Today’s a GREAT Day to Personally Evaluate (E)

. . . and watch Auburn football :) .

Earlier this week, Ron Edmondson posted some very intriguing questions he uses to evaluate himself personally at the end of the year. I plan on thinking through them today and this weekend to hopefully be more ‘radically intentional’ in 2012.

Here are the questions he posted:

- What did I do that worked well?

- What did I attempt that didn’t work?

- Did I meet my goals?

- What I could I do better with a little tweaking?

- What should I stop doing so I can do other things?

- Where is my time most being wasted?

- What discipline do I most need to implement into my day?

- What was my most memorable moment?

- What drains my energy just to think about doing again?

- What changes do I need to make?

In addition, Edmondson also links to other helpful ‘end of year’/'beginning of a new year’ type questions he uses:

3 Questions to Write a Personal Development Plan

5 Questions for Genuine Life Change

My Personal Spiritual Growth System

 

 

Favorite Books from 2011 (R)

I love to read. When I think about it, just typing that sentence makes me laugh. I literally used to HATE to read. I still joke with my parents that I graduated high school having read only 2 books: Morris (the Moose) Goes to School (the book my older sister Laura used to teach me to read – she, by the way, came out of mom’s womb knowing how to read) and Bo Knows Bo (any true Auburn fan has read and LOVED this book).

But my hatred toward reading changed while I was at Auburn. God (only He could do this miracle) changed my attitude toward books and reading. He literally gave me an insatiable hunger to read and read and read and read. Now, if I have a spare minute, I am doing everything I can to read. As a matter of fact, if it weren’t for the Kindle App on my iPad, our budget for 2011 would look good. It’s just too easy to purchase books now. The ‘Just One Click’ tab gets me EVERY time!

Having said that, let me encourage you – if you just really do not like to read – to ask God to give you a desire to read. He will. You will benefit from reading. God has been kind to gift so many wise and Spirit-filled authors to be used as a means of ‘iron sharpening iron’ for one another.

Here are a few of my favorite reads from 2011 (in no particular order EXCEPT for the first one):

#1 - King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus by Tim Keller. I just finished reading this book for the 2nd time this year and am going through it a third time with the WBC pastoral staff team. Seriously, it’s good. If you select one book from the list below to read, pick this one.

Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald. MacDonald is a GREAT author and for those like me who want to be more disciplined in their private world, this book is a must.

Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs by Bill Hybels. I became a Hybels fan in 2011. This book is a major reason why. Tremendous work and extremely helpful for ignorant leaders like me.

Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz. If you like coffee read this book. If you love Starbucks, drink that while you read it. If you are a leader, read this book. If you are all 3 – click above and order this book NOW.

The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller. Easy read and interesting way to right about serving those you lead to help them excel in what they are called to do.

Tempted and Tried: The Temptation and Triumph of Christ by Russell Moore. Russell Moore is another unique and fascinating author who has been tremendously gifted to exegete and communicate deep truths from Scripture.

Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden. Enough said. I love basketball and need to learn as much as possible on leadership. This book was fun and helpful.

Bringing the Gospel Home: Witnessing to Family Members, Close Friends, and Those You Know Well by Randy Newman. Newman offers some very practical advice on how to share Christ with those whom you love and care for deeply, but have a hard time ‘getting through.’

How Lucky Can You Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer by Buster Olney. Great story about a great coach.

Practicing Affirmation: God Centered Praise of Those Who are Not God by Sam Crabtree. This book will prompt you to encourage and praise others in a way that is pleasing to God and helpful to others. Also a very practical book that offers tons of suggestions to help cultivate an attitude of affirmation.

Christmas, Conversation, and Cremation

So while visiting with my parents over Christmas, my mom had this brilliant idea of ignoring our electronic devices and actually having and enjoying conversation (as if that is possible with 9 grandchildren and 3 in-laws in the room). Can you believe that? Yes, she was serious. Yes, my dad agreed. And yes, it was hard.

After all, I should have seen it coming. I DID grow up in a home with no TV in the kitchen. I DID grow up in a home without cable. And I DID grow up in a home where we simply did NOT watch TV in the den while we ate supper (except on those VERY rare occasions – like when Rudolph came on or when my dad was gone on a call to pull a calf out of a cow’s you know what).

We ate supper. . .  imagine this now. . . around the kitchen table.

So, I should have expected it.

