Godly Wife

This evening during Bible study, a woman asked for us to pray that she would be a godly wife. She wants to be loving to her husband and honorable to God. I admire her request. She was very bold and humbled herself to request prayer in the areas of pleasing her husband spiritually, mentally and physically. She expanded on the physically part by saying to pray for her devotion to her husband sexually. It was mixed company in the room and everyone went silent. This must have been pretty unnerving for her as it seemed to have been for the rest of us in the room. I know, however, that the rest of us in the room really appreciated this open request and will certainly lift it up to God in our prayers.

I know that as a husband, I have been blessed to have a godly wife. I would hope that she would be willing to humble herself to bless me. If she's struggling in any part of our marriage, I'm confident that she would be praying for this on her own, and I would feel loved by her if she felt that she could share that concern with me so that I could be praying as well. I'd be blown out of the water, with love, if she included our church family in praying for every intimate part of our married life because that would show me that she's not allowing herself to succeed under her own power but through the Holy Spirit!

God wants us to pray for each other. When we take prayer requests, why not be open with our brothers and sisters about what we really need help with, instead of trying to always look like we're perfect and selfless. Now, I have to say that I don't in any way think that this godly woman and her husband are struggling in their marriage, but I do think that she has a genuine desire for her marriage to be outstanding and blessed by God, so that's why she brought it up. We, as followers of Christ, do need to be praying for our marriages, even down to the detail of squeezing the toothpaste from the bottom, if that is a struggle in your marriage. God desires this and honors this. We should also be including the body of Christ in our marriage. Accountability and support are extremely important and I encourage everyone to lower your personal defenses and allow the body to take part in your life by praying for your intimate details.

technorati tags: godly, wife, devotion, husband, pray, marriage, accountability, support

Follower of Christ

I was recently thinking about my answer to a question that gets asked quite frequently: Who are you? The first answer would be to tell them my name, or mention that I’m a customer or worker or something. But what other answers would better fit the question and motivate the person asking to evaluate who they are? How about: A sinner saved by Grace, or follower of Christ, or Christian.

I like to answer by saying that I am a follower of Christ. It means a little more than Christian, now that the people of our country seem to think that they must be a Christian simply because they are an American. Being a follower of Christ means that you humble yourself and submit to the one we call Christ (Jesus of course).

But let me throw this wrench in the works: if someone asked a co-worker of mine to describe who I am in their own words, would they take the simple answer or has my life been enough of an impact on them to award the answer of “He’s a follower of Christ”? What does it take for our testimony to become concrete in the minds of the people we share our lives with? I think that for someone to recognize you as a follower of Christ, they must first be told that you are such. Next, they have to have some validation - prove to them that you do really follow Christ. And finally, your testimony must have enough impact on their life that they would want to support your claim of being a follower of Christ.

I want to be a follower of Christ, not by the simple definition, but through the testimony of my life being poured out to my peers. I hope this challenges you the way it has challenged me. “Go and make disciples of all the nations,” and start where you are today. -

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technorati tags: Christ, Jesus, believer, follower, Bible, testimony

Accountability

Yesterday evening, we had a new speaker at church. He oversees the children’s ministry and he spoke while the pastor was out of town. He told of a little story that left an impression on me. It went something like this:

A fellow brother from a neighboring church asked, how does your children’s ministry flourish and succeed so greatly. At this brother’s church, they have all the money, workers, and provisions that any church would like, but for some reason he didn’t feel like the ministry had been successful. He could see and feel the Lord really working in the children’s ministry here. The response to the brother’s inquiry was pretty simple. “We hold our workers accountable for their duties and their walk with God.” This is important to be sure that God’s work is not placed behind a personal circumstance that any worker might bring with them when they serve.

