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i hate it as much as peanuts but i can t stop eating peanuts orson welles about a month ago in prayer god challenged me he challenged me to live without television for 30 days i m embarrassed to admit it but that challenge destroyed me i m not sure i would have been more devastated if god had asked me to go without food for a week honestly it was that big of a deal to me when i heard the spirit say no tv my stomach dropped i felt sick i thought god that s impossible for the next ten minutes or so my prayers consisted of things like well god you re going to have to give me the strength cause i can t do this eventually though i resigned saying i am not my own my life is yours who am i to say no to you god and so i committed to this task and by god s grace in 4 days it will have been 30 days without television let me give you a few more details as i went on with this challenge i felt god further defining it and further challenging me i wasn t watching any tv but i d enjoy a youtube video now and then no youtube god said yes lord then one day i watched one of those vines posted by a friend on facebook i felt conviction okay god i said i get it then another week or so went by and i felt compelled to stay away from facebook basically god was stripping away all entertainment from my life i know i know this seems extreme to our american sensibilities over saturated with entertainment as we are but there it is this is how god dealt with me i can hear some of you saying well what did you do then no tv no youtube no facebook no entertainment at all what did you do with all that time i played with my son i had conversations with my wife i found time to pray more now that i wasn t so busy in front of the tv once my wife and i even went on a drive for an hour and a half with my son asleep in the carseat and we talked about all that god was doing in our lives and all we hoped he would do my wife said it felt like a date night let s admit it to ourselves we re addicted to entertainment we need nearly every hour of the day to be entertained amused distracted mesmerized by something life isn t enough anymore reality isn t enough anymore we re always looking for an escape and what s worse we seem to spend hours of our lives in search of that elusive experience we flip through the channels 50 times before admitting that there s nothing on then we either do it again or settle for some boring show that we don t really want to watch but for some reason we ve determined that we must watch tv right now but the word of god says look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil eph 5 15 16 are you looking carefully to how you live are you making wise choices are you making the best use of your time i m not saying that you need to never watch tv again or even that you should follow my example and take a month off though i think it would be good to take even a day or two off the reality is that as christians we ought to be different from the world we ought to do stuff that seems weird and freakish to the world we ought to be willing to give up anything for the sake of our great god and savior jesus christ who gave up everything for us so ask god about this area of your life let him deal with you i m sure he will deal with you differently than he did with me he knows what you need far more than i do and he will lead you gently trust him and submit to him amen posted in uncategorized 2 comments teach us to pray posted on september 11 2013 by jeffrossman lord teach us to pray luke 11 1 it occurs to me that the disciples did not say lord teach us to preach nor did they say lord teach us how to perform miracles i would think the disciples would have been impressed most by the miracles or by jesus incredible wisdom and teaching but apparently the thing that impressed them most was when jesus bowed his head or got on his knees to talk to god i remember once receiving prayer from a couple bubba and linda i believe their names were they were as you might have guessed good ol country folks simple uncomplicated they were probably the most hospitable people i had ever met i remember traveling with a pastor and friend and we stayed in their house as we passed through on our way out after lunch we all bowed our heads and bubba and linda prayed i don t specifically remember what they prayed but i remember how they prayed their prayers like themselves were uncomplicated and not littered with lots of flowery speech they didn t raise their voices nor feel the need to get worked up before they prayed but when they prayed i knew that they knew that god was listening i don t know how else to describe it they talked to god as if he were standing two feet away and i m sure they believed as much i remember being so impressed by their prayers that i couldn t stop thinking about it for hours i have a hunch that this was something like what the disciples experienced when they heard jesus pray i think they maybe sensed the awesomeness of god s presence when jesus prayed not the goose bumpy stuff but the heavy weight of god s glory the kind of thing that makes you want to hold your breath and not speak or to tip toe around so as not to disturb the holiness of the moment lord teach us to pray it also occurs to me that they did not say lord teach us how to get our prayers answered no they realized that jesus prayers were not so much about getting as they were about being sure jesus prayed for stuff i don t think it is a coincidence when the bible tells us that jesus spent all night in prayer before he chose the twelve disciples he had some important decisions and he needed direction we hear him praying in gethsemane when he was facing the greatest trial of his life yet those specific needs were all merely subcategories of jesus greatest need god himself and so i think his prayers were primarily a means of communion with his father there s no real answer to those kinds of prayers except that god himself shows up let s face it we can go before god and lay out all our petitions all our needs in about 15 minutes how then did jesus spend all night in prayer how did the great men and women of god in ages past and i m sure in ours too manage to spend an hour or two or three or more in prayer daily if all they were doing was begging god for stuff lord teach us to pray i ve been experiencing a prayer revival lately god in the past 3 or 4 months has challenged me in this area it started with a simple commitment god i will pray every day i began with 15 20 prayers every day soon god challenged me again to pray for an hour every day i obeyed after some time i felt yet another challenged and god instructed me to pray an hour right after i wake up in the morning and an hour just before going to bed so i now start and end every day with prayer i would love to tell you that it has been all rapture and joy and spiritual experiences the truth is it has been mostly a struggle i have had some glorious times in the presence of god yes but many times i felt left alone crying out to god for his presence for something lord teach me to pray the process has had an interesting effect and i believe i am just now after many months starting to get prayer don t get me wrong i still have almost no idea what i m doing in prayer but i do it and i know that s a good start prayer is i think first of all a means of us realizing that we are simply powerless to do anything on our own i know that offends