journey onWord with us

When you were young, did you ever make a mistake and try to hide it from your parents? Wasn’t it uncanny how they would always seem to know what you had done? It was like they were all-knowing. Even as adults, we have all been guilty of spilling coffee, breaking a glass or losing something valuable and trying to hide the mistake. Just a few months ago, I was reading one day and dropped a full cup of coffee right beside my favorite chair. Rather than tell my wife, I did my best carpet cleaning routine and was no worse for it. A little over a week ago, my wife Genel asked me, “did you spill something on the carpet?” She wasn’t mad when I confessed, but I had worked hard to cover my transgression. All of us try to keep some things just to ourselves. But in truth, nothing is hidden from our all-knowing God.

My reading over the last few days took me to a convicting, but comforting passage of Scripture. Psalm 139 shows us the greatness of God, and that He is all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful and all-holy. Without a doubt, none of us can comprehend with much depth the greatness of these attributes. Yet an infinite God has chosen to love us intimately. Wow! In his book on Psalms, Steven Lawson has given an example of how our infinite God has chosen to be intimate with us.

Yet this infinite God is intimately aware of every individual on the planet. In the midst of over six billion persons on earth, God knows each and every one perfectly. The very hairs of their heads are numbered. He knows what each person will say before he says it. He is present everywhere, personally involved at even the most minute level. Having created every life, God presides over every aspect of each of these lives. Every thought, attitude, word and deed is an open book before him. How can a God so immense be so immanent? Such is the mind-boggling yet soul–comforting reality about our infinite yet intimate God.

In the first six verses of Psalms 139, David makes the all-knowing attribute of God very clear from a personal perspective. He starts with O Lord, you have searched me and known me. God knew David (and us) completely and thoroughly. There was nothing hidden. These verses detail God’s intimate knowledge of our attitudes and activities. He knows what we are thinking and what is on our tongue. Those selfish, sometimes mean-spirited thoughts that we would never breathe out loud are not hidden from Him. He knows what we are going to say (good and bad) before it rolls off our tongue.

It is hard to comprehend the level of love and knowledge the Father has for us. To even think that our infinite God cares for us so intimately is mind-boggling, and at the same time comforting. David said in verse six; Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high; I cannot attain it. To be known so completely, and still loved unconditionally should cause all of us to respond with lives fully devoted to God.

Nothing that you or I will think or say this week will be out of His view. He will know when we work and when we rest. All of the secrets that we keep hidden from others will be on full display before the Father. And even though His knowledge is beyond our comprehension, it should cause all of us to be open and honest daily with Him about our lives. We can feel free to share all of our mistakes, all of our struggles and even our failures. He already knows, and still loves us unconditionally. Wow!

It may have never happened to you, but this morning I awoke from a fitful night of sleeping, and in a not-so-good mood. I was tired, and my mind was swirling. During the day I had the opportunity to listen to friends that shared not-so-good stories as well. Then I had someone tell me about how computer problems were creating not-so-good times in their office. It is only January 26th and all of us could list lots of not-so-good stories as we have ventured into a new year. Thanks to the Father’s grace, my not-so-good mood turned reflective and better by reading one of my favorite stories. On the assumption that you sometimes get caught in those not-so-good moods, I thought this story would give you cause for reflection.

In the book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning, there is a humorous, but thought-provoking story about the monk who was chased by a tiger.

The monk raced to the edge of a cliff, glanced back, and saw the growling tiger about to spring. The monk spotted a rope dangling over the edge of the cliff. He grabbed it and began shimmying down the side of the cliff out of the clutches of the tiger. Whew! Narrow escape. The monk then looked down and saw a quarry of jagged rocks five hundred feet below. He looked up and saw the tiger poised atop the cliff with bared claws. Just then, two mice began to nibble at the rope. What to do?

The monk saw a strawberry within arm’s reach, growing out of the face of the cliff. He plucked it, ate it, and exclaimed, “Yum! That’s the best strawberry I’ve ever tasted in my entire life.” If he had been preoccupied with the rock below (the future) or the tiger above (the past), he would have missed the strawberry God was giving him in the present moment.

