We are Those Who Knock On Doors - One Meaningful Thing I did Today (30-day challenge)

Busy day, Monday. At work we have a huge backlog from the weekend, while at the same time the responsibilities increase with requests, emails, issues, payments, calls... In a large company, I suppose, there's lots of boring and regular / routine stuff happening, but not in a medium size or a small company... or in a company that's continually developing, evolving, and being revolutionized by the internet sales and internet development! Anyways, enough about work ;) what I really enjoyed today and what touched me was the fact that,

Realizing that We are Those who Knock on Doors - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today

We had the brothers' meeting tonight and we enjoyed the fact that the Triune God didn't "talk to us from the heavens, trying to get us all perfect and holy that we may join Him up there", but rather God came to "knock on our door". The Triune God is the First One who went door-knocking by becoming a man, becoming what we are, coming to our door... that He may come in! In incarnation He came to us, right where we are, to be with us and knock on the door of our heart - not by forcing us or threatening us, but by loving us!

Even now after we received the Lord, He is still knocking on our door - He's at the door of our heart, wanting to come into every part of our heart and take over, make His home there in our heart(Eph. 3:16-18). When the Lord comes in, He makes His home in our heart and makes our heart His home. And then He starts re-decorating, re-arranging, and re-modelling everything in us because He wants to feel at home in us! That's why we are going through a process of transformation - so that we may be a suitable and delightful home for our Lord Jesus!

The result of the Lord making His home in our heart, as we open the doors to every part of our inner being, is that He makes us the same as He is! He is the One who comes to knock on our door - and we are made the same as He is! We are those who go to knock on people's doors - sometimes we do it physically by going out door-knocking to seek out the hungry and thirsty sinners, and other times we go to visit the saints and the new ones to bring God to them! This is so wonderful - we become Christ's duplication and reproduction!

I have never seen this before - the fact that the Triune God comes to us "door-knocking" and we go to people "door-knocking"! When we approach people on the street to ask them if they know the Lord Jesus, we start knocking at the door of their hearts. Actually, it is the Triune God in us knocking on the door of others' hearts through us. That's why the Lord Jesus said that we shouldn't worry what to say, because the heavenly Father will speak in us! All we need to do is present ourselves and give ourselves to the Lord - make ourselves available to Him!

So today the Lord sends us out two by two to go and preach the gospel, and the way we want to take is by knocking on doors! I have done this before together with the saints in several cities and even several countries, and it is a challenging and exciting thing to do - going out with the saints on the gospel by knocking on doors! Hallelujah, we can go out one with the Lord and one with one another in the Body of Christ, having the Triune God going in us and through us to visit people in their homes! ... - this is what I was impressed with the most, and something I'm praying for to see more - see what's on God's heart about door-knocking...

don't waste your time: schedule it! - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today (30-day challenge)

Today we're in a race, and our opponent is TIME - we are in a race against time. From the time you get up in the morning until the time you go to bed, it's either wasting time or redeeming the time. We do or don't do so many things and some of the things we do or don't do are a complete waste of time. There's a saying that's very common in England especially among the young ones, I Can't Be Bothered! When it's time to do something, many times our attitude towards it is, I Can't Be Bothered! I'll do it later! Procrastinating... postponing... delaying... do it later or tomorrow...

I am also a failure at redeeming the time. Most of my prayers either at the end of the day or early in the morning are, Lord, forgive me for wasting my time! Forgive me for wasting Your time! I love You, Lord, and I thank You for Your patience - and everything You gave me... but Lord, save me today from wasting my time! Save me from wasting Your time! ... - time and time again I repent for this, for wasting time... This doesn't mean that I "do nothing" or "do meaningless things", but that there's so much time that I just waste! And this brings me to,

One Meaningful Thing I Did Today - Don't Waste Your Time: schedule it!

Let me put it this way: if you work with your boss in the same room, and he keeps an eye on you, or your manager checks in with you every once in a while... and then one day the manager is not in, would you still work / do the things you need to do in the same way, at the same speed, with the same diligence as if  the manager were there? That's the question I asked myself yesterday, and today when my manager was not in, I had to put it in practice! That's why I was praying even more today, Lord, save me from wasting time today! I give my work day to You! Lord, keep me focused! Be my diligence!

