Home Going Tributes For Artie Ingle Smith

ARTIE INGLE SMITH, 83, of Barboursville, W.Va., went home to be with her Lord on Wednesday, January 21, 2015, at Cabell Health Care Center, Culloden, W.Va. She was born October 7, 1931, in Chattanooga, Tenn., the daughter of the late Samuel Carlos and Ethel Flonnie DeJounette Ingle. In addition to her parents, in 1978 she was also preceded in death by her husband Ralph Eugene "Gene" Smith and one brother Samuel Ingle. She was a member of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Stockbridge, Ga., and retired from the Mt. Vernon Christian School where she served the Lord for many years. She was also a faithful member of Lewis Memorial Baptist Church, Huntington, W.Va. Artie is survived by her daughter and son-in-law Mary Elizabeth and Dr. David Lemming of Huntington, W.Va; grandchildren Rebekah Lemming Shaffer (Jeremy) of Huntington, W.Va., and Jon David Lemming (Gloria Kathryn) of Dallas, Texas; great-grandchildren Grace Caroline and Luke Charles Shaffer and Andrew Cashel Lemming. Funeral services will be conducted at 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 24, 2015, at Lewis Memorial Baptist Church with Dr. Tim Yates officiating. The family would like to thank the staff at Cabell Health Care Center, Culloden, W.Va., for their excellent care. The family will receive friends from 1 p.m. until service time on Saturday at the church. Burial will be conducted on Monday, January 26, 2015, at the Kelly-Mosley Cemetery in McDonough, Ga. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to the World Missions Program at Lewis Memorial Baptist Church at 5385 W. Pea Ridge Road, Huntington, WV 25705. Henson & Kitchen Mortuary, Barboursville, W.Va., is caring for the family.

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Below are the tributes to be offered today at Artie Smith's memorial service by our two children in remembrance of her. Today she is at home in Heaven awaiting the rest of us to arrive and be together again for eternity...all because of JESUS!

Words of tribute from our daughter, Rebekah Lemming Shaffer:
Just two short days into my life tragedy struck and that moment that everyone prays they never face became reality for my parents and my grandmother.  My grandfather, only 44, was taken from us without warning. A morning kiss goodbye for work became the last.  And the day you celebrate the homecoming of a new baby became the home-going of my grandfather. 

And what do I remember about that day? I don’t remember because I was too little to understand for a very long time.  So while my parents and my Grandmama were grieving I was growing. While they remember the tragedy I can only remember love.  Gifted into this beautiful family, my Grandmama continued to live her life without the love of her life. The timing of this tragedy caused a unique bond to form between me and her.  In a time of loss there was new life and new hope. 

My memories are only filled with joy and love, with a grandmother who was always smiling.  What a strong faith and hope in Christ she must have had to live her life in joy despite her pain. 

Though there are countless beautiful things I could say about Grandmama, the one that keeps playing over and over in my mind is her servant’s heart.  She was a faithful servant of her Savior.  I watched her love her neighbor as herself, give of herself when she didn’t have it, and love her family fully. 

There wasn’t a greater moment in my childhood than to spend with her.  The precious things she taught me play over in my mind every day.  Wisdom she shared with me that seemed like playing as a child has now become files saved in my heart to use when faced with difficult trials.   

Today is not final, though it may feel that way. Recently my Bible study has been studying Revelation and prophecy. In this study we laid out all future events on a timeline.  When you look at that timeline and point to where we are today it seems very very small when compared to God’s plan for the future.  And what we realize is that though this time of earthly separation seems long to us, it is really only a short time compared to the eternity we will spend reunited.  Instead of focusing on her absence here, we can think on the reunion she had with her beloved who she’s waited to be with for 36 years. Imagine that moment when she joined her loved ones who went before her.  Imagine the radiant joy she felt as she opened her eyes in the presence of her Savior. 

Words of tribute from our son, Jon David Lemming:

It’s easy to think of words to describe my grandmother: gentle, kind, caring, godly, humble, sacrificial, modest, unpretentious, faithful, virtuous, and the list could go on. But what I can’t think of is anything negative. Not one thing. This is remarkable to me. I remember no fault in her. No anger. No deception. No brooding. She was so godly in my eyes. I believe that no one is perfect, but she came as close to that mark as anyone I’ve known.

