Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Read Devotionally with Your Very Own S.P.A.C.E. P.E.T.S.

I'm sure at this point you have no idea what I'm talking about. In order to stop the confusion, i will go ahead and explain S.P.A.C.E. P.E.T.S. to you.

As we are reading devotionally and daily, we all have a tendency to do 1 of 3 things:

1) Take note of verses we have heard before and mark them for later use...just in case.

2) Mark cool verses that give us information that we think will make us sound like a Bible scholar later...just in case.

3) Underline verses that can be used with people who need this correction for later...just in case.

While the first two can be helpful, the last is a very wrong way to read the Bible. Regardless, we often allow our daily devotions to devolve into these kinds of discoveries. I want something that allows The Lord of the universe to speak with me on a daily basis. I want to know, how can this book change my life?

First, if you have any needs, prayer requests, or querstions for The Lord, simply write them down before you start on a little pad before you begin reading. You will be amazed as to how much you missed before as God was always speaking to you, but you weren't paying attention. That's called wisdom search and it helps us develop the mind of God do His will.

Second, use these S.P.A.C.E. P.E.T.S. questions to help focus on what God can say to you every single day:

Ask yourself as you read, "Is there a ..."

S. Sin to confess? -Black reminds me of the darkness of my heart.

P. Promise to claim? -Yellow reminds me that God's promises are golden.

A. Attitude to change? -Red tells me to stop my bad attitude.

C. Command to obey? - Grey reminds me of the original stone carved 10 commandments.

E. Example to follow? -Green means go and do it this way.

P. Prayer to Pray? -Purple is the royal color. Prayer is asking the King.

E. Error to avoid? - Mixture of red and white, pure with wrong makes pink.

T. Truth to believe? - True blue belief in God's truth.

S. Something to THANK GOD for or WORSHIP GOD as? -Orange reminds me of the jewels that walls of God's city, sapphire and topaz focusing me on God.

These simple questions kept in your Bible will help you focus on God's heart and mind. They can help keep you pure spiritually, morally, and theologically. And, you can...

PICK UP a S.P.A.C.E. P.E.T.S. card at Oceanside Church this Sunday

As a further step, I have also added highlighters to my toolbox. Make sure you get the non-bleeding (dry markers can be purchased here for as little as $3.99 plus s/h) kind that don't go through the thin pages of your Bible. Although, you wont be able to get the variety of colors I jave listed here. You can also use the feature nearly every Bible app or program has built in to it. I have listed the colors and my reasons to help you remember as you read. Of course, you can use any color you want and whatever works best for you.

Remember, the Bible was given to us not just to give us information, but to change our lives. (D. L. Moody)

Pastor Trey Rhodes

Here's a 90 Days thru the New Testament reading plan:

FREE DOWNLOADABLE READING PLAN

P.S. If you want, you can also choose a color that you use to remind you later to do further study or that is of personal interest/ interesting to you. I chose brown (my wife's maiden name, who is of great interest to me). That way I can goo back in a glance and find what I thought was interesting and needed that extra study.

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