Seeking God

I had the privilege and opportunity to share with our staff at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church (www.pleasantvalley.org ) during our prayer meeting time. Lately, in my quiet times, I have been learning from God about seeking Him in ministry. In other words, not letting ministry be my focus (wrapped up in administration, delegation, service, work), but letting Him be my focus in ministry - seeing Him at work and letting His nature/attributes/characteristics flow through the ministry and not me and my attempt to do ministry.

Below is a copy of document that I provided everyone for their prayer time. I hope it serves as another tool for you to use in your walk with Christ . . .

Seeking God
Psalms 111:10 (NIV) 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.
Proverbs 1:7 (NIV) 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Attributes of God[1]
Able
Almighty
Abounding In Love
All-Knowing
All-Powerful
Always Present
Attentive
Awesome
Beautiful
Blameless
Blessed
Compassionate
Consuming Fire
Enthroned
Eternal
Ever Present
Exalted
Faithful
First
Flawless
Forgiving
Gentle
Glorious
Good
Gracious
Has Authority
Has Integrity
Indescribable
Holy
Healing
Invisible
Jealous
Just
Kind
Last
Light
Living
Majestic
Merciful
Mighty
Patient
Peaceful
Perfect
Protective
Pure
Radiant
Righteous
Slow to Anger
Spirit
Strong
Supreme
Understanding
Tender
True
Sure
Unfailing Love
Unique
Wise
Wonderful
Worthy of Praise


Characteristics of Israel’s God[2]
1. Compassionate – Exod. 34:6; Deut. 4:31; 2 Chr. 30:9; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; 111:4; Neh. 9:17, 31; Joel 2:13; Jon. 4:2
2. Gracious – Exod. 34:6; 2 Chr. 30:9; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; 111:4; Neh. 9:17, 31; Joel 2:13; Jon. 4:2
3. Slow to Anger – Exod. 34:6; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; Neh. 9:17; Joel 2:13; Jon. 4:2
4. Abounding in Steadfast Love – Exod. 34:6-7; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; Neh. 9:17; Joel 2:13; Jon. 4:2
5. Faithful – Exod. 34:6; Ps. 86:15
6. Abundant Forgiveness – Neh. 9:17
7. Did not forsake them – Neh. 9:17, 31
8. Repents of Evil – Joel 2:13; Jon. 4:2
9. The Great God – Neh. 1:5; 9:32
10. Great and terrible – Neh. 1:5; 4:14; 9:32
11. Keeps Covenant – Neh. 1:5; 9:32
12. Steadfast love – Neh. 1:5; 9:32

Exodus 34:6-7 (NIV) “The Self-Revelation of God”6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

Deuteronomy 4:31 (NIV) 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.

2 Chronicles 30:9 (NIV) 9 If you return to the Lord, then your brothers and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will come back to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him."

Psalms 86:15 (NIV) 15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Psalms 103:8 (NIV) 8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

Psalms 111:4 (NIV) 4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate.

Nehemiah 1:5 (NIV) 5 Then I said: "O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands,

Nehemiah 4:14 (NIV) 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

Nehemiah 9:17 (NIV) 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them,

Nehemiah 9:31-32 (NIV) 31 But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. 32 "Now therefore, O our God, the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes--the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings and leaders, upon our priests and prophets, upon our fathers and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today.

Joel 2:13 (NIV) 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

Jonah 4:2 (NIV) 2 He prayed to the Lord, "O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

[1] List from T.W. Hunt & Claude V. King’s In God’s Presence, p. 41
[2] Special Topic from Dr. Bob Utley’s commentaries: www.freebiblecommentary.org

Psalm of the Day (Overview)

One the best tools that I have learned in regards to Spiritual Journeys has been the:
Psalm of the Day

I learned about this tool in my Spiritual Disciplines class at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary under the professor Dr. Don Whitney (you can learn more about him at http://www.biblicalspirituality.org/

I have taught this tool to countless individuals at church in counseling sessions, Bible study classes, seeker groups, and one on one mentoring. I can easily "gare-on-tee" that if you work this resource, it will bless your walk with Christ.

Here is how it works -
1. Get a Bible and open it up to the book of Psalms. (Usually, you will find it right in the middle of the Bible) There are 150 Psalms total. You could read 5 a day and finish the whole book in a month (avg 30 days in a month: 150/30=5).

2. What is today's date? Take whatever day of the month it is for the day that you are reading. For example, today is April 18th. Therefore, 18 is my number. I will read Psalm 18.

3. Next, I will add 30 (since there are 30 days in a month) to that number to read the next one. For example, 18+30=48. Next, I will read Psalm 48.

4. Continue adding 30 til you have read 5 psalms. For example: 48+30=78; 78+30=108; 108+30=138.

5. Since Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the book of Psalms (and the longest in the Bible for that matter), I save it for the 31st of the month.

Here is the blessing of this tool:
A. It builds your prayer life. Many people share that they do not know how to pray. This is a great way to begin reading Biblical prayers and incorporating them into you own prayer life.

B. I can emphatically tell you that if you read the 5 Psalms of the day, one of them will speak to where you are emotionally, mentally, physically, or spiritual at that moment. I guarantee it!

Many people have come back to me sharing their own stories of how God has blessed them, spoken to them, encouraged them, and strengthened them while applying the Psalm of the Day. My hope is that it does the same for you!