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Bible Time~Passing on a Thirst for His Presence

I had been asked if I’d share what I am planning for our Bible Time (that I mentioned yesterday).  Of course, I can’t do that in just a few sentences!    I have to share my heart about it!

 

 

I have been wanting to revamp some things with our Bible time.  I didn’t want it to be soooo boring the younger children were dreading it.  Neither did I want to cater to them with fun and games time.  And I wanted it to be not just focusing on the Word of God, important as that is, but on the God of the Word.  If you’ve been around my blog much at all, you know that I "preach" about relationships.   A LOT!  

 

 

I cannot save my children.   I cannot impart to them my salvation.   I can, however, lead them to the Living Water.   And then make them thirsty enough for it they just have to take a drink!

 

 

How do I do that?

 

 

By sharing the overflow of my relationship with Christ!   As I spend time in His presence, I develop His character, His heart for others…..my constant prayer is that He would so permeate my life that I would anoint all I touch with Him.   Just Him.  

 

 

So I wanted our Bible Time to reflect that.  I had been asking God to please show me the "pattern on the Mount" so to speak, as to what He wanted for our family.   My only hesitation in sharing this is that someone may take it lock, stock and barrel without praying about it and then it will become a tool that doesn’t fit well in their hand!   Please bathe in prayer and ask God what He wants for you.  If He led you here and you feel this is your answer, that’s fine.  I just know how prone I am to try to copy something thinking that’s from the Lord when I really didn’t seek His mind on it at all!

 

 

This came from…you guessed it!   A Ron Auch book!  Swept Away by His Presence is another awesome book, and in the later chapters he talks about how he has helped churches start what he calls "Morning Manna" prayer meetings.  I’m not going to give all the specifics here, but I will share what I gleaned from it and the tweaks I’ve made for us.

 

 

1. Prayer

We first pray for God to be with us, to guide us and protect our time together. 

 

 

2. Hymns

 

We do this already, but I am changing it a little.  Our 7 daughters each have a laundry day (obviously a few double up to get it done during the week!), so on their laundry day, they get to choose a hymn to sing.  Noah picks one on Monday, when Cassia does his laundry.   So we usually are picking two hymns to sing.  Yes, ALL the verses!  We also sing through the hymnbook.  I will go to the piano and pick out the tune if we don’t know it, but we usually sing a cappella.  (I’m not a good enough pianist to play AND sing!)

 

 

3. Bible and Confession

 

I plan for us to read a Psalm together, share from that and our personal quiet times what the Lord is showing us, then read the chapter of Proverbs for that day.  After that, we will pray and confess whatever the Lord has prompted us that needs to be confessed and/or for His help in doing what He is calling us to do from what we read.

 

 

4. Intercession

 

Here we will pray for the needs of others as well as make petition for our needs.  We will follow the guidelines Mr. Auch created for the churches he does this for. 

 

 

Monday–government–city, state, nation

Tuesday–families

Wednesday–World Missions

Thursday–Lost souls, revival

Friday–the Sunday service

 

 

5. Praying in the Harvest

 

This is also from his guidelines, which he got the idea from Rev. Larry Lea.  It is based on Isaiah 43:4-6.  Basically it is facing the different directions and praying for the needs of the community in that direction as well as salvation for lost souls. 

 

 

6. Thanksgiving and Worship

 

Here we will sing our "Hymn of the Week"–a hymn I pick that we sing every day, so that we get more familiar with it.  We will also share thanksgiving to God and praises here, as well as worship Him just for Who He is.

 

 

We’ll have a short break so they littles can stretch and get their Grapevine Studies notebooks, then we will do a short lesson on that and end with our Scripture memory.

 

 

I may change some things around, but that is my ideal for now.  I think it will take about an hour, with the break and allowing some extra time in case one segment takes more than its allotted time!   Which would be wonderful, by the way!

 

 

My breakdown, if you’re interested, is 15 minutes for prayer and hymns; 10 minutes to read the Bible and share and have time of confession; 10 minutes for intercession/petition; 5 minutes for praying in the harvest; 5-10 minutes for worship;  then 10 minutes or so for Grapevine and Scripture memory.

 

 

This will first be tried tomorrow morning, so maybe I’ll let you know how it goes!  I have no doubt it will take longer to start with, that the enemy will fight it, and we may spend as much time getting the little guys to learn to sit still  but it will be worth the effort! 

 

 

I am convinced more and more that time in His presence is THE most important thing I can be doing–both for myself and with my children.

 

 

No other way will we all learn to "Be still and know that I am God".  In reading Taught by the Spirit, (yes, another Ron Auch book!) I am learning that the battle is HIS.  The battle for our nation.  Our churches.  Our marriages.   Our children.   Read about King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:12-17.    What did God tell Him?

 

 

"Ye shall not need to fight in this battle:  set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem:  fear not, nor be dismayed;  tomorrow go out against them:  for the Lord wil be with you."

 

 

And what was Jehoshaphat’s response?  Worship!!!  "And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground:  and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jersualem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord."

 

 

And then see what he did to "prepare for battle"!   Verses 21-22:

 

 

"And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth forever.  And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten."

 

 

"Worship is powerful, it confuses the enemy, and nowhere has that fact been demonstrated more clearly than in that battle…..True worship will so confuse the enemy that he will destroy his own followers." (Taught by the Spirit, p. 148)

 

 

"In our spiritual warfare, God uses our worship to accomplish very special purposes.  He uses worship to get His work done in the world.  Prayer, on the other hand, is what God uses to get work done in us. Worship changes the world.  Prayer changes us.  But in order for this to happen, the garment of praise must go on after the sackcloth.  If we reverse that, putting on the garment of praise first, we never bring ourselves to repentance, we ensnare ourselves in a worship of worship, rather than a worship of the one true God."   (Taught by the Spirit, p. 148)

 

 

Mr. Auch contends that the greatest way to defeat our enemy is to become more like Christ, because that is the opposite of the devil.  And we become more like Christ by spending time in His presence.

 

 

I feel that if I can help my children to grasp that, it will be more powerful than memorizing whole books of the Bible, than knowing theology forwards and backwards, or than the most eloquent singing and preaching they could do.   Time with Him must come first, or all our Bible reading, memorization, study, etc. will be in vain.  If it doesn’t make me more like Christ, it is all in vain. 

 

 

Yes, I know, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink!"

 

 

But you know the rest!

 

 

You can salt his oats!  

 

 

This is how I plan to "salt the oats" and make my children thirsty for a drink from the Living Well that never runs dry.   The Living Water that is the only kind that will truly satisfy!

 

 

I tell people "You must be what you want your children to become."  Too many times we think the right Bible curriculum or class or whatever will do it.  No, it is a relationship, and it must come from us first.  As they see us drinking deeply and often from that well of Living Water, and then our lives overflowing with the fruits of the Spirit from being in His presence, they will want that same love…..joy…..peace—who doesn’t want peace in this troubled world?  It doesn’t come from changing our circumstances but from changing us!   Having His presence within brings peace in the most turbulent storm! 

 

 

Then we and our children can "Be still and know that He is God".  Then we can "stand ye still" for "the battle is the Lord’s"! 

 

 

I hope that encourages you to seek Him and His "pattern on the mount" for your Bible Time.   As for me and my family, we don’t just want to know about God–

 

 

We want to know God!

May He guide you as you seek His face!

 

One Response to “Bible Time~Passing on a Thirst for His Presence”

  1. Anonymous says:

    This part of your blog was so encouraging to me, thank you for taking the time to write it.

    Bless you and your beautiful family,

    Janell in Alaska

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