Details TBD.

April 24, 2013 by Mindy Clemons

She was talking to me…. Guest blog by Liz Hile, www.thewellbiblestudy.org Justdoit

“If you’re like me, sometimes you get a little frustrated that God doesn’t reveal His plan for your life to you in a tidy little 5-10 year prospectus.

Maybe you’ve read that God has good works he’s set aside specifically for you to do, but you’re still waiting on the memo that details what those things are!

In Judges 13, it seems that Samson’s dad felt like that, too.

You see, an angel of the Lord told Samson’s mom that Samson would be a Nazirite and gave her special instructions to follow. Samson’s dad prayed for the angel to return so that he could get some more specific details. He asked, “What’s Samson’s life gonna look like? What will his mission be?”

The angel’s response makes me laugh, “All that I commanded her (Samson’s mom) let her observe.”

It’s just like us to over-complicate things, isn’t it? God may not show us right away where we’re going, but He makes it very clear for us how to get there: just follow and obey. Do each day what you already know you should do – repent, be baptized, pray, serve, love, give, forgive, teach, make disciples, etc., and that’ll put you on a sure path towards greater revelation of God’s will for your life. When we love God enough to do what He’s already made plain in His Word, we can be confident that He will reveal even more of Himself to us (John 14:21), including His dreams, His vision, and His plans.

So, instead of getting frustrated about the murkiness of the future, let us patiently live out what God clearly wants us to do today.”

Posted in All Posts, Devotional Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Are You A Mature Christian?

March 11, 2013 by Mindy Clemons

She’s at it again: * Guest blog by Susie Walther, http://www.thewellbiblestudy.org

 

Would you say that you are a mature Christian?

Why would you consider yourself “mature” in your faith?

Susie writes, “I recently attended a Verge conference, and one of the speakers cited some recent statistics from the Barna Group regarding women in the church.

She said that 74% of Christian women consider themselves mature in their faith.

But the Barna poll also revealed that less than 25% of those same women actually shared the gospel, helped the needy, valued volunteering/serving or gave financially to support ministry, and that only 13% viewed their main role in life as being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

So, that really begs the question – exactly what do these women mean when they say they’re “mature?”

Obviously, Christian maturity for them has little to do with being a disciple, which would involve spending time with Jesus through the Christian disciplines of daily quiet time and prayer, and intentional involvement in the Great Commission. Maturity for these women did not include the pro-active sharing of their faith, serving others intentionally, helping the world around them or giving generously out of their monetary means.

So, again I have to ask, what the heck do these women mean when they call themselves “mature???”

Are they defining maturity as time in grade – you know, “I’ve been a Christian for 10 or 50 years…so I’m mature” or “I’ve attended church all my life, so I’m mature?” Are they the ones who “read through the Bible once?” Are they dubbing themselves mature because they’re uber-involved in their kids’ lives or they home school, eat organic foods, run marathons and are nice people? Is maturity to them volunteering once a year on a missions trip or helping with VBS, attending a Bible study, listening to Christian radio, and reading Our Daily Bread when they can?

Whatever the case, we should be absolutely alarmed because we are a generation of Christian women who consider ourselves “mature in Christ” who don’t live like we need the Gospel and certainly aren’t living our lives to advance the Kingdom of God.

Righteous King of Heaven, wake us up from our slumber and show us the peril of our deception!”

So I ask you again, “Are you mature in your faith?”

What evidence of maturity can you point to in your life?

Posted in All Posts, Devotional Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Phases of Parenting

March 7, 2013 by Mindy Clemons

Imagine dividing up parenting into phases.  Andy Stanley* has suggested this breakdown:

Ages 1-5  Discipline

Ages 5-12 Training

Ages 12-18 Coaching

Ages 18+ Friendship

I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks.  I have a 12-year-old middle schooler.  It’s crazy how suddenly she “grew up”.  It’s clearly a new phase of parenting.  We are shifting from “Mom decides” to “You decide with the help and influence of Mom”.  And on what basis is she making decisions?  On the basis of all the training I have provided (or not provided!) in the last 10 years.  Eeeekk.

