Worship

 I recently read an article arguing the use instrumental accompaniment vs a capella singing in church.

I know people who follow a pastor from church to church and people who drop out of church all together when a pastor leaves or when life circumstances require them to move away from the area where "their" pastor is.

 One of the biggest ongoing sources of strife in the modern evangelical church is "contemporary" vs "traditional" service structure, specifically concerning the music styles of "praise band" and "organ/piano". This has been an "issue" on some level in churches all of my adult life.

I am really struggling to get my thoughts focused, but the thing that is gnawing on my brain is the question

 

"What do we worship?"

 

More specifically, do we worship God or do we worship... worship?

 If music style, the order of service, or whether the pastor wears a suit and tie, a robe, or t-shirt and shorts causes an uprising in the church, I have to wonder, "What are we worshipping?" Are these things, which are designed to draw our focus to God actually drawing our focus away from God and to our own selfish desires?

If worship causes such division in the church, then are we actually worshipping... worship?

 How do we determine whether or not we have made an idol out of worship, music, order of service, tradition, the pastor, heritage, denomination, or any other aspect of "church"?

I think that, if we are more concerned with or focused on anything other than God during worship,  perhaps we need to ask whether we are worshipping God or that thing we are focused on / concerned with.

That's a question we all have to answer individually I suppose.

 
I do know that Satan loves to disrupt corporate worship and cause dissention between believers. He is who benefits most when he can disrupt an entire congregation. He basks in the glory of his own pride when our focus is distracted from God during worship.

 I've often heard that idol worship is loving the gift more than the giver of the gift.

 Worship is a gift. We should worship the Giver.

The first 2 Commandments speak to this…

Do not have other gods besides Me.

Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands. Exodus 20:3-6

Do we make an idol out of Church, worship, tradition, the pastor, denomination, or religion?

Is it possible that we love the gift of worship more than the giver?

 

Old Testament

In making good on my promise to myself to read the whole Bible, Genesis to Revelation, with as much vigor and enthusiasm as I have read fictional works, I have discovered a love for the Old Testament. This is exciting to me because I bought into the whole concept of "We live under Grace". I bought into "No longer bound by the law". I know some will shake their heads and scoff at me for being so... honest. The fact of the matter is, I am not alone. I am not the only one who has bought into the idea that sounds something like this...

"The Old Testament does not have as much bearing on me and my life as the New Testament does. So...I'll just focus on the New Testament."

I mean, let's face it, The New Testament is easier to digest. I can read through it and see nothing but God's unfailing love for me... and I like that.  I find so much comfort in God sending His son to pay for my sin...that He loves me enough to pay the price for me...that I am valuable enough to Him for it to matter where I spend eternity.  This is all true and I cling to it every moment of every day.

BUT

Taking the love of God displayed in the New Testament without the just-ness and judgment displayed in the Old, I get a skewed idea of who God is and of what HE is about. I run the risk of believing that God is all about me and what I want. I can buy into "cheap grace", believe the "Prosperity Gospel" and even believe that God would let some sin go unpunished. If I only look to the God of the New Testament, I can believe that God is more like me (after all, I relate so much to the Human-ness of Christ) and less like...well...God.

The Old Testament teaches me of God's patience, but it also teaches me that when God's patience runs out, He is swift and thorough in His punishment. I can read the New Testament and believe that God is all about me, but The Old Testament reminds me that God is really all about God. In light of the Old Testament, even Christ's Death and Resurrection are to bring God glory. (But that is a post for another day)

And the truth of the matter is, I need Christ Jesus and the absolute love of God portrayed in the New Testament, but I also need the God who parted the Red Sea, the God who killed the first born in every home in Egypt that didn't display blood on the door as instructed. I need the God who destroyed Sodom and who turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. I need the God who flooded the earth and destroyed all who inhabited it.  I need the God who spoke and the world came to be. I need a big huge, mighty, powerful God who takes sin and rebellion seriously. I need God With Us, but I also need the God in the burning bush.

