corporate 30-day challenge, one life-study message per day, 1 Thessalonians

It is so wonderful to set goals! Sometimes last year I did this 30-day challenge - One meaningful Thing I did Today - and it was a very good experience. Since then I've been thinking concerning "the next challenge", whether I should take one or how to go on in this... I am so glad now that there's a solid burden for all the young adults to get into the truth in a solid way, reading not only the Bible portions for the day but also getting into the life-study messages in a consistent way! Via Living To Him "the life-study reading program" has started today! So here am I with another challenge, this time a corporate one :)

Corporate 30-day Challenge - One Life-Study Message per day, LS 1 Thessalonians!

On Living To Him they are daily posting the reminder with the outline and a link to where you can read the message, so the one for today is, Msg. 1, Life Study of First Thessalonians. The way I want to kind of do this is not only read the message and enjoy it, together with the Scripture reading and the notes (if possible), but also have at least 1-2 paragraphs of sharing (either in my own words or as a quote from the book). And since they are posting daily there, maybe I can post my enjoyment both here on the blog and as a comment on the blog post at LivingToHim.

Message 1 of the Life-Study of First Thessalonians - enjoyment

I am so encouraged to do this reading together with all the saints :) As those learning to take responsibility in the church life and making the Lord's recovery "our Lord's recovery", we firstly need to be constituted with the truth! Here's my portion of enjoyment from the reading today:

Praise the Lord - we are the church IN God the Father - we are organically united with Him! God is not merely our Creator but our Father, and we are His many sons. Also, it is so precious to call on the name of the Lord - O, Lord Jesus! Not just, I love You Jesus, but I love You Lord Jesus! In our experience we have a relationship with the Lord and we love Him - we love to call on His name!
I was particularly impressed with the meaning of the work of faith (our work is our faith; the strength with which we work and the nature of our work are both faith), the labor of love (deeper and harder than work, our shepherding becomes a labor - in and out of love), and endurance of hope (hope is the source of endurance, and endurance involves suffering)! This is the structure of our Christian life. 

Lord, what about this additional reading? O, Lord, the next 30 days and, why not, the rest of the year! Fill my days with the Word and with the ministry! Lord, hunger for the Word! Lord, understanding of the Word so that there would be a solid deposit of the truth in my being! O, Lord... 

The Picture for Today :) - Wood Green, London Underground

Pretty self-explanatory, the above picture was taken at the Wood Green tube station in London. I checked outside the station, there's lots of green stuff (a bit more up the hill there are lots of parks, green grass, etc) - just in case you were wondering whether the name is linked to the place. 

"writing your own copy of the law", Psalm 68, YOUR Bible (1 Picture + 1 Experience with the Lord today)

The title is a bit "random", isn't it? Well, that's what happens after a whole day of rushing this and running to the gym, then a quick shower and run to the brothers meeting, and then back home to write an article... - but somehow, in all this "rush this" and "do that", there's an underlying enjoyment and peace because I can do these with the Lord! In the most craziest and busiest period of all, you can be at rest in the Lord because you inwardly turn to Him and are supplied in His Word by eating Him and drinking Him! What a mystery - living the divine history within the human history...

1 Picture Today - waiting for the bus at London Bridge at 10pm

Here I was, after the brothers mtg, waiting for the bus to come - at London Bridge. And as usual, the bus doesn't come when you want, so you need to wait for a while... London Bridge, by the way, is a huge place - the tube / underground comes there, the trains come there, and loads of buses come there. Many tourists are there, the Borough Market is right across the street, the Guy Hospital is there, the Shard is being built around there, there's loads of offices there, and... it's right by the river Thames: you can just walk on "the queen's walk" all the way to Tower Bridge....

1 Experience with the Lord Today - Writing Your Own Copy of the law, Psalm 68, YOUR Bible!

Whenever a king would be installed and start ruling over the nation of Israel, he needed to take the book of the law and make a copy of it - hand write it for himself - and keep this copy and read it his whole life. The real knowledge and wisdom comes from knowing God, and not from human wisdom or knowledge. This was in the Old Testament, in the old times.... but today, as believers in the Lord, we need to have "our own Bible", our own "copy of the law". Even more: we need to WRITE our own copy of the law! The Bible in its entirety needs to become ours - by praying over it little by little, here a little and there a little, bit by bit, verse by verse, chapter by chapter... the Word of God gets infused into us and constituted into us - it becomes ours!

