We Learn to Swim in What We Immerse Ourselves In

podcasts@godsipod.com — 2009-01-29T01:00:00-07:00

Discipleship Resources at Whatever You Can Afford prices. DiscipleStuff.com

God's iPod is Free, thanks to our monthly supporters.
Our current monthly subscription total is: $130 out of a needed $1700.
Create your monthly subscription today by clicking here.
My husband gave me a book a few months ago. “Ten P’s in a Pod.” It seemed like light reading at first glance - a book about a husband, wife and eight children who traveled over a million miles together back in the 40’s and 50’s - singing and ministering together. Yet as I began to read I found that it was one of the most challenging books I’d read in years. Written from the diary of one of the sons, Arnold Pent III, from age 17 to 19, it surprised and convicted me in ways I didn’t expect and was full of things I could relate to. Homeschooling (talk about being pioneers!). Traveling. Trusting God. It’s a book about living the adventure that is obeying God and the power of truly living and working together as a family.

But mostly, it’s a book about what happens when people immerse themselves in the Word of God.

The Pent family had one over-riding message during all their years of traveling ministry and beyond. That message was simple. Your spirit needs the Word of God as much as your body needs food and more! And they practiced what they preached in spades. Not only did each member of the family have their own personal devotional time with God each day, but they also spent 30 minutes after every meal reading the Bible to each other. Sound extreme? Perhaps. But it’s no more extreme than the time Arnold Schwarzenegger spent working out to prepare himself for his quest to become Mr. Universe. And it is no more extreme than the time Eric Clapton spent practicing to become one of the best guitar players in the world. (sometimes 8 hours a day) The truth is that we get good at what we spend our time doing. We learn to swim in the waters we choose to immerse ourselves in.

Here’s a short passage from the book.

“Just to give you an idea of how much time we really spend in the Bible, here is a breakdown of our schedule and the amount of hours spent from birth to twenty-one years old.

One-half hour of private Bible reading from 6-11 years = 913 hours
One hour of private Bible reading from 11-21 years = 3,650 hours
Thirty minutes of family devotions after each meal 1-21 years = 11,497 hours
Miscellaneous Bible study, prayer time and church attendance = 6,000 hours
Total time = 22,060 hours.”

But what was the result of all this time spent? As the children of this family reached early adulthood they and others found that they knew scripture by heart. Lots of scripture. The oldest, David Pent, could quote the entire New Testament. This was not because they made efforts to memorize scripture. It was merely the result of their total immersion in the Word of God. Such knowledge cannot help but shape our lives. If we want to know God - If we want to become like Him then we must find a way to feed upon His Word on a regular basis.

As I think about the wonderful resources and technology available to us generally today, and about God’s iPod specifically, I am excited about being involved with such an incredible opportunity to immerse ourselves in God’s Word. Yes, we ARE faced with more options than ever these days - and there is often more stress created by those options. Yet, if we step back and look at what we really need to feed our bodies and souls and what is truly important for eternity - a kind of clarity comes and things get simpler.

For me - the simpler the better.

Add this blog to my Email...

To End and To Begin

podcasts@godsipod.com — 2009-01-16T15:17:58-07:00

At the turn of each year I always seem to find myself in a kind of awe filled daze - that another year has come - that it has come so quickly - that I am still here and so old yet still me (whether that “oldness” means 21 or 51 or, God willing, 101 - that the “stuff” that is me is still the same as it has always been from the sketchiest beginnings of my first conscious memories. I stand in awe that God has done so much and I so little - that there is still so much left to do - that time is short and yet there is an eternity ahead; a heady mixture of puzzlement and wonder that just seems to get thicker and thicker until I shake myself and put that toe over the line into the next round of the fight.

Discipleship Resources at Whatever You Can Afford prices. DiscipleStuff.com

God's iPod is Free, thanks to our monthly supporters.
Our current monthly subscription total is: $130 out of a needed $1700.
Create your monthly subscription today by clicking here.

Inevitably I feel overwhelmed and thankful at the same time; resolved and dissolved - both helpless and hopeful. And that circle of time and seasons and the rotation of the earth around the sun seems for all the world like I’m going around the mountain again and again waiting for word that “it is finally time.”
Time for what? Well. . .ahh, and this is the very deepest of wells - to know that fully would be to know too much...too soon. It would ruin the surprise - and that love will not allow.

For love I know. Perhaps after all is said and done it is really the only thing I do know. And, somehow, part of what I know of it is that it will always be there - always both within my grasp and beyond my understanding. For it is not just “love” I know, but “Love”....a love that looks back at me when I look intently into its depths.

We turn the year like we would turn the pages of a book, turn a mattress or rotate a tire - like we lay ourselves down each night expecting - in faith - to get up again with the new day. We end one thing, just so we can measure beginnings. We count our successes - lay to rest our failures - close our eyes only to open them again and again and again. The endings and beginnings both born in love to give us opportunity to breathe deep, shed the ineffective, turn the chapter and take up the story again from a fresh point of view. An opportunity to go back to the beginning and uncover the wonders we missed last time around. It may be a new year, but it’s still the same story - your story, my story , history.

Add this blog to my Email...

Dee Patton's Blog

We Learn to Swim in What We Immerse Ourselves In

To End and To Begin