listen one

so my brother has taken our young adults group down a new path. he wrote a blog about it a few months back. i don't feel like going into detail. its called a LIFE cycle. eaach letter of life stands for something. Listen, intercede, Family, and Encoutner( i think. i forget if encounter is right but i like it so i'll leave it until josh corrects me.)so this week was listen. granted it was monday, and i had already blogged monday then spent three hours praying and listening to God, so i was kind of in the mindset that i had "met my quota" for the day, but i was excited to see what was going on. i showed up and we did lectio divina on a verse in psalms ( i forget which one.) lectio divina is one of the oldest bible studying methods around. basically you read the verse slowly and listen to the words. you listen for a word or phrase that sticks out. then you read it again. then you think about the phrase. after that you pray about the phrase adn ask God what he wants to show you. then, you listen to him. after you share. i might have skipped a step or gotten something wrong, but once again until josh corrects me, i'll leave it as is.

my favorite part is that it forces us to listen. we spent fifteen minutes that felt like half an hour to me. as someone who likes to sit and listen to God for three hours a night, that fifteen minutes was long. part of what we did was not allow ourselves to respond for part of it. it made you really sit and listen to make sure ou had all of what God was saying. my mind always races. but i had to still it and lsiten. i loved it. it was awkward. it was perfect.

out of this day i got two main ideas. the first i will share is what God showed me through the listening part. it really played off what i wrote about that morning about spending more time alone with God.

Verse portions "i ponder every morsel of wisdom from you"
"i will not forget your word"
the first really spoke of spending time in thought and in prayer. pondering every morsel says we are to use our minds to think about the depths of God's words.
the part about not forgeting God's word made me think about knowing his word. i need to study the bible more. alot more.
talking to God makes us learn about who he is up close. the immanence. he is right here. we need to learn about who he is right next to us by simply interacting with him. we need to commune with God.
the part about studying his word is teaching us about his transcendance. it is rare that we feel his awesome power that is so far above us. by studying the word we know that he is HUGE. we know this part better by studing his word. there are places where he tells us how powerful he is. those are where we learn about his awesome size.

in the part of lectio divina where you respond and put that into ways that the ideas manifest themselves i broke it down into four steps that i can always be looking for in my life:
learn the facts, experience his love, love the world ( in a missional sort of way) and teach the word.

the other portion of the things God showed me i will have to share tomorrow. i am tired. i know God has called me to be a pastor. He has also called me to be a lover and an encourager. next week is intercede. i am so excited. its a dream come true for me. i have been praying that God will show us things to tell each other. that he will kep us up at night so we will listen to him and know how he wants to use us to encourage one another next monday. its going to be awesome.