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Archive for daily devotions

God is light 600

Podcast 88 – God is light, and what it means for your family!

Posted by Carey 
· Wednesday, September 10th, 2014 

God is Light: A lesson for Christian families

Christian Home and Family subscribe on Stitcher! Miro Video Player listen on player.fm

Or if you are using a “podcatcher” here is the feed address: https://christianhomeandfamily.com/feed/podcast/

God seems to love illustrations and symbols. The scriptures are full of them: sheep, goats, seeds, plants, vines, brides and bridegrooms, light, darkness – you get the idea.

This episode uses the biblical illustration of light to show you a fun and effective way that you can use light to teach your family that God is light, and what that means for their lives.

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Categories : Podcast, Spirit Health
Tags : bible study, christian family time, daily devotions, God is light, quiet time, spiritual growth
30 day bible saturation

Podcast 87 – 30 day Bible saturation for spiritual growth

Posted by Carey 
· Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014 

30 day Bible saturation for spiritual growth

Christian Home and Family subscribe on Stitcher! Miro Video Player listen on player.fm

Or if you are using a “podcatcher” here is the feed address: https://christianhomeandfamily.com/feed/podcast/

There are a million different ways you could get into the scriptures and get the scriptures into you. But here’s one that’s honestly new to me, taught to me by my daughter. I call it the 30 day Bible saturation, and it’s really a cool way to get yourself immersed in some of the main themes of scripture in a very contextual way.

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Categories : Podcast, Spirit Health
Tags : bible study, daily devotions, quiet time, spiritual growth
ep74cover - quiet time

Podcast 74 – Teach your kids personal quiet time habits (2nd of 2 parts)

Posted by Carey 
· Wednesday, May 28th, 2014 

God is faithful to do His work in our children, as we are faithful to teach them how to seek Him through quiet time practices…

Christian Home and Family subscribe on Stitcher! Miro Video Player listen on player.fm

Or if you are using a “podcatcher” here is the feed address: https://christianhomeandfamily.com/feed/podcast/ LEAVE FEEDBACK AND A REVIEW ON I-TUNES

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This podcast is part 2 of a conversation I had with my children 2 years ago about how the LORD has faithfully led them to seek Him through the habit of personal quiet time. As you’ll hear, none of them are perfect at it, and none of them feels they have a walk with the LORD totally wired. But each of them has their own genuine relationship with Christ and loves that they do. My prayer (and theirs) is that you’ll be blessed and better equipped to help your children grow into a genuine, vibrant relationship with Jesus that will fuel their lives for the equipping of the next generation.

Your kids can learn to have their own quiet time with God… and you can help them get there!

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I’m available for speaking on this and other topics. Find out more at http://www.ChristianHomeandFamily.com/speaking

I also provide life coaching, spiritual coaching services. Find out more at http://www.ChristianHomeandFamily.com/coaching

Find products from Christian Home and Family at http://www.ChristianHomeandFamily.com/store

Christian Home and Family subscribe on Stitcher! Miro Video Player listen on player.fm

Or if you are using a “podcatcher” here is the feed address: https://christianhomeandfamily.com/feed/podcast/ LEAVE FEEDBACK AND A REVIEW ON I-TUNES

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Categories : Parenting, Podcast, Spirit Health
Tags : daily devotions, intimacy with Christ, personal time with God, quiet time
How kids can develop their own personal time with God

Podcast 73 – How kids can have their own personal time with God

Posted by Carey 
· Wednesday, May 21st, 2014 

In this episode of the podcast, I’m having a conversation with 3 teens about how they developed their own personal devotional time with God

Christian Home and Family subscribe on Stitcher! Miro Video Player listen on player.fm

Or if you are using a “podcatcher” here is the feed address: https://christianhomeandfamily.com/feed/podcast/ LEAVE FEEDBACK AND A REVIEW ON I-TUNES

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Every Christian parent I know wants their children to learn how to walk closely with the LORD. We know how important it is to maintain a vibrant relationship with God as an adult, and want it for our kids too.

