Scripture reading was the focus of last Sunday's continuing message series Upward Habits at The Family Church here in Gainesville. The guest speaker was Steven Jones, who always has something interesting and inspiring to say when he visits our podium...this presentation was no exception. By drawing upon the Gospel story of the bleeding woman, afflicted by her condition for twelve years and who was healed by touching Jesus's garments, Steven gave a structured approach to reading scripture...you can read these Bible passages for yourself through Bible Gateway by clicking on each passage: Matthew 9:20-22, Luke 8:42-48, Mark 5:24-34...
Steven made the analogy between the bleeding woman and ourselves...we all "bleed" because we have free will and live in a fallen world, he pointed out. He broke down his message into three areas we need to be engaged in with a heartfelt, consistent manner regarding scripture: analyze our approach, assess our attitude, and acknowledge our need. Analyzing our approach to scripture, continued Steven, involves becoming intentional and focused...like that woman seeking Jesus who looked for that one touch...seeking quality and not necessarily quantity in what we get from it. With assessing attitude, Steven emphasized three necessary elements: being poor in spirit with an attitude of surrender, brokenness, and empty-handedness, demonstrating fear of the Lord, i.e. properly responding to him with awe and wonder...and finally, the gratitude of a heart overflowing. We acknowledge our need...our "spiritual anemia"...as Steven, a physician himself, gave some medical analogies: spiritual dyspnea (shortness of breath) corresponds to anxiety, spiritual fatigue corresponds to low energy, apathy, and the lack of hope, and spiritual pica (which involves strange cravings caused by physical deficiencies) corresponds to divergent, sinful fixations and behavior patterns...
In concluding this enlightening and very interesting message, Steven Jones revealed some practical pointers to help with our scripture reading. Best that we intentionally set aside quiet time for it, then study the Bible...followed up when appropriate by journaling. Steven uses for himself a journaling system with the acronym SOAP: the Scripture, his Observations, its Application, and concluding with Prayer. Our speaker closed with a significant statement: When I engage with Jesus through upward habits, there will always be a downward response. And that downward response comes from God himself...
You can watch this message from Steven Jones by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos]. The Family Church is at 2022 SW 122nd Street holds its weekly Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30 with heartfelt praise and worship music, prayer and discipleship opportunities, the inspiring weekly message, and a lot of very friendly people. The hospitality room next to the entrance is open for coffee and treats before and between services. Looking forward to the next sermon...
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