Life is spontaneous, now what?

Two years ago, I sat crunching numbers in a cubical while listening with wrapped attention to a short 10 minutes of audio from John Piper. That days episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast contained a snippet from one of Pastor John's epic sermons entitled What Is The Will of God and How Do We Know It? In it he answers the questions of knowing God's will in your life and how to then live. 

The sermon, and the snippet presented on the APJ podcast, offer great insight for tackling the most pressing issue facing our growth. "95% of your life", Piper says, "is unpremeditated: thoughts, attitudes, actions are spontaneous. They are just spill over." With so much of our life constituted of our doing things unplanned and without forethought how are we to ever live as Christ has called us to? How do we keep from responding in anger, being short, prideful, fearful, or apathetic? 

"There is only one way to live the Christian life." Piper explains, "Don't be conformed but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. It's our only hope. Life is too spontaneous." In short, the answer to the question of how to respond rightly, is that we can't. Not without running to the Father—spending time in His Word, and pleading with him to work it in us.

"If there is any stuff, junk, pride, left down there", Piper prays, "that is just causing the stuff to come out unbidden and unplanned, get at me down here, Lord." May that be our prayer each day. Let us beg The Lord to get at us at the deepest levels of desire and emotion as we feast on God's word, and spend time before His throne in prayer this week. None of us will be the men or women in Christ we want to be this week. However it is our hope that over many years of faithful devotion—we will come to resemble Jesus more and more. 

Have a great week my friends. Hopefully these two resources will be helpful and encouraging to you all. 

Want To Be A Godly Man / Women? Here's A Little Help

I sit down with guys on a regular basis who ask some variant of the same question, "I want to walk faithfully with Christ, but I am not sure where to start. Can you help me?"

While it always takes me back and I am honored to have the opportunity to help point them in the right direction, the truth is none of us are finished products. I remain very much in the trenches, fighting for faith each and every day.

Therefore the best way I know to help and serve others, is to pull back the curtain and share with them how I am seeking to grow and mature in Christ.

Today I would like to do just that with you and share the daily practices and resources that touch and inspire me in this pursuit.

So you want to be a godly man / woman?

Read God's word every day

You can't grow and mature in Christ without being connected to His word. Everything else flows from this daily devotion. The Word is central to your becoming God's man / woman. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in godliness so that the man of God may be competent and equipped for every good work.   

Not sure where to begin? Here is a post to help you read your bible and get more out of it.   

Memorize God's word

Hiding God's word in your heart is huge and I know of no other way to transform your mind than Bible memorization. One constant you will find among the men and women you seek to emulate most, is that they know God's word. It flows from their lips with ease. That doesn't just happen, you have to work at it.

The Scripture Typer app is one handy little way to memorizing God's word on the go. Whether you're in the line at the grocery store, sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office, or anywhere else this app can help you.

Pray

This is perhaps the simplest aspect of our walk with the Lord, but the one we tend to emphasize the least. This is one we tend to overcomplicate when in reality prayer is just a conversation with God. Not sure where to begin? Share your hurts, fears, anxieties, worries and cares. Ask Him for wisdom and that He develop Christ like character within you. Pray His word.

Here is are some extremely helpful prayer tips from Ben Stuart. 

Lock arms with others who are running in the same direction

No soldier wanders off and goes into battle alone, and you shouldn't either. The Christian life isn't meant to be lived in isolation. In fact, isolation kills. Grab people who are after the same things and run together. There will come a day when things don’t go your way and you'll need encouragement, when hard times come and you'll need support, when you'll stray from the path and you'll need correction. These things come for everyone, and you weren't meant to face them alone.

Here are some best practices for community shared by Jonathan Pokluda. 

