Encountering God

Recently, Elaine and I have begun partaking in a new program hosted by Lighthouse Alliance Church in Cleveland, Ohio. This is where we used to attend before we moved and still attend when we're in the area. Pastor Paul Yanchek is a wonderful Godly man that is used mightily by the Holy Spirit to reach out and help Christians with their spiritual walk. The program is called "Encountering God" and can help you in all areas of your life with Christ.

From www.abideradio.com

BIBLE READING
If you want to start this program, plan to read through your Bible in one year. The plan is very lenient and allows room to catch up if you missed a day, but is roughly four chapters or 15 minutes of your time each day. It starts in the New Testament and breaks the books into different genre groups. There's also a neat acronym that helps you to "chew" on what you've read and dig deeper into the Bible. Download your free copy of the Bible reading plan from "Prayer Today Online" today.

PRAYER TIME
Do you struggle with prayer? Have trouble praying for more than five minutes? This program has a neat prayer chart that will help you to come up with various areas to pray about and helps you to keep praying over important matters. There are eight different categories and each day has you pray for different items in each category. Want to grow your prayer time to 30 minutes each day or more, just divide the total time you would like to pray by 8 and you can see how much time is needed for each category. Download the chart. (If the link doesn't work, please let us know.)

JOURNAL WRITING
This is not to be confused with writing in a diary like a twelve year old girl. Journal Writing is very beneficial for writing your thoughts as God begins speaking to you through His Word. It helps you to remember those special prayer requests and precious Bible verses. Also, as you look back upon past entries, it can renew your mind and show you how God has worked through your life. There is no link to a special document for this, just grab some blank paper and start writing... but find somewhere safe to keep it for later usage.

SERMONS
Pastor Paul Yanchek will also be preaching throughout the next year concerning the "Encountering God" theme. He wants every Christian to have an unbroken determination in their spiritual walk. Pastor Paul asked believers a profound question about this topic, "When it comes to encountering God, do you say 'It would be nice,' 'I want that,' or 'I can't live without it?'" His sermons can be found at the ABIDE! Ministries website. They are available for free as an audio download or you can watch the YouTube video. (Also, check out "How to Abide in Christ" by Paul Washer.)

SPIRITUAL GOALS
This section is not part of the "Encountering God" program, but is something that Elaine has been doing for the past few years and I felt it was a good addition to the tools already included with this post. As Christians, we should be drawing closer to Christ and growing in holiness. It may not be noticeable on a daily or weekly scale, but should be evident as we look back over the years. I encourage you to take time out to set some spiritual goals for yourself that you can strive for during the year. For example, one goal that I made for myself last year (unofficially) was to be consistent in daily prayer and Bible reading.

From www.billyritchie.org

Our prayer is that these tools will help you to draw closer to Christ and encounter God. We hope these tools will encourage a stronger relationship with our Lord and that it will not just become a checklist of things to do. Please let us know if you have any questions concerning these tools or need some suggestions for prayer or goals. God bless you and may you abide in the Vine! (Want to go deeper than we've discussed here? Get "The Intentional Spiritual Life" by Pastor Paul Yanchek.)