Category Archives: how people change

Time to Worship (New Year 2010)

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As the new year arrives we are doing an account of our past year. Where can we improve, what areas of our lives do we want to see changed? We talked about it today.

Areas needed – organization/effective use of our time, i.e. scheduling,

Areas wanting to improve – evangelism and fellowship. wanting to share the gospel and witness God’s work in our lives and in people’s lives.

Realizing that we lack faith in many areas of life – As we were thinking of areas of change, we realize that our hearts must be changed in order to do the things that we wanted to do.

As we learned this past year through How People Change… all situations, all failures, all successes is the HEAT in this life that God will use for our sanctificatino. Our response shows us where our trust and our faith is. In looking back and recognizing that there were a lot of THORNS and sinful responses, we can see that we place our trust in ourself, our ability, our selfish ambitions, our wisdom, etc. The thorns provide a gauge into our heart to show where we have placed our trust.

In this coming year it is my prayer that we see the CROSS as the first place to go in response to any and every situation. Recognizing the sovereignty of God, God’s goodness to us, God’s redemption of us, God’s provision for us, God’s promises to bless us to be a blessing to others, God’s gift of justification and sanctification… in order that we may bear good FRUIT.

Lord use me, use our family, use our church in a mighty way this year.

Time to Worship (November)

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As October ends, we continue in a pretty solid pattern. We have bible reading with the family around 9PM. Just about everyone is ready for bed and it is a good time to settle down. The occasional out day and bible study nights will push this later, but usually around nine and ten has been optimal for us to get ready for bed.

Our readings have been through our family bible and the children’s bible. We have been very blessed with both girls being very attentive to both readings. We are currently in 1 Samuel in our family bible, reading through David’s exploits and seeing the differences between David’s early career and Saul’s kingship, and comparing to later in life. Things get a bit crazy, as always. David is a hero, but he is also human. Sin does not discriminate. Saul struggles. We can see that, he seems to want to please God sometimes, but on his own strength he cannot and fails.

We see the description of the Success and Failures (HEAT) in both of their lives and one responds with THORNS and the other responds by going to the CROSS. It is only at the CROSS do we see FRUIT.

Our sonship class had to do with sharing the Gospel. We have struggled in the past with sharing and continue to see this part of our lives as being a bit weak. I do see however God motivating us or moving us in that direction lately. It has been on my mind to share more directly with people the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is continually reminding me to be faithful in the little things and he will entrust me with more. The parable of the Talents and C. Garriott’s book Work Excellence has been on my mind of late as well.

Finally, the theme of Shalom has continued to be with me since the start of my missions class. Seeking the Shalom (Peace and Prosperity) of the City… seemed to be the start of Redeemer Presbyterian Church’s goal… as we view our time at church and our time at our community, we have felt we never truly sought the Shalom of wherever we have been. This is a holistic shalom. Reconciliation between Man and God, Man and man and Man and self. Shalom is not only peace, but also includes prosperity, blessing… it is a restoring of what is wrong to what is right. I need to see this more, I need to live this more.

Time to Worship (July Summary)

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We are currently beginning the book of Ruth in our nightly bible reading. After finishing Judges we were a bit troubled at how different and “ungodly” many of God’s servants were. Maybe a bit of fresh air, but disturbed nonetheless.

Ruth is someone who is a little bit more in our “scope” of who a servant of God should look like. Anyways, we’ll be surely disappointed when there is sexual sin in her life as well :P

As a family, we’ve been pretty busy. We had a weekend retreat up in CT for a friend’s wedding and back in town for my sister’s wedding. I’ve been listening to various seminary classes I downloaded online from iTunesU.

Theology of Ministry (RTS)
Youth Ministry (Covenant Seminary)

These practical theology courses are bit of a change for me as I shift gears from systematic to practical. The actual application has always been what I enjoy doing and as we examine our lives over the past year, we can see areas where we need a lot of work.

Over the next few posts we’ll examine what we need to do, areas we need to focus on, areas we need to change, areas we need to repent of.

Because we are going through “How People Change” series in sunday school, I felt it would be very good for us as a family to examine what areas of our lives when faced with the HEAT of life are THORNY and what areas we need to go to the CROSS in order to bear FRUIT.

Lord help us all.