Avail yourself to the vast array of resources at your finger tips

We live in a crazy awesome time! It is mind blowing all the resources you have access to. How crazy is it that you can learn, and be encouraged by folks all over the world. Here are a few resources to help you get started:

5 Characteristics Of A Godly Man, and 44 Verses To Help You Become One via Todd Wagner

5 Characteristics Of A Godly Women, and 43 Verses To Help You Become One via Todd Wagner

The Key to Christian Obedience via Ask Pastor John

One of the greatest resources available to is the opportunity to fill your ears with truth through the vast amount of teaching available digitally. Here are a few sermon series and podcasts I encourage you to invest some time in:

A Few Good Men via Todd Wagner

The Carey Neiuwhof Leadership Podcast

Ask Pastor John Podcast

The Role of Men via Matt Chandler  

Stand to Reason podcast

While blog posts and teaching are fantastic and will help you grow tremendously, not much can replace the value of a book in your hand. Here are a few books that have been helpful to me, and would be worth your time: 

Don't be legalistic about it

This sounds incredibly simple and it is, but boy can it be hard to execute on them with regularity. When you miss a day, don't beat yourself up, climb back on the horse and keep riding. None of us will get there overnight, we are playing the long game. Consistency over years is what it takes.

Faithful men and women are not over night successes, they come about over a long period of time. They devote themselves daily to the word of God and prayer, and they run with other others headed in the same direction. Do they still fail? You bet! But one thing they do consistently is forgetting what lies behind and straining towards what is ahead. That is they, ask forgiveness when they fall short, confess it to others and then get right back on the horse running after Jesus. There are no perfect men, but there are plenty of broken men pursuing a perfect Savior.

 

Worth A Listen

On Monday I shared 4 Steps to Personal Growth. A number of the tweaks I shared consisted of filling your mind with good and helpful things. There are few avenues to sharpen your mind and jump start your personal growth like listening to podcasts. It allows you to transform those previously mundane parts of life into some of the most meaningful time in your day. Its how you redeem your commute, mowing the lawn or folding laundry and ultimately it is how you will transform your mind.

Below are ten podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis. If you are looking to grow and take things to the next level, I emplore you to add them to your que and give them a listen.  

5 Leadership Questions
If you are looking for an excellent leadership podcast to help you grow, this is the one! I stumbled upon it  and it has instantly become one of my absolute favorites. During each episode hosts Barnabas Piper and Todd Adkins ask five questions of a guest or about different leadership topics. Recent podcasts have touched on the differences between coaching and mentoring, leadership differences by generations, and public speaking.   

Ask Pastor John
A daily podcast providing thought provoking thinking on ranging topics to help you grow and engage God's word on various topics. 

HBR IdeaCast
A product of the Harvard Business Review, the HBR IdeaCast is a wonderful podcast sampling some of the finest thinking on a wide range of topics. Recent discussions have included the creator of Wordpress, the CEO of PepsiCo, and the topic of becoming a better listener.         

The Briefing
The Briefing is a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. It is one that I listen to each morning to engage my mind in thinking about the days headlines.   

This Is Your Life
Michael Hyatt is the defacto leader when it comes to blogging for influence. In addition to his blog Michael hosts a podcast sharing practical advice to help you take your career to the next level. 

Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast 
I stumbled upon this podcast recently after reading several of Carey's blog posts and have really enjoyed it. Carey interviews some extraordinary leaders and brings their insights to you. 

Entrepreneur On Fire  
Entrepreneur On Fire is an excellent collection of interviews with some of today's top entrepreneurs. Recent interviews have included NY Times Best-selling author Michael Port, and Udemy king and online course guru Jonathan Levi. From an officer in the U.S. Army to podcast master John Lee Dumas has a pretty cool story and helps other entrepreneurs share their's in a helpful and meaningful way.   

The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim conducts some of the most interesting and compelling interviews I've heard. Tim is the author of 4 Hour Work Week and engages people from all walks of life in an entertaining fashion. 

Manager Tools
The go to podcast for learning how to manage and lead people. They cover topics ranging from running a meeting to leading a team to taking notes in a meeting. If you need to learn it, they teach it in a helpful and insightful way.    

The Art of Manliness
In this weekly podcast Brett McKay discusses the topics we all want to know more about with some of today's top authors and leaders. If you aren't familiar with Brett McKay and his awesome blog, The Art of Manliness, you just might need to check it out.