Prayer Journal Sheets ... A Great Tool For Spiritual Growth

I have long sought a tool such as this. It is not the end-all and be-all of spiritual growth, but it is a good place to start, if you are struggling in this area. I have even found it to be beneficial for people who already have an established prayer and study life.

If you already possess of vital relationship with God and His Word and are making regular progress in your walk with Him, I encourage you to keep on doing what you're doing. If, on the other hand, you could use a boost and are serious about wanting a closer walk with Him, this is a powerful tool that WILL WORK, if you are faithful to use it.

I am trying to secure permission to use this on our website, but until that permission is granted, I am providing a link to the page where you may download these sheets for free. There are two sheets, one on which to record what you study each day and what your response is to that passage. The other sheet is a weekly review and a place to chart what you want to change or do differently.

I pray that this will be a blessing to each one of you, as it has been to me and to others in our local church. May the Lord bless you as you strive to draw nearer to Him and to emulate Him more perfectly in your daily life.

http://www.bethanybible.org/pdf/journal/index.htm

THIS SHALL BE A SIGN

by Pastor Jacob Doran,
Flathead Valley, MT

For as long as I can remember, I have heard the story of the angel appearing to the shepherds and the heavenly host announcing the Savior’s birth, as it is recorded in Luke chapter two, read aloud on Christmas and in the days that precede the holiday. In fact, it is what we evangelicals refer to as “reading the Christmas story.”

Many years have passed since I first heard the Christmas story, and I have learned many new details about the account which have enhanced my love of the story. Today, it is one of my favorite stories in all of the Bible.

I haven’t the time or space in so brief an article to write all of the reasons why the Christmas story is so very special to me or so profoundly significant to the world, but I will give here four of what I consider to be the most important reasons.

I. The Significance of the Author

Luke was a physician and historian of sort. He was given to exacting detail, because every detail was of the utmost importance in his profession. A history of Luke’s journeys with the Apostle Paul and of the purpose of his gospel is to me more epic than Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey.

I’ll not retell that journey or give all the details of the many interviews that Luke conducted, but I can assure you that God had the right man in mind to search out the details of the Christmas story and to commit them to writing for the benefit of the whole world. Luke compiles the particulars of dozens of eye-witness accounts, probably including intimate information known only by Mary and Joseph, which Mary still lived to share at the time of Luke’s writing.

I have often pictured Luke searching out and sitting with Mary, listening to her retell the story and watching the emotion well up in her eyes as face as she did so, and I have envied him that special meeting with the woman whom the angel Gabriel called “highly favored”—who witnessed the life of Christ from His nativity to His crucifixion (and probably also his resurrection and ascension).

II. The Significance of the Shepherds

What once served only as great puzzle to me has become one of the most precious gems that the New Testament holds.

Of all the ways that the Heavenly Father could have announced the advent of His Son on earth, I have long deliberated over the meaning of that glorious occasion being heralded only to shepherds, who were then give the charge of spreading the news throughout Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The angels could have just as easily appeared over Jerusalem or Rome, over both simultaneously or even around the whole earth to ensure that all men knew what unspeakable wonder had just taken place on the spinning speck of dust called Earth.

Instead, they appeared only to a handful of men engaged in the work of one of the lowliest occupations in all of Israel. However, I have recently learned that they were not so base as most shepherds of their day, for these were special shepherds indeed.

As prescribed in the Mishna, those animals between Jerusalem and Bethlehem were to be available at all times to be sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem, for which they were destined (Shekelim 7:4). Because of the staggering numbers of unblemished lambs that would be necessary for the sacrifices, the Temple authorities kept their own flocks, which were reserved for this special purpose.

These flocks were pastured near Bethlehem, which lay only seven miles south of Jerusalem. Here, there stood a tower for watching over the flocks, in order to determine any danger from predators or thieves. It was known as the Tower of the Flock or, in Hebrew, Midgal Edar, of which Micah prophesied 700 years earlier (Micah 4:8) that the Kindgom and dominion of Christ would come.

It seems that the priest may even have used the tower of Edar to inspect the lambs for blemishes, using a special cloth to swaddle and restrain the animal while it was being scrutinized prior to fulfilling its purpose.

The shepherds who kept these sheep were devout men who were trained for this special task, educated in the law concerning sacrifices and the importance of protecting the lambs from anything that might blemish or make them unfit for temple sacrifice. They also knew what the ritual sacrifice of these lambs foreshadowed and looked for the promised Messiah who was able to make peace between God and fallen man.

The announcement to the shepherds, in Luke 2:8-20 was a purposeful part of God’s ultimate plan to redeem fallen man through the perfect, unblemished sacrifice of one whom John referred to as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

When the angel sent these shepherds to Bethlehem, he was pointing the way to the very last sacrificial lamb who, once offered, would end all need for further temple sacrifice. The Lamb was the culmination of all other sacrifices that had ever been, according to the law of Moses—the One to whom all other sacrifices had pointed—who would at last remove the enmity of our sin and make us acceptable before God.

In essence, once they had found the Lamb of God, lying in a manger, they were—for all intents and purposes—out of a job, as far as God was concerned. The last Lamb, God Himself would nurture and inspect before offering Him up for the sins of all.

III. The Significance of the Christmas Wrapping (Swaddling Clothes)

The angel gave the shepherds a sign.

Luke 2:12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. We all know that Jesus was wrapped in "swaddling clothes" and laid in a manger, and even in our day hospital wrap newborn babies what is commonly referred to as a "swaddling" cloth or receiving blanket, which is something of a 2,000 year-old misnomer, since the word translated "swaddling clothes" in this passage possesses a meaning far deeper than the customary wrapping of children. It is significant that the Greek word here translated as "swaddling clothes" is the same Greek word that signifies "burial bandages."

In the Middle East, traveling long distances was much more difficult than in our day. Joseph didn’t simply load up the family sedan and head for Bethlehem. If you think that your vehicle is in need of a luggage carrier because there is not enough room to transport you and your things, just think about what Joseph was able to fit in his vehicle.

The donkey only had room for one suitcase and that was Mary’s womb. The Bible points out that Mary was GREAT with child, which means that the donkey probably didn’t carry anything other than Mary and the child. Joseph walked the whole distance. Imagine having to walk along side the family car on the way to visit family in the next state.

People often took sick and died on such journeys or were overtaken by robbers and killed. Back then, when you left home, there was no guarantee that you would reach your destination, which is why they wore swaddling cloths under their garments. These were a thin, gauzelike cloth, wrapped in a band around the waist so that they could be easily removed and used to wrap the body until it could be transported home and buried or entombed.

Thus, it would seem that the first clothing given to the baby Jesus was, unlike traditional receiving clothes or blankets, the same type of cloth that would be used for His body after His death on the cross. The significance is clear. From the very beginning, the Father signified to the His people and to the countless generations who would read the account in the interim between his first and second coming, that he came into the world not to rule as earthly kings but to die as a sacrifice for sins.

“This shall be a sign unto you.”

A sign is something that gets your attention, conveys relevant information and points you in the right direction. It would not have been a sign for me to tell someone that they would know a certain baby because they would find him wrapped in a receiving blanket in a blue cap in the nursery of the local hospital. There are probably several of those. However, it was certainly a sign when the angel told the shepherds that they would recognize the King of Kings by the fact that he had been wrapped in burial clothes and laid in a lowly feeding trough—the Lamb of God, born to die for the sins of the world.

IV. The Significance of the Manger. (Luke 2:7) He was laid in a manager for want of a bed. A feeding trough. A place that contained grain and hay to feed the livestock.

Again, “This shall be a sign unto you.”

Bethlehem means, “House of Bread.” The significance of Christ being laid in a manger as a sign to the shepherds—and to us—is that He came into the world as the bread of life for our for our hungry souls.

However, the bread had to be broken and consumed.

During the last Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciples, he broke the bread and gave to his disciples. He told them, “This is my body, which is broken for you.”

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Mary pondered these things in her heart, and so must we. Although our gifts to one another are wrapped in colored paper, they are cheap compared to the gift that the Father gave to you and I. His gift was wrapped in grave clothes, to signify the cost of our redemption. His was the gift of reconciliation, through the offering up of His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

He gave of Himself. He gave the very best that He had to offer.

What will we give Him, in return?

David told Ornan the Jebusite when offered the threshing floor and oxen for a sacrifice to the Lord that He would not offer anything to the Lord which cost him nothing. Instead, he paid the full price.

I’m not talking about earning Grace through works, nor I’m I talking about gifts of plastic and circuitry that we probably spent too much on. I’m talking about giving from the heart that same Lord that Christ has given us.

Greater love hath no man than this…

These are a few of the reasons why I love the Christmas story.

Christmas Day

To all whom I cannot see today,

Sister Mandie, Caleb, Sis. Nancy, Kirby, Noel, Matthew and all the rest,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Remember, today, that God gave his very best for us. How can we give any less to Him. No matter how much money we may spend to find the perfect gift for those we love, our gifts of plastic, circuitry and sophisticated computer chips are ever-so cheap, compared to the gift of love that the Father gave in His only begotten Son.

There's only one Gift that keeps on giving, both in this life and in eternity.

Christ is the expression of the Father's perfect love for us. May the REAL gifts that we give, on this day, be both an extension of our own love and an expression of God's love, for it is to share that Gift that we celebrate this day.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.


glitter-graphics.com

I'll post a follow-up later, along with a Christmas message for those of you who would like to celebrate the Reason for the Season by reflecting on the Greatest Gift of all.

P.S. Our thanks to Caleb and Mandie for allowing us to come out and visit them, last week. Our apologies for our long absence in posting, while we were there. However, thanks be unto God for His blessings upon us and the time of fellowship that we shared.

Wisdom, Free for the Asking

James 1:5-8
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Consider this: You're faced with a difficult decision, confrontation or challenge, perhaps even something as simple as knowing how to handle our own children, when we come to the end of our rope. How often is our first thought to ask for wisdom from the Lord?

I don't claim to be any guru on child-raising or any other subject, but I know without a doubt that I would not have made a fraction of the good choices that I have if it had not been for the wisdom that the Lord imparted, in response to such prayers.

I cannot tell you when I learned this passage, but it must have been one of the first passages to which the Lord brought me upon giving my heart to him. I was a young man of 18 years who had received little guidance in my lifetime. I needed a father figure more desperately than I needed food or drink, and I asked God to be a father to me. Without hesitation, he took me to the above passage, and I can honestly say that He has honored it every time that I have evoked its promise.

In fact, one of the things that I love about verse 5 is that it is followed by verses 6-8. James not only assures us that God will impart the wisdom we ask of Him, without rebuking us for what we should already know, but he tells us that it is such a divine certainty that we must ask it with complete confidence or expect nothing at all. If we ask wisdom, let us have boldness to know with absolute certainty that God will provide the guidance we have need of, even to the point of giving us deep insight into matters that we know nothing about.

To doubt either that He is the source and repository of all wisdom, including what to do in our specific circumstance, or that He is faithful to answer us when we ask of Him, is to be like a wave of sea, unstable in all our ways.

God knows us and He knows our circumstances, better than anyone else in all the world. James wants the people of God to understand who we place our confidence in, that He is not like men who cannot be depended on. It is the character of God to guide and reveal.

How much more is this true in regard to His children?

Make Me a Servant, Today.

By Pastor Jacob Doran

During my time with the Lord, this morning, I read the following passage:

Mark 10:42-45
42 And Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great ones exercise authority over them.
43 But it is not so among you: but whosoever would become great among you, shall be your minister;
44 and whosoever would be first among you, shall be servant of all.
45 For the Son of man also came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Jesus' admonition to his disciples struck me as the kind of words that, if we allow them, hold the power to change lives--both ours and the lives of others around us.

I realized that, most of the time, we go about our day entirely focused on ourselves, or at least on our own lives, our own needs and the demands that have been placed upon us. In whatever free time we have, we plan, we dream, we think about the things that would make our lives better or easier.