Here are a few other bits of wisdom for the coaching years:

- If you fail to discipline and train your kids when they are young, then it’s too late.  You cannot suddenly add discipline when they are teenagers.  Doing so provokes rebellion and communication breakdown.

- You cannot “be friends” with your middle schooler.  You are the coach.  Coach is not the same as friend.

- “Don’t freak out.”  This is your mantra as long as you have teens in your house.  Don’t freak out.  Be calm.  If you freak out they will stop talking to you.  Don’t shut down the communication.  Leave them open to coaching.

- Say “Oh no, that’s terrible!  What are we going to do about that?”  See how you can use your words to communicate that you understand the drama and that you are on their side?  Then let them work out a solution.  Practice encouraging from the sidelines, not charging out into the middle of the field to sort things out.

- Remember that the most important things are not the urgent things.  (True for much of life!)  Do not allow seemingly urgent issues and activities replace the important things…

- Sometimes you say “no” to good things (sports, ministry, whatever) in order to invest more in your kids and have time with them.

- Don’t lie.  Don’t let them lie either.

- Teach them to honor their mother.

- Let them fail when the stakes are low.

- Help them see how their faith intersects three important things: 1. Decision making, 2. Relationships, and 3. School.  You can do this partly by talking all the time, everywhere, in a natural fashion about how your faith affects your thinking processes too.

- And finally remember that “Later is Longer”.  You have only a few short years of parenting, but you will be friends with your kids for 60 or more years.  Make the hard decisions now.  It’s ok to cry for a night.  Later is longer.  Always.

*Our Wednesday night dinner/small group has really enjoyed Andy Stanley’s “Future Family” series.  Session 5 he co-taught with his wife and they discussed parenting. http://www.northpoint.org/messages/future-family

Posted in All Posts, Devotional Thoughts, Parenting | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Old Testament – A Visual

March 1, 2013 by Mindy Clemons

Whoo hoo!  I finished Deuteronomy in my read-thru-the-Bible project… Can I get an amen?  Leviticus and Deuteronomy were the hardest parts!

OTVisualI am a visual learner, and a teacher in love of visual aids and a big white board!  So let me share with you this diagram that will help you, and your students, remember what’s going on in the first part of the Old Testament.

Imagine a map of the Middle East – from the Garden of Eden somewhere between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq, the nation of Israel, and Egypt.  The Mediterranean Sea is to the west.  Now follow the tracks of Old Testament characters on the map…

Genesis – The beginning.  We start in the east (Iraq) with Adam, Eve, and Noah.  Then Abraham left Ur and settled in Canaan (Promised Land to be).  After Jacob came the story of Joseph who is sent in capitivity to Egypt.

In Exodus the Israelites exit Egypt after 400 years of captivity.

Leviticus is the Law given at Mt. Sinai (see the Levite/priest in the book title?).

In Numbers the people are numbered and wander in the desert for 40 years.

Deuteronomy is the re-reading of the Law before entry into the Promised Land, which is why it is so similar to Leviticus and closes with all the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.

Joshua crosses the Jordan River into the Promised Land with the nation of Israel and they proceed to slowly conquer most of it.

And the Judges mark a period of rebellion and suffering in the land because “everyone did what was right in their own eyes”.

And then we go to I & II Samuel and the Kings.

I hope it helps you remember the history – it worked for me!

I start reading Joshua next week.  Yea!

 

Posted in All Posts, Devotional Thoughts, Discipleship Tools | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Not “Accept” but Follow Christ

February 26, 2013 by Mindy Clemons

* Guest blog, Susie Walther, http://www.thewellbiblestudy.org

Did you know that the religion of Jesus begins with the word follow (as in follow Christ) and ends with the word go (as in go into all the world and make disciples)?

Did you know that Jesus never told anyone to “accept Me,” but instead said in no uncertain terms to “follow Me?” Did you know, then, that the opposite of rejecting Jesus is not accepting Him, but rather choosing not to follow Him?

Until we begin to export en masse to the Church and the world the same kind of gospel Jesus lived, died and rose again to give us, bucket loads of people will continue to flounder in sin and compromise and/or remain spiritually sterile believing a version of “Christianity” that has no power to transform them or bear eternal fruit. But that will mean we’ve got to stop making this stuff up as we go along and just start believing what the Christ of the Bible told us, whether it fits our denominational SOP for doctrine or not.

And while I still have the mike, I’d like to say one more thing about this business of “acceptance.” Do you know that the ones who need to be accepted are us? We are rotten, miserable, self-centered creatures who intrinsically don’t know a thing about holiness or righteousness and we are the ones who need to be accepted by the Father, and He has ordained that the only means for His acceptance of us is through the blood sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ. For crying out loud, Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Why does He need to be accepted by us? We need to be accepted by Him!

So, we can make “decisions” and “professions of faith” and we can be baptized and confirmed all day long, but the Bible still says that to be accepted by God we must receive Christ which means we must repent of our sin. To repent means to surrender all rights and control of our lives. To surrender means to follow after Jesus. To follow means to obey Him, and to obey is to love God and others enough to go and make disciples!

This is Christ’s version of Christianity, ladies, and it’s the one that’ll revolutionize your life, this city, and the world.

Posted in All Posts, Devotional Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

On Discipline and Repentance

February 13, 2013 by Mindy Clemons

A few of my favorite quotes from “Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted”, homework from week 3, with Priscilla Shirer:

“Adversity is redemptive, not punitive.”

“Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12:10-11

On the heart:

“Whether or not Jonah knew God was never the concern.  Clearly he was well acquainted with God.  He could discern the leading of God.  Yet Jonah had a problem agreeing with God and changing his mind, attitude, and actions to comply with God.  His heart was out of alignment with the heart of God.”

On repentance:

“Jonah still did not desire to go to Ninevah… Repentance doesn’t necessarily require that your feelings have changed about what God is asking you to do… Repentance means that you are willing, despite those feelings, to put it aside and stop travelling the wrong way.  True repentance requires a change in direction.”

 

Posted in All Posts, Jonah | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

7 Hours. No Regrets.

February 12, 2013 by Mindy Clemons

“No, you don’t want our family to do that.  Really?  Are you sure?”no tv

I was very curious who my husband was talking to on the telephone!

It was the Nielson Television Ratings organization.  We were chosen to participate in their television viewing and ratings survey.  So for one week now we have been filling out the t.v. viewing log book – for each t.v. in the house (two), hour by hour, channel by channel, marking each family member as watching or not.

I’m telling you – we are really going to be the statistical outlier on their survey!

Seven hours of t.v. – that’s the grand total for the last seven days.

2.5 hours of “Phineas and Ferb”, 1 hour of the Grammys, 1.5 hours of “Chicken Little”, and 2 hours of the evening news.

Well at least we’ll never look back and regret all the hours we wasted in front of our television!

Too bad they didn’t ask how many miles we ran this week (40 miles, mostly Ross)…

Or how many hours we spent playing tennis (8 hours)…

Or what books we were reading… “Running the World: the Inside Story of the National Security Council” by David Rothkopf (Ross), “East of the Sun” set in Bombay in 1928, by Julia Gregson (Mindy), “The Lightening Thief” by Rick Riordan (Mark), and I have no idea what Mara is reading because she always has it with her.

How many hours of television did you and your family watch last week? 

Today is Mardi Gras and the season of Lent starts tomorrow.  Maybe you should consider giving up some of your television time in pursuit of something greater?

Posted in All Posts, Devotional Thoughts, Parenting | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Older Posts »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 125 other followers

%d bloggers like this: