QUIET TIME

I. What is a “quiet time”?

   A. What do the following verses describe about “quiet time”?

1. James 4:8

2. Psalms 5:3

3. Psalms 119:18

4. Psalms 63:5, 6

5. Mark 1:35

   B. According to Matthew 4:4 what is God’s formula for how a man is to live?

   C. Quiet time is vital for every Christian who wants to grow.

Explain what you think “quiet time” is.

II. Why is “Quiet Time” so vital?

Most Christians know they need to spend time with the Lord in prayer and meditation in His word. But it seems that few do. Do you think it is necessary?                Why?

   A. We need it!                     Match the following verses with each result:

                          Spiritual growth           1. Psalms 119:11

                          Strength in battle         2. Psalms 32:8

                          Guidance                    3. I Peter 2:2

                          Spiritual cleansing       4. Ephesians 6:17, 18

                          Victory over sin          5. John 17:17

                          Fullness of joy            6. Psalms 16:11

   B.  We need “quiet time” because God wants to meet with us!

           

John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  shall

worship the Father in _ _ _ _ _ _   and in _ _ _ _ _ : for the Father _ _ _ _ _ _ _   such to

_ _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ . 

            1. How did Job esteem God’s Word?  Job 23:12

                                                                                                            “No Bible, No breakfast”.

            2. Job’s attitude towards God Word kept him from doing what?   Job 23:12

III. Motivation – Duty or Love?

  I Chronicles 28:9 “… _ _ _ _  thou the  _ _ _  of thy father, and  _ _ _ _ _  him with  a

perfect _ _ _ _ _   and with a  _ _ _ _ _ _ _  mind: for the LORD  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  all hearts,

and understandeth all the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  of the  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ :   . . .  “

            Check the correct attitudes we should have for “quiet time”:

            “If I don’t have my quiet time this morning I know the Lord won’t bless me today.”

             “OK, Lord, you got 5 minutes to show me something – I’ve got lot to do today.

             “Please, Lord, show me the treasures of your word.”

             “I know the Lord will be mad at me if I don’t spend time with him today.”

             “I want to obey what you show me, Lord.”

When you harbour a wrong motivation in “quiet time” you shouldn’t expect the Lord to “show you His treasures.”

                                                                                           My prayer Psalms 119:18        jnh                  

IV. Keys to a Fruitful “Quiet Time”:

   A.   Commitment in your heart to know and love God through “quiet time”.

            Read and Study Psalms 119:15 and Psalms 55:16, 17

   B. Specific time and place.

            Read and Study Mark 1:35

Quiet time needs to be planned. If you don’t you probably won’t “get around to it”. Some people say, “I don’t have time for quiet time.”  But the fact is that if you are to busy for quiet time you are busier than god wants you to be.

   C. Be fully alert.

   D. Have a quiet time notebook. Record the thoughts, principles, ad applications that the Lord shows you.

   E. Have a prayer list.

   F. Have a spirit of expectancy. If you come to the Lord with a soft expectant heart, He will show you the treasures of His word.

TYPES OF QUIET TIME

1. Get a calendar and prepare a month in advance.

2. Have a notebook for Quiet Time and Prayer Requests.

3. The Methods:

A. Devotional Diary

Date                                                                Passage

Wondrous Thing (Title)

Wondrous Thing in Context

Wondrous thing to Apply

B. Verse Analysis

Date                                                                Key Verse

What is the thought before the verse?

What is the thought after the verse?

What is the thought of the verse?

What is another verse that teaches the same thought?

What are some questions or observations on the verse?

Personal Application.

C. Reading Psalms as a Prayer (Doing ACTS)

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication

D. Application Approach

Example for me to follow

Command for me to obey

Error for me to forsake

New thought about God Himself

 E. Meditation on God’s Word using the vowels (AEIOU)

A – Ask a question

E – Emphasize words in the passage.

I – In your own words, what does the passage say?

O – Other references that have the same thought.

U – Use it in the way it applies to you.

F. Meditate on God’s Word using questions

Where?

Who?

What?

When?

Why?

How?

G. Read Scripture (Ex: John) with the objective of knowing what Christ said about:

1) Himself

2) Man

3) The Father

4) The Holy Spirit

5) Sin

6) Hell

7) Heaven

8) Etc…

H. Working out a work sheet topic or study.

I. Read devotional books or books deal with an area you have a need in. 

But remember to keep your Bible at hand.

