Thinking Out Loud on Blogging

My giveaway and the response to it has caused me to think a lot about blogging. My heart in having the giveaway and promoting it as I did was to give as many people as possible the opportunity to win a book that I have come to consider essential reading for every Christian. In addition, the reason bloggers have giveaways is to ascertain who is reading their blogs. Based on my experience here, I must conclude that not many people are actually reading this blog, and among those who are reading it, very few have taste in books similar to mine. I also know that some people are simply busy and can't be bothered. I understand that.

I have done a good bit of blogging over the past several years, and I have never been very successful at it. Success in the blogosphere is measured via comments, and even my most popular posts on my other blogs have rarely numbered comments in the double-digits. I didn't necessarily expect that here, but I must admit I am disappointed.

I imagine that some people think it is the height to arrogance for someone to write something down and assume that other people want to read it. People who think that way are clearly not writers. Writers write because they cannot help themselves, and if they feel they have written something entertaining or interesting or profound, they feel compelled to share it. It is like having a spiritual gift and being naturally motivated to use it. Those of us who are prophets and teachers as well as writers are even more inclined to share because that is inherent in our gifting. When we learn something from God, we want to tell others about it. We are excited and motivated, and we want others to share the experience. When people don't respond as we hope, it is disappointing.

I will admit that with my other blogs, I wrestled with aspirations of popularity. I promoted those blogs and worked to generate reciprocal comments. When I started this blog, I had no such ambitions. It was simply a way for me to communicate with and encourage my class members and to supplement what we cover on Sundays. I shared the fact that I was blogging again with others who I knew had read my other blogs and had responded positively to my past efforts. But beyond that, I simply posted as I was inspired to do so.

At some point, I allowed some of the feedback I received and my natural performance mentality to distract me from my original intent, and I started doing a little self-promotion, which led to the giveaway and the declaration that I would start blogging more regularly with more original content. I even presumed to ask for feedback. All of this was nearly totally ignored, with the exception of a few faithful friends who love me despite my faults and did not want me to be disappointed.

I don't know why I allowed myself to fall into this trap. If I've learned one thing in recent months, it is to "Be still and know that He is God." (Psalm 46:10) If God wants it to happen, it will happen. All I have to do is be obedient. And as far as this blog is concerned, obedience is posting as I feel inspired in an effort to encourage and edify my Sunday school class members. The next time I want to give away a book, I'll bring it to class and have a drawing there.

Getting Out of Bed to Serve the Living God

As I was going through the flagged passages in the library's copy of The Great Work of the Gospel so I could highlight them in my new copy, I came across the following passage:

We began as guilty sinners, living empty lives, and through the sanctifying power of his Spirit and belief in the truth, God washes, heals, molds, and spurs us on to a place where we wake up every day of our lives with the highest of all purposes for getting out of bed. We serve the living God!

A shorter time ago than I care to admit, I struggled to get out of bed every day. I got up just in time to get my children to school without being tardy, and I drove them there in my bathrobe. I often would come home and go back to bed because I was so tired and depressed.

The past several years have been a very difficult season in my life. I have had a number of health problems that contributed to depression and the enemy took full advantage of it. I was searching for and seeking God's will for my life with an understanding that God had a calling for me, but I wasn't sure what it was, and I didn't understand why He was taking so long to reveal it to me. (I'm already 40 for goodness sake!) At the same time, I knew there was a disconnect between my knowledge of the Word and my ability to live out what I knew, and I didn't like it one bit.

Last fall, during a Bible study my husband and I were doing, God spoke to my heart as I was reading the following passage:

And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday.
And the LORD will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
—Isaiah 58:10-11

At this point in my life, I was praying about going to work with Rachel's House, and it was becoming pretty clear that it was God's will for me to do it. I was struggling with it because God really took me by surprise. I had been aware of the establishment of Rachel's House from its inception, and I never considered myself for the position of director. I had other visions for what God was calling me to do. I was just leaving the timing and specifics up to Him.

So as I was reading Isaiah 58, I felt God communicate to me that working at Rachel's House would be giving myself to the spiritually hungry and afflicted or troubled. And as a result, He would restore my strength and lighten my darkness or depression. I was encouraged, but not convinced. It was some weeks before I completely surrendered to God's calling on my life. As I told my fellow choir members last week, the result has been personal revival.

What was key to this revival? Two very simple, but very difficult things:
(1) I came to the end of myself. Instead of praying for God to increase my faith, I prayed "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." Instead of asking God to help me with a struggle, I told Him I was utterly incapable of doing anything about it, and I asked Him to effect change in me. Instead of focusing on my sin, I focused on the One who paid the penalty for it.
(2) I stepped out in obedience and trusted that God knew better for me than I knew for myself. Up to this point, it was something that I knew intellectually, but now I've experienced it. God choose for me very differently than I had chosen for myself, and He was absolutely right, of course.

I have been so blessed! I look forward to sharing more with you about His faithfulness.

My First Giveaway: A Book, Of Course

I loved The Great Work of the Gospel so much that I bought two copies—one for myself and one to giveaway here!