The two things that I admired the most about my grandmother were her rock-solid faith in Jesus Christ and her simplicity. In life, suffering is often the invitation to grow deep roots into our faith. For many it’s a time to abandon their faith, but for others (like Grandmama) it is an opportunity to lean in to it. It’s an invitation to trust God more. When my grandmother lost her husband, she chose to lean in. She chose to trust. I believe this was the primary occasion from which my grandmother’s faith in Christ became rock-solid.

And hear me as I say this: This is a treasure to me. My grandmother didn’t have wealth. She didn’t have much to leave behind. But to me she has left all the treasures of the world, namely, her faith. Her example. Her testimony. This is the inheritance I have received from the godliest woman I’ve known.

I also loved her simplicity. I used to love going to her small Georgia house in the country. It was like another world to me: tall trees and pine needles covering the ground and a long dirt road that led to a modest, 2-bedroom home. I have so many endearing memories there, memories of laughter and play and exploration. It was so simple and modest. Her life was this way too. Now, as an adult, I look back to those days, longing for that simplicity. I wish I could spend just one more day there, with her.

This is a day of sorrow, but also a day of rejoicing. It’s strange to write about her in the past tense. But truthfully, this is contrary to what we believe. We should speak of her in the present, because she is alive—alive in Christ. She is well—and so much more. She is with Christ. She is living and now waiting. She waits for that day (as we all do) when Jesus will finally and completely rescue and renew all that is lost and broken and reunite body and soul. For this day we long and pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

I love you, Grandmama.

Get Fit Spiritually (Part #2)

Acts 2:44-47

Recently, an article came across my desk giving statistics about the decline in church attendance among the most committed of our church members. Let me say right up front, I’m weary of making decisions and crafting church programs on the basis of the latest trends and statistical data. I understand wanting to reach people (I want to reach as many as possible)! And, learning better methods to accomplish this purpose has its place. But, we have become obsessed with finding out what people “want” in a church and crafting ministry to accommodate them without first prioritizing what God wants for/from His church. I have a novel idea...how about we start with the scripture and call people to a different kind of culture than the one the world wants the church to adopt? How about we truly be a counter-cultural movement like Christ intended His church to be?

The statistics from the aforementioned article showed that if a church member attended four Sundays a month, that in 2015 they would only attend three Sundays a month. If they attended three Sundays a month, that in 2015 they would attend two Sundays. Apparently, if these statistics are correct, the greatest reason for the decline in our churches is that church members no longer prioritize the worship gatherings on the Lord’s Day.

The article went on to list three reasons why people no longer prioritize these Sunday gatherings.

• “Increasing involvement with kids activities including more “multiple activity” commitments (sports, music, etc) for longer durations with greater competitiveness. The growth of club sports and the intensity of competition creates a market for kids to get started earlier and be involved longer. This is literally eating our families alive when it comes to time.

• “Greater mobility in general and the rise of virtual workplaces. 25% of white collar Americans travel as a part of making a living. People with discretionary time are more likely to be traveling or working in environments outside of their typical home environment.

• “Access to church online. Now it’s easier to stay connected to the church, if you have to travel or if you have problems at home getting ready for church in the morning. Within 2 minutes, [you] can be streaming one of many great services from across the country from [your] laptop to [your] widescreen via Apple TV for the entire family.”

Again, I don’t personally know if these are the three most prevalent reasons some Christians are missing church more frequently, but I suspect they play a role in many people’s absences.

What each of us needs to understand is that we will not be spiritually fit if we don’t set aside Sundays as a day of worship for us and our families. Just as every believer needs to read the Bible and pray each day, every believer needs to gather with other believers on Sundays and connect with them through small group ministries during the week.

In the course of my thirty-seven years of ministry, I think I’ve heard about every imaginable excuse for why people can’t gather with God’s people. Some of them are...

1. TIME - work schedules, ballgames, kids, mowing, gardening...People have their priorities askew!

2. BORING OR “THE CHURCH ISN’T MEETING MY NEEDS” - Is that the church’s fault, or your own lack of effort to invest and involve yourself in learning and participating?

3. OTHER INTERESTS - friends, hobbies, T.V. ....etc. Again, this is a matter of priorities and focus!

4. GUILT - Some people are living sinful lives and don’t want to be confronted with the challenge to change.

5. TOO MANY DENOMINATIONS - Which one is right? - Don’t you think it would be worth taking the time to find out...if eternity is at stake?

6. HYPOCRITES - But, that’s no reason to desert God’s church...hypocrites are found in every endeavor of life. We’re all broken in many ways!