For the most part, the conversation was pleasant. Until the conversation turned to being cremated post-kicking the bucket. That’s right. Nothing says presents, Christmas, eggnog, ham, coffee and breakfast casserole like a conversation about the ethics and convenience of which family member gets to put the urn in their home. Needless to say, I was longing for an e-mail from the chairman of the deacons for a special called deacons meeting on Christmas morning or something. But I couldn’t check my e-mail because my iPhone was upstairs.

I will save the ‘who was for ‘and ‘who was against’ cremation until later. . . maybe. But it did get me thinking. How should an evangelical Christian think about cremation?

Since then, I have read three different articles by Russell Moore on the issue.

One is here, entitled “Cremation and  a New Kind of Christianity.”

Another is here, entitled “The Empty Tomb and the Empty Urn.”

And the third is here, entitled “Grave Signs.” If you only have time to read one, I would recommend this one.

As I have read these articles, and thought about this issue, this quote from Moore has probably been the most helpful so far:

“Like the culture around us, we tend to see death and burial as an individual matter. That’s why we make our own personal funeral plans, in the comfort of our living room chairs. And that is why we ask the kind of question we ask about this issue: ‘What difference does it make, as long as I am resurrected in the end?’

“Recognizing that cremation is sub-Christian doesn’t mean castigating grieving families as sinners. It doesn’t mean refusing to eat at the dining room table with Aunt Flossie’s urn perched on the mantle overhead. It doesn’t mean labeling the pastor who blesses a cremation service as a priest of Molech.

“It simply means beginning a conversation about what it means to grieve as Christians and what it means to hope as Christians. It means reminding Christians that the dead in the graveyards behind our churches are ‘us’ too. It means hoping that our Christian burial plots preach the same gospel that our Christian pulpits do” (Emphasis mine).

What do you think it means to grieve and hope as an evangelical Christian who follows Jesus?

Have you read any articles or come across any Christian arguments FOR cremation? Please pass them my way.

At the very least, I think Moore is right that we need to AT LEAST begin a conversation about what it means to grieve and hope as Christians.

So go ahead. . . grab some outdated eggnog and your closest kin and talk about it. And let me know what you, Aunt Flossie, and Uncle Ding-Ding think about it. Or, if you could care less about this topic, pass along some of the ‘off the wall’ things your family conversed about when you weren’t checking email?

Read the Bible Through . . . In a Way that is Best for YOU

Being that it is three days until 2012, there are 2 Bible Reading Plans resources/links that I have already mentioned in brief, but want to highlight below to further encourage you to find one that works for you.

Everyone operates differently when it comes to this kind of thing. I am grateful there are different ways/suggestions/ideas to read through the most important Book in all of history.

Justin Taylor has a mammoth list of Bible Reading Plans that includes just about everything that is out there. Click here to scan through the list of plans and see if you can find one that interests you.

This year, I plan to read the Bible through chronologically using the companion to George Guthrie’s Read the Bible for Life. I have never read through the Word chronologically and am looking forward to trying something new. Guthrie (and LifeWay) have recently come out with Reading God’s Story: A Chronological Daily Bible. It is available in paperback and Kindle formats. LifeWay has put together a website with resources to aid with this. And, yes, I learned today that there is an app for that also.

Let me know what plan you ‘plan’ to use and if you know of any others that aren’t included here.

Read the Bible Through . . . Like Your Going to Emmaus

Another Bible Reading Plan that seems a bit different from the ‘normal’ ones is called The Kingdom Plan. The plan is distinct in several areas, namely in that the readings in the Old Testament follow the arrangement of Jesus’ Bible (Luke 24:44).

Here is a description of the way it is designed:

The KINGDOM Bible Reading Plan is designed to help the believer grow in grace from the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). The plan is distinguished by the following features:

1. Proportionate weight is given to the Old and New Testaments in view of their relative length, the Old receiving three readings per day and the New getting one reading per day.

2. The Old Testament readings follow the arrangement of Jesus’ Bible(Luke 24:44––Law, Prophets, Writings), with one reading coming from each portion per day. In a single year, one reads through Psalms twice and all other biblical books once; the second reading of Psalms (highlighted in gray) supplements the readings through the Law (Genesis–Deuteronomy).

3. Only twenty-five readings are slated per month in order to provide more flexibility in daily devotions.

4. The plan can be started at any time of the year, and if four readings per day are too much, the plan can simply be stretched to two or more years (reading from one, two, or three columns per day).