This little story spoke to me. For one, it made me really appreciate the servants and leaders in my local church. It also reminded me that I need to be accountable for my walk with God, and the things I bring with me when I serve. As you might have already seen in my blog, I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve, for only one reason - accountability. If I am struggling, I want that to be clear so someone can come along side me and encourage me. If I’m winning the battle, I want that to be a way to lift up a brother or sister that might need my love. I want my thoughts to be transparent to let Jesus shine through in my life. I encourage everyone to find an accountability partner or two and be open with them about your life. By doing so, you’ll find that your ministry will flourish and succeed in ways that outsiders will be able to see and feel.

A challenge for you and me: Allow the Holy Spirit to hold you accountable for your thoughts and speech by prefacing them with a silent, unspoken mention of the name of Jesus. When Jesus comes first, all the world will see is His glory.

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technorati tags: fellowship, teach, Jesus, Bible, accountability, believer

God's Creation

Being the geek that I am, the other evening I was cruising around the world with my little program called Google Earth. If you haven’t seen it before, definately check it out. It’s basically pictures of the entire planet taken from space and then stitched together to make a huge 3D map. Well, I couldn’t help be realize how huge our planet is and how tiny I am.

God made such an amazing creation, and it is more complex than anything that man could contrive. And then there in the middle of it all, He creates me. Little ole me, on this huge planet, in the gianormous universe. I’m reminded of a song that says, “who am I that you are mindful of me.” God not only knows of me, he knew my every thought before creation ever existed. He knows the number of hairs on my head and he knows my dreams.

He sent His son Jesus for little ole me and little ole you. The Bible says that Jesus was the one who spoke everything into existance, and He chose to die for me! It’s amazing, and I am in awe.

Lord, you are awesome and your creation is awesome. I could never deserve to even speak your name, but Jesus paid for my sin so that I could have a relationship with You. Thank you from the deepest part of my being.

technorati tags: creation, evolution, God, Bible, Jesus

Can't get enough scripture!

Recently I have been a sponge soaking up the scripture. I listen to the spoken word from great pastors all day long. I read blogs about the Bible and get inspiration from them. I joined a great little program on blueletterbible.org that keeps you on track with a Bible reading plan. I’m going through the Chronological plan this year. I also signed up for classes at the Blue Letter Bible Institute that are similar to a college course, but it’s free and there probably aren’t any real credits.

What I’m getting at is that my desire is to learn as much as I can from the Bible as possible. I want to be a Bible scholar. I looked into taking real college courses to get an Associates in Theology, but Duski asked me what I would do with it and I didn’t know. If I were to do college, I think the Bible would be my subject of choice, but I don’t have any desire right now to be a pastor or anything like that.

I’m thankful for God giving me the desire to learn. I’m really surprised about how much this desire has grown in just the last few weeks. I think God has something cool over the horizon for me that he’s preparing me for. I can’t wait to see what it might be. For the mean time, I’m going to do my best to soak up God’s word and just be patient for Him to do miracles.

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technorati tags: scripture, bible, blue letter bible, theology, God, Jesus

Prayer

I’ve struggled a little bit with my prayer times lately. I have a list of requests from Pastor G, the Crown Ministries small group from Sunday night, and the Treasure Principles small group from Tuesday night. I also have the usual prayers for my family as well. See, I pray out loud in my car while commuting each day - about 30 minutes each way - so I can hear myself and I am my own critic. The trouble I have is that I sound like a broken record. I start by giving thanks for everything I can think of. I then move into the prayer requests with details about each one. (I’m thinking that I might cut back on the details since God knows the details much better than me.) At some point I get convicted about not confessing my sins and ask for forgiveness and then I just sort of wonder what it is that God wants me to say. By that time I’m about home and the prayer time is over. Does anyone have some suggestions as to how I get out of this rut where every prayer ends up sounding the same?

Daddy Lord, How can I bless you more and benefit you most in my time talking with you?

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technorati tags: pray, prayer, bless, Jesus

What's on your iPod?

