How do I come up with my Quiet Times?
Originally, I started recording my consistency back in 2003. I wanted to read the bible all the way through in a year, and see how many quiet times I had on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. As it stood, I ended up the year with a percentage of just over 18%. That’s 66 quiet times (oh – an imperfect number – OUCH!). And that motivated me to change the way I looked at things. I booted the idea of the bible in a year and just focused on consistency and my spiritual needs. Why read a chapter in the bible that may or may not help me when I know I am struggling in an area that I need work in? Over the last few years, my quiet times have changed and grown. I have started using new things and dropped other things, mostly resources.
As far as the resources, I have used a number of types of books and online resources. Today, I generally use mostly online resources, simply because they are faster. I do still like to sit down and read a book on occasion, but when it comes to my quiet times, I use the online resources. I do extras outside my quiet times, and for those I read books for extra studies. The online resources I find most useful would be the E-Sword, which is software I downloaded months ago and recently just started using. It has the Hebrew and Greek translation and you can search the bible throughout to find the similar words to do continued research. It is very interesting and I am only a novice to it and look forward to continued study with it. I also use the online dictionary to give an added feature to my studies so that I can get an added insight to just what is being said within the scripture. I was once tested as a child and found to be a genius. Whether I am a genius or not, I really don’t know, but that is what the test said, but still, I find that looking up definitions is helpful to grasp a better understanding. I need the understanding, because, to be honest, I really don’t understand a lot of the time. I have a mathematical mind… I think in terms on: if this – then this. And with definitions, I tend to grasp that a little better. The Greek and Hebrew plus the definitions really paint that picture for me.
Another thing that helps a tremendous amount and I stress abundantly, more so than anything, is that a quiet time has to be fun. In 2003, actually, before then, even, I would have a quiet time, and I would scrape and pull myself through it. I didn’t like to have them. I didn’t. And it was the horrendous numbers of 2003 that started to change all that. At the end of 2003, as I started to see where I was at, I knew there would need to be a change. And so in 2004 I tried a different approach. I repeated that approach in 2005, but changed things somewhere along the way… and change isn’t bad, I don’t guess. The three main important things in a quiet time are this: learn about God, learn about yourself, and have fun while doing so, because if you don’t enjoy your quiet time, at least once in a while, you may not come back to have another.
So, what are some good resources I have found? Well, I’ve found that there are more resources than brain cells… at least in my head. So that’s why God gave us the “favorite’s feature” on the internet. I use www.ibs.org/niv/ everyday for my quiet time. Dictionary.com is another resource. I use it for all my definitions… well, not all of them. When I want to see how Satan would define something, I would go to thedevilsdictionary.com to get a perspective from that viewpoint. I don’t play in his dictionary often. But when I go, it is quite interesting. I do think that word choice is very interesting. Have you ever considered the words used in a conversation? Are words used by chance? The bible says that from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. The bible also says to write its words on your heart. Thus, whatever is written on your heart will come out of your mouth. That was a bit of a revelation for me and made me think a bit. My wife introduced me to the blue letter bible, but I really couldn’t understand it at all… and then I found the E-Sword software and downloaded that and find that very user friendly. However, blue letter does have quite a bit of commentary which I know a lot of people find very useful. Maybe someday I will start utilizing that… however I am still fascinated with the Greek and Hebrew right now. When I start to calm down and get used to these new toys, then I will maybe start to venture out a little more.
Sometime back in August of 2005, I created a web log, also known as a blog. I created as an accountability tool because I needed people to check in on me to see that I was having them. I then started emailing them out. And some interesting things happened as a result of it all. It encouraged people. It helped my wife when she struggled. It helped in my times of struggles, because when I struggled, people would email me back. And when I was down and simply didn’t email out, people would email me to check in on me. People do care. And in today’s world, there is another type of people: email people. Some people like to read mail. Some people like to read books. And some people like to read emails. There are all types of audiences out there… some Christians are suited for different types of harvests. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few. I have traveled up and down Oklahoma and Texas and even into Kansas and Arkansas. You have Corn, Cotton, and all sorts of stuff to harvest around here. Some people are better suited to harvest things than others. In fact, many groups travel the up and down the Great Plains harvesting specific things. Some harvest just the cotton. Others harvest just the wheat. And others still the corn. It is important to find the facet that fits us and exploit that to the greatest.
When I have my quiet time, I use that time to focus on growth. God wants me to grow. He wants me to mature. No more milk, but food. Should I look at the word and walk away forgetting what I looked at? By no means… for that would be useless. Heck, that’s what my boy James says! And that’s why I focus on a series. I use titles to keep me focused. It gives me something to look forward to everyday. And on Friday’s, since I found that the meaning of Friday is “friend’s day” I use that to focus on building friendships and how I can be a better friend. I think that will be one that will be a series that will go on till the day God calls me. It just fits. But, the series wouldn’t have happened with out the blog, the emails wouldn’t have happened without the blog… my quiet times wouldn’t have gotten deeper… well, I really don’t know if these things would have or have not happened… I just know the order they did and why. And now my son can look back and see how I did progress spiritually when he was just an infant. He can see my struggles, my worries, my hopes, and my pains. And so can my friends. Christ himself shared his deepest stuff with the twelve. And he called them friends. I ask you, should we be any different? The friendship needs to be profound in quality and beyond what is superficial or obvious. The devils dictionary defines friendship as a ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul. My quiet time is me being a friend to God, God being a friend to me, as he always has been, and me sharing that friendship with everyone else. The devil wants me to be a fair weather friend. God doesn’t want me to give him that victory. But it’s my decision.