In this very moment, you may have some regrets about the past, and anxiety about the future. And what you are causing for yourself are some not-so-good moods. After reflecting on the tiger and the monk, I am reminded that we only are guaranteed this moment, and to give it away is foolish. Psalms 90:12 is an insightful Scripture to me. Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom (NLT). What you and I miss with our preoccupations with yesterday and tomorrow can never be retrieved. Wisdom available from God can help us live in the moment, and realize how brief our lives really are.

Those who get lost in my life as I look back at that tiger and ahead at those jagged rocks, are family and friends that I care for deeply. I am sure you can relate. Moments matter! Strawberries may not be in season for you and I right now, but what is stopping us from having some strawberry moments? I have no idea what you are facing, but I am sure if you slow down and start looking for God’s strawberries, you can begin to enjoy each moment. You can’t re-live yesterday or control tomorrow, but finding the strawberry in this moment can turn a not-so-good mood into a reason to smile.

Last week I had the opportunity to work in the sunshine. Seventy-five degrees and sunny is always a good alternative compared to the snowy, cloudy and cold days that I usually encounter in January. But work is still work, and whether in sunshine or clouds I had my share of aggravating events. I experienced computer issues, toll-booth problems and a little food poisoning (details spared). If you were to take a few minutes and review your work schedule from last week, you would also find it easy to identify the aggravating moments. Whether you lived in sunshine or cold and cloudy, there were still the computer issues, people frustrations and too much to do. The words of this paragraph have been exactly what our emotions overwhelm us with: the negative.

During the course of most weeks, all of us will spend more time working and interacting with our colleagues than we do with our families. We spend one-third of most days at work, creating either a sanctuary or a prison. If you call yourself a Christ-follower, please allow me to offer a bit of perspective. This place you call work can be an avenue of fulfilling God’s purpose for your life. Among all of the normal aggravations that we all face each week are a myriad of opportunities to enrich the lives of others. But when our emotional triggers are pulled toward the negative, our God-intended sanctuary becomes our self-imposed prison.

Consider the words that I read just this morning. In Cure for the Common Life, Max Lucado writes, “Our Wednesdays matter to him as much as our Sundays. He blurs the secular and sacred. One stay-at-home mom keeps the sign over her kitchen sink: Divine tasks performed here daily. An executive hung this plaque in her office: My desk is my altar. Both are correct. With God, our work matters as much as our worship. Indeed work can be worship. We often think of worshipping in a sanctuary. Your work place and mine can be a place where our Father is worshipped. Different perspective, but one that is true and needed just the same.

You may be asking how can I respond this way when, “my hours were cut and my pay was decreased,” or “my boss is unreasonable and everybody is miserable,” or “the workload had become totally unfair”?  Those kinds of comments and probably one hundred more, easily flow through our minds during any given week. When we allow our minds to continually focus on what’s wrong with work, we subconsciously begin to dismiss the purpose God has for us in the sanctuary of work. It is so easy for us to blend into a culture of focusing on all of the inevitable aggravations, and miss the opportunity that we have to make a difference. And make no mistake, people do watch our actions!

In his work, By the Sweat of Your Brow, Haddon Robinson quotes the words of a nineteenth-century preacher. Men and women must work. That is as certain as the sun. But we may work grudgingly or we may work gratefully. We may work as people or machines. There is no work so rude that we may not exalt it; no work so impassive that we may not breathe a soul into it; no work so dull that we may not enliven it if we understand that what we are doing is service for our Lord Jesus Christ.

This week I am back to cold, cloudy and snowy. Work, for me and for you, will have its share of frustrations, but we can choose to enjoy the sanctuary or create our prison. We won’t change bad bosses, chaotic schedules or other aggravating issues. But we can, with proper perspective, let God’s purpose be fulfilled in us. And that is far better than working in the sunshine. Have a great week!

Returning home from a Thanksgiving road trip, my wife was reviewing vocabulary words with my 14 year-old son.  “Obsolete”, my wife called out.  My son responded, “No longer of any use.”  His response struck me.  “There has to be more to that definition”, I thought to myself.  But lacking access at that very moment to a source that could confirm it, my mind began to process his response.

Working in a technology field has put that word into a specific context for me.  And the seemingly curt and strong definition certainly fits.  It doesn’t seem to take long for a physical piece of equipment or a way of doing things to be replaced by something new, rendering the old as no longer of any real use.  But is that factual and defensible, or have we just judged it to be true?  I believe it is far more the latter.