7. THEY CONSIDER THEMSELVES TO BE GOOD PEOPLE - If you refuse to gather with  God’s church, you’re not good in one of the most vital areas of life.

8. SOMEONE HURT MY FEELINGS - Everyone’s feelings get hurt at times. Surely a family member has hurt your feelings in the past. You didn’t find a new home, did you?

9. “GOD KNOWS MY HEART” - Just because God knows your heart doesn't mean He excuses your disobedience.

10. THEY MISSED THE POINT - The church is too churchy. "No one ever said that a sporting event is too sporty, a library is too booky, a concert is too musicy, an airport is too planey, a home is too homey, a college is too schooly, or a hospital is too hospitally."

Why do we want the church to be about everything except Jesus, our souls, God, spirituality, the scripture, conviction of sin, heaven, hell, salvation, righteousness, grace, and judgment?

We can add to the list as many other excuses as we like, but that doesn’t excuse us from the importance of the gathering of the church. You have to show up to work out at your local gym, treadmill, exercise class, walking track, stationary bike, etc...if you’re going to get in shape physically. And, you have to show up with God’s people on Sundays, if you’re going to get spiritually fit for the life and mission God has for you to fulfill.

The early church met far more frequently than our churches do today. In Acts 2:46 we’re told that they met at the Temple where large crowds could gather and then they broke up into smaller settings (homes) for fellowship and discipleship “DAILY” (Acts 2:46). One of their venues for meeting was Solomon’s Colonnade, which ran along the east side of the outer court. It is twice mentioned as the place where they gathered (Acts 3:11; 5:12).

As persecution arose against the church, they had to meet in people’s homes out of necessity (different homes became the designated gathering places for Christians). There was never any scriptural prohibition against large public gatherings or church buildings. Even before Constantine’s “edict of toleration” (311 AD) that officially ended the persecution of Christianity and opened the way for more public gatherings in buildings designated for church use, archaeologists have discovered an ancient church building in Dura-Europos near the Euphrates River about 200 miles SE of Haran. The date of this building can be determined from an inscription (AD 232-233) which clearly shows it was used for worship at least 80 years before Constantine’s edict (Finegan, Jack. 1946. Light From The Ancient Past. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press)

It was simply the practical necessity of avoiding persecution or even death that forced the church to meet in smaller settings. From scripture we can also surmise that the early church sometimes used rented or borrowed facilities (cf. Acts 19:9) for their meetings. They may have even used synagogues, until Jewish leaders refused them access for claiming that Jesus was the Messiah risen from the dead.

And, it is equally clear that Sunday ultimately became the primary time for their worship gatherings (cf. Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Revelation 1:10).

Just to illustrate the importance of the gathering of believers, consider some of the metaphors used in scripture for the church. One author says there are at least 99 such metaphors, but we’ll consider just five of them.

The church is compared to a family (2 Corinthians 11:1-4; Ephesians 2:19; 5:21-33), a body (1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 12:12-27; Romans 12:4-5; Ephesians 4:1-16), a temple (1 Corinthians 3:9-17; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-8), an army (Romans 13:11-14; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; Ephesians 6:10-20) and a flock (Acts 20:28).

There are numerous things that can be emphasized from these different metaphors, but among them is the fact that each one involves relationships, interaction and value that is derived from being a part of the larger group. And, that’s why gathering with believers each week is important: we worship Christ together, we encourage one another, we submit to the equipping process (Ephesians 4:11-12), we pray together, we hear the preaching/teaching of the Word, etc.

The Bible never condones believers isolating themselves from the gathering of the saints. Just think about the New Testament epistles: the vast portion of them are written to churches collectively...not separate individual members. In other words, the scriptural image of the church is always about community.

We gather on Sundays AS the church so that we can go out and BE the church on the other days of the week. That’s what the Greek word for “church” actually indicates to us. It is a called out assembly of believers organized under the authority of Christ.

Further, for scripture to be fulfilled, it is absolutely necessary for believers to gather with the church. How else can the shepherd obey Acts 20:28 when he’s told to “feed” (“shepherd”) the flock of God? How else is he to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry” (Ephesians 4:11-12)? How else is he to “watch out for [their] souls” (Hebrews 13:7, 17)? How else can believers obey the command to “forsake not the assembling of yourselves together,” except they assemble themselves together (Hebrews 10:24-25)? All of these things require that we participate in the regular gathering of believers!!