Understanding God's power and justice and the seriousness with which He punishes rebellion and sin helps me to appreciate God incarnate all the more. Having a better understanding of God's standard of obedience helps me understand just how much I really do need Jesus to intercede for me.

The Old Testament teaches me that God takes sin and rebellion seriously and He punishes thoroughly and severely. And understanding that His patience does eventually run out reminds me that there are many who need to be introduced to Jesus.

My strength comes from the Lord

A while back, I posted some of my thoughts about Twilight. One train of thought that has hung around in the corners of mind began with these thoughts, from one of those posts...

 

 I was touched by all the people who came to the Cullen's aid. I was equally drawn to the dark image of the Volturi and I wonder, if we could see Satan's minions, if their presence would be similar. Are Satan and his followers sure of victory when they face me? Are they arrogant in their attack? Are they calm and confident while I struggle to gather myself and brace for their attack? Those are thoughts for another post.

 

It's time for that other post.

 

I watched a movie over the weekend that reminded me of this again. I was flipping through the channels and stopped on something that looked like it might not be too terrible. Ya know how that goes. ANYWAY, the movie was about demons and angels and their workings in this world, and again, the demons were very self-assured, to the point of arrogance, in their attacks against "mortals".

 

So, I am wondering...why? Why do we perceive evil to be so confident? It seems to be a common thought, whether in movies, books, or TV shows. Those who are cloaked in darkness are calm in their attack, confident of their victory. In horror films, crime dramas, and the like we see images of the attacker calmly pursuing his victim with even, calculated, patient steps while the victim runs tripping and falling and flailing as if totally blind and at least partially crippled. Why is this? Why is the victim portrayed as so utterly helpless compared to the attacker...and do we believe this to be true on a spiritual level? While there is no Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers or Freddie Kruger coming after us, we do have a very real enemy in Satan and he does have demons to do his bidding...and they do attack.  If literature, movies and television are any indication, we see "evil" as immeasurably powerful and ourselves as utterly helpless to defend against it.

 

And this makes me very angry.

 

This makes me angry because this "helplessness" is a lie from the Pit of Hell. Satan himself  has deceived us into believing that we are powerless against him. While we have no hope of resisting him in our own power, we MUST know and remember and claim that HE WHO IS IN ME IS GREATER THAN HE WHO IS IN THE WORLD. Yes, Satan has unimaginable power here in this time, but his time is indeed limited and, while Satan is powerful, he is not as powerful as Christ...and Christ lives in me. I am NOT a victim, and neither are you! If I am a victim, it is only because I have believed Satan's lies about me. If I am defeated, it is only because I have taken my eyes off of Christ and have focused instead on my immediate circumstances. If I believe myself helpless, I have forgotten Who fights for me. 

 

 I know that, historically, Satan has unleashed a terrible attack on me when I take this stand, as if to put me back in my place. This does little more than reiterate my point. As long as Satan can keep me blinded to the truth and believing that I am helpless to resist him or fight against him, I am no threat.

 

On my own, I have no chance of standing against Satan. When I try to resist him, I fail...every single time. HOWEVER, Christ has never cowered to Satan. Christ has never fallen victim to Satan's attack. Christ has never, not for one single moment in the history of all creation been defeated by Satan.

 

And Christ fights for me.

 

Christ, the Lord of all creation, stands with me against my enemy. Christ fights for me and with me and in me and through me, and, through Him, I am a conqueror. In Christ, I am victorious.

 

So then, my feelings of defeat and my feelings of helplessness really reveal the truth of my faith in Christ and the truth of my belief about the identity of Christ. Do I believe that Christ fights in me and for me and with me and through me? Do I believe that Christ defeats Satan? More to the heart of the matter...

 

Do I believe that Christ will defeat Satan for ME?

 

I think that's what it all boils down to. THAT's the lie. Just like in the Garden, Satan twists the truth to make me doubt. Satan knows that, only because of Christ in me, I am victorious. Satan knows that, because of Christ in me, I have the power to fight his attacks. Because of Christ in me, I am no longer sentenced to life in bondage to sin. So, the lie is NOT that Christ CAN'T defeat Satan, but that Christ WON'T fight for me. The lie is that I am alone in my battle. The lie is that there is no one to help me.

