In January, I wrote a post entitled "Blogging & the Great Commission" in response to a question posted by the moderator of the Great Church Websites forum on that forum. That article references an article from January titled "Blogging & Preparing a Defense". In these articles, I argued that blogging could be used to improve one's walk with Christ, strengthen one's faith, help one to be ready to "give an answer for the hope that is in you", and to evangelize. Apparently, Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, Ohio has built a program (I'm quite sure independently of my posts) to encourage Bible reading and journaling called Transformation Journals.

One of my goals as minister at First Christian Church in Cairo has been to get our church members (including myself) more into God's written word, the Bible. In 2004, my wife (thank you, dear, for your continued help as we minister. You are a blessing to me, and I love you) and I devised the Bible Challenge, a plan to read through the whole Bible in 2004: four chapters a day, six days a week. The plan did not work as well as planned because although four chapters only took about 15 minutes to read, falling behind could quickly become difficult to recover from. We decided to run Bible Challenge again this year, but we modified it to start in Matthew and go to Revelation at one chapter a day, six days a week. This is a more manageable amount to read, even if one falls behind. However, another goal of mine is to get church members to talk about their faith (both in and out of church). Therefore, last Sunday evening, I gave the ones that were present journals to record thoughts about faith in. I also gave them some "Questions to Ponder/Ideas for Journal Writing". This week's Questions and Ideas were:

  • What verses did you like in this week's reading? Why?
  • Do you see elements of the life of Simon (the magician in Acts 8) in your own life? Is this good or bad? How can you improve your life using this text as a guide?
  • Do you see elements of the life of Ananias (the disciple in Damascus in Acts 9) in your own life? Is this good or bad? How can you improