The Long Haul....

Achieving the life you've always wanted can sometimes make us feel like the fella in the picture on this post.

Life can beat us up and make us feel defeated.

Last week, Victoria helped the class focus on how suffering plays a role in transforming us into the people God wants us to be.

No one likes to suffer, but it is a part of life. As we wrap up our class this week, we're going to focus on the long view of our spiritual journey with Christ.

Just as our response to suffering tests our faith, so do times where we face tough choices, times where we face success, and times where we face impossible odds!

The challenges and triumphs of life can be stumbling blocks or leverage points on our spiritual journey toward the life we've always wanted.

Are you committed to finishing the race of life well? What is worth sacrificing or enduring in order to finish well for you?

What can we do to spur each other on to finish well?

Your Spiritual Heart Beat

Last week in class we discussed the modern tendency to pursue "balance in our lives."

You'll recall that Ortberg, in his book, casts this "balancing act" as a 21st Century middle class activity and not something that is necessarily Biblical.

Instead, God calls us to a "well-ordered life" where we are pursuing the right things in the right way at the right time in the right spirit.

Are you struggling with the "balancing act"? Are you trying to compartmentalize your spiritual life so it balances with everything else? This can be frustrating for a Christian aspiring for transformation.

Instead, make an intentional effort to permeate your entire life with the spiritual component.

In order to do this effectively, we need to punctuate our lives with a steady, frequent, and intentional effort to incorporate spirituality into everything we do. Satan has a strategy to distract you and to mess up the order of the life you always wanted. That means you need a strategy.

In class we asked the question: what is your spiritual rhythm? What are the things you intentionally do every week, every day, every hour to knit an awareness of your spiritual quest into "right now"?

Would your spiritual EKG have just one spike every 7 days when you go to church? Or is it punctuated on a daily, hourly, even moment to moment basis?

When we intentionally incorporate habits (like prayer, praise, music, etc.) into the rhythm of our lives, we open ourselves fully to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into Christ's image.

If you haven't already this week, map out your spiritual EKG. Do you need to be more intentional? What helps you on a daily basis to be ever mindful and open to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Post a response and share with others....

NOTE: I will be out of town this week, but you have a special guest teacher. Victoria will be teaching the class this week. I'll be back August 31st to wrap up our study of the Ortberg book and launch us into our new focus--growing spiritually through different types of suffering.

Fighting Approval Addiction

In class this week, we explored "approval addiction" and how it can impact our lives.

Cain was the first victim in the Bible who we know suffered from approval addiction....and it led to murder.

We also discussed how "secret service" (hence the picture) can help combat approval addiction.

Do you struggle with approval addiction? Take the following quiz. If you answer "yes" to any one of these, you should outline a plan on how you will address this area. We didn't get to this activity in class on Sunday and it is right out of the Ortberg video guide.

APPROVAL ADDICTION QUIZ: Yes or No

• I am often hurt when other people express less than glowing opinions about me.
• I habitually compare myself to other people.
• I am competitive in most ordinary situations.
• I have a nagging sense that I'm not important enough or special enough.
• I envy someone else's success.
• I try to impress people.
• I'm afraid someone will find out how much I worry about receiving approval.
• My sense of self-esteem depends on whether someone notices how smart, attractive, or _____ I am.
• I find it difficult to love someone who expresses disapproval of me.
• The opinions of others really affect me.
• I measure my accomplishments against those of other people.
• My concern for what others think inevitably leads me to shade the truth.
• I resent the person whose approval I seek because too much of my well-being rests in his or her hands.
• I am consumed by impression management. Much of what I say is to control how other people think of me.

One step you can immediately take to fight approval addiction is to act on the note card you took from class on Sunday.

Do an act of kindness or service for the person on the card you choose from the red box.....and don't tell anyone (that means no one!).

Humility: Prescription for Pride

In class this week we spent quite a bit of time talking about how pride can really drag down our spiritual transformation.