our american sensibilities but jesus couldn t have been clearer apart from me you can do nothing john 15 5 prayer forces us to look at ourselves and god simultaneously next to god we re not all that impressive next to god when truly in his presence when we re able to push past all the garbage in our minds and begin to see things as they really are we can t help but be humbled and once this humbling process has begun we ve just reached square one with god it s almost embarrassing that it has taken me so many hours of prayer to get to this simple revelation i need god it s an easy phrase to say but it can be hard to feel yet we must feel it until we are able to bow before god in true humility true desperation with a true sense of our utter weakness and hopelessness without god it is then that god has something to work with and not before lord teach us to pray i have so much to say on this subject god has taught me so much in such a little time but i ll leave it here go spend some time with god today posted in uncategorized leave a comment a little rant about little faith posted on june 9 2013 by jeffrossman so peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to jesus but when he saw the wind he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried out lord save me jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him saying to him o you of little faith why did you doubt matthew 14 29 31 i ve been thinking lately about a certain category of christian it s a peculiar category and a group i honestly have a hard time understanding this group of christians are those who constantly fluctuating in their faith and experience of jesus one day they re up the next day they re down one day they are in love with god everything s great life is wonderful and they re excited to be a part of the kingdom the next day they re sick of church sick of praying sick of reading their bibles if someone says the wrong thing to them or if some bad news comes their way or if they bounce a check or stub their toe or any of a million of life s little nuisances it literally ruins their day or sends them into a depression and ultimately causes them to shake their fists at god saying why did you let this happen these people always seem to be just a hair s breadth away from turning their backs on god and giving on their faith even though they always seem to eventually come back to their senses these people are also often easily offended it takes very little to hurt their feelings to make them feel rejected or used or wronged these people are constantly on the defence always playing the role of victim believing everyone is against them to be fair i ve had my moments to i ve made mountains out of mole hills i ve allowed the stresses of life to dictate my attitude i ve been offended for no good reason but these for me are occasional slip ups not a way of life i ve tried to understand why someone would have such a bipolar spiritual experience or why someone would allow some minor circumstance or offence to constantly drive them from the presence of god i ve wondered if it was some sort of mental illness that they were battling some emotional instability beyond what the majority of us experience but this didn t fit every case i ve wondered if it were simply an indication of someone being overly sensitive or emotional but again this fell short to answer every instance i d seen the only answer i can come up with though it fails the warm and fuzzy test is that such people have little faith in the scripture above peter was rebuked for his little faith peter who did what no other human being before or since has dared to do walk on water was rebuked for doubting because he started to sink peter s initial faith resulted in a powerful experience i m sure he never forgot but his faith lasted only a moment and then doubt set in we can all identify with this passage because we ve all been there we ve all had the experience of feeling like we were riding above the storms of life in love with god and filled with his spirit then something happens and we lose our focus all of a sudden the difficult circumstance or rude comment or unfulfilled expectation becomes our focus and we begin to sink down into our circumstances instead of being held up by our faith in christ most of us feel like peter got a bad rap after all he walked on water we want to judge the situation based on his best moment not his worst unfortunately we have no record of jesus commending him for his willingness to step out only his rebuke for peter s lack of follow through and here s the real issue the church is sadly full of people who started out well but never finished jesus is looking for some good finishers you see those with little faith are constantly starting over these are the people who are coming to church part of the fellowship and then all of a sudden they disappear for several months only to return for a good cry at the altar and the whole process resets itself these people don t need more teaching or more prayer they need more faith they need begin to actually take god at his word they need to find their confidence security and hope in the truth of who jesus is not in whether their life and circumstances are meeting some predefined expectation little faith will cause you to sink under your circumstances instead of rise above them just like peter in the water little faith will cause you to fear when the storms of life come upon you instead of trusting in the one who promised to see you through matt 8 23 27 little faith will cause you to be anxious and fearful in life and ultimately to miss out on god s provision because instead of running to him when you are in need you run to the world matt 6 25 33 and little faith will ultimately hinder god yes god can be hindered from working powerfully in your life remember that even jesus in his own hometown did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief matt 13 58 until jesus is truly the center of your life the foundation of all that you are and desire and until your confidence is in jesus alone and not in favorable circumstances you have little faith until you are able to see god as faithful even when life around you crumbles you have little faith i encourage you then who are fainthearted whose faith frequently wavers to trust god put your full faith in him who will never let you down remember that you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses both living and asleep who have trusted god with their lives do the same follow their example believe posted in encouragement leave a comment great quote posted on march 29 2013 by jeffrossman think about how much time you are willing to spend researching the consumer reports for the new plasma flat screen tv how much time are you willing to spend researching for your next car how much time are you willing to spend researching hotels for your next vacation why are we willing to spend so much time doing that research it is because you do not want to make a mistake how much time are you willing to spend considering the things of god that have eternal consequences fantastic post about the importance of knowing the scriptures and the power of god check out a devoted life posted in uncategorized tagged bible jesus research s study leave a comment prayer posted on march 21 2013 by jeffrossman god s been doing some serious stuff in my life lately god has spoken to me more often and more clearly in the past month than he has ...