However, none of us have been called to be self-absorbed Christians. We are called to be salt and light--to bring help, hope and healing--to generally enrich the lives of others.

I had the incredible experience, last night, of meeting a Rwandan woman at the YWAM base in Lakeside, MT. She is there to learn skills that she wants to take back to her country and teach to the widows and orphans she has built her life around ministering to.

In all, there are 2100 orphans and more than 700 widowed women. Of the children, 1105 have tested positive for AIDS. Of the 700 widows, 403 have AIDS. The numbers are staggering.

Many of these are survivors of the genocide that took place in Rwanda, as is she. God kept her alive. Why? So that she could minister to her people's needs. The ministering of the Word is only a small part of her ministry to her people. The vast majority of what she does is simply to serve them and provide for their needs. She strives to brief relief from the suffering and joy to their despair. But that is the Gospel, in a nutshell.

We can say that Christianity is a lot of things, but the first general overseer of the Church of God, known to the Apostles as "James the brother of Jesus," declared: "Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

Keeping ourselves unspotted from the world is only part of the calling of Christian, a reasonable service that we should in no way rest upon thinking that we have therein fulfilled the Word and will of God.

PURE religion and UNDEFILED BEFORE GOD is this: that we visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. We must never forget that the whole of law is fulfilled in two commandments: to love the Lord our God with all of heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor--the ones created in His image--as ourselves.

The woman wept as she told me about her people, confiding that she had left them in the care of another and that it was difficult for her to be so far from them.

"I love them." She said, unable to speak again for a few moments, overcome the depth of emotion and concern for her people. She missed them. She wanted to be back in Rwanda with them.

That's why she is so devoted to learning everything she can while she is at YWAM. It has to be worth her while. She doesn't go back to Rwanda until March, and being so far from where her heart longs to be, doing what her passion compels her to do, would be unbearable if she did not occupy herself with getting the most out of her DTS (discipleship training program) so that she can minister to them more effectively when she returns.

Listening to her was one of the most powerful experiences I have even seen or felt. I was moved to love those around me as she loves her own people--the fatherless and the widows.

"There was so much killing," she said. "So much suffering. I can't ever let that happen again. I have to help them."

You see where her focus lies. She does not think about what she has lost--she too is an orphan--but about what her people have lost. She doesn't think about what she WANTS. She thinks about what her people NEED.

I have so much to learn.

Perhaps, we all do.

Matthew 9:35-37
35 And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness.
36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd.
37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

Prayer:
Heavenly father, I have been spoiled by my own comforts. I have complained about petty things that are not worthy of my concern or attention. I have desired things that are not worthy of my affection. Please teach me to love as I am love. Teach me to give to others what you have given me. Move me with compassion for those who are distressed and scatter, as sheep not having a shepherd. Make me a servant, today.

Who can understand his errors?

I am going to be preaching a message on Psalm 19, concerning God's desire to reveal Himself to us so that we may know Him more intimately, as well as His desire to reveal us to ourselves, so that we can yield those areas of our lives that are not being daily brought under His authority.

For this morning, however, I will merely cite Psalm 19:12, because it asks a profound question and follows it with an equally powerful prayer: " Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults."

I have no intention of making this a lengthy discourse. It is a simple admonition, as it has been for myself. The Word of God tells us that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, so that no man can know it (Jeremiah 17:9). Thank God that HE knows our heart and that, if we will let Him, He will plainly reveal it's motives and hidden faults so that we may submit them to Him.

May our prayer, this day, include this powerful line, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults."

God Bless you, today and always.

Making Bitter Waters Sweet

By Pastor Jacob Doran

Flathead Valley, MT

Exodus 15:22-26 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

In a desert, 600,000+ men (not to mention women and children), can work up quite a thirst, as can their abundant livestock, brought with them from Egypt. Whatever water they brought with them would not last long, before they found themselves rationing their water, enduring both the weakness that accompanies dehydration and the continual cotton mouth of a thirst that is never satisfied.

Understandably, some of them were wondering where God was in all of this. If He could part the waters of the Red Sea and lead them across on dry land, why couldn’t He provide them with water to drink?

