11.28.07
Posted in Gene Cornett, Spiritual Growth at 7:51 am by Gene Cornett
For some while my favorite translation of the scripture has been the ESV, (though I have recently mislaid my copy somewhere at church). Fortunately, my laptop operates as my bible most of the time. There are a couple of great bible sites online that I use in addition to Logos bible software. The Bible Gateway site www.biblegateway.com is comprehensive with many different translations . However, I also use the official ESV site at www.gnpcb.org/esv. Just this morning, I discovered that you can listen to any passage read over the speakers on your computer from that site, and it is very fast. Give it a try. Just click the “listen” button near the top of the screen. I found it helpful in my own personal devotions this morning. Let me know if you find it useful.
Gene
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11.15.07
Posted in Gene Cornett, Spiritual Growth, Worship at 11:48 am by Gene Cornett
(I wrote this short article for the church’s newsletter but wanted to place it here. If you are reading this on the blog, the first paragraph is mostly irrelevant.)
Obviously, one of the purposes of a church is to challenge and to help believers grow spiritually. Seaford, seeks to do that in the many ways that you would expect, but there is one way, that many don’t know about or don’t use very much. On our website www.sbc-va.org is a blog where we are increasingly posting material from our pastors, teachers and writers within the church body that you can read for spiritual encouragement at your convenience. If you don’t know what a blog is, then you should also know that it provides the opportunity for you to respond and interact with others using the blog. You can link directly to the blog at http://blog.sbc-va.org/.
On another subject, please pray for every aspect of the Christmas musical, Give Me Christmas. By the time you receive this newsletter we will only be a few short days away. Pray that God will use all of us as the Seaford church body to accomplish his kingdom purpose. Every person in the body has at least three roles to play in this musical. One, pray. Two, invite as many unchurched friends, coworkers and family members that you can. Three, attend. This musical requires a church wide effort, with everyone carrying out their role, for the musical to have its full effect.
Gene
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03.22.07
Posted in Gene Cornett, Media at 1:14 pm by Gene Cornett
I don’t know how many of you saw “The Nativity Story” this past Chirstmas. There is a good article about it on Christianity Today’s website. article
It was released on DVD this past week.
Gene
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Posted in Gene Cornett, Worship at 9:54 am by Gene Cornett
This is a good article I read today relative to, among othe things, improving communication. (Check the first point called “overcommunicate”)
Click here for article
Would people engage if we had some sort of regular worship ministry forum for asking questions of the worship leadership team (worship planning team)? I was thinking in person, but then realized this can be available all the time through a blog like this one on the church web site. What do you think?
Gene
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11.10.06
Posted in Gene Cornett, Spiritual Growth at 11:06 am by Gene Cornett
Time spent alone with God in practice is not nearly so neat and tidy as this outline might imply but these themes have been shown to be effective in helping people to connect daily with God and so develop their character to be more Christ like one day at a time.
Spiritual progress requires thoughtful and prayerful engagement with God’s word. Reading large chunks of scripture can be a meaningful spiritual discipline. However, you need slow in-depth meditation with a view to personal application to make spiritual progress.
I recommend choosing a book of the bible to work through a verse or two at a time. Or you can use this form to study any passage on which you will be studying with a group or in preparation for you to lead or teach yourself. Don’t feel that you need to legalistic and check off each step. Some days I don’t get beyond observation before I move to prayer. As you develop proficiency you may discover that the stages blend together. However, unless you are strongly grounded in scripture it can be dangerous to jump to interpretation before making careful observations about what the text meant to its first hearers.
Bible Study
Observations:
Type or write here observations that you make about this verse or passage. At this point you are seeking to answer the question, “What does the text say?” You are not yet asking, “What does the text mean?” That’s a second level. Don’t leave this section too soon. The key to effective Bible study is to develop a keen eye for detail. I usually am largely rewriting the verse and I look at it from various angles.
Interpretation:
Only now do you begin to ask the question, “What does it mean?” An even healthier way to look at this is that you are asking, “What did it mean to its first hearers?” We have to seek to understand that before we can seek to understand what it means now. This level is about asking good questions, primarily why and how?
Cross-reference:
Use scripture to interpret scripture. Most study Bibles have ample cross-references to each verse in the margin. Look up one or two, especially if it concerns a word or a phrase about which you need help. This can be especially helpful in discerning what a passage meant to its original hearers in cases where a cross-reference often refers to background information about a concept or an incident.
Application:
Now you are asking the question, “so what?” Or it may be helpful to ask, “What do I need to do based on this passage of scripture?” You may also ask the question, “How do I do this?” Rick Warren often writes in the margin of his bible the acronym YBH. (Yes, but how?) to force him to think about specifically applying passages of scripture.
Prayer
We often do our best praying in response to reflection on scripture. You may also want to try praying through the themes of the Lord’s prayer using it as an outline. Or you may want to follow the ACTS acrostic (Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication)
Journal
Record any impressions from the previous day. You might want to use these questions: What did I expect to happen? What did happen? What can I learn from the difference? This is also the place to record any insights, or any thoughts, to work out in prayer situations in your life that are troubling to you. Experience is not the best teacher. Reflection on experience is.
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