 

The truth is in in

 

Exodus 14:14

The LORD will fight for you, you need only to be still.

 

Isaiah 41:10

fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

 

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go

 

Romans 8:3

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

 

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

 

1 John 4:4

You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

I am not helpless, I am not defeated, and, if Christ is in you, neither are you. Christ in me means that I do not have to cower in the corner and wait for Satan's attack to pass. Christ in me means that I do not have to hide. Christ in me means that I do not have to run from my attacker. Christ in me means that I can turn and face my attacker and, with all confidence in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, tell Satan to leave me. Scripture tells me "Resist the Devil and he MUST flee." (James 4:7)

 

Before Christ vs. After Christ

Its easy to forget who I was before I knew Christ. Especially easy for me because I moved away from the town I grew up in and have little or no contact with the people who knew me then. There's really no one in my life now who reminds me of who I was before I knew Christ and, quite honestly, that's  kinda nice.  It's easy to forget that I wasn't always "the preacher's wife". 

 

I think that most days I like who I am, for the most part anyway. I certainly like me now much more than I liked me before I knew Christ. I guess another reason it is easy to forget who I  once was is that I simply don't like who I was then. I don't WANT to remember what it was like before Christ changed me.

 

Every now and then, I bump into someone who knew me "back when" and I am reminded of who I was. Sometimes a song, a movie, or a picture, will remind me of who I was before Christ changed me and I am filled with a flood of memories and mixed emotions. In the past, Satan used these memories against me. In the past, Satan whispered his lies to me, filling me with guilt and pain. Satan likes to remind me of  who I was, of the terrible choices I made, of my pride and arrogance, of all the times I was disobedient, disrespectful, and, well, just bad. So, for a long time, I worked hard to forget who I once was and to focus instead on who I am in Christ.

 

But not remembering is a very dangerous thing.

 

The longer I am a Christian, the more I realize that it is important to remember who I was, because when I forget who I was without Christ, several things happen...

I become judgmental

I become impatient

I lose compassion

I become prideful and pious

I become harsh and rigid in my expectation of what others "should" be doing

I, in essence, become a Pharisee

 

When I remember who I was without Christ, I am immediately reminded of all Christ has done and is doing in me. When I remember how wretched and undeserving of Salvation I was, I am reminded that the only good in me is the Goodness of Christ and without Him I am nothing. When I remember what it was like to not have Christ in my life, my heart breaks and I am filled with compassion for those who do not know Him. When I remember what it was like to be a new Christian, my lofty  expectations of other Christians are replaced with understanding, patience, encouragement and grace. 

 

I don't like to dwell on my life before Christ. It is much more fun to talk of all the many ways Christ changed everything about who I am. Over the years He has gradually removed the things that did not reflect His love to make room for the things about me that DO reflect Him to grow. So, while I am not proud of who I was and do not want to glorify my life before Christ, remembering who I was without Christ reminds me of how much of who I am now is dependent on Christ in me.

 

And

Remembering who I was without Christ reminds me of how much others need Him.

 

 

8 Rules for Bible Study

 

 

I've been making a conscious effort to read my Bible thru from Genesis to Revelation. At the same time I've been trying to figure out things for myself, 2 other women in my life have presented me with their own confusion about the interpretation and application of what they are reading. (On a side note, I am so excited that I have friends to discuss this sort of thing with! YAY!) This prompted me to look for a list or SOMETHING containing good advice on how to interpret and apply God's Word.

 

I found a pretty decent list of things. I am glad that I have this list of "Rules" to go back to. I wish I'd had this in print years ago!

 

  Introduction
"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). Here, Paul tells Timothy how important it is to study God's word. This leads to an understanding of what God wants from us so we can be approved in his sight. The following is a list of rules that should be followed when studying the Bible so that we can divide the word of truth correctly.

1. Be objective -- seek the truth.
If we read the bible with preconceived ideas, or with the purpose of proving our own beliefs, we will not find the truth. The purpose of our study, therefore, must be to seek the truth.