For a chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post before 6:00 PM EST next Tuesday, March 2. I will select a winner at random that evening and announce it in an addendum to this post. If you are not a member of my Sunday school class, please be sure to provide an email address so I can contact you if you win.

Since this is likely to be a high volume post for readers, now is a good time for me to communicate that it is my intention to try to post here on a more regular basis and to provide more original content rather than just quoting from books I've been reading. If you have any suggestions or requests, please include them in your comments. See this post for an explanation of the strike-through.

Edited to add: I have had several people tell me that they have not been able to leave comments. If you do not have a Blogger or Google account, under "profile," select "anonymous." However, be sure to leave your name within the content of your comment so I will know who you are!

Addendum, 3-3-10: Sorry I'm behind schedule! I was "under the weather" yesterday evening. I used the random number generator to determine the winner, and it is Michelyn! Thank you to everyone who left a comment!

Resurrection

One of the center directors at the conference I attended last week sang the song Resurrection by Nicol Sponberg. I was inspired to share it with you. Following is a video of the artist performing her song.

The Great Work of the Gospel

I attended the Georgia Pregnancy Centers Conference last week where the keynote speaker was John Ensor. In preparation for this event, I began reading his book, The Great Work of the Gospel: How We Experience God's Grace. Following is one of my favorite passages so far.

The heart of the Christian message has been and always will be that "Christ dies for our sins" (I Corinthians 15:3). But in spite of this, many remain hamstrung by their secret guilt and are living very shallow lives. Why is that? I suspect it is because they have nothing but a shallow understanding of the cross, and in many cases only a small appetite for learning more. Eyes roll at the mere mention of the words doctrine and theology. These are verbal sleeping pills for many. Yet at the same time, they suffer from the insomnia of guilt, anxiety, and powerlessness in their faith. They lack confidence and purpose and wonder why. Could it be that a shallow understanding of the cross is like an inoculation shot? It prevents us from getting the real thing—a full-blown case of sin-uprooting, praise-inspiring, life-altering faith in Christ based on the radical implications of his death on the cross.

First Corinthians 14:20 urges us, "do not he children in your thinking, Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature." That is what we must do. We must think a little more. Only a truth-soaked mind can reshape our opinions, attitudes, responses, and decisions. This is the awesome implication of the Jesus' words, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32).

Ensor explains and illustrates the gospel in such a way that even mature believers will gain greater understanding of and appreciation for the cross. I highly recommend this book.

Bonhoeffer on Prayer, Part Two

In "Bonhoeffer on Prayer, Part One," the focus was on how to pray. Following are some of Bonhoeffer's thoughts on what to pray. (The following words are directly quoted from The Cost of Discipleship.)

The Lord's Prayer is not merely the pattern prayer, it is the way Christians must pray. If they pray this prayer, God will certainly hear them. The Lord's Prayer is the quintessence of prayer. A disciple's prayer is founded on and circumscribed by it. Once again Jesus does not leave his disciples in ignorance; he teaches them the Lord's Prayer and so leads them to a clear understanding of prayer.

"Our Father which art in heaven." ...they call upon a Father who already knows his children's needs. ... In the name of the Son of God they are privileged to call God Father.

"Hallowed be they name." God's name as Father...shall be kept holy among them.

"Thy kingdom come." God grant that the kingdom of Jesus Christ may grow in his Church on earth. God hasten the end of the kingdoms of this world, and establish his own kingdom in power and glory!

"Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth." In fellowship with Jesus his followers have surrendered their own wills completely to God's, and so they pray that God's will may be done throughout the world. ...the evil will is still alive even in the followers of Christ, it still seeks to cut them off from fellowship with him; and that is why they must also pray that the will of God may prevail more and more in their hearts every day and break down all defiance.

God's name, God's kingdom, God's will must be the primary object of Christian prayer. Of course, it is not as if God needed our prayers, but they are the means by which the disciples become partakers in the heavenly treasure for which they pray. Furthermore, God uses their prayers to hasten the coming of the End.

"Give us this day our daily bread." As long as the disciples are on earth, they should not be ashamed to pray for their bodily needs. ...bread really comes down from above as the gift of God alone.

"Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." Every day Christ's followers must acknowledge and bewail their guilt.

"Lead us not into temptation." ...the disciple is conscious of his weakness, and does not expose himself unnecessarily to temptation in order to test the strength of his faith. Christians ask God not to put their puny faith to the test, but to preserve them in the hour of temptation.

"But deliver us from evil." It is a prayer for a holy death and for the deliverance of the Church in the day of judgment.

"For thine is the kingdom..." The disciples are renewed in their assurance that the kingdom is God's by their fellowship in Jesus Christ, on whom depends the fulfillment of all their prayers. In him God's name is hallowed, his kingdom comes and his will is done.

Matthew Henry on Mark 9

In class this morning (thanks to Linda!) I read part of Matthew Henry's commentary on Mark 9. Following is a link to the complete passage. Henry's observations on salt are especially instructive.

http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/mark/9.html