Our church encourages two things in the area of gathering with other believers that were practiced by the early church (Acts 2:46): assembling together “in the temple” (i.e., with the larger body of gathered believers for worship services, equipping, encouragement, prayer and instruction from scripture) and “breaking bread from house to house” (Lifegroups in homes for fellowship and application of truth to life).

Let’s finish with some good reasons why each of us should prioritize the gathering of believers each Sunday.

1. It’s a visible and tangible expression of our love for God and worship of Him that can be seen by others (Psalm 22:22).
2. It strengthens our faith and builds us up spiritually as we worship, fellowship and hear the preaching of the Word of God (Romans 10:17).
3. It allows the opportunity to practice and show Christian love, harmony and unity with the rest of the family of God (1 John 2:9-10).
4. It is an act of obedience that shows our submission to God and our desire to know Him better (Hebrews 10:24-26).
5. It allows us to be accountable to our spiritual leaders to whom the oversight of our souls has been charged (Hebrews 13:17).
6. It encourages us when we see others seeking God and following Him in obedience with us.
7. It allows us to make a greater impact on our community collectively than we could ever make separately.
8. It honors the Lord’s Day and shows that we want Him to be the priority of our lives every other day of the week.

Closing thought:

It’s also not popular anymore to have a Sunday evening service at many of our churches. Granted, there is no biblical mandate about how many times or how long services must be on the Lord’s Day. However, it’s clear from a cursory reading of the book of Acts that the early church met far more often and for far longer periods than our modern churches meet.

Do we really think that fewer services is what Christians need to grow spiritually? How does missing the gathering of believers on Sunday night make us stronger in our faith? Do we use the time we take from Sunday evening gatherings to focus on scripture and prayer? As we get closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, do we need less encouragement and instruction in the faith or more?

I can’t help but think that many of us are missing opportunities to meet the resurrected Christ in the gathering of believers on Sunday night, too. Not unlike Thomas that missed Jesus on the first Sunday evening after His resurrection, I wonder how many of us miss what Christ wants to do in our lives simply because we have minimized the importance of Sunday nights?

To get spiritually fit this year we need the scripture and prayer. But, we also need the worship gatherings and small group meetings with God’s people.

Get Spiritually Fit (Part #1)

Matthew 4:3-4

What if there were just a couple of things you could do over the next twelve months that would truly change your life...would you be interested in knowing what they are? What if those couple of things were fairly simple, but required a little bit of discipline and commitment? Would you still be interested in knowing about them? What if doing these two things had the promise of making your life better? What if doing them would cause some of the problems you face to begin to correct themselves on their own? What if these two things could increase joy and peace in your life? What if they could be the catalyst for greater understanding, discernment and wisdom for living your life...wouldn’t you be interested? What if they would improve your marriage and help you know how to raise your kids? Wouldn’t that pique your desire to know and do these two things? What if these two things would make you a better person and help you face the obstacles of life with greater faith? Surely, that would interest you!

Questions of this nature could go on ad infinitum, but I wanted to get your attention by asking just a few of them. The reason is because what I want to talk about is important and has the potential to transform your life in ways you may never have imagined possible.

Probably, you’ve already figured out what these two things are that we’re going to talk about, but if not, let me tell you...I’m talking about reading your Bible and praying every day. Too many people think these things are too simplistic to make much of a difference. But, they can and they do change the lives of those that practice them. And, that’s why we must develop them as disciplines in our lives.

Dr. Bart Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an agnostic and doesn’t believe the Bible is God’s Word. He thinks the deity of Jesus was an invention of the early church and passed down through the centuries with continuing embellishment. In his religion class where he teaches, he starts each semester in an unusual way. Listen to how he describes what he does.

“The first day of class, with over three hundred students present, I ask: ‘How many of you would agree with the proposition that the Bible is the inspired Word of God?’ Whoosh! Virtually everyone in the auditorium raises their hand. I then ask, ‘How many of you have one or more of the Harry Potter books?’ Whoosh! The whole auditorium. Then I ask, ‘And how many of you have read the entire Bible?’ Scattered hands, a few students here and there. I always laugh and say, ‘Okay, look. I’m not saying that I think God wrote the Bible. You’re telling me that you think God wrote the Bible. I can see why you might want to read a book by J. K. Rowling. But if God wrote a book . . . wouldn’t you want to see what he has to say?’” (Andreas J. Köstenberger, Darrell Bock & Josh Chatraw. “Truth Matters.” B&H Publishing Group, 2014-01-11. iBooks.)

