Tag: christianity

40 Days of Prayer Campaign

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

40 Days of Prayer Graphic

How is your prayer life? Do you pray for the lost? Do you pray for your city? Do you prayer for your government? Do you pray for those in your own church?

40 Days of Prayer Campaign

Recently, a member of our congregation came to me with a burden to pray like Moses did for the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 9. Out of that conversation birthed 40 Days of Prayer. Here is the heart of the campaign:

40 Days of Prayer is an event inspired by the longsuffering and abundant mercy of a holy God and modeled after the dedicated period of fasting and effective, intercessory prayer of Moses. Moses led and lived among a rebellious people destined to perish under God’s wrath. Sound familiar? Like Moses, we desire to seek and apply God’s wisdom as the world hopelessly applies man’s wisdom to address cultural, social, economic, political and spiritual matters.  We invite you to partner with us in a focused and fervent 40 days of prayer.

7 Daily Devotions to Prepare the Heart

In order to prepare our hearts to pray for 40 Days, we wrote 7 daily devotionals. We are encouraging those who desire to pray alongside of us for the next 40 days to read through these devotionals and fast one day during the week. In an effort to help you prepare your heart to pray for 40 days, I will be posting those devotionals on my blog for the next 7 days.

If you would like more information about 40 Days of Prayer, including how you can download a PDF copy of the information and how you can link with us on social media, visit our website: sycamoredecatur.com/40DaysofPrayer

What Do You Treasure?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals3 Comments

Treasure Chest

What do you treasure? Is it earthly treasure or heavenly treasure? We would all like to think that we treasure the things of heaven, but that is not always true. Since that is the case, Jesus commands us not to store up earthly treasure. Instead we are to store up heavenly treasure.

In order to work against storing up earthly treasure, we need to know what we might have a tendency to treasure. I believe we can figure that out by thinking through a few questions.

What Do You Have Tendency to Treasure?

(1) What are the things you protect the most?

  • What do you keep behind lock and key at your house?
  • What do you rarely use for fear it might get messed up?

(2) What are the things you put before Godly activity?

What I mean by godly activity is: Reading your Bible, Prayer, Worship, and Christian fellowship

  • What takes the place of your Bible reading or prayer?
  • What is it that you are willing to do instead of coming to the worship service?
  • What is it that keeps you from times of fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week?

(3) What do you pour the most energy and effort into?

  • Your house or yard?
  • A car you are fixing up?
  • Finding the best deal?
  • Things you create such as art, pictures, books, or blogs?

(4) What are the things that tug at your mind or emotions?

  • What are you constantly thinking about?
  • Planning to do?
  • Day-dreaming about?

Conclusion

Answering these questions honestly can help you determine what you have a tendency to treasure. Figuring that out is important so that you can guard yourself from storing up earthly treasures.

Question for Reflection

  1. Would you be willing to share what you have a tendency to treasure?

Resource

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The Valley of Vision: Devotion to God

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals2 Comments 
Valley of Vision
God of my end,

It is my greatest, noblest pleasure
    to be acquainted with Thee
    and with my rational, immortal soul;

It is sweet and entertaining
    to look into my being
    when all my powers and passions
    are united and engaged in pursuit of Thee,
    when my soul longs and passionately breathes
    after conformity to Thee
    and the full enjoyment of Thee;

No hours pass away with so much pleasure
    as those spent in communion with Thee
    and with my heart.

O how desirable, how profitable to the Christian life
    is a spirit of holy watchfulness
    and godly jealousy over myself,
    when my soul is afraid of nothing
    except grieving and offending Thee,
    the blessed God, my Father and friend,
    whom I then love and long to please,
    rather than be happy in myself!

Knowing, as I do, that this is the pious temper,
    worthy of the highest ambition, and closest
    pursuit of intelligent creatures and holy Christians,
    may my joy derive from glorifying and delighting Thee.

I long to fill all my time for Thee,
    whether at home or in the way;
    to place all my concerns in Thy hands;
    to be entirely at Thy disposal,
    having no will or interest of my own.