I further believe that there are people who may feel judged in that way … maybe even you.  People whose character or talents seem to no longer “fit” where they are plugged in, and who feel marginalized by the pace and practice of a world that is ever-changing.   A person who was not long ago right in the middle of the prevailing current, but who now feels like they do nothing other than swim against it.

If either you or someone you know is feeling obsolete, I offer this story in illustration of a great truth about our Creator.  A few years ago my wife and I had a garage sale.  It was held on one of the two weekends a year that our city hosts a “city-wide garage sale”.  It’s a great time to have a sale, on the account of the guaranteed large audience.  It’s also a great time to walk around.  Which is exactly what my wife did mid-afternoon as our sale was winding down.

She wasn’t gone long, and as she walked up the driveway her joy was unmistakable.  She had walked a several block radius, but found her single treasure just two houses from our own.  And she couldn’t wait to share the news of her incredible find.  As she pulled it out from behind her back, it was instantly recognizable … a Texas Instruments Little Professor calculator.  You probably know the one.  The mustard yellow plastic, old school calculator LED display, distinguished gentleman with glasses and a white mustache reading a book, one.  She had that same calculator as a young girl, and wore it out.  What was lost had been found again!  She could not contain her joy.  Fifty cents had never made her so happy, and she was on a mission to find a 9-volt battery.

In the moment of personalizing the otherwise technical word, my mind recalled that scene as vividly as the day it happened.  And a profound truth about the God who breathed life into me came into sharp focus.  See, there are two competing “truths” about the value of things that are deemed obsolete.  To some, the value of an obsolete item is directly proportional to its complete lack of usefulness (usefulness in their eyes).  But to others, the value of an obsolete item can approach incalculable.  Just talk to a collector, an antique store owner or an Ebay seller.

To my neighbor, that Little Professor calculator had long since lost its usefulness.  It was a forgotten toy taking up space, and wasn’t even worth a dollar.  To my wife, you couldn’t put a price on the joy that it gave her to reconnect with a treasure from her childhood.  The image of my wife talking about that calculator, is so much like how I envision God talking about you and I.  What was lost is now found.  What was stickered as 50 cents is now the most incalculable treasure.  When others look at us, or we look at ourselves, we most times see sticker.  When God looks at us, He always sees treasure.

You don’t “buy” that?  Keep reading his Book … you’ll see!

Have you ever put an item back on the shelf because you didn’t want to wait that long in the check-out line for just one thing? Maybe you have even raced through a yellow light, rather than wait at an especially long red light. Illustrations are endless of how we seek to avoid “the wait”. It’s not just in the inconvenient, “I’m in a hurry,” moments when waiting tends to try our patience. You, like me, are probably going through a waiting experience right now. There is no doubt that God has chosen waiting as a valuable tool for all of us. But our natural inclinations often conflict with His waiting room.

Even those who know little of Scripture have heard about the raising of Lazarus from the dead. A careful reading of the events leading up to this miracle is instructive for anyone with a desire to understand the Father’s care. John chapter 11 tells the story. The sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha sent word to Christ that their brother was sick. Instead of coming immediately or healing Lazarus from a distance, Christ waited….and his friend died. Jesus arrives four days later. The pain of loss was real for both Mary and Martha. They say to Christ, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Was Christ cruel, too busy, insensitive, or did He have a greater plan in mind? God’s design was to raise Lazarus from the dead, use the event in the lives of the witnesses, and teach generations that followed. I wonder if His “waiting room” still has a purpose today? Of course it does!

You and I want God to be at our disposal, and answer when we call. He wants us to trust His timing, and wait with patient hearts. My heart tends to cry out like Mary and Martha, even though from experience, I know that His waiting rooms are needed in my life. The words from a book on prayer by Ronnie Floyd have helped my “hurry up God” spirit lately. He stated: “God can do more in a moment that you can do in a lifetime.” If He can raise the dead in a moment of time, I’d rather trust Him and accept the waiting.

Logic tells me that most individuals reading this believe in God’s sovereignty for all of life. I am also aware that you battle His control in the midst of your “waiting room” circumstances. It is a given that we don’t like to wait in lines, or at red lights. Truth be told, we also want answers from God right now! But as Christ followers, since we believe that He is in control (“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28), shouldn’t we accept that our current waiting fits with His design for us?