2. Reach a conclusion only after you have studied what the entire Bible says about the subject.
Much error has been taught concerning salvation because people have failed to follow this rule.

3. Determine who is speaking.
Inspired men wrote the Bible, but they sometimes quoted uninspired men.

5. Determine to whom it is spoken.
God's command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on an altar (Genesis 22:2) is obviously not binding upon us today. Let us make sure that God is talking to us.

6. Interpret each passage in the light of its context.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 7:7, Paul says, "For I would that all men are even as myself" (i.e. unmarried). Does Paul command that we should be unmarried? A reading of the surrounding verses explains why he made such a statement. In verse 26, he says, "I suppose therefore that this is good because of the present distress." The present distress was the severe persecution that existed then. So, if we just read the context we will avoid many misunderstandings.

7. Never interpret a passage so as to contradict another passage.
 If your interpretation of a passage contradicts another, then you know that your interpretation is wrong.

8. Use standard helps in understanding the Bible.
The following things will help:
• A good English dictionary will help us understand the meaning of words today.
• A good Bible dictionary will help us understand the meaning of Bible words.
• A concordance is helpful in looking up passages on the same topic.
• Another translation will help. Comparing the King James Version with the American Standard or the Revised Standard translation helps our understanding.

 

 Hope this helps!

Post-Cancer Life

It's been a while since I posted anything about cancer. That's a good thing. I guess I am finally fully recovered. Now that I am working on 4 years cancer free, I can honestly say that I have accepted my post cancer body and all that goes along with it. I have made peace with my mind's irrational fears of recurrence. I have come to grips with things that will never be what they were before cancer. I have accepted and become somewhat comfortable with my new, post-cancer, "normal".

 

But it wasn't always this way.

 

Looking back on it, I realize more than ever that the first 2 years post cancer were really, really difficult. Until now, I thought that I was just a bit crazy during that time. I didn't reach out to other cancer survivors to see if what I was experiencing was normal. I wish I had looked for help and advice to help me deal with it all back then. But I didn't. Recently, a friend reached out to me because she is struggling with her post cancer reality and I realize now that maybe I wasn't crazy after all. Maybe the things I experienced are just part of recovery.

That being said, here are some things that they don't tell you about surviving cancer.

 

• Being a cancer survivor isn't the same as never having had cancer. I know that sounds silly, but it needs to be said. There is no "getting BACK to 'normal'" because "normal" is different post-cancer. For me, physically, I wanted my pre-cancer voice, my pre-cancer neck and throat. Emotionally, I wanted...gosh, I don't even know how to put this into words...I wanted my pre cancer life; I wanted to not freak out if my neck had a weird lump in it, if my voice acted funny, if I had a headache or if I had a nagging cough. I didn't want a migraine to warrant an MRI and CT to rule out a brain tumor. I didn't want to have chest x-rays every so many months to make sure that the cancer wasn't in my lungs. I didn't want my neck to be stiff and achy. I didn't want my voice to be hoarse.

• Fear is real, constant, and overwhelming. The biggest fears I had were of the treatments not killing all the cancer and of recurrence and metastasis. I imagine that these are not unique to me and that others may have more fears depending on their emotional state and their type of cancer. It really didn't have anything to do with whether or not I trusted God to take care of me. It wasn't an issue of faith. I knew God has everything under control, I just didn't (don't) want to go through all that again. It didn't matter that my fears were irrational. Even when I knew that I was being irrational, I could not just dismiss the fears. They had to be dealt with. Thankfully, Doc understood and prescribed meds to help me cope until my brain could recover. Another thing that I learned at this point in my journey is that the emotional, physical, and spiritual support so readily available to the cancer patient is not available to the cancer survivor.

• Well meaning people unknowingly heap on guilt and add to anxiety. For me, the worst thing I could hear was, "Well, at least you don't have cancer." Even now, I feel like this is dismissive of what I was experiencing at the time. Just because I no longer have cancer does not mean that I am not struggling. This little phrase hit my heart with "You should be more thankful. You are ungrateful for God's healing," which is so untrue. I was and am thankful to be healed, but healed is not the same as having never had cancer. Even today, I feel like this phrase and others similar to it were a dismissal of what I was going through at the time.  I felt like, since I didn't have cancer anymore, I "should" not need support and that made me feel ...well...bad...because I DID need support. To almost every person who has not walked this road themselves, the battle ends when cancer treatments ends. They do not realize the need for emotional support, encouragement, and understanding post cancer.