Help me to live to Thee for ever,
    to make Thee my last and only end,
    so that I may never more in one instance
    love my sinful self.

Resources

The Valley of Vision, Devotion, 236-37 (leather bound edition)

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Why Are We Not Doers of the Word?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Practical4 Comments

The Bible

In his epistle, James challenges us to be doers of the Word; to be people who live according to God’s commands (James 1:19-26).

After teaching through this section of James, I have been thinking, if God expects us to live according to His Word, why do some disregard this command? I thought of three responses, but I am sure there are more, so let me know what you think.

Why We Are Not Doers of the Word

(1) We are ignorant of what God’s Word says on a particular issue.

This can be corrected by studying God’s Word. To get the most out of God’s Word we must saturate ourselves in it, which we can do by:

  1. Reading it
  2. Studying it
  3. Singing it
  4. Hearing it preached

In order to learn as much as possible about God’s Word, it is important Christians be:

  1. Apart of a church.
  2. Be committed to attending that church.
  3. Get together apart from church times to study Scripture.
  4. Center their conversations around what God is teaching them through their study of God’s Word.

(2) We know the truth, but we are rebelling against God’s Word.

This can be corrected through accountability. It is the job of church members to hold each other accountable, and speak into each others’ lives when they see blatant sin.

Life changing accountability requires:

  1. Deep community.
  2. Commitment to one another.
  3. A strong desire to see God glorified.

Without deep community, commitment, and a strong desire to see God glorified, accountability will not take place.

(3) We are unbelievers who do not see a necessity to live out God’s Word.

This can only be corrected through salvation. Salvation comes through evangelism and the Holy Spirit working on our hearts.

What Are Your Thoughts?

These are three reasons I came up with regarding why we do not live according to God’s commands. After thinking through them and the questions below, let me know your thoughts.

Questions for Reflection

  1. How do you saturate yourself in God’s Word?
  2. How often is God’s Word apart of your everyday conversations?
  3. How much more do you think God would be glorified and your church act as a witness to the community, if you saw accountability as a necessary part of your church body?
  4. How are you personally attempting to reach people with the gospel in your own circle of influence?

Resource

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No One is Above Culture’s Influence

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Practical1 Comment

Culture's Influence

No one is above the influence of their culture. Even Samuel, the great prophet of God was not above the influence of his surroundings.

Samuel Not Above the Culture

1 Samuel 16 tells of Samuel’s journey to anoint the next king over Israel. After traveling to Bethlehem, escaping the suspicion of Saul, and convincing the elders he came in peace, Samuel calls the elders and Jesse’s family together for a sacrifice.

After they gathered, Samuel noticed Jesse’s son Eliab. He was tall and his appearance was pleasing. He stood out from the rest. Samuel thought he was God’s next king. He was not, however, the one the Lord would anoint as king. Sure, he looked the part, but his heart was not right. He was not a man after God’s own heart; that would be his brother David.

Samuel’s thoughts and the Lord’s declaration tells us something important. No man is above their culture’s influence. When Saul was installed as king, Israel praised and exalted him because he looked the part. He looked like all the surrounding kings. Samuel’s thought shows culture rubbed off on him; it influenced him.

Understand Culture’s Influence

If we are honest with ourselves, we are all influenced by our culture and traditions in one way or another. Knowing that anyone can be influenced by their culture, we must ask ourselves:

  1. How does our culture influence us?
  2. How does our traditions sway our thinking and decisions?
  3. How does God’s Word tell us we should act?

It is important we ask ourselves all these questions when approaching a decisions, especially the last question because God’s Word should be our guide in everything we do.

Question for Reflection

  1. How have you noticed your culture influencing you?
  2. How do you deal with its influence?

Resource

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What Disciple Making Should Look Like

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Evangelism, Pastoral, Practical3 Comments

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do you believe the church is your building or the people?
  2. How is your church training its people to engage those in their circle of influence with the gospel?
  3. What do you believe works better an event/program driven church, or a church on mission? Why do you believe what you believe?

Resource

This is Discipling from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.