New Year's Resolutions Part 2

So, after my blog yesterday I came across a quote that confirmed my convictions about reading through the Bible this year. It is by J.I. Packer and says, "Any Christian worth his salt ought to read the Bible from cover-to-cover every year."

13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

- Matthew 5:13-14

Packer poses a great question we all need to answer, are we worth are salt? Or you could go on to ask, How bright is your light? Recently God has just been teaching me the power and importance of Scripture. We need to read, know, and understand God's Word. I will leave you with this passage from the book "Primal":

"One of the common complaints people make when leaving a church is this: "I'm not being fed." As a preacher, I make it my goal to nourish our congregation via a well-rounded diet of sermons. And I try to preach every sermon like it's my last. But let me push back a little. My kids learned to feed themselves when they were toddlers. If you're not being fed, that's your fault. I'm afraid we've unintentionally fostered a subtle form of spiritual codependency in our churches. It is easy to let others take responsibility for what should be our responsibility. So we let our pastors study the Bible for us."

New Year's Resolutions

I have never been a big fan of New Year's Resolutions. I guess my thought would be, "why wait till January 1st to start doing something, do it now!" However, I always think a new year allows us to reflect on the past year and more forward to a new one. This year I felt compelled to make some "resolutions" or goals spiritually for 2010. I wanted to share them with you not only to challenge you to make some goals spiritually for yourself but also to keep myself accountable.

Goal #1: Read through the Bible in 2010. I have never committed to do this and completed it yet so this year I felt this is something I really need to do. The more of God's word I can implant on my heart the more ammunition I have to battle Satan. This year I want to challenge you to know the Word of God.

Goal #2: Read 15 books this year. I really am growing to love to read. I think Christian books are great in addition to the Bible. They help me understand people, culture, and share stories of others in ministry. I will probably be blogging a lot over this next year about the books I am reading and the truths God shows me through His Word.

The first book I am diving into for 2010 is called "Primal" by Mark Batterson. Mark is the pastor of National Community Church on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. I have really enjoyed one of his previous books "Wild Goose Chase." Here are some highlights so far:

• Many Christians know what they believe, but they don't know why they believe what they believe. Their faith is fragile because it has never been tested intellectually or experientially. When they encounter questions they cannot answer or experiences they cannot explain, it causes a crisis of faith.
• If Jesus said that loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is the most important commandment, then doesn't it logically follow that we ought to spend an inordinate amount of our time and energy trying to understand it and obey it.?
• Minds often remain closed to the truth until hearts have been opened by compassion.