 

I spent 2-3 years suffering and miserable because I wanted things to go back to the way they were before I had cancer, and so did the people around me. I had to accept that "healed" is not "good as new". "Healed" is simply "healed". Cancer and cancer treatment leave physical scars you can see, and physical damage you can feel. They also leave emotional scars and damage. Post-cancer me is very different from pre-cancer me. That's just the way it is. NOW, I realize that accepting my post cancer voice, my post cancer neck and throat, and my post cancer life with all the scars, aches, pains, and fears was the turning point in getting "back to normal". I had to accept that my new "normal" is quite different from the old normal... and that's okay. After time passed, I was able to get off the anti-anxiety meds and was able to deal with all the fears and what not pretty well, but it took a few years to get to that place.

 

I've realized over time that post-cancer life is not so different from post-divorce life, maybe even post-military deployment life. Just because I don't have cancer now does not mean that I am the same as I was before I had cancer. Similarly, my friend who is divorced is not the same woman she was before she married, even though, technically, she is single again. I have heard it said that those who fight for our country bring the war back with them. In all these cases, though each is very different, the thing we want most is the one thing we cannot have...for things to go back to the way they were before.

 

As I've said many times about traumatic events, it is bad enough that it happened; it is a complete tragedy to let Satan use it to keep you in bondage.  I believe that this is one way that Satan keeps us in bondage after a traumatic event. He creates in our heart a longing for the one thing we cannot have...the life we had before the trauma. In longing for what we had (and cannot have again), we miss out on what we have.

 

I wish I'd understood this 3 years ago....

 

In The Battle

I'm feeling very "blah". Its really a bit worse than "blah". I feel like I have a weight on my chest...like the weight of the world. I feel like I am on the verge of a panic attack. Like I have everything very carefully balanced and the slightest bump will send my entire world crumbling all around me. I just want to go to sleep so that I don't have to think about anything. To make matters worse, it upsets me that I feel this way because I SHOULDN'T feel this way. I know better. I'm the preacher's wife, for goodness sake.  I should be thankful and grateful and happy and joyful. I have so many things to be thankful for and I feel...."wrong" for not being over the top bubbly and happy and all "God Loves you and so do I".  But the fact of the matter is, I don't feel that way, not today at least. Now that I think about it, I am "yeah whatever" fairly  often. Not quite as often as I am "God loves you and so do I!", but more often than I think I should be. And then I'm thinking...ya know what? I don't really even like myself. I am a jumbled up muddled up mess most of the time. How in the world can I write anything of value when I am so very... not together? It always comes back to writing with me. I can do laundry and cook supper and read with my kids whether I love myself or not. I have tremendous insecurities about my parenting and wife-ing abilities,  but I can go through the motions even when I feel like I am falling apart. I can't go through the motions when I write. Writing is my mirror. My words reflect my heart back to me and sometimes I don't like what I see. So,  I struggle every day to see what God sees in me and can't for the life of me understand why He keeps me here. So I am sitting here and I am thinking... and I'm depressed. 

 

And then I get the following email....

 

Just wanted to drop you an email to tell you THANK YOU.

I have been reading your blogs (as you know) and studying as I go.

Your thoughts are so encouraging to know others feel and wonder the same as me….but you have such a great ability to write them, and plant them on “paper”.

Thank you again for being you. For being my distant friend that I have no hold backs of saying how I feel, and being the Christian and encouragement you are!

 

To be quite honest, I don't know what to do with that because the FIRST thing that hits my heart is overwhelming gratitude for  this distant friend who listens to my rambling and doesn't judge me harshly...and cares enough to send me an email to encourage my heart. Then I am immediately overwhelmed that God would prompt her heart to encourage mine, because I know it has to be at His urging because He is the only one who truly understands how I struggle. And I am encouraged. Maybe God can use me. With all my self-doubt and insecurities...maybe He can actually use me. And maybe it's better that way because by allowing all of this I remember that I need Him, that my strength comes from Him and that, whatever I write, comes from Him and is for His glory and not mine.  

