Month: December 2015

Life Priorities

On By geochristianIn Christianity, Uncategorized2 Comments

It is time to reflect on the past year and look forward to the new year. My basic life priorities have not changed for over ten years:

Life Priorities:

  • To live as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
  • To love my wife as Christ loves the church.
  • To raise my children as followers of Christ.
  • To be used to build and expand the church.
  • To be healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially.
  • To maintain professional excellence in my work.

Rather than making New Years resolutions, I have created a document that that I keep in my Bible that expands on each of these six life priorities. Here are a few of my more specific goals:

Following Jesus
1. Read in the Scriptures daily – Use a one-year reading schedule for NT and read at least one chapter each day on OT.
2. Daily prayer – At least ten minutes of focused prayer time following time in Word.
3. Memorization – one new verse per week, with regular review of other verses.

These goals change a bit from year to year. Of these first three, I am consistent on my Bible reading, need to grow in my prayer life, and have not been working on memorization. But having the document with me gives me a plan for where I want to be, and I can start working on my weaknesses.

Here are some more:

Loving my wife
5. Be available on an almost daily basis for prayer, reading, and conversation.
7. Have fun together, including monthly dates.

Raising my children (my children are aged 19-26)
9. Provide them with good books and resources.
11. Weekly communication – in person, phone, Skype, emails.

Building and expanding the church
13. Writing on The GeoChristian to build up the body and point nonbelievers to Christ:
• Two significant blog posts per month.
• More evangelistic content
14. Be faithful in evangelism in ways that work for me: blog, book ministry

Physical, mental, emotional, financial health
16. A better diet – low sugar, more vegetables and fruit. Less beef, more fish and chicken.
18. Exercise five times per week for at least 30 minutes – elliptical, hiking, biking, walking. Work on upper body strength.
19. Money: buy little, live simply, save, give, reduce debt. Budget.
20. Regular reading for growth in the areas of theology, apologetics, origins, environment, geology, and history. Goal: Finish three books per month.
21. Language study — Review a language I already know to bring me up to proficiency (French, German, or Romanian) or learn a new language.

Miscellaneous
24. Organization:
•Planner, calendar, filing system, project lists
•Daily and weekly filing and evaluation
•Watch for time wasters, such as internet and idleness.
25. Monthly planning and evaluation time with my wife

I don’t call these New Year’s resolutions because this is a living document that can be pulled out at any time for review or modification. The “Life Priorities” do not change much or at all from year to year, but the details do change. Some of these goals (e.g. reading, language study) are mostly on hold until the book I am writing is complete.

Grace and Peace

Bible Reading, 2016

On By geochristianIn Christianity1 Comment

I haven’t been blogging much in 2015. That may change in early 2016 once I am done writing Earth Science: God’s World, Our Home, a Christian middle school Earth Science textbook from Novare Science and Math.

I do, however, still make time for daily reading in the Bible. In fact, there was not a single day in 2015 in which I did not spend time in God’s Word. I do not say that to boast, but as a statement of my imperfect love for God, and my (also imperfect) dependence on him for sustenance.

I love the Bible, but realize that one can love the Bible and still be an unsaved Pharisee. There are days in which I can be in the Word, but the Word hardly gets in me. God have mercy on me, a sinner. But my imperfections are all part of the glory of the gospel. I am not a child of God because I am faithful to be in the Word, or faithful to do anything else, but because God, in his mercy, has given his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be my savior, and by God’s grace I have placed my (still imperfect) faith in Christ.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16

For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. — Ephesians 2:8,9

I read the entire New Testament at least once every year using a daily schedule. For the past several years, I have used a schedule I created that alternates between reading a gospel and reading elsewhere in the New Testament. This schedule can be downloaded from here.

NewTestamentReading

My goal for Old Testament reading is to read the entire Old Testament every two years. There are some books, such as Genesis and Isaiah, that I aim to read every year. This is easily done by reading one or two chapters in the Old Testament per day. I do not use a fixed schedule for my Old Testament reading, as I inevitably get behind. Instead, I use a checklist that gives me greater flexibility. My Bible reading checklist can be found here.

BibleReadingChecklist

What works for me likely will not work for you, but I offer these resources hoping they will be a blessing for some of my readers. Whether you use these reading plans or something else, I encourage you to be in God’s Word on a regular basis.

Grace and Peace