S.O.A.P. are you using it daily?

Here at Summit we have four core values that we pray as believers we would build and center our lives around God, Truth, Love, and Mission. We believe that as we strive to build our lives on these values there will be five natural outcomes: Intimacy with God, Qualitative Distinctiveness, Grace Story, Spiritual Giftedness, and Stewardship of Life. We know that as believers what is essential to walk and spiritual growth is Intimacy with God. Pursuing God as our greatest treasure and disciplining ourselves to have unhurried time with Him daily is vital to living a God-filled and God-centered life. We have challenged our people to start with spending 15 minutes a day three days a week in prayer and in the Word. Now that may seem like a low goal but it's not an ending point it's a start. We believe that as people engage God and begin to taste and see how good God is for themselves a natural hunger and thirst for the Word will develop.

Recently I have been praying hard for our church and praying that our people would truly engage God through His Word. I believe that whatever God is going to do in the world He is going to do through all of His people. If that is the case then we must strive to ensure that we are not growing shallow rooted and biblical illiterate Christians. Rather, Christians who think rightly about God and who have a true passion for His glory and His renown. I think it would be powerful if the people of Summit, those who have trusted Christ as their Savior, could say as Jeremiah stated "when I found Your Words, I ate them; they were my joy and my hearts delight, for I bear Your name, Lord God Almighty." (Jeremiah 15:16)

I know that reading the bible can be intimidating and even at times a little boring, but most of that comes from a lack of knowing where to start or what to do. This fall we hope to encourage our people to use a journal that will help them with a reading plan, as well as with bible memorization and also help them in walking away with daily application from what they read. I am currently using the Life Journal and I am considering suggesting to our Leadership Team that this be the journal we endorse and encourage our people to use. Each day I read two to three chapters from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. As I read through the passages I am encouraged to look for lessons to be learned, examples to be followed and promises to be enjoyed. At the end of the reading I am challenged to write down the main Scripture that spoke to me, then write down the Observation from that Scripture, then write down how I will be different today because of what I just read (Application) and then write our a Prayer. The acronym to use in remembering this simple system is S.O.A.P. Anyway here is my encouragement to you, if you are not currently consistently seeking God and engaging Him through His Word start today. Start small and ask God to give you the discipline, the desire and the faith to build on that. Every day we miss our appointment with God we miss the greatest thing of that day. Eat those Words and may they truly become the joy and delight of your heart because the truth is as Christians we do bear His name and that comes with a great responsibility and it is a huge privilege. God bless and good reading to you!