 And all of a sudden I feel...almost bold... maybe even  courageous...and I believe that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, here on my little blog in all of my brokenness, writing about the Lover of my soul.

 I'm reminded that years ago God prompted me to share about the battle we fight against Satan and his minions. We don't choose our battles with Satan. He gets me where he can, and all too often he uses my insecurity and self-doubt against me. Today, that is the battle I am fighting. Perhaps I am not alone in this.

Through all of this, I am reminded that my God is big... no, huge... and He can do immeasurably great things through ordinary people. He did it all through Scripture and I wonder, did the folks in the Bible feel insignificant and wonder if what they did mattered? I believe that we really won't know how we impacted the world we live in until we get to Heaven. Until then, I will serve Him in whatever place and capacity He puts me, so that when my time is done, I can rush into the arms of  One who knows me best and hear Him say the words my heart so desperately longs to hear, "Well done".

 

 

Happy Mother's Day

I think that Mother's Day is wonderful. It is nice to be recognized and honored. It gives me an additional opportunity to tell my mom how much I love and appreciate her and to stop and thank God for the 2 PKs he has given me to raise. Still, I am reminded me that not everyone feels the same as I do on Mother's Day.

As Mother's Day approaches, my heart is broken...

 

for the woman who cannot conceive...

for the mom who has outlived a child or children....

for those  who, because of death or other separation,  miss mom so much.

I am so thankful that God prompts me to be gentle and observant, and am asking Him to give me discernment and a compassionate heart for those who are hurting. When everyone else is celebrating, those who are hurting can be overlooked.

 

There will be a day when the hurt of this life is no more. Until then, we will each face our share of pain. I am so thankful that God's Word promises that this life is not all there is. In John 14:1-6, Jesus tells his disciples (and us) what we have to look forward to. 

 

“Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me.   In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also.   You know the way to where I am going.”

“Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way?”
 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

And, in John 16:33...
"I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

Our hope, our comfort, and our peace come from knowing Christ. Our peace comes from Him and is found in him. I am so thankful to serve a God who went to such great lengths to make Himself known to us and who went to such great lengths to let us know that our joy, our comfort, our peace, and our hope are found in Him and Him alone. HE alone can soothe the grieving heart.

SOAP Bible Study Method

 

A while back I had the opportunity to sub in Ladies' Bible Study at our church. This was a last minute situation...like 15 minutes before class started...so I was absolutely unprepared. To keep this introduction short, I'll just say that we ended up doing a little study on the importance of daily time with God. 

 

It seems that most strong Christians have at least at some point had a season of daily time with God. Those solid, steady, seemingly unshakable Christians have a set-in-stone prayer and Bible study time each day. I believe, and have expressed many times, that Satan knows full well that time in prayer and studying God's Word is time well spent for the Christian. These 2 disciplines carry more promise for Spiritual growth than any other. These are our life line to communicating with God and our source of strength and assurance in defeating Satan...and Satan knows this. So, it is no surprise that Satan puts endless distractions in our path to keep us from spending DAILY time in prayer and in God's Word.

 

I will not go into a long dissertation on all the ways Satan distracts us. All I have to do is think through any given day and I will see all sorts of things he tossed in my path to take up time and energy. For the most part, the things that eat  away at my time are good things...blessings God has given me. Still, these were never intended to replace my time with Him.

 

So, in an effort to remind myself of a super simple way to meditate on God's Word, I want to re-introduce the S.O.A.P. method of Bible Study.

 

The concept is WAY easy...

 

S = Scripture (read the scripture)

O= Observe (What's going on?)

A= Application (How does this apply to my life?)

P = Prayer

 

See? Piece of cake. This can be as in depth or superficial as you make it. It is useful to all levels of Spiritual maturity. I think that, over the next few weeks, I will touch on this again, but this is enough for now.