In this episode of the Christian Home and Family podcast, which is quite a bit longer than my normal episodes… I’m going to be having a conversation with three great young folks – my three oldest kids, Aaron, Melinda, and Madeline. This conversation was recorded almost two years ago, and is a “repeat performance” of the Christian Home and Family podcast (originally aired as episode 4). The reason I’m doing a repeat episode is because this is one of the most downloaded and listened to episodes in the history of the podcast, and I have many new listeners since the time it originally aired. I want everyone to benefit from the great work God has done in these three kids… and I pray it will be a great blessing to you! Hear the story of three great teens about how they developed the habit of personal time with God.

Your kids can learn to have their own time with God… and you can help them get there!

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I’m available for speaking on this and other topics. Find out more at http://www.ChristianHomeandFamily.com/speaking

I also provide life coaching, spiritual coaching services. Find out more at http://www.ChristianHomeandFamily.com/coaching

Find products from Christian Home and Family at http://www.ChristianHomeandFamily.com/store

Christian Home and Family subscribe on Stitcher! Miro Video Player listen on player.fm

Or if you are using a “podcatcher” here is the feed address: https://christianhomeandfamily.com/feed/podcast/ LEAVE FEEDBACK AND A REVIEW ON I-TUNES

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Categories : Parenting, Podcast, Spirit Health
Tags : daily devotions, intimacy with Christ, personal time with God, quiet time
daily devotional mind hacks

Daily devotional mind hacks you might not have considered

Posted by Carey 
· Tuesday, March 18th, 2014 

Most Christ-followers intuitively feel that daily devotional time is something that should be part of their every day life…

But it’s not that easy, is it? There’s a ton of truly important things that compete for your time…

  • Work & career demands
  • School schedules & homework
  • Household responsibilities (meal prep, laundry, vacuuming, etc.)
  • Family relationships
  • Church attendance & service
  • Extra-curricular activities at school
  • Friendships
  • and the list goes on, and on, and on…

In a legitimately busy life, how do you make time for Quiet time (daily devotional)? And once you make the time, how do you make it count?

It begins with mindsets

As someone once told me,

Every one of us makes time for what we believe is truly important.

Let that sink in. I believe it’s true.

You see it proved true over and over again in the “normal” course of life:

  • If sports is important to you, you’ll make sure you’re schedule is clear so that you can watch the game. You might even make sure your kids are involved in sports, too.
  • If fishing is important to you, you’ll plan and carry out fishing trips on a fairly regular basis.
  • If work is important to you, you’ll be on time, diligent, and possibly even work more and later than you should.

You get the point, because it’s true. The same holds true for your daily devotional time…

If your daily devotional time with God were truly important to you, you’d make sure you didn’t miss it.

Why is your daily devotional not that important?

Much of this post comes from my book RECHARGE

Recharge
EBOOK: Here PAPERBACK: Here

In 20 years of pastoral ministry, and continued marriage & family coaching, I’ve come to see one main reason Christ-followers don’t devote themselves to daily time with the LORD:

They don’t see the vital benefits that daily devotional time with the LORD provides.

Daily time with Jesus is indispensable, because He IS your life. Did you hear that? Jesus IS your life!

When Christ, who is your life, appears, you also shall appear with Him in glory. – Colossians 3:4

This responsibility-packed rat race you call life, is NOT your life. It’s the things you do with your life. Jesus is your life. His essence, His person is what comprises all that you are and are to be. Does it make much sense to neglect the very thing that will give you life?

I don’t care how busy your life (or my life) truly is, you cannot survive a day (in a God honoring way) without communing with Jesus. I know, that’s an extreme statement, but I believe it with all my heart. We, as sin-stained people, are unable to live the kind of life we need to live, day in and day out, without the enlivening power of Jesus, and we’ll be unable to tap into that power, if we are not daily drawing near to Him. Jesus said it best…

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.John 15:5

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Our lives amount to ZERO without us “abiding” in Him.

What does that word “abide” mean:

a·bide [uh-bahyd] v. – to remain; continue; stay

Daily devotional time is not about practicing:

  • Bible reading
  • prayer
  • meditation
  • other spiritual disciplines

Daily devotional time is about abiding… making a connection with Jesus that goes with you throughout the day.

