It has been the best 9 years of my life.
It has been the best 108 months of my life.
It has been the best 469 weeks of my life. It has been the best 3289 days of my life.
It has been the best 78,936 hours of my life.It has been the best 4,736,160 minutes of my life.It has been the best 284,169,600 seconds of my life.
I've been reading some Spurgeon recently and the quote below is something every public prayer should read. Spurgeon's insight and honesty is refreshing!
Long prayers either consist of repetitions, or else of unnecessary explanations which God does not require; or else they degenerate into downright preachings, so that there is no difference between the praying and the preaching, except that in the one the minister has his eyes shut, and in the other he keeps them open. It is not necessary in prayer to rehearse the Westminster Assembly's Catechism. It is not necessary in prayer to relate the experience of all the people who are present, or even your own. It is not necessary in prayer to string a selection of texts of Scripture together, and quote David, and Daniel, and Job, and Paul and Peter, and ever other body, under the title of 'thy servant of old.' It is necessary in prayer to draw near unto God, but it is not required of you to prolong your speech till everyone is longing to hear the word 'Amen.'
It all began on November 1st, 2007. We were in the mountains of Montana when I last shaved my face. The hair follicles have been producing for 121 days. Today is the final day of Whiskerino. Click here to see the progress of my beard in 121 photos. I am tracking who looks at my blog. If I see that you actually looked at my pictures I will know that you are very bored!
It was a fun experience. I am thankful my wife is patient with me. She is a good woman!
I really appreciate when people write the things I am thinking. Jim Elliff writes about The Value of Hanging Out. Here are a few tips from the article that I found very helpful. I have seen great value in many of these practices.
1. Find a hanging out place, or several, in your area. This will be easier for some than others. I've even spent some time in the local hamburger place. For most this will have to be early in the morning before work, but others may be able to invest a bit more. The morning usually attracts the "regulars" that you will be best able to connect with.
2. Learn the names of the people you meet. It is good to jot their names down somewhere for reference.
3. Take your Bible and spend time reading it, writing notes in your notebook, or reading a good Christian book while out.
4. Keep a friendly, approachable look about you. Speak to people. Introduce yourself and find out about them. Focus much of your talk on them. They'll also be curious about you.
5. Seek to get to the layer of philosophical talk. What do these new friends believe about important issues of life and death? This makes for deeper and more significant relationships.
6. You will find that they will be curious about you and your beliefs also. Talk freely about what you believe and how you approach life.
7. Make friends, real friends, who will be important to you no matter what their spiritual preferences are. Love them for who they are.
8. If you have read something interesting that you can pass on, by all means do so, especially if it has something to do with the true love of your life, Jesus Christ.
9. Expect God to do something. Christians make a difference! You might help a fellow believer or a person who does not have a spiritual bone in his body. You never know what God may be doing. The world reacts and responds to "lighted" Christians.
Read the entire article here.