This week we are in Psalm 68, and it is mainly concerning Christ as the center of God's move on the earth. Our God is a moving God - He stepped out of eternity and into time, stepping on the bridge of time, to reach us and come to us. God was incarnated and He passed through human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. In His ascension, He reached the highest point in the universe, and now Christ is at the right hand of God as both a man and God! There's a man in the glory - a God-man is on the throne over the whole universe! This One is also in our spirit - He is both at the right hand of God ruling over everything AND in our spirit today!

I want to get into this Psalm and make it mine! More practically, not just reading it (which I did at least 2-3 times by now), but also writing it! So here it is, I wrote it down here: Psalm 68 - to the choir director. Of David. A Psalm, a Song. I did not "copy and paste", neither did I adjust it... - I wrote it myself as I read it in the Bible. Try it - write the Word of God, write verses every day, and make the Word of God become Your Bible. We need to look for ways to take the Word of God into us, digest it, assimilate it, put it in front of our eyes, put it on our walls, on the door, in our notebooks, as our screensaver, as our wallpaper, as our screenlock wall paper, as our status on facebook, as our twitter update, as our profile picture... - integrate the Word of God into your life!

The above situations and places where we need to put the Word are just SOME of the many ways we can put the Word in front of us, in our hands, in our hearts, etc. If you read the Psalms you will see that the psalmists - who are loving seekers of God, just like us - loved the Word of God very much and treasured it, sought after it, mused on it, pondered about it, thought deeply over it, put it into their mind, spoke it, searched it, thought about it in the night, woke up early in the morning to get into the Word, found the word, were enlightened by the Word, ate the word, digested and assimilated the word... - the Word of God was so much to them, and they loved God so much!

So that's I wanted to do today - not just personally read this chapter, Psalm 68, and not just corporately read it together with the brothers tonight. I want to "write my own copy of the Bible", or at least this portion. There's no "copyright infringement" and there's no "Bible police" - but there's the conscience which is being purified as we get into the Word, there's the light of the Lord who can shine on us more as we have His Word in us, and there's the preservation in our being as we do things - because the Word in us speaks to us and supplies us! Praise the Lord for His living Word! We can make it OUR LIVING WORD!

Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom! No more in chains do I repine... (1 picture + 1 experience with the Lord today)

Tonight is one of those very rare nights when I got home after the home meeting BEFORE 11.30pm! This is very rare indeed, since most times the home meeting goes on and we enjoy the Lord and being together up until close to midnight! Since most saints don't work the next day, most young people have no school on Saturday, and most students have no classes next morning, everyone chills and enjoys. And indeed, even tonight, what an enjoyment and what a good fellowship we had! To see how Psalm 51 is being applied today and how we as believers in the Lord can repent and confess our sins... It's one thing when you read about it in the Bible, and it's a totally different thing when you hear this from 13-year olds, 15-year olds, or even 18-year olds... Wow...

1 Picture for today - Even the Police needs AA

This picture was taken recently as I was walking home one night - it looks like even the police needs AA, that is, it needs to be towed away. I'm not sure whether they parked illegally ;) or maybe their engine just died - whatever happened, there were 2-3 policemen there and a car who took the police car away. Pretty cool, and also pretty mysterious... [I'll leave it like that!]

1 Experience with the Lord today - Glorious Freedom, wonderful Freedom, no more in chains do I repine!

This line is taken from a hymn we love so much, where the chorus says, Glorious Freedom, / Wonderful Freedom, / No more in chains of sins I repine. / Jesus the glorious Emancipator / Now and forever He shall be mine! This song mainly refers to the freedom which we get by believing into the Lord. He delivers us from Satan, from ourselves, from any bondage, from pride, sinful ambition, evil temper, anger, love of money, envy, strife, carnal affections, hatred, vain ambitions, worldly desires, fear and its torments, care and its pain, etc. Basically, once we come to the Lord, we are being set free!

We may say like the Jews in the Lord's time, But we are slaves of no one: God is our Father (John 8:33)! Well, I can tell you right now, we are being daily enslaved and oppressed. Especially when you get into a debt of money to someone or to the bank, you get enslaved. Also, there's all kinds of chores and regular things we owe to do towards others. Sometimes we make mistakes - for which we need to pay either with our time or with something else. All these things put a burden on us, they enslave us. We need to work in order to support ourselves, to sustain a certain life-style - this can enslave us.

And then there's the ambition and the desire to get something or be someone. There's the pride which rises up in us and we cultivate by going to schools, having achievements, accomplishing what we set out to do, getting some degrees, being praised by others because of some attainments we have or any other thing about us, etc. If there's not a career thing, then the cares of this age, the cares for this life, our family needs, the people we need to care for... the things at work, the people around us, etc - it's almost as if everything around us was designed by someone to occupy our time, take our time away from us, ensare us, enslave us, and bring us into bondage. We say we are free, but we are under much burden and in bondage to many things...

