Thirst

I was able to go to thirst, the spiritual discipline class, on Monday! I'm sad that I am going to miss a few weeks while in Nevada and Brazil. We did several different disciplines. One of them was where we listened to several verses 3 times. We were supposed to just listen and notice what word or phrase stuck out to us each time because God shows us different things that apply to us at that moment in our lives. We discussed how the purpose of reading the Bible is not to know facts, but to hear what God has to say to you right then. Scripture is the living word of God. It means different things for each person every time you read it.

Here are the verses that were read to us 3 times.

"As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."

He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?"

"Lord, I want to see," he replied. "

-Luke 18:35-41

Before we listened to this, we were asked to either picture ourselves as a character in the story, or as a person in the crowd.

After we listened to this, we were told to picture Jesus saying our name and then saying "what do you want from me?"

Another discipline we took from that was thinking of our answer when Jesus asks us that. Jesus comes up to you and says your name. Then He asks "what do you want?" What would you say? Maybe you actually want to feel freedom from sin. Once we got a phrase, we each thought of a name to call Christ. An example would be Savior or Redeemer. When we got a name we said the name breathing in, then the phrase breathing out. If you practice this enough, it will become like breathing. You will think of it all the time and it will be your focus. An example of the phrase is, Savior.... show me where you want me. It can be whatever you want.

Back to the passage above. The first 2 times the scriptures were read, I had no idea what God wanted me to hear. But when I heard it the 3rd time, I heard the verse "Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him."

This man is blind. He really doesn't know what is going on. I imagine that he felt overwhelmed by how fast things are happening. He does know that Jesus is somewhere in the crowd by him.

The blind man really wants to see Jesus but he doesn't think it is going to happen because Jesus is going by him. But when he calls out to Jesus, Jesus stops. Jesus actually STOPS.

Last week I mentioned that so many things are happening extremely fast in my life that I have no control over. I've had no choice but to blindly sit there are watch. But when I heard that verse I realized that Jesus IS with me in this. Everything is happening so fast but He actually stops and carries me. I can see Him now because I realized that He meets me where I am.

"When you cross deep rivers, I will be with you, and you won't drown. When you walk through fire, you won't be burned or scorched by the flames." Isaiah 43:2

"I am the Lord your God. I am holding your hand, so don't be afraid. I am here to help you." Isaiah 41:13

Psalm 23 and update

There is not much to report. Just the normal stuff. Over the weekend I starting eating more. That morphine really took me down. I started back on all my medicines and shots. I'm still doing IVs at home too. Yesterday I had a bad reaction to the medicines. It's good to have a reaction cause it means the medicines are working, but you have to make sure it doesn't get too bad. I had a horrible migraine and eye twitching that made the room shake. I've never had the eye twitching so that was weird! I have not been doing too much because I'm still weak. I've just been relaxing at home.

I did get to go to the Bible study this week! I love it so much!! We have done a few things since I have posted. One this is called examine. You think back on your day. You look back and see where God would push the pause button to tell you something. That is hard to think about actually. Then you think about how you handled different things through out your day. This is such a good exercise. You are supposed to write all the examine in your journal.

I don't remember what the one we did Monday is called. For that one, you read a scripture or scriptures at least 3 times out loud. You notice what phrase God wants you to focus on. After you have your phrase, that is what you repeat all day. It should be what you focus on all day long. On Monday, Phil read Psalm 23 to us.

After a while to reflect, we had a time of quietness where anyone could share the phrase that they felt God was showing them.

Every week we end with a prayer that is open to anyone. There is lots of silence during the prayer. But at any time, anyone can say anything to God. Usually it is a thanks, asking God to help them in specific areas in their life, or requests for others. Everyone that I talk to says this is one of their favorite parts of the Bible study. You get to hear what God is doing in people's lives. It's so honest. You get to hear what people specifically need to work on in their lives. A lot of people use scripture in their prayer. For example, like in Psalm 23 it says "He restores my soul". So during the prayer people would say "Lord please restore my soul".

I love that kind of prayer. It's so encouraging to be a part of that.

"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD"

Psalm 23

Spiritual Disciplines

Monday night I went to a Bible study with the youth group. This Bible study is different than most. It's called Thirst and it is about spiritual disciplines. We learn different things to do, to help us actually grow closer to Christ. The room was lit by candles and the chairs where 2 feet apart so that we wouldn't sit close to anyone who would distract us. The first thing we did was solitude. There was some suggestion on what to do. The first one was just thinking of a word. One word that we would say over and over and over. It's completely normal to think of other things but when you do, you just think back to the word. Another suggestion was deep breathing. It is good to pick a phrase and on every word, either breathe in or out slowly. For example you would say while inhaling "be still and know" then exhaling "that I am God".

Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10

The other suggestion was relaxing your whole body. First you notice your big toe. You understand that your toe is not doing anything, it is just there. Then you do that all the way until you get to your head. By that time you are completely relaxed. The whole goal of these exercises is to forget about reality. The goal is to become so focused on the word or phrase or just being there, that the room fades away. Obviously this is very hard to do. We were given 8 minutes to do this. I thought that it went by so fast! We were challenged to do this everyday because it is so important. Just like an athlete, we have to train. We can't go to our marathon (life) and expect something to happen just being we say we are a "runner"(a Christian). Without strict training (studying God's word, listening to God, knowing that He is always God) we will fail the race that we call life. But if we train like we should, we will see that God has a place for us in the marathon.

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

After we practiced solitude, we tried another discipline called simple prayer. We were reminded that God comes to us where we are in our lives. Simple prayer is just being honest with God about what is happening now. It's about praying the ordinary If I'm angry about something, I tell him by writing it in a simple prayer. If something is stressing me out, I write it down. If there is something so great, I write it. It's just writing simple things down, because God will meet us wherever we are and He cares about everything.

These are such good ways to hear God speaking to us, but these are so hard to actually do everyday. That is why they are called a discipline!

Lots of people came this week to Thirst and I can't wait for the weeks to come.