Originally, I started recording my consistency back in 2003. I wanted to read the bible all the way through in a year, and see how many quiet times I had on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. As it stood, I ended up the year with a percentage of just over 18%. That’s 66 quiet times (oh – an imperfect number – OUCH!). And that motivated me to change the way I looked at things. I booted the idea of the bible in a year and just focused on consistency and my spiritual needs. Why read a chapter in the bible that may or may not help me when I know I am struggling in an area that I need work in? Over the last few years, my quiet times have changed and grown. I have started using new things and dropped other things, mostly resources.
As far as the resources, I have used a number of types of books and online resources. Today, I generally use mostly online resources, simply because they are faster. I do still like to sit down and read a book on occasion, but when it comes to my quiet times, I use the online resources. I do extras outside my quiet times, and for those I read books for extra studies. The online resources I find most useful would be the E-Sword, which is software I downloaded months ago and recently just started using. It has the Hebrew and Greek translation and you can search the bible throughout to find the similar words to do continued research. It is very interesting and I am only a novice to it and look forward to continued study with it. I also use the online dictionary to give an added feature to my studies so that I can get an added insight to just what is being said within the scripture. I was once tested as a child and found to be a genius. Whether I am a genius or not, I really don’t know, but that is what the test said, but still, I find that looking up definitions is helpful to grasp a better understanding. I need the understanding, because, to be honest, I really don’t understand a lot of the time. I have a mathematical mind… I think in terms on: if this – then this. And with definitions, I tend to grasp that a little better. The Greek and Hebrew plus the definitions really paint that picture for me.
Another thing that helps a tremendous amount and I stress abundantly, more so than anything, is that a quiet time has to be fun. In 2003, actually, before then, even, I would have a quiet time, and I would scrape and pull myself through it. I didn’t like to have them. I didn’t. And it was the horrendous numbers of 2003 that started to change all that. At the end of 2003, as I started to see where I was at, I knew there would need to be a change. And so in 2004 I tried a different approach. I repeated that approach in 2005, but changed things somewhere along the way… and change isn’t bad, I don’t guess. The three main important things in a quiet time are this: learn about God, learn about yourself, and have fun while doing so, because if you don’t enjoy your quiet time, at least once in a while, you may not come back to have another.
So, what are some good resources I have found? Well, I’ve found that there are more resources than brain cells… at least in my head. So that’s why God gave us the “favorite’s feature” on the internet. I use www.ibs.org/niv/ everyday for my quiet time. Dictionary.com is another resource. I use it for all my definitions… well, not all of them. When I want to see how Satan would define something, I would go to thedevilsdictionary.com to get a perspective from that viewpoint. I don’t play in his dictionary often. But when I go, it is quite interesting. I do think that word choice is very interesting. Have you ever considered the words used in a conversation? Are words used by chance? The bible says that from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. The bible also says to write its words on your heart. Thus, whatever is written on your heart will come out of your mouth. That was a bit of a revelation for me and made me think a bit. My wife introduced me to the blue letter bible, but I really couldn’t understand it at all… and then I found the E-Sword software and downloaded that and find that very user friendly. However, blue letter does have quite a bit of commentary which I know a lot of people find very useful. Maybe someday I will start utilizing that… however I am still fascinated with the Greek and Hebrew right now. When I start to calm down and get used to these new toys, then I will maybe start to venture out a little more.
Sometime back in August of 2005, I created a web log, also known as a blog. I created as an accountability tool because I needed people to check in on me to see that I was having them. I then started emailing them out. And some interesting things happened as a result of it all. It encouraged people. It helped my wife when she struggled. It helped in my times of struggles, because when I struggled, people would email me back. And when I was down and simply didn’t email out, people would email me to check in on me. People do care. And in today’s world, there is another type of people: email people. Some people like to read mail. Some people like to read books. And some people like to read emails. There are all types of audiences out there… some Christians are suited for different types of harvests. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few. I have traveled up and down Oklahoma and Texas and even into Kansas and Arkansas. You have Corn, Cotton, and all sorts of stuff to harvest around here. Some people are better suited to harvest things than others. In fact, many groups travel the up and down the Great Plains harvesting specific things. Some harvest just the cotton. Others harvest just the wheat. And others still the corn. It is important to find the facet that fits us and exploit that to the greatest.
When I have my quiet time, I use that time to focus on growth. God wants me to grow. He wants me to mature. No more milk, but food. Should I look at the word and walk away forgetting what I looked at? By no means… for that would be useless. Heck, that’s what my boy James says! And that’s why I focus on a series. I use titles to keep me focused. It gives me something to look forward to everyday. And on Friday’s, since I found that the meaning of Friday is “friend’s day” I use that to focus on building friendships and how I can be a better friend. I think that will be one that will be a series that will go on till the day God calls me. It just fits. But, the series wouldn’t have happened with out the blog, the emails wouldn’t have happened without the blog… my quiet times wouldn’t have gotten deeper… well, I really don’t know if these things would have or have not happened… I just know the order they did and why. And now my son can look back and see how I did progress spiritually when he was just an infant. He can see my struggles, my worries, my hopes, and my pains. And so can my friends. Christ himself shared his deepest stuff with the twelve. And he called them friends. I ask you, should we be any different? The friendship needs to be profound in quality and beyond what is superficial or obvious. The devils dictionary defines friendship as a ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul. My quiet time is me being a friend to God, God being a friend to me, as he always has been, and me sharing that friendship with everyone else. The devil wants me to be a fair weather friend. God doesn’t want me to give him that victory. But it’s my decision.
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