True North Stong and COLD

CURRENT CONDITIONS

-29.5^°C

• Updated:
• Tuesday January 17, 2012 at 09:00 PST
• Condition:
• Sunny
• Temp:
• -29.5°C
• Pressure / Tendency:
• 102.6 kPa / (0.00)

FIVE DAY FORECAST

• Today
• Mainly sunny. Wind north 20 km/h. High minus 25. Wind chill minus 46 this morning and minus 38 this afternoon. Frostbite in minutes.
• Tonight
• Clear. Wind north 20 km/h becoming light late this evening. Low minus 35. Extreme wind chill minus 43. Frostbite in minutes.
• Wednesday
• Sunny. Wind up to 15 km/h. High minus 26. Extreme wind chill minus 45. Frostbite in minutes.
• Thursday
• Sunny. Low minus 37. High minus 29.
• Friday
• Periods of snow. Low minus 32. High minus 23.
• Saturday
• Snow. Low minus 25. High minus 20.

TRUE STORY OF A BABY SAVED FROM ABORTION

Pastor’s Pen of David Harness

Pam knows the pain of considering abortion. More than 24 years ago, she and her husband Bob were serving as
Baptist missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection
of the intestine caused by a parasite found in contaminated food or drink. She went into a coma and was treated
with strong antibiotics and drugs before they discovered she was pregnant. Her baby suffered a severe placental
abruption.

Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety and told her that the medicines had caused irreversible
damage to her baby, and probably would be stillborn. She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the
reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted. Pam said
the doctors didn't think of it as a life, they thought of it as a mass of fetal tissue.

While pregnant, Pam nearly lost their baby four times but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a
pledge to God with her husband: If you will give us a son, we’ll name him Timothy and we’ll make him a preacher.
Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy
August 14, 1987.

Pam homeschooled all of her five children, instilling her Christian beliefs in them. Pam’s youngest son is
indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father’s ministry in the
Philippines. He also plays football. Pam’s son is Tim Tebow.

The University of Florida’s star quarterback became the first sophomore in history to win college football’s
highest award, the Heisman Trophy. His current role as starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos has provided an
incredible platform for Christian witness. As a result, he is being called The Mile-High Messiah. During his college
football career, Tebow frequently wore references to Bible verses on his eye black. In the 2009 BCS Championship
Game, he wore John 3:16 on his eye black; the verse was the highest-ranked Google search term over the next 24
hours, generating over 90 million searches. Later, when Tebow switched to another verse, there were 3.43 million
searches of Tim Tebow and Proverbs 3:5-6 together. Tim Tebow also makes it a practice during a game to kneel on
the field and give God thanks—the sports world now calls this “Tebowing”.

Tim’s notoriety and the family’s inspiring story have given Pam numerous opportunities to speak on behalf of
women’s centers across the country. Pam Tebow believes that every little baby you save matters. Amazing things
happen contrary to the secular world’s predictions when one depends completely on the Word of God in the face of
dire consequences or even death. All God wants us to do is trust in Him and obey His Word.

Pastor David Harness
(Adapted from an article by Melissa Lackey with other material added).


BTW -- The Broncos lost to the Patriots Saturday evening. Giving Tim extra time in serving his Lord.

www.timtebow.com

Great to work with thinking people -

A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes, without the tube inside. 

 

This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Small variations in the environment (which can’t be controlled in a cost-effective fashion) mean you must have quality assurance checks smartly distributed across the line so that customers all the way down to the supermarket don’t get pissed off and buy another product instead.

 

Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.

 

The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution — on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box would weigh less than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done to re-start the line.

 

A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. Very few customer complaints, and they were gaining market share. “That’s some money well spent!” – he says, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.

 

It turns out, the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0 after three weeks of production use. It should’ve been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. He filed a bug against it, and after some investigation, the engineers come back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren't picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.

 

Puzzled, the CEO travels down to the factory, and walks up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed.

 

A few feet before the scale, there was a $20 desk fan, blowing the empty boxes off of the belt and into a bin.

 

“Oh, that,” says one of the workers — “one of the guys put it there ’cause he was tired of walking over ….. “ every time the bell rang”.

Certificate of Completion

Five of our ladies received Certificate of Completion for reading through their Bible in 2011 in acknowledging the 400th Anniversary of the King James Version. One of our ladies read her bible in 90 days.

Solitude and Leadership

If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts.

For Christian leaders read this article but make a few changes for oneself.

ie.. to be alone with God, thinker to prayer-warrior, and our warfare is spiritual not carnal. 

btw, being alone with one own thoughts have gotten a lot of folks in trouble.

Solitude and Leadership: click here

Fantastic article on the differences between being an excellent doer and an excellent thinker and how that affects leadership. In a time when our generation, our culture, sorely needs better leadership, this message should be well received.

We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going. Who can answer questions, but don’t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but don’t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether they’re worth doing in the first place. What we have now are the greatest technocrats the world has ever seen, people who have been trained to be incredibly good at one specific thing, but who have no interest in anything beyond their area of exper­tise. What we don’t have are leaders.