I have no way of knowing what kind of “wait” you are experiencing at this moment. But as your friend, let me challenge you to look at this circumstance as an opportunity to rest in His control. God knows you, cares for you, wants the best for you, and knows best when to provide the answers you need. You won’t see Him raise the dead, but you can see Him build your life: Just be still and wait patiently.

Even though our reading for today finds us in Isaiah, my thoughts tonight are reflecting back to the beginning of this week and Genesis chapter 12.  Since Monday, the Spirit has been echoing something that was introduced in one of our posts a little over two years ago.  Back then, the inspiration was from the book of Joshua, but as I read and re-read the words of Genesis 12, the Spirit began its renewing work. 

What I am referring to was an encouragement to consider dusting off the ancient practice of “piling up stones” as markers on our journey.  Just as Joshua was obedient to God’s call in chapter 4, verses 1-3 of the book that bears his name, Genesis 12 finds Abram piling up stones as God brought him into the land of Canaan.  On two separate occasions where Abram stopped and made camp, he built an altar and oriented himself towards God in prayer and worship. 

It began to make me think of how often I have stopped on my journey since writing that post back in December of 2009, and piled up stones as a marker.  I went back and read the post, and was reminded of the truths that can so rightly and richly re-orient myself in the direction of the journey map maker.  But another thing happened during that reminder.  The Spirit began to reveal that although the raw materials may be similar, I and my journey are not in the same place they were in December of 2009.  God’s truth is eternal, but is He simply restating and reminding, or is He also weaving in new threads of truth?

My mind and heart began to wander from the pile of stones to the specific form that is mentioned in chapter 12.  Abram didn’t make a marker, he built an altar.  Both can properly orient you in the direction of the journey map maker, but they are two very different forms.  I intend to go deeper on the form of the altar in my own personal study, but for now let me suggest that this ancient practice can be as fresh today as it was in the days of Abram. 

As God leads us into, and through the lands he has intended for our blessing and growth, let us remember to stop and build an altar.  It begins with the simple, yet profound recognition of the author of our journey.  But continues on to be a place of confession, submission, question, prayer and worship.

I’d invite you to read the “piling up stones” post from December 2009.  For some who have joined our journey more recently, it will be new.  To our seasoned journey companions, does it remind you of where you were with God back then?  Whatever your station, let this be an encouragement to pile up stones as markers on your journey, and make a journey altar-ation and build altars as God brings you into, and through new lands. 

As I look back on the first week of 2012, I am pleased with some of my choices. Not all, but some! There were no French fries or hamburgers on my plate. I drank more water and even some cranberry juice. I used my YMCA membership as more than a charitable donation, and felt good about my Bible reading (although I used Saturday to catch up). Certainly, some of my choices were not thought out or handled the best, but overall not a bad week. You can probably relate to my choice-filled first week. But for all of us, it’s off to a new week, with more choices. Let your energy, goals and desire for a great year still be as fresh as if they were on the first day of the new year.

It was about 2090 B.C. and things were a lot different from 2012 A.D. Abram had a choice when he was called by God to leave his homeland and follow God “to the land I will show you.” He could follow the leading of God to leave his country and family, or simply choose to stay. He obeyed and history was shaped by that decision. Just like you and I, Abram made some good choices, and not so good ones along the journey. I was especially struck in my reading this morning that in the same chapter, (Genesis 12), we find Abram being faith filled, but following, to being fearful and selfish. After leaving his homeland and eventually getting to the Promised Land, a famine overtakes the land and Abram goes to down to Egypt.

Once there, he throws his wife Sarai under the bus (before there were buses). Because he was afraid of Pharaoh, Abram made a selfish, fearful choice.

As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” 

What a rascal! Even though he was telling a half-truth because Sarai was his half-sister, the intent was to deceive. His short-sighted choice created a mess.

Although his choices had more far-reaching impact, I see so much of my life (and yours) paralleling Abram’s. Fast forward to the second week of 2012, and the choices will be plentiful. Eating french fries and hamburgers or broccoli and chicken, reading His Word or ruling my own life, holding on to anger or forgiving, shading the truth or being honest, letting work dominate or honoring our families, are just a few of the myriad of choices that will confront us this week and every other week of 2012. If you and I refuse to live with a quiet center that helps us gain God’s perspective, too many of our choices will be looked back upon with regret. The good news is that God has made His perspective available to us.