Again I say, this doesn't mean that I just do nothing when the manager is not there, but there's a temptation to chill a bit, to take things easy, to slow things down, to postpone some things, to have extended breaks... - there's a side of us that we don't discover or know we have until we're put in a special situation! So today, after having a time with the Lord in the morning, I got to this conclusion - DON'T WASTE TIME - SCHEDULE IT! So many things to take care of, so many customers, so many issues, website, blogs, products, updates, calls, orders, etc... Touching the Lord in the morning and consecrating the whole day to Him really helps - He keeps you going at it and being diligent, you just "co-operate" with His inner operating!

It is the same with our spiritual life. I was listening to the latest podcast at AgeTurners.com, the one concerning Scheduling our Time(1), and brother Ricky was sharing about the same thing. We may be touched by the Lord in the meetings, in the Poland camp, at the Students Training, or at other conferences / trainings / summer or winter schools, etc. We may consecrate ourselves to the Lord, and the Lord may touch us concerning having a time with Him in the morning, reading the Bible, being in the middle of the church life, preaching the gospel, having a companion, etc. But then school / work comes - and the school is indeed upon us now, at least for those in the high school, and the university starts pretty soon also - where things pile up, other people / things / schedules / meetings / classes demand for our attention!

It's time to STOP WASTING OUR TIME and start SCHEDULING OUR TIME! A very practical way to practice the things that the Lord has touched us with - and at the same time a good way to do anything worthwhile which can become a good habit - is to schedule that time into our daily routine! If we don't schedule the life practices it happens the same as when we don't schedule a time to study for school! You don't schedule it, you waste your time and don't do it! So I enjoyed these practical points concerning Scheduling the Life Practices daily:

• schedule a time early in the morning to spend with the Lord! Yes, we all want to spend time with the Lord, but SCHEDULE this time - the length of the time doesn't matter, the creating of the habit of touching Him first thing in the morning does! For this, you may need to go to bed a bit earlier so that you may have 5-10 time with the Lord in the morning!
• Schedule a time to read the Word of God! Put into your daily schedule a slot when you just Read The Bible! Get on the schedule - see www.readhisword.com for more info - and even get a companion to check up on you and to pursue with! 1 chapter of the Old Testament and 1 chapter of the New Testament is not much - but the reading time needs to be scheduled.
• Schedule a time for the gospel - if you can't go on the gospel weekly, at least pray with a companion for your friends and colleagues / workmates, and then set a time to speak to them! Don't leave it "when the Lord speaks to me and inspires me" - schedule a time to pray with your companion for your friends!
• Schedule your church life - don't go only to the young people's meetings / student meetings and the Table Meeting(which are VERY important for us), but also schedule to go to the prayer meeting! What about a service meeting - where you can serve practically with the saints, or serve with the younger ones / the children! Schedule it at least once a month to do this.

Time goes by ANYWAYS, so why not make use of it and redeeming it(Eph. 5:12) - by practically Scheduling our time?!? Don't "overschedule" by putting all these into your daily routine and then giving up after the first week. But pray and fellowship with the Lord about all these, and schedule them one by one! Start with the morning time, then the daily reading of the Word, then the gospel time, then the church life... If we schedule the life practices with the Lord and we fellowship with our companions, this will eventually have a beneficial impact on our studies, our work life, our relationships, etc. 

.... So even at work, when my boss is not around, I can still schedule the things I need to do, the main items I need to take care of, etc(it works, and it's effective!). And then after work / school / uni - don't just "let it be how it goes", don't just "chill", but slot in the reading of the Bible, the reading of the ministry, spiritual books, the exercise, meeting with the saints, spending time with the Lord, taking care of your finances, cleaning, sports, etc. Even writing on the blog - for the Lord and with the Lord - can be a "life practice". I need to learn to redeem the time - by scheduling it! Lord, save me from wasting my time and Your time!