I read lots of blogs and listen to tons of podcasts. I’m interested in “What’s on your iPod?” or other MP3 player. My iPod has some of my favorite Christian artists: Jeremy Camp, SonicFlood, ThirdDay, TobyMac, Jennifer Knapp, etc… I also subscribe to about 20 podcasts related to one of 2 topics: Jesus or Technology - Mostly Jesus. I posted previously what podcasts are my favorites and that is where I get the greatest enjoyment, music seems to be secondary. I look forward to hearing from you. technorati tags begin -->

technorati tags: iPod, MP3, podcast, music

Prayer time interrupted

Do you ever get into a good routine of praying and have that routine broken up by something unexpected? Well, I’ve never been into a good praying routine so this was new to me. Let me give you my example. Every day when I drive to and from work (or anywhere in my new van for that matter), I spend the entire time in audible prayer to God. I do this because my radio is busted and it is really a great time to talk to God. Anyway, today was different because I was given a ride to work and back and didn’t get to drive my radioless van. Well, this affected me a little and I felt excited and convicted at the same time. I felt conviction that this morning and evening I wouldn’t be having my time with God the same as other days. But as a result of the conviction I felt, there was excitement because I realized that through consistancy in prayer I had caused myself to form a habit of talking to God. I don’t know if I’ve had that sort of habit before and it is really cool to know that this is an obstacle that every follower of Christ encounters and I have been able to achieve success. I can’t take all of the credit of course, I was praying after all

I’m really looking forward to my commuting now, because my heart has been opened to God and I don’t ever want to lose that feeling. I encourage you to find a cool little time like I found and dedicate that time to audible prayer with our Lord. I think speaking out loud to God is very humbling and opens me up for His response better. My desire is to “pray without ceasing” but this is at least a good step in the right direction.

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technorati tags: pray, Christ, Jesus, Lord, God, encourage

Contact Me

I still haven’t figured out how to put my contact information as a static image in the sidebar, so I figured I’d put a post here with the information. My name is Jamison Hill and my email address is: 12voltinstaller@gmail.com .

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What I believe!

I believe that I’m a sinner saved by grace. I believe that God created a perfect world and man sinned resulting in death. Heaven is real and perfect, but I cannot enter due to my sin. God gave us one way to get to Heaven and that is through the blood sacrifice of the only perfect and sinless man, Jesus. Jesus is 100% God and 100% man and while on earth lived a sinless life. Jesus submitted himself to persecution and ultimately death on the cross to satisfy the need for a redemption of our sins. His death purchased life for everyone who believes on Him and accepts Him as Lord in their lives. Jesus raised Himself from death 3 days later and is living eternally. Jesus will return to establish His perfect kingdom and will reign at the right hand of God forever. If we confess Jesus with our lips and believe on Him we shall live forever in the presence of God. Without the forgiveness of sin, we are doomed to an eternity of seperation from God in the lake of fire, aka Hell. Do you know Jesus? Has your life been changed by Jesus? Do you need prayer? Please contact me and let me know your praise or needs. technorati tags begin -->

technorati tags: sin, Jesus, grace, salvation, heaven, hell

Calvary Chapel of the Triad

I’m not sure I mentioned it before, but my family and I attend a local church nearby in Kernersville, NC called Calvary Chapel of the Triad. We love the focus on teaching the entire scriptures of God through verse by verse study. Pastor David McGee is great at studying and teaching and is a man of prayer. I hope some day that I would be considered by my peers as a man of prayer. You can learn about our home church at reachthetriad.com . This website also has archived teachings from pastor in both the old and new testaments. I highly recommend the teachings there. I’m currently going through the Deuteronomy study that is online there.

We’ve started to get involved in serving at the church. Duski is in children’s ministry and I am on the media team. We both are co-teaching the Crown Ministries small group study, which is a great financial study, on Sunday nights. Please leave comments if you have questions about what we believe. Blessings!