What about the entertainment and the media today? What about the new shiny and amazing gadgets? The new games, the new apps, the new music, the new movies, the new this or that.... The news, the pictures, the things happening - all these are "our food" so many times, and at the same time they are enslaving us, causing us to desire after them and not be happy until we get more.... There are things OUTSIDE of us that work together to wear us out and enslave us, and there are many things / thoughts / feelings WITHIN us that cause us to be burdened and enslaved....

BUT there's a GLORIOUS FREEDOM that we can experience! This freedom is not only initially when we touch the Lord, but it can be experienced and it SHOULD be experienced by all the believers in Christ every day! We can turn to the Lord - we can just open up to Him! He came that we may be free indeed - and in His word we are being delivered. We need to read His Word, enjoy Him in the Bible, and allow the Word of God to deliver us. There's a freeing-from-bondage effect in our praying over the Word of God and in spending time with the Lord personally. The other things are still there, all around us, waiting for us - but we take time to spend with the Lord... and we are INWARDLY FREED!

I think that this is our experience every day - maybe not the above mentioned items, but for each one of us there are some things, some matters, some situations, that enslave us, put us down, and we have to "take care of them" and be under them. And you know what? God doesn't want us to escape those things necessarily - He wants us that right there, in these things and in these situations, we would open to Him. We need to turn to the Lord and take Him in as the fresh breath of spiritual air. Pray over His Word - with your heart being turned to the Lord, and You Will Be Freed! We can and we should experience the glorious freedom TODAY and EVERY DAY!

the Bible is the living word of God, so real and nourishing! (1 Picture + 1 Experience with the Lord today) 30-day challenge

I was mentioning somewhere else that I started this Bible reading schedule, where you finish the whole New Testament in 3 months. I'm now in my second month and I'm going through Acts... It's not easy, some days I forget about reading, while other days I read 6-8 chapters... The average is to read 3-4 chapters every day. I have to say, even though I read the New Testament many times, going through it again in a consecutive way is so good! The Bible is really the living Word of God - it speaks to us and nourishes us! I love it when I have a 30mins or even 15mins to read the Word... But before then, here's

1 Picture Today - The Greenwich University in London

This is one of the many pictures I took of the Greenwich University in South East London, close to the Greenwich Maritime Museum and the Greenwich Mean Time. It is composed of some old buildings ;) that look very cool, and has lots of large and tall halls for lectures and stuff. Many times when you walk through you hear the students practicing the musical instruments... and when there's a nice weather, there's lots of people out on the grass! I apologize for this shallow introduction to such a wonderful university in London, but to find out more please visit the University of Greenwich website or University of Greenwich on wikipedia, the Greenwich maritime museum website, the Greenwich Mean Time / the GMT, etc. The best thing about this place is that there are SAINTS there, there are homes open around the campus, and there are many seeking students there!

1 Experience with the Lord - the Bible is the living Word of God, so real and nourishing!

What is the Bible to you? Is it just a book of knowledge? Is it a book of history? Or is it a book about God and His plan? Maybe you have read the Bible many times, but did this book become to you a book of life? I grew up reading the Bible, so I don't know as much history of my own country or of the world as much and as thorough as I know the history in the Bible. But at one point in time I had to make my own decision to continue reading the Bible and to continue feeding on the Lord. Actually, every day I need to make this decision - to drop other things and make time to read the Bible.

There are so many ways to read the Bible, but I recently started this "3 months reading through the New Testament" schedule, and it's going pretty good... - especially since there's the lettheword.com website where I can log in with my facebook credentials and input my daily reading! :) And I also have a companion to pursue with! That's so good... Now, as I'm reading through the New Testament, I am so impressed by the life of the Lord Jesus... He had 4 biographies that described many aspects of His life, His reaction to things happening, the persecution and opposition He encountered, the things He taught, the things He did... - so many things about Him.

But the Lord's life was kind of "tragic", since He died when He was 33 1/2 years old... Yet He resurrected and now - as we read in the book of Acts - He is with us all the time! It's amazing to see that the same Peter that the Lord rebuked and exposed so many times, the same Peter who denied the Lord - this one, after receiving the Lord's breath(John 20:22) / after receiving the divine life, he took the lead to speak for the Lord! And in one day there were 3000 people who received the Lord, and on another occasion 5000 more! What a difference does it make when you have the divine life! Peter became so mature, he took the lead in opening the gates of heavens with "the keys of the kingdom of the heavens" for the Jews (in Acts 2) and for the Gentiles(in the house of Cornelius, Acts 10).

