As you know from my last post, Blogger (or Wordpress or Tumblr, depending on how you're reading this) is but a temporary home for The Stuttering Christian Blog. I realize that my blog is only a few days old and I've only made one real post.
But it's like this:
I believe that God - the only true living God - has put it on my heart to create this blog (and soon, the website) as a way to bring many to Jesus.
So at 12:00AM EST on Wednesday October 16th, TheStutteringChristian.com will officially launch. At that time, I'll fire up the Facebook/Twitter beacons and we'll truly begin this journey together.
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But in the mean time, I want to leave you with this:
I know a lot of people who, upon waking up, can't get to their Bible quickly enough in order to start their devotion time. I know people who, no matter how late they stay up, are never quite deep enough in their prayer time to reach a stopping point and go to bed.
But what I've realized is that none of these people feel good from their time with the Lord. Maybe you just "amen"ed a little in your seat. But if your head is cocked to the side, let me explain.
When we watch television, it's to be entertained.
When we eat snack when we're not really hungry, it's to be entertained. (Or Entenmann's'ed. But that's different.)
When we take a pill, take a stroll, or see a movie, it's to be entertained.
We want to be entertained by anything onto which we can latch our mind's teething attention. When I workout (I did that TWICE this week) I normally have my earbuds in. Shoot, I even find myself falling asleep to music. I was listening to Spotify when I started typing this. Then the "TROJAN MAAAN!" commercial came on and I muted it. Nothing ruins your worship music playlist like that. But you get what I'm saying, right?
So let me ask you this:
When your addiction to entertainment becomes so dire that your time with the God who made you and bought you back is driven more by a need to be entertained than a desire to be ordained, could it be that you're not really worshipping God at all? Maybe you're worshipping a momentary emotional response. (Let's just call that an MER. I'll be using that term a lot.) So then, what's to be said about time spent well with the Lord?
I'm sure you've heard the phrase "I can't define porn. But I know it when I see it". Well, I can't define "true devotion time". But I've always found that when God speaks to me, I become convicted. Rarely do I leave the prayer closet with a word from God and a smile on my face. When I know God has used something or somebody for my growth in Him and for His purposes, it normally doesn't occur to me until I've had a good cry about it. Normally while hunched over on my face. (Which reminds me, I have a funny story about that involving a toenail. But that's for a different post.)
Don't misunderstand me; I'm not saying that God loves to bum me out and kick my dog. God the Spirit yields fruit that consists of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). That doesn't sound like a God who likes to steal your sunshine and rainbows. What I am saying is that the things of the flesh are at odds with the things of the Spirit. And it's not I who have said it. It's God who says it in Galatians 5:16-18. Wow! Those verses are close to each other! I think that's called context!
This is as good of a place as any to end part 1 of this post.
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