I’m sure you’ve picked up {especially if you watched the vlogs} that I attend a weekly Bible study/fellowship time with a group of local girls. These are women that even six months ago I might not have classified as my “friends”, but today I could not imagine living life without them. I have learned more about myself and my relationships and my heavenly Father since June that I might have ever known before. He is teaching us and growing us and forcing us to think outside of the box.
We started by reading The Purpose Driven Life which helps you to evaluate yourself and what you are called to do as a Christian. Then we read Outlive Your Life where we learned how we fit into the world and how we can and should make a difference in what is going on around us. Currently, we are reading Living on the Edge: Dare to Experience True Spirituality by Chip Ingram. It is a book about Romans Chapter 12 and how to be the Christian that Paul describes there. It is challenging and is making me re-evaluate my relationships and how I respond to God.
Perhaps the thing that spoke to me the most this week was from Chapter 8. Chip is talking about marital intimacy and how your relationship cannot thrive when one partner is unfaithful. He says, “No relationship can be sustained when one member of the relationship pretends to be devoted to their mate while secretly living a double life. We can tolerate any number of imperfections in our spouses; but there is one area where we draw a line in the sand… ‘No Other Lovers!'” Umm, wow. He goes on to say that when God tells us not to be conformed to the world that what he’s doing is “…giving us a command concerning spiritual fidelity.” I won’t lie and tell you that it didn’t sting to read those words in black and white. We’re only two weeks in and I’m already learning so much about how poorly I’m following His commands for my life. I’m letting worldly things consume so much of my time, that I’m not only ignoring my responsibilities to my husband and children, but I’m ignoring my commitment to Christ.
As a Bible study group, we have committed to a media fast beginning tomorrow. We didn’t set specific guidelines on how long we would fast or how restrictive it would be, because each of us have different vices and are in different places in our spiritual walk. I am so convicted about the amount of time I spend in thoughtless pursuit of information that I am cutting out all forms of social media. I won’t be blogging or reading blogs, I won’t be on Facebook or Pinterest and I will be greatly reducing the amount of time I spend texting and emailing, with the exception of work-related conversations. I’m not watching television or movies and I will only be listening to Christian radio. I’m not telling you my plans so that you can pat me on the back and congratulate me on my efforts, but so I can be held accountable and so you’ll know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the planet. I don’t know if I can make it 24 hours, much less 7 days. I am, however, looking forward to a life unplugged. I plan to work around the house, get some things organized, spend time in the Word and in prayer, play with my children, read a good book and spend some uninterrupted time with SD. I’m nervous, but excited to see how God will use this “quiet” time over the next week. If you are a believer, please pray with me that God would change my thinking and that I can become spiritually faithful to him. If you aren’t a believer, I’m praying that this challenge would open your hearts and mind to the Christ who loves you and wants so badly to be a part of your life.
Below are some scriptures which really spoke to me during this week’s study and which I’ll be working towards memorizing in my “quiet” time. All scriptures are from the NLT translation, emphasis added by me.
Romans 12:1-2 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Philippians 4:8 “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.“
1 John 2:15-16 “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving of physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.”
James 4:4 “You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.”
I’ll be back next Wednesday with a full report and, hopefully, lots of cute Halloween pictures!
