(December 8, 2009)

Prayer House News!

Aren't you happy there is no mid-week classes this Wednesday because of Family Week? With all the snow they are predicting - it might be nice to just spend the night at home - except for the fact that we have Christmas Caroling. Our annual time of caroling is upon us again.

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Today our pastoral staff is spending half the day vision casting for 2010. Please be in prayer for us, we just want God's will for our church.

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Unshakable Kingdom

Developing Good Habits

First of all lets talk about habits. Habits are very difficult to change. Unless of course you are a nun. They change their habits all the time.

A habit is not inherently evil. A person can have good habits and bad habits. Typically we only hear about a person’s bad habits and so we often relate habits to bad things but that is not necessarily true of all habits. Brushing your teeth is a good habit.

A habit is something that has been repeated so often it becomes involuntary. There is no new decision of the mind each time the act is performed.

When I ask people if they find it easy to fall out of the habit of prayer many of them say, “Yes.” I disagree with that. I don’t believe we just fall out of any habit. If something is a habit it is something that is deep seated, it has become a defining part of who you are.

As I see it there are basically two ways habits can be broken. 1. God can deliver you. 2. Or you can work yourself out of a habit with as much effort as it took to develop it.

So if we are talking about a good habit, like the habit of prayer, it’s probably safe to say that God is not going to deliver you from it. I have never met a person yet that said, “I had this great prayer life going and one day God simply delivered me from it.”

So if God is not going to deliver you from the habit of prayer, the only other way to break it would be with much and deliberate effort. You don’t simply fall out of a habit. Therefore, if someone says that it’s an easy thing to fall out of the habit of prayer, the truth of the matter is, they probably never really developed the habit.

A true habit is more than just a desire to do something. It is something that has become a part of you. Breaking it is difficult because of the need it meets in your life.

Just think of how a person’s lifestyle is primarily a compilation of habits. As time moves along our habits determine the quality of our life. It basically comes down to a battle of habits. You may be able to get away with a bad habit for a time but ultimately it will catch up with you. The way the New Testament puts it in Galatians 6:7 is this;

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” I find it quite interesting that this verse which tells us that we can fully expect to reap the effects of our habits, whether good or bad, first says, “God cannot be mocked.”

A good habit is humility before God. It’s recognizing the fact that we owe our lives to our creator and that we will live according to His rules and precepts.

A bad habit is deciding for oneself how you will live your life regardless of what God tells you to do. When the verse says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked,” it’s referring to how those who live with bad habits, in direct defiance to God’s Word, they are playing God. To play God is to believe you can control the outcome of your life. Don’t be deceived, you are not God. You will reap the results of your bad habit.

continued tomorrow

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Ten Words that Don't Exist but Should...

Parents need more words to describe the weird things that happen to them on a regular basis. Here are some suggestions.

1. AQUADEXTROUS (ak wa deks'trus)adj. Possessing the ability to turn the bathtub faucet on and off with your toes.

2. CARPETUATION (kar pet' u a shun)n. The act, when vacuuming, of running over a string or a piece of lint at least a dozen times, reaching over and picking it up, examining it, then putting it back down to give the vacuum one more chance.

3. DISCONFECT (dis kon fekt') v. To sterilize the piece of candy you dropped on the floor by blowing on it, assuming this will somehow 'remove' all the germs.

4. ELBONICS (el bon'iks) n. The actions of two people maneuvering for one armrest on an airplane.

5. UNDUST (un dust')n. The small line of debris that refuses to be swept onto the dust pan and keeps backing a person across the room until he finally decides to give up and sweep it under the rug.

6. LACTOMANGULATION (lak' to man gyu lay' shun)n. The act of manhandling the "open here" spout on a milk container so badly that one has to resort to the 'illegal' side.

7. PEPPIER (peph ee ay')n. The waiter at a fancy restaurant whose sole purpose seems to be walking around asking diners if they want ground pepper.

8. PHONESIA (fo nee' zhuh)n. The affliction of dialing a phone number and forgetting whom you were calling just as they answer.

9. LATTEBLOW (la tay' blow)v. Unintentional expusion of milk through the nose during a laugh.

10. TELECRASTINATION (tel e kras tin ay' shun)n. The act of always letting the phone ring at least twice before you pick it up, even when you're only six inches away.