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technorati tags: calvary chapel, church, david mcgee, NC, triad

Other Blogs

I went searching today through the Google blog search and found some really great blogs. I looked for things with keywords like: bible, love, jesus, church, life, hope, etc… What I found were some great people who love the Lord and have the same interests as me. I posted comments on a few blogs and read as much as I could take in. I’m amazed at how many people want to put their thoughts in a log online. I’m just glad to know that I’m not alone. These weblogs keep our minds organized and can generate accountability for our actions. I hope my blog starts getting some traffic, because I’d like to share my love for God with as many people as I can. Thanks to everyone that has a blog like mine that love the Lord and aren’t affraid to share it. technorati tags begin -->

technorati tags: blog, bible, jesus, church, God

Neat Proverb

My wife, Duski, reminded me about this little gem in Proverbs. Duski always mentions things that apply so well in my life. She is wise and I’m blessed to have her in my life. Well, here you go:

Proverbs 1:25-33
25 Because you disdained all my counsel,

And would have none of my rebuke,

26 I also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when your terror comes,

27 When your terror comes like a storm,

And your destruction comes like a whirlwind,

When distress and anguish come upon you.

28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

29 Because they hated knowledge

And did not choose the fear of the Lord,

30 They would have none of my counsel

And despised my every rebuke.

31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,

And be filled to the full with their own fancies.

32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them,

And the complacency of fools will destroy them;

33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely,

And will be secure, without fear of evil.”

Podcasts

I subscribe to a few podcasts daily to keep me entertained during work. These are cool because I get to hear God’s word spoken to me all day long. I also subscribe to some major geeky podcasts that I’ll leave unmentioned for now, but if you want to know about those, just leave a comment. Most of these can be found in the iTunes Music Store by searching for keywords. Here is a list of highly recommended podcasts:

-66/40 Radio Broadcast by Koinonia House (Chuck Missler)

-Bible Podcast (Tony Walker)

-Covenant Life Church (Joshua Harris and others)

-Desiring God Radio (John Piper)

-Just Thinking (Ravi Zacharias)

-Let My People Think (Ravi Zacharias)

-Take it to the World Podcast (Pastor Brian Michaels) - 2 versions of this one

-The Dave Ramsey Show

-UpWords with Max Lucado

-Walk Strong Podcast (Pastor John Michaels)

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technorati tags: iPod, podcast, iTunes

Favorite Teachers

I wanted to list the men that I’ve learned from over the years that have meant a lot to my spiritual growth. Here they are in no relevant order:

Ravi Zacharias, Kent Hovind, Chuck Missler, John Piper, Joshua Harris, Max Lucado, Pastor David McGee (reachthetriad.com), Pastor Brian Michaels (Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa?), Pastor Spencer Steenmeyer (Anchorage Bible Fellowship), Phillip Knapp (close brother), Karl Hill (my Dad, of course). I’m sure there have been many more, but these are the men that I encounter daily that mean so much to me. Please pray for them individually when you get a chance. These men need support in their ministry and the best way to support them is through prayer. Thank you.

Talk with God

-Original post on January 10th, 2006

"I haven't posted in a while, so I thought now would be a good time. I'm up late looking for things to do on the web, but I'm not finding anything. I just wanted to say how much prayer has made a difference in my life. I just purchased a beat up old minivan that doesn't have a working radio. I, of course, could put a radio in it, but I've decided to hold off for a while. It's not that I'm cool with going crazy in traffic, but because I get to spend that time with God. I alsway say Hit to God when I'm in my commute and I make it a point to continue in conversation out loud with Him as long as my travel takes me. I don't always know what to say, but God hears my heart and honors my effort. He's teaching me humility and reminding me of His presence in my life. I'm always asking in my prayer for more time with Him and He has granted me that time in my travels that I would have otherwise wasted on mindless noise. I give thanks when I can't think of anything else to say to God and I think He likes it. 'Thank you God for prayer.'"

technorati tags: pray, God, humility

Hate Sin

We went to Bible sutdy recently and were blessed as always. Duski gleaned a cool little thing: "If you are a Christian, you hate sin". This is a simple truth that we overlook. If we hate something like seafood or eggnog for example, we avoid it with excellence. I could seriously avoid those things for the rest of my life and it wouldn't hinder my happiness one bit. But sin is different. As followers of Christ, we should hate sin enough to avoid it and run from it for the rest of our lives, yet we continue to sin. What makes sin so much different? Why is our flesh programmed to love our flesh so much. Without our soul, the flesh would be useless so we should shed our flesh and put on the Spirit.