Thousands of years have passed since the events of Genesis 12. Abram, who eventually was named Abraham, is known as the “friend of God”. His life of faith and trust overshadowed some of the shortsighted wrong choices he made along the way. Our lives will also be known for the choices we make. It’s still early in 2012, and we all have an opportunity to live it with God’s perspective on the choices we make. Start, or continue today!

Thirty-five years ago my wife and I exchanged vows and were married. It was a completely different world then. I wore checkered bell-bottom pants, shirts with wide collars, rented a cool loft apartment for $225 per month, and was void of any gray hair. To top it all off, I was deeply in love with my bride, and would have told you that we were the perfect match (if that existed). But then reality set in, and we realized that we really didn’t know each other as well as we thought. Our love was rich and real, but not that deep. She is organized and very thoughtful and doesn’t need communication non-stop. I learned over time that she doesn’t speak early in the morning, likes me to turn out lights, and can be dismayed when her husband buys her a robe that is ten sizes too big. Over time my (and her) love has grown from rich and real to deep and sensitive.

As Christ-followers, there is never a question of loving God, but I am convinced that often our love is real, but not very deep. We are all beginning a new year with a clean slate, and an opportunity to grow deeper in our love for the Father, and to know Him better. But it will not happen if we don’t break the “as now, so then” principle. Kyle Idleman defines “as now, so then” this way in his book, Not a Fan. Simply stated the “as now, so then” principle is the idea that current habits are overwhelmingly the most likely predictor of future practices. For most believers the “as now” is filled with great intentions and genuine love, but sporadic discipline. Have you ever found yourself being motivated at church by a sermon and leaving with great spiritual intentions for the next week? But then reality sets in and you barely open the Scriptures until the next week. Can I challenge you to break the “so then” mold for this year? You can know God deeper and live more sensitive to His guidance.

If you feel you must fit God and His Word in to your schedule, you never will. With a clean slate starting today, choose to let Him become a valued priority, and His Word will change your life. There are great reading plans available, and we have created a “slower and deeper” model of reading Scripture for this year at Journey onWord. Would you let this year be a season of reading, reflecting and growing deeper in your faith? I can promise you success in life if you will follow the simple words of Joshua 1:8; Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Create a new “so then” in how you relate to God and His Word this year.

It is now three and one half decades, later and the love that my wife and I have for each other is far deeper than on our wedding day. Across those decades, our knowledge of each other continued to grow. We now think alike, enjoy the same things, compromise well and I speak less in the morning. Knowledge and sensitivity took a rich and real love and grew it deep. We still fail each other, but some of the things that once caused frustration now draw a smile.

Our love for God needs to continually be growing deeper. As we know Him better, it is amazing how much we begin to think and act as He would. Could it be that we can apply marriage to our relationship with God? Knowledge and sensitivity build the relationship! This can be the year that you and I break some “as now, so then” habits. We can all start by intentionally getting to know God better and growing deeper. It’s your choice!

We are in a season where all … well, almost all … of God’s creation is at rest.  Just as it was an integral part of the creation process, rest is a fundamental part of the rhythm of nature.  At this time of year, the created world is dormant.  Both the landscape, and animals that live within it, are “sleeping”.  It is a period of rest that is critical to the life and vibrancy that will burst onto the scene in spring, and carry through summer and early fall.  It is the way God designed it to be.

So when did we, as created beings, get out of rhythm with this cycle of nature?  Was it the invention of electric light, that extended our “day” past sunset?  Was it the industrial revolution that ushered in the era of progress and what has become the “natural order” of doing more with less?  Or maybe it has its seed in the fruit of the garden.  Whatever the catalyst(s), it cannot be argued that the part of creation that was expressly made in God’s image has broken from the rhythm of his broader creation.  And it is well past time that we recapture the value and practice of rest.