Click here to save it to your computer and/or print out a hard copy.

Read the Bible Through. . .Chronologically

If you’re like me, sometimes reading the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation can be a bit confusing. . . if you try to follow it the way it happened historically. There are instances that we read about in the prophets that we read way back in 1 Kings. Or, there are events King David writes about in the Psalms that we read about in 2 Samuel. Historically, things are a bit out of order. This is intentional of course, but can be a bit frustrating if you are wanting to follow things historically, as they happened, according to the dates in which they happened. Make sense?

If you are interested in reading the Bible chronologically, there is a plan to read through the entire Bible – as it occurred historically (by date) in a year.

The ESV Study Bible has a plan you can link to and/or print here.

In addition, as a compliment to George Guthrie’s Read the Bible for Life (this is the book men in ‘The League’ are reading through on Thursday morning’s at WBC), Guthrie has also published a work/Bible to help one walk through the Bible chronologically. It is called Reading God’s Story: A Chronological Daily Bible.

Read the Bible Through . . . In Two Years

The second Bible Reading Plan I want to recommend here is different from any other plan I have seen. This plan, instead of taking 1 year to read the Bible through, breaks up the readings to accomplish the task in 2 years. Thus, the daily readings required are smaller and easier to navigate through.

Steven Witmer, who put the plan together, put it like this:
“The following Bible reading plan is designed to take you through the Old and New Testaments in two years, and through the Psalms and Proverbs four times during that period.”

Click here to get the digital version and/or to print out a hard copy.

Witmer recommends anyone choosing to use this plan to also read through How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour as a companion.

Your Spiritual Gift? Be Yourself and Serve!

“Life of a Steward” says that taking a spiritual gifts test may not be the best way to determine your spiritual gift. Read about it here.

I especially appreciated this sentence: “Understanding our strengths helps us determine how to do this most effectively, but our goal is the service of others and the glory of God – not our personal sense of accomplishment.”

I confess to have had this very same thought about spiritual gifts before. I have no idea how many of these tests I have taken before. Almost every time, I end up with a different “Top 3 Gifts.” Anybody ever been there? 

A few years ago, I preached through 1 Corinthians 12-14. After preaching through these chapters, I put together a 5-step guide to determining your spiritual gifts. Here they are:

1. Ask God to reveal to you what your spiritual gift is.

2. Evaluate the church where you are a member and determine, in your opinion, what areas are lacking.

3. Evaluate your own soul and ask, ‘what is my passion as for as it relates to the glory of Jesus and making Him known?’

4. Begin to serve immediately in various capacities to see if blessing comes from it (blessings for you and for others).

5. Ask the Lord to interweave it all together for the good of the church, the joy of your soul, and the glory of His name.

 

What else have you found to be helpful?

 

Bible Reading Plans for 2012

Between now and January 1st, 2012 I plan to provide several different Bible Reading Plans for you to choose from for the upcoming year. There are TONS of different plans available. Some I will list I have used/tried. Some I haven’t. Also, you need to know that most all of the links I will provide here will come from Justin Taylor’s blog who has provided a HUGE listing of available plans at his site here.

The first plan I want to highlight is called “The Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers.” The name says it all! The beauty of this is that it has no date attached to a reading. It provides readings for every day of the week, BUT if you miss a day’s reading (which, if you are like me, ALWAYS happens), you can make it up next time (or whenever it is convenient).

Andy Perry accurately summarized the plan like this:

“Advantages to this plan include:

1. Removing the pressure to ‘keep up’ with getting through the entire Bible in a year.
2. Providing variety throughout the week by alternating genres.
3. Providing continuity by reading the same genre each day of the week.

“In a nutshell, here’s how it works:
Sundays: Poetry
Mondays: Penteteuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy)
Tuesdays: Old Testament history
Wednesdays: Old Testament history
Thursdays: Old Testament prophets
Fridays: New Testament history
Saturdays: New Testament epistles (letters)

“The advantage of this plan is that it provides guidance as we read each day but does not put us on an internal guilt trip if we miss a day – we just pick up with the next reading on the day it happens to be. Also, this plan allows us to see the many interconnections between sections of Scripture.

“Many Bible reading plans are good, but I find this one unusually helpful, for it combines two biblical values which seem to diverge in most plans: discipline and grace.”

To get the electronic version of this plan and/or the link to print out a hard copy, click here.