Time to Reflect (Week 3 Wednesday)

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We had some friends visit yesterday. While crazy due to many factors, we were able to share some of the things we’ve been learning over the past few weeks. In particular counseling to battle sinful behavior and patterns. Using the framework of the Sunday school book “How People Change” and comparing it to various other counseling techniques. The HEAT – THORNS – CROSS – FRUIT illustration is simple yet powerful in describing the world we live, the way we react, and our need to challenge our idols (or co-dependencies) and worship the true and living God… and then how worship leads to responding to those situations in a Christ-like way.

We saw how sanctification worked on many different levels. Using what we’ve learned in the past few weeks, we were able to share some of our own personal struggles as well as suggest and encourage to seek Christ. It is in this dual nature of removing one’s logs that we can see clearly to help remove the speck from our brother’s eye. This time of fellowship was particularly sweet in that we were able to share a meal and talk in a very natural way.
One thing I wish we would have time to in the future would be to pray together more and to truly turn our eyes to God. One thing I’ve been reading in numerous places is that “we talk to men about God so often, but we fail to talk to God about men.” This is a convicting and a serious failure on our part.
PRAY! Onward, Christian Soldier :)

Time to Worship (Week 2 Wednesday)

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We started around 8:30 after watching a television show. I think we’re getting more and more tempted to push things off, but I’m reminded that I’m head of the family which means it’s my responsibility to make a call to worship. My wife had no problem with that.

We started with two hymns:
#163 I Surrender All
#105 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

We couldn’t get the tune just right with O Come, but it was okay. In “I Surrender All” the verse that says “Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now” stood out most vividly since that was where we were being tempted most yesterday.

As a brief intro, I said to my wife that we’re jumping around a lot just so we can figure out what works and what doesn’t. So far, singing a few hymns and reading scripture and prayer seems to be a proven formula, but we will try reading through a book or having more aids later.

We read James 1:1-18, the second portion of scripture from chapter 5 of How People Change.

We again looked at the four main stages as described by Lane/Tripp:
Heat – Thorns – Cross – Fruit

It is within the situation HEATthat we are either tempted or turn to Christ. So we continued looking at how James encourages the believers to turn to Christ in the midst of deep persecution. Afterwards we talked about what areas we were struggling with and when was HEAT greatest or when we knew that our THORNS were evident.

This was a really good time, we shared with each other and then prayed for one another. Little did I realize that my wife’s biggest time of struggle as of late was also mine. We ministered to one another last night. We also encouraged each other to turn to Christ, bring to him our troubles and fears, bring it to him in prayer.

We concluded with another hymn:
#488 What a Friend We Have in Jesus

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

The third line of the first verse “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear” is pretty much how we are when we don’t turn to Jesus during times of trial and temptation. We should never be discouraged to take it to the Lord in prayer.

We finished with a time of prayer (small potty break interruption) and then benediction and doxology. This time we sang Glory to God (chinese version). Our girl really liked it and danced with us to finish it off around 9PM.

Time to Worship (Week 1 Thursday)

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This was a special day for me. Usually we watch The Office around 9PM, but instead, we were in the middle of our family devotional time. I was really glad all our hearts were focused.

We started off with the Sunday School material we were going through entitled How People Change by Tim Lane and Paul Tripp.

We went over the Lesson 4 where it reviews and summarizes the basic components of life.

HEAT – THORNS – CROSS – FRUIT

The HEAT is our situation, whether good or bad, we all go through something.

The THORNS are how we would normally react in such a situation, this is how we “instinctively” react and respond using our wisdom, our insight. Which is poor because it leaves out a major factor.

The CROSS is that major factor. Remembering the CROSS and who God is and how God sees the situation not only changes our hearts but gives us power. We are united with Christ, we have a community to encourage us, we have the power of the Holy Spirit, and we have Heaven in mind.

With this in view and empowering us, we bear FRUIT. FRUIT is how we respond to the situation but with God’s love working through us. This is what we hope to come out of the situation.

We began worship with this in view. We read through 2 Corinthians 1:1-14 where the Apostle Paul was under a great deal of duress. Instead of fleeing, giving up or falling into depression, Paul remembered Christ, remembered God who raised him from the dead, and all these things that he was able to encourage and comfort those around him…. even in the most difficult of situations.

We concluded the time of study with some pointed questions: What are some current situations that is bearing down on us (HEAT)? How are we responding to it in an ungodly way (THORNS)? What do we know about God in this situation (CROSS)? How can we respond in love (FRUIT)?

We sang hymn #271 Come Thou Fount. The last verse really stuck out to me and continues to stick out in my mind.

O to grace, how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee;
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Amen!