Think of the illustration of a cup of water.  Sitting still, it’s surface is smooth and placid.  The mere activity of picking up the cup begins to disturb the surface, and in shaking the cup, it becomes increasingly agitated.  Place the cup back in its spot, and the disturbance dissipates.  Our soul and full being is exactly like that cup of water.  And I believe that for some time now, we have chosen to live in a picked up and shaken state.  Secretly desiring, but outwardly rejecting the value and practice of rest.  We have marginalized those who desire or value it, and labeled them as lazy.  And we have tipped the scales in favor of the “performers” among us, elevating them in importance, and chasing after their habits and ideals.

I recently listened to a lecture on breathing.  Did you know that we are designed for optimum health and performance at 6 breaths per minute?  It varies a bit from person to person, but a good average is 6 breaths per minute.  And that our bodies are designed to gain 80-90% of its energy through our breathing?  The average American breathes 16-20 times per minute.  And while we might be tempted to laud ourselves as overachievers, at that rate, we have access to only 10-20% of the energy that is available from our breathing.  Try the exercise right now of breathing for a minute or two at the rate of 6 breaths per minute.  Push back from the computer, or put down the device you are reading this on, and become aware of your breathing.  Then begin to breathe in and out, to counts of 5.  At this rate, a full breath will take 10 seconds, and over the course of a minute, you would breathe 6 times.  Try it…

Maybe as you have been reading, your mind has been a bit distracted by the impending “busy” that the new year will bring.  Maybe your soul is best illustrated by the picked up and shaken cup of water.  And maybe within the last minute or two of simply breathing, you have experienced the effect that it can have on a picked up and shaken soul.  We have been fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of our Creator.  An all-powerful being who chose to rest after speaking creation into existence.  Don’t miss that truth as you focus on the creation account in Genesis 1.  With complete power at the core of his nature, rest was not demanded as a result of the effort God expended in creation.  Rather, God chose to rest.  And as beings created in his image, so should we.

Our 2012 journey has two themes … slower and deeper.  We firmly believe that it is past time that we recapture the value and practice of rest that was authored by, and modeled by our Creator.

We are in the midst of a season where all of creation is at rest.  The “season” that is our 2012 journey involved an intentional choice to slow the pace of our consumption of scripture.  And an earnest prayer that in doing so, it will result in us knowing God in a deeper and fuller way.

It was one of the most profound illustrations of waste that I can remember. Two weeks ago on a return trip from South Carolina, the pilot told all the passengers that he had good news and bad news (that’s never good). When the plane was serviced, double the fuel had been added and would not be removed. One option was to ask twenty people to de-plane. Our creative pilot decided that wasn’t fair. So he gave his airline a plan that though expensive and wasteful kept everyone on the plane. Rather than take the 17-minute flight to Charlotte, we headed west to burn fuel off. I was thankful for a creative pilot, but I couldn’t believe how much someone’s simple mistake must have cost the airline. What a waste! As I review 2011, I’ve probably had too many instances of wasting time, money and valuable opportunities.

One of the greatest opportunities afforded to any of us is to hear from our Creator. God has chosen to make Himself known in various ways, but none greater than through His revealed Word. We all have people in our lives that care for us, and would gladly give us their best counsel. However, any human advice pales in comparison to hearing from God. Yet most Christ-followers readily admit that their time in the Word is sorely lacking. My 2011 consisted of good days and not so good days in reading Scripture. There were times that I did my obligatory reading distracted or at a fast pace, and gained virtually nothing. You can probably relate. Oh, what a waste to have the very counsel of God at our fingertips and not glean from it.

In just one short day, we will all turn the page to a new year, and I would guess that you and I will still miss some opportunities to listen to God’s counsel. But with careful preparation and good discipline, 2012 can be a year of knowing God better and enjoying Him more. And remember, His counsel can always be trusted! II Timothy 3:16-17 is probably familiar to you, but let the words resonate with your goals for the new year.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

What an opportunity!

My passion for challenging you to start 2012 focused on Scripture cannot be overstated. God has chosen to make himself and His counsel known through our intake of His Word. Admittedly, it takes discipline and submission to consistently avail ourselves of His wisdom and guidance. But there is no other place on earth to get the very words of God. Let’s don’t waste the opportunity.

At Journey on Word, we have tried to make it easier to stay focused for 2012. Use our reading plan, and the tools we are providing. We’ll all fail some, but I am looking for each of us to have a great year of knowing God better and enjoying Him more.

And thanks to a creative pilot, I got home on time!