Isn’t it interesting that someone that doesn’t believe you can know God...understands that the Bible is vitally important to the followers of Jesus?

Throughout our nation’s history some of our national leaders have known the significance of scripture in guiding and changing our lives.

John Adams, the second president of the United States, read the entire Bible every year. He studied the Scriptures every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. It was regular reading of the Bible that shaped his character, and his character shaped our country.

Andrew Jackson, our seventh president, referred to the Bible as, “the rock on which our Republic rests.” He read three to five chapters each day.

Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, called the Bible, “the best gift God has ever given to man...But for it we could not know right from wrong.”

Woodrow Wilson, our 28th president, said, “The Bible is the Word of life. I beg that you will read it and find this out for yourself. When you have read the Bible you will know it is the Word of God, because you will have found in it the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, our 34th president, and his family used the Bible each day during family devotions, with each family member taking his or her turn in reading a passage.

Ronald Reagan, the 40th president, wrote, “Inside the Bible’s pages lie all the answers to all the problems man has ever known. I hope Americans will read and study the Bible...It is my firm belief that the enduring values presented in its pages have a great meaning for each of us and for our nation. The Bible can touch our hearts, order our minds, and refresh our souls.”

These men apparently understood the value of the Bible. Do we understand its worth?

Did you know that there is no book of antiquity that is more attested than the Bible? There can be no other explanation for this fact than that God has sovereignly preserved His Word for us. Just consider the overwhelming statistical evidence corroborating the Bible's value.

The manuscript copies of most Greek and Latin authors can usually be counted on both hands, with some rising into the hundreds. Homer’s writings are the second-most popular with less than 2500 copies of his Iliad and Odyssey combined. But Homer pales in comparison with the New Testament.

The number of New Testament manuscripts in Greek alone now stands at 5824. Add another 10,000+ for Latin copies (which the NT began to be translated into in the second century), and several thousand more for Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, Hebrew, and many other languages. Conservative estimates are that the New Testament weighs in at 20,000 to 25,000 manuscripts in these various languages.

That’s approximately ten times the amount of manuscripts for Homer! And the average New Testament manuscript is not some small scrap; the average is more than 450 pages long. In terms of sheer quantity of manuscripts, nothing in the ancient world comes close to the New Testament.

And that doesn't include scripture quotes in sermons and letters from the early church fathers, including more than 38,000 quotations from the New Testament. From their writings alone we are told that we can reconstruct almost the entire New Testament.

Even the skeptical professor, Bart Ehrman agrees “...if all of these secondhand quotes were compiled and cataloged in biblical order, laid from end to end, they would be ‘sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament.’” (Excerpt From: Andreas J. Köstenberger, Darrell Bock & Josh Chatraw. “Truth Matters.” B&H Publishing Group, 2014-01-11. iBooks.)

What I want you to see is that you can trust the Bible you have in your hand and that it is the Word of God...worthy of our reading daily. It’s far more important than any other book you may own, including the Harry Potter series.

Did you also know that it is still the best selling book each year and of all time? “Remember, we’re talking about people buying a book that most [people] already own. (The average American household has four.) Yet even the most conservative estimates on annual Bible sales in the U.S. would place the figure in the neighborhood of twenty-five million copies...Add international sales, add giveaways, add ministry purchases, add missionary usage. If God didn’t already own the cattle on a thousand hills, think of the royalties.” (Excerpt From: Andreas J. Köstenberger, Darrell Bock & Josh Chatraw. “Truth Matters.” B&H Publishing Group, 2014-01-11. iBooks.)

It should be obvious from history that no book has had a greater impact on our world. No book reveals more about God. No book gives a better understanding of Jesus. Many of the expressions we use every day come from the scriptures. No matter how many times you read it, you constantly find new things. It speaks to you differently every time you open its pages. It gives you an understanding of what it means to be created in God’s image, as well as help you find your life’s purpose on earth.

It’s the Bible that inspired the founding of some of our finest universities and hospitals. It’s the chief narrative of more than two billion people that profess to be Christians. It is the most sustained and vital value system in history. It’s a mirror that develops our consciences and helps us arrange our priorities. When we heed what it says, it develops compassion and good judgment within us. It helps us become better parents, spouses, neighbors, Christians, employees, citizens and human beings. And, most importantly, it prepares us for eternity by pointing us to the Christ in Whom we must believe!

