This Morning...

Last night, I started reading a great book by Robert Morris entitled, The Blessed Life. This morning, I woke up at a little before five. For some, that may be normal, but I don't usually drag myself out of bed until about six. I went ahead and got up to spend some extra time in prayer and reading God's word. So why share? It was incredible! The getting up earlier isn't spiritual at all, but the uninterrupted time with God was AWESOME! Honestly, I never before understood people who said things like, "I got up at 4:30 this morning and spent time with God." I always figured they were just bragging or wanted me to feel sorry for them for getting up so early! Now I understand! Sorry to all those who I had bad feelings toward in the past!
Back to the book, when I finished praying and reading the Bible, I still had a little extra time before having to leave for work, so I picked the book back up and read a couple more chapters. It is challenging me in some incredible new ways! I don't know Robert Morris, and have never heard him speak, but he has written a wonderful, yet easy to read book! I highly recommend it, not just to pastors but to all Christians!

Reading to stay fresh in your ministry...

Are you busy? Yeah, I know, dumb question. This isn’t so much about your reading the Bible as it is about reading to stay fresh. (If you aren’t reading God’s Word and you are a pastor or lay leader in your church you need some time off to spend with God in prayer and getting into HIS word. You can’t do it on your own.) A good friend once told me to read old and new books to challenge my faith. I think he was citing C.S. Lewis, but even if he wasn’t, it was good advice. You can read to stay up to date, but it is also important to read to stay grounded in your faith. If we only talk to people in our church and community, it is easy to get stale in our teaching. If we read great books, we can see how great minds think. Isaac Newton said something once about doing great things because he stood on the shoulders of great men. In this century, we have the luxury of having millions of books in print. We can thus stand on the shoulders of both those who are currently doing great things in God’s kingdom and also those great saints who have gone before us. Scheduling time for reading is tough, but it can be done. My wife teases me because I prefer reading to TV, but seriously, many of us spend a lot of time watching very un-educational television. If you prefer the internet reading, which may be true if you are reading this, then check out the Christian Classics library. http://www.ccel.org/ I also have a link to it on the sidebar. There are many great Christian classics on this site. Most of all have fun. Don’t read it if it totally bores you. You may not be ready for it, or it is below you etc. As anyone who has read more than a few books knows, sometimes you can think a book is awful, and then a few years later, when you try it again, it is one of the best books you every read! What happened? You changed, the book didn’t. So that to say, if you don’t like it, try it again later.
Sorry if this was more rambling than usual, but hopefully you take from this that reading is a great way to help you stay fresh in your area of ministry!