Bible reading, prayer, meditation, etc. may be the means you use to draw near to Jesus (and most times, should be), but they are not the goal you should be aiming for. Your goal, in every daily devotional time, should be to draw near to your Savior, who is your life (Colossians 3:4).

Mindsets to help you abide

START WITH PRAYER

To get started, I’d suggest that you always, always, ALWAYS begin your daily study time with prayer.

I don’t mean that you need to take out your prayer list and pray for everyone from your spouse to your co-worker’s Aunt Ethel. I’m talking about an introductory prayer, to set your mind in the right place (Remember how important the mind is?)

My insistence that you start here is based on two scriptural principles that go together. You can think of it as connecting the dots…

  • God Himself is eager to have a genuine relationship with you. He’s proved it through the gift of His Son, Jesus. (John 3:16, Romans 5:8)
  • God has promised that if you ask for anything He wants, He will give it. (1 John 5:14-15)

So… If God wants a relationship with you even more than you do (the first point), and if He has promised to give you the things He wants when you ask Him for them (the second point), then it makes perfect, divine, powerful sense that the most important thing you can do to establish a consistent and meaningful time with the LORD is to ask Him for it each day as you begin seeking Him.

Plead – Beg – Ask – Seek – Knock – Pursue – Beseech (there’s a King James word for you) – and don’t do it in a “wishful” sort of way (I sure wish this would happen…). No, do it with CONFIDENCE! Jesus has made the way for you to go boldly before God’s throne to ask Him for the help you need…

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.Ephesians 3:12

So start out by asking God to help you every day.

SLOW DOWN

Your daily devotional time with the LORD is not a race, a project, or a task where you get points for finishing early. It’s the exact opposite. You get more out of God’s truth the longer you marinate in it. Human beings can marinate… it’s called meditation. You need to take time to make that happen.

When you study the Bible you need to be taking time to understand:

  • the intricacies of the situations it describes
  • the logic in the arguments it makes
  • the deep spiritual truths that underlie the verbiage and sentences
  • the application it has to your life and relationships.

That means it may take you a few days to digest only one passage or story. It may require that you write the key verses on a card and read and ponder them throughout the day (highly recommended!). All of that is perfectly O.K. Really. You need to get out of the “get er done” mindset. It’s not important how fast you finish your scriptural meal, it’s important how much nourishment you get from it!

That means you may have to do something practical (gasp!). Make sure you schedule enough time to actually get something out of the meal. Five minutes won’t do it. Ten minutes probably won’t either.

God is worth it. Make enough time.

REMEMBER THE BIBLE IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER BOOK

You can’t simply read the Bible and “get it” immediately. You need the LORD to reveal His will and ways to you as you consider the scriptures. His thoughts are much higher than yours, as are His ways.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.Isaiah 55:8-9

There’s no hope of grasping the eternal and unfathomable riches that are recorded in scriptures unless you lean on Him in childlike dependence. That ties in nicely with the prayer I mentioned previously. Only now I’m suggesting that you make it an ongoing practice as you read the scriptures.

  • When you come to something you don’t get… ask God to explain it.
  • When you are confused or unsettled by something… ask Him to give you insight and comfort.

Interact with God as you read the scriptures. You need His help because the book He’s given you is unlike any book you’ve ever read. You’ll find Him more than willing to help you understand.

REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE DEVELOPING A RELATIONSHIP

Any relationship takes time and effort, and none of them happen naturally or easily. The same is true of your relationship with the LORD. It IS a relationship… you know that, don’t you?

Your daily time with the LORD is not…

  • a religious act
  • a ritual
  • an obligation
  • a box to be checked each day…

It’s a way that you engage in relationship with God, and it needs care and intentional attention.

It’s a time to:

  • share
  • listen
  • interact
  • and engage

because it’s part of developing a relationship… but with the living God of the universe!

MAKE IT AN APPOINTMENT

There have been a handful of times in the course of my marriage that our family has had more month than money. Does that sound familiar?

During two different seasons when we were tight financially, I took a job delivering papers early in the morning. I can remember I had to rise at 3:30 in the morning, drive 30 miles to pick up the papers, and then deliver them house to house. Because I’m pretty conscientious about work related things, I would pop out of bed when the alarm went off. It was a responsibility, and I tend to take work responsibilities pretty seriously. I was never late picking up the papers. I made it a priority. I set my mind before going to bed and when the alarm went off, I had already decided I would get out of bed.