The answer is that He COULD provide them with water, as we are quick to answer. Why, then, didn’t He do so?

God allowed His people to endure their thirst until they were painfully aware of their need for His provision—what He alone could supply—and of the fact that they had exhausted their own supply, which meant they could no longer depend on the water they had brought with them.

It has often been observed that, when trials beset us, what is in our hearts usually comes out. Like the Hebrews, what often comes out of God’s people today is a barrage of complaints, both over their circumstances—and by implication God, since He seems to have allowed and not intervened in those circumstance—and in regard to His appointed leaders (after all, they are the ones who led us here).

At first, they could find no water at all, but when the cry went out that water had been found, it was bitter and undrinkable. The Hebrews called the place Marah, which means "bitter.”

What we must realize is that, until God’s people learn to put their trust in Him, seeking first the eternal rather than the temporal, their way will always be bitter.

However, when Moses cried out to God on behalf of the people—something that they should have done to begin with—God showed them how to change their circumstances from bitter to sweet.

Matthew Henry puts it this way:

Even true believers, in seasons of sharp trial, will be tempted to fret, distrust, and murmur. But in every trial we should cast our care upon the Lord, and pour out our hearts before him. We shall then find that a submissive will, a peaceful conscience, and the comforts of the Holy Ghost, will render the bitterest trial tolerable, yea, pleasant. Moses did what the people had neglected to do; he cried unto the Lord. And God provided graciously for them.

Many, here, compare the tree to the cross—and I’m not saying that there isn’t an analogy to be made. However, I think that comparing the tree to the cross alone can be a grave mistake. Yes, Jesus died on the cross, but He did so for a profound reason that we must here consider.

Ephesians 2:13-18 tells us,

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

I am reminded of the tree of life, set in the midst of the paradise of God (Gen. 2:9 & Rev. 2:7) and pictured in Revelation 22:2 as the central feature of the City of God. Sin and the carnal mind are what separated Man from the tree of life. However, Christ removed the enmity that separated us from Himself and gave us access, by one Spirit, to the Father.

The cross is but a picture of Grace—that Christ did for us what we could not do for ourselves and, thus, secured for us what we could not secure for ourselves. The cross is only part of the equation. What truly makes the waters of our own trials sweet—and all of life, for that matter—is Christ, who abolished the enmity in His own flesh.

When we, as believers, get our eyes off of the Lord, life is made bitter again. Of a sudden, there is no joy, no enjoyment of life or salvation, and no peace of mind. When Christ—our Tree of Life—does not stand at the center of the Paradise of God, to which He has brought us, and at the center of the City of God (the Church), we will find there no lasting joy or blessing.

In short, it is not the cross that many envision as meaning perpetual sacrifice and dying to self that makes life sweet and enjoyable, but rather the Christ who died once for all and now sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for the saints. Although He does bid us to take up our cross and follow Him, to deny ourselves and seek first the Kingdom of God, the cross itself represents only death. It is Christ who represents life, and when He is the center of our lives and churches, we will find that it is HE who makes the waters sweet.

Fellowship with Christ is the only paradise we are called to enjoy, either in this life or the next, and without it we can but wander in the desert, empty and bitter. He alone is our Oasis. He is the only solution that God will offer to change our circumstances and make them sweet.

In John 4:10 we read,

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

How do we give Him drink? We bring Him into the midst of every day and let Him make the bitter waters sweet. When we submit to Him and let Him be the center of everything, the bitter becomes palatable and even enjoyable.

Notice where the Lord took His people next.

Exodus 15:27 And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

Not only did He make the waters of Marah sweet. He then brought them to a place where there was water abundance. In fact, there was a well for each tribe and seventy palm trees to offer shade—the Biblical number of fullness or completeness.

Abundance and blessing resulted from their faith in Him and their obedience to His word. All that they needed was theirs when they got their eyes off of themselves and their own want and fixed them upon Him. Rest and contentment is only found when we bring Him into the midst and fellowship with Him through even our sorrows and felt needs.

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10b)

He not only gives abundant life. He IS abundant life.