Victoria told me the kids in Bible Blitz also talked about humility this week. When she asked them to describe humility, one child said, and I quote: "It's what happens when the air gets really moist and sticky..." I laughed really hard at that one.

While we adults don't confuse humility with humidity, we do tend to confuse what it really means.

Remember, we can be humble, yet be strong. We can be humble, yet stand firm in our convictions. We can be humble, but we can lead.

What does genuine humility (not humidity) look like?

Philippians 2:6-11 may help us out:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow,in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

If we want a real definition of humility, we find it here.

Humility bows to God. Remember Adam and Even's problem? They were tempted to be equal to God, and they fell. When we are humble we realize God is God and we are not. We are here to serve Him. He is not here to serve us.

Humility serves. Those who are proud seek to be served by others to meet their own selfish needs. Those who are humble simply serve others--without seeking credit, praise, or even a thank you. They serve in love, simply love.

Humility is obedient--regardless of the cost. Jesus was obedient to death! When the Spirit speaks to us and guides us into humble service, we need to relentlessly respond in obedience.

So how do we develop this discipline of humility? Remember Ortberg's simple tasks and adopt one this week:

The Ministry of the Mundane: Serve, not for credit, but out of love. Even if its boring. Even if it is not glamorous.

The Ministry of Interruptions : Be available, even when it is not convenient. Those interruptions may be opportunities for Spiritual Transformation.

The Ministry of Embracing Your Limitations: You are not Superman...or Supergirl. You don't have to have all the answers and you may not have time to do everything. It's okay.

The Ministry of Holding Your Tongue: What brilliant insights do you have to offer? Keep them to yourself. That is a humbling experience.

The Ministry of "Bearing": If you see someone bearing a burden...go to them and bear it with them. Drop your important agenda and bear their burden with them.

Which of these would you find most difficult adotping? Why?

Try it this week.

Sensitive to the Spirit

In our class this past week, we discussed how we need to practice being sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives.

Remember Jacob and how he reacted to the dream he had about the ladder to heaven? He said "Surely the Lord is in this place and I wasn't even aware of it." (Gen 28:16)

How has your week been? Busy, hectic crazy???

In spite of all that stuff going on, and believe me, it's been a whopper of a week for some of us, the Lord is in the place where you are....are you aware of it???

Don't forget the challenge we offered for this week: With each and every person with whom you interact, listen for what the Spirit is saying to you about that person and that relationship....and then be responsive to the Spirit!

What would it be like if we were to be relentlessly responsive to the Holy Spirit every time we are spoken to by that "still, small voice".

What would the world around us look like today if we were relentlessly responsive to the voice of God?

Are you willing to take that risk?

Larry Fairbanks Passes Away Unexpectedly

Please remember our District Superintendent’s family in your prayers. If you hadn’t heard, Dr. Larry Fairbanks passed away Thursday morning in his sleep at his home in St. Mary’s. Funeral service were held Monday, August 4th at the District Center in St. Mary's, Ohio. Dr. Fairbanks was 58.

The official obituary is posted in the St. Mary's Evening Leader.

Obit information is available via the Nazarene Communications Network at http://www.ncnnews.com/nphweb/html/ncn/article.jsp?id=10006247

If you didn’t know Dr. Fairbanks, he was a kind, gentle man with a passion for spreading the Gospel. Remember his wife Kathy, his son Russ (who pastor’s the London, Ohio CoN and our former youth pastor here at Marysville) and his daughter Julie right now.

It’s especially shocking since this happened during our District Camp Meeting this week up at the district camp ground in St. Mary’s, so keep those services also in you prayers.

Russ and Dr. LeBron Fairbanks (Larry's brother) officated a beautiful service on August 4th at the NWO District Center in St. Mary's. .

A very sad, sudden, and tragic loss.

Please feel free to express your thoughts and sympathies, memories and tributes to Dr. Fairbanks by posting a comment below.....

You can also send condolences through the Miller Funeral Home websiste.