One morning as I was out delivering papers, a new thought came to me about the struggle I’d been having in staying consistent in my daily quiet time. It went something like this…

Why is it that I am so quick to get out of bed for a job, but can’t do the same thing to meet the King of the universe?

It was a powerful question, prompted by the Holy Spirit that helped me understand the priority that my daily time with the LORD needed to be. It was a question that radically changed my thinking (remember the power of right thinking?). I intentionally began to think of my daily time with the LORD like I did work. It was something that I could not allow myself to miss.

What about you? Would a mind-shift of that kind be helpful?

You can train yourself to think of each day’s time with the LORD as an appointment, one that’s important to you. Like a business related meeting or meeting with a friend for coffee. Whatever meetings or rendezvous are important to you, realize that your daily time with God is far, FAR more important and DECIDE that you are going to treat it with the importance it deserves.

You just might be amazed at the impact it has…

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This post is partially excerpted from my book “RECHARGE,” which is available in Kindle and Paperback versions.

 

 

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Categories : Spirit Health
Tags : bible study, daily devotional, daily devotions, personal devotions, quiet time
quiet-time-habit

The #1 Quiet Time habit that most Christians miss

Posted by Carey 
· Monday, April 8th, 2013 

If you have made any attempt at a regular, meaningful quiet time with the LORD, you’ve struggled – at least at times.

Can we honestly admit that?

Any relationship takes time and effort, and none of them happen naturally or easily. The same is true of your relationship with the LORD.

It IS a relationship… you know that, don’t you?

Your daily time with the LORD is not…

  • a religious act
  • a ritual
  • a obligation

It’s a relationship that needs care and intentional attention.

The #1 quiet time habit that most Christians miss is…

quiet-time-habit

STARTING WITH A PRAYER OF HUMBLE DEPENDENCE

Sounds too simple, but hear me out.

This bold statement is built entirely on a few scriptural truths… promises given to you by God, who cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18).

1. God Himself, is eager to have a genuine relationship with you. He’s proved it through the gift of His Son, Jesus. (John 3:16, Romans 5:8)

2. He has promised that if you ask for anything He wants, He will give it. (1 John 5:14-15)

So, if God wants a relationship with you even more than you do (#1), and if He has promised to give you the things He wants when you ask Him for them (#2), then it makes perfect, divine, powerful sense that the most important thing you can do to establish a consistent and meaningful time with the LORD is to ask Him for it each day as you begin seeking Him.

  • Plead
  • Beg
  • Ask
  • Seek
  • Knock
  • Pursue
  • Beseech (there’s a King James word for you)

And don’t do it in a “wishful” sort of way (I sure wish this would happen…) but with CONFIDENCE!

God Himself has made promises that you can count on!

What does this have to do with the Christian Home and Family?

My focus in this website, podcast, and all related activities is to help you make Christ the center of your home, so that you can build a legacy of faith in your family for generations to come.

That

will

not

happen

if you are not first experiencing a genuinely vibrant relationship with the LORD.

Your marriage will not thrive as it should, if you are not walking with the LORD honestly and daily.

Your kids will not catch that kind of faith or listen to you talk about it, if they don’t see evidence of it being real in your life first.

You’ve got to believe that, because it’s true.

This post is an effort to spur you on, to equip you, to prompt you toward a greater sense of urgency about the importance of your relationship with the LORD.

Take this quiet time habit of heartfelt prayer and add to it your own good works, because

faith without works is dead (James 2:17).

Ask God to meet you each day.

Express your desperation for His presence and guidance.

Plead with Him to reveal Himself and His ways to you personally and powerfully.

Then engage in your pursuit of Him as if He’s going to answer you… because He is.

CALL TO ACTION:

DO something about it…

  • Make a note to remind yourself to start off each day’s pursuit of God with a heartfelt prayer of dependence.
  • Then engage in your pursuit of Him with all you are.

What will YOU do to ramp up your time with the LORD? Share your commitment below…

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Categories : Marriage, Parenting, Spirit Health
Tags : daily devotions, parenting, quiet time
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