As I'm reading the Bible, I'm so supplied and nourished! I love the Lord so much more, and I am so glad I can be washed by the water in the Word! I may not remember everything, but as I'm reading I love the Lord more and I know Him more.... It's not just words on the paper, and it's not just stories - even in Acts where we see that the Christian believers in the first century were persecuted and killed, we also see the Lord Jesus so present with them, giving them peace, speaking through them, strengthening them... There's a flow of the Spirit, there's a sweet church life, there's a speaking of the truth in the Bible... - it's the LIVING WORD OF GOD! I love the living Word of God, the Bible! It is so real, so nourishing!

I am praying that I would continue in this - it's a DAILY matter, a daily slot in my schedule - and I would read the Bible until I meet its Author! Let's pray for one another about this - that we would continue and persevere diligently in reading the Word of God daily... And maybe in the meantime I would get some companions who would also run with me in this!

Making a 3-months Commitment to Read the NT - one meaningful thing I did today (30 days challenge)

Wow, it's not easy to keep up with this, especially when the home meetings are so sweet! Tonight we enjoyed the Lord so much - just appreciating how much God loves us! God fell in love with man - for only God's love can make man just the same as He is in life and nature! ... What made You, Lord, to die for me... - I was Your enemy! Lord now I love You more and more each day - Lord I love You more this very day!

Believe me, the greatest joy on earth is that on Friday night you get together with the saints of all ages, races, colours, cultures, and backgrounds... and just enjoy the Lord! This is THE BEST thing you can do! Of course, on the way home you see Satan's usurping the humanity created to contain God - especially young ones being usurped and spoiled by Satan.... but there's One in us who is the most lovely One - and in the whole universe we just love Him! O, Lord.... nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus! But coming back to the 30-day challenge for today, here's

One Meaningful Thing I Did Today - 

Making a 3-month Commitment to Read the New Testament!

Being raised up in a Christian family - with seeking parents who infused in me a desire to read God's word and a love for the Bible, I have to admit that the older you get, even though you know the importance of it, the reading of the Bible tends to be put aside again and again. I long for this, to have a schedule of reading the Bible consistently, consecutively, and even with a companion that would check on me and encourage me. Recently even more, after listening to some messages from the Team Reunion (saints from Christian Students on Campus), I was convicted, exposed, and enlightened + encouraged at the same time: I can do it!

Since I'm online a lot, even though it's better to read the Bible as THE BOOK, the physical book, sometimes it helps to be reminded online / by email about it! So these days I found these two great tools that help us with reading the Bible according to a schedule, in a consecutive way, and even in a consistent way:

• ReadHisWord.com - a website in "beta", with free registration, which helps you create your own schedule according to the time period you want to allocate to a certain reading. If you want to read the New Testament in 30 days / 90 days or any number of days, there's a filter there and a result that shows you what chapters you need to read every day! There's a calendar, a journal, and even alerts by email. Very simple, but this tool helps you set aside some time - in a scheduled way - to go through the Bible!
• LetTheWord.com - a website in development, recommended especially to the students - you can login with your Facebook account and form a group with someone(either by inviting them, adding them, suggesting it to them, giving them the key, etc). The website is simple - you just post your reading there - your smiling face (your facebook profile picture, unless you change it) shows up there on the board as having read that chapter. What's nice about it is that, according to the burden of the website, this is for READING the WORD with COMPANIONS! So you need to grab one or two companions and remind one another about it! I wish there would be more integration with facebook, as in allowing this api to post on facebook your reading, etc.

But coming back to this Meaningful Thing I Did Today - the Lord has been burning in me to start this, to get on a regular schedule and read the Bible! I began a schedule so many times... and I gave up either weeks or a few months later! But as I did this, I prayed, Lord, have Your Way! Be the initiator! You need me to do this and I also need to do this! - and there was a desperation growing in me... 

So here I am, I found a dear brother to be my companion, we formed a group on the LetTheWord, and now we're going on little by little! Even though I promised myself NOT to start with big bites, I want to go ahead with a 90day reading of the entire New Testament. Lord, what about my time right before I go to sleep?!? I want to learn to redeem my time - and also to fall asleep in a nicer / more positive / more constructive way than browsing, watching, or other things! Amen to the Word of God! Remember: 

Christians love to read the Bible! As loving seekers of the Lord, we will read the Bible every day until we will meet the Author of the Bible in person - face to face!