"Abba-Dad, Reprogram my soul and mind to reject communication with my flesh in the area of worldly desires. Please empower me to shed my flesh and pursue righteousness. Thank you for Jesus and I love you."

technorati tags: sin, Christ, Jesus

Jesus the Savior

I heard some great teachings today from Chuck Missler while I was at work. I'd like to share some insights. I learned that Boaz (book of Ruth), the kinsman redeemer, who is in the bloodline of our savior, Jesus, was the son of a harlot, Rahab. Remember Rahab played an important part in Isreal's history. She was the first gentile to become a believer in the God of Isreal. I think it's pretty cool that God chose a woman like her to be the first repentant sinner. Her sins weren't any different than our own, and Jesus died so that everyone, including the prostitute, could have eternal life. We just have to believe that Jesus was a perfect man and fully God, lived a sinless life, died a criminal's death, and rose again from the grave to give life to those who believe in Him. It is by grace through our faith in Jesus that we are saved.

Thank you Jesus for the sacrifice you made for me.

technorati tags: Jesus, chuck missler, God

Evening Prayer

Heavenly Dad,

I want to know you more. Help me to soak up your word like a sponge. I listen to sermons and Bible studies all day long on my iPod and I only hope that I can gain a greater understanding of you. I want to have time to read the scriptures and seek the truth in them. I want to hide your word in my heart so I can defend my faith in time of need. I want to be reminded of your presence in my life frequently. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for providing for my needs. Thank you for choosing me before time began. Thank you for eternal life that I realize I am already a part of. Help me use the time I have left to evangalize the unsaved and disciple the believers. I want to serve you with myself and my posessions. Please bless my family in rest this evening. And please be blessed by my returning your love with praises. Thank you for Jesus and I love you. Amen

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Welcome

I'd like to welcome new visitors to my blog. This is actually a continuation of a previous blog that was limited on some options I was looking for. You can find that previous blog at http://buggin.wordpress.com. I'm hoping to be able to pick up where I left off, but you might see some of the posts that are similar if not exactly the same as posts from the other site, because I would like to keep the content localized as much as possible. Sorry to anyone that this might inconvenience. Enjoy the blog and feel free to subscribe, add comments, and quote on your own website. God Bless.

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Follower of Christ

I was recently thinking about my answer to a question that gets asked quite frequently: Who are you? The first answer would be to tell them my name, or mention that I’m a customer or worker or something. But what other answers would better fit the question and motivate the person asking to evaluate who they are? How about: A sinner saved by Grace, or follower of Christ, or Christian.

I like to answer by saying that I am a follower of Christ. It means a little more than Christian, now that the people of our country seem to think that they must be a Christian simply because they are an American. Being a follower of Christ means that you humble yourself and submit to the one we call Christ (Jesus of course).

But let me throw this wrench in the works: if someone asked a co-worker of mine to describe who I am in their own words, would they take the simple answer or has my life been enough of an impact on them to award the answer of “He’s a follower of Christ”? What does it take for our testimony to become concrete in the minds of the people we share our lives with? I think that for someone to recognize you as a follower of Christ, they must first be told that you are such. Next, they have to have some validation - prove to them that you do really follow Christ. And finally, your testimony must have enough impact on their life that they would want to support your claim of being a follower of Christ.

I want to be a follower of Christ, not by the simple definition, but through the testimony of my life being poured out to my peers. I hope this challenges you the way it has challenged me. “Go and make disciples of all the nations,” and start where you are today.