maturity.

Our outer journey must be supported and undergirded by our inner journey. To illustrate, we’ll view one of the most stressful and stretching experiences our Lord ever experienced on this earth. (It was also a test for the disciples.) It took place in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is a primer for prayer in stretching times—Matt. 26:36-45

This is a quick overview of the Lord’s prayer. By following the pattern of the Lord's prayer, we will discover pattern prayers can help us get started when we need help, and yet they can be elaborated on as we get more experienced.

Prayer can be one of the most difficult disciplines to do consistently and persistently. For our biblical motivation, we will turn to Matthew 7:7-12. This key passage gives us a better idea of what the process of prayer entails. Each of the stages of prayer are outlined here: asking, seeking, and knocking.

Have you ever become bored in your quiet times? Do you open your Bible and find yourself dreaming or immediately getting sleepy? Have you ever switched off your alarm, thinking, "I'd rather sleep than have a quiet time?" How can we recapture our passion for quiet times with God? We’ll look at the some key passages and creative ideas for some clues.

How can anyone possibly pray an entire hour? Here's how to structure an hour in prayer with 12 Scripturally based aspects.

"I never thought a day could make such a difference," a friend said to me. "My relationship to everyone seems improved. Why don’t I do it more often?" Comments like these come from those who set aside a personal day of prayer. With so many activities—important ones—clamoring for our time, real prayer is considered more a luxury than a necessity. How much more so spending a day in prayer!

Meditation points the way to islands of calm in a world that moves all around us like waves of the sea. Meditation is a spiritual health habit that promise enormous benefits and blessings.

Dawson Trotman, the founder of The Navigators, often used to say: "Predominant thought determines present action." This is the key reason that we should give ourselves to the memorization and meditation of Scripture. What we do and say is determined by the things that are most on our minds and in our hearts—Matt. 15:18-19; 12:34-37.

Fasting is one of the most misunderstood and least practiced spiritual disciplines. Most of us act as if the teachings on fasting are not at all important, but Jesus had a different view; He never minimized fasting.