Our problem today isn’t that we have too many versions of the Bible. Our problem is that we don’t read the versions we have. Dr. Dan Wallace is professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. He is an eminent scholar that has written about the errors of Bart Ehrman’s agnostic reasoning and has debated him on several occasions. Dr. Wallace makes a startling statement in a four-part article about the History of the English Bible.

He writes, “Even with the proliferation of Bibles today, Christians are reading their Bibles less and less. I believe the evangelical church has only 50 years of life left. 50 years left of evangelicalism because of marginalization of the Word of God. We need another Reformation! The enemy of the gospel now is not religious hierarchy but moral anarchy, not tradition but entertainment. The enemy of the gospel is Protestantism run amock; it is an anti-intellectual, anti-knowledge, feel-good faith that has no content and no convictions. Part of the communal repentance that is needed is a repentance about the text. And even more importantly, there must be a repentance with regard to Christ our Lord. Just as the Bible has been marginalized, Jesus Christ has been ‘buddy-ized.’ His transcendence and majesty are only winked at, as we turn him into the genie in the bottle, beseeching God for more conveniences, more luxury, less hassle, and a life without worries or lack of comfort. He no longer wears the face that the apostles recognized. Or, as Erasmus remarked, ‘When you read the Greek New Testament, you can see the face of Jesus more clearly than if you were one of his disciples’! A bit of hyperbole, but the point is worth underscoring: The God we worship today no longer resembles the God of the Bible. Unless we return to him through a reading and digesting of the scriptures—through a commitment to the text, the evangelical church will become irrelevant, useless, dead." - Professor Dan Wallace, “The History of the English Bible, Part IV: Why So Many Versions?” (2001)

And that is what has happened in many of our denominational churches today that no longer hold the Bible as the inerrant, infallible and inspired Word of God. Once the “book” you hold in your hands no longer has the divine authority to command your life, then you no longer need the church that was born out of the life-changing message of that “book.”

How important does Jesus say the scripture is? Just remember what He said when He was tempted at the beginning of His ministry, “And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ But He answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:3-4)

More than we need daily physical food, we need daily spiritual food...the Word of God! Part of being spiritually fit is consuming the right kind of “food” for our spiritual souls.

Added to this simple step of reading our Bibles each day is the importance of praying every day, as well. We too often underestimate the value of prayer and overestimate the value of our own abilities. Prayer is certainly an acknowledgment of our dependence on God, but it is more than that, too. It is about a relationship with God wherein we fellowship with Him by listening to Him and talking with Him.

Prayer brings us into the presence of God to commune with the holy One of Heaven. Prayer opens the way for us to walk with God in a living relationship. Prayer is less about methods, postures, programs, guides and formulas. It is mostly about closeness and intimacy with the God of our salvation. Every true believer feels the need for prayer, but not every true believer humbles himself to connect with God in prayer.

• Prayer is our opportunity to share with God all the things in our lives, whether good or bad, knowing that He will draw near to us as we draw near to Him (James 4:8).
• Prayer is our opportunity to express gratefulness and thanks to Him for all He has done for us, as well as for Who He is as God.
• Prayer is the means by which we confess our sins and seek the restoration of our broken fellowship with Him (1 John 1:9).
• Prayer is our opportunity to make requests of the One Who can do the impossible.
• Prayer allows us to cast ourselves and our burdens on Him and learn the greatness of His care for us.
• Prayer is the way to peace in the midst of storms in our lives.
• Prayer is so much more than any of us ever imagined!!

Anything that is mentioned more than 250 times (as is prayer) in scripture has got to be important.

For some, the greatest struggle in life is making time to read the scripture. For others, it is making time to spend with God in prayer. But, both of these disciplines must be incorporated into our daily lives in order for us to become spiritually fit.

Practical Considerations:

1. Determine the optimal time for you to spend listening and talking to God. (some are morning people and others are night people)
2. Put your time with God on your calendar and consider it an appointment more important than any other appointment you have.
3. Minimize the distractions that can interrupt your focus on God.
4. Read the scripture for quality, not just quantity.
5. Keep a journal and write down one thought (or verse) each day that comes from the text you are reading to ponder (meditate on) throughout the day.
6. Periodically, share with others what God is teaching you from your daily time with Him.
7. Set a goal to memorize one scripture a week or month so it becomes a part of you.
8. Listen to what the scripture is saying and pray the text back to God as your own.
9. When you are praying, learn to listen for the voice of God through the scripture you’ve been reading and in your spirit.
10. If you miss your time with God, don’t condemn yourself...pick up where you left off and get going again as quickly as possible.