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| (Lake Erie sunrise) |
This is how I am beginning this day.
I read from the book of Proverbs. I am in chapter 10. Especially in these troubled days, Proverbs is speaking. This book focuses me on what is important. For example,
The wise store up knowledge.
Prov. 10:14
Even though I have spent fifty years doing this, there are still vast spaces in the storehouse of my heat that are waiting to be occupied with the wisdom of God.
The wages of the righteous is life,
but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.
Proverbs 10:16
So true! I'm writing these two verses on a 3X5 card, and carrying them with me into this day.
This week culminates in Palm Sunday. So, I am immersing myself in Luke 19:28-41, and Matthew 21:1-11. Even though I have read these word many times, I will be saturated with them this week, as I read and re-read them, over and over.
So this week, for me, is a week of Proverbs 10, and perhaps chapter 11, plus the Palm Sunday passages in Luke and Matthew.
God is going to speak to me through Scripture this week. As he does, I will write down what he says to me. This has been my habit, to keep a record of God's voice to me, for forty-four years.
I will add some commentaries on Luke and Matthew, and study them.
My reading is qualitative, not quantitative. This is not about how many Bible verses I read. It is about slow-cooking and going as deep as the Spirit can take me, given my limitations. Again, my heart is a storehouse. God's going to pl,ace some more wisdom gifts in it this week.
Then, on Palm Sunday, I will share what God has been saying to me.
People get ready.
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Three devotional books I may read from are:
Hearing God Through the Year: A 365-Day Devotional, by Dallas Willard
You Are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living, by Henri Nouwen
Faith That Matters: 365 Devotions From Classic Christian Leaders (Tozer, N.T. Wright, Nouwen, Eugene Peterson, Dallas Willard, and others - excellent!)
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My two books are:
Leading the Presence-Driven Church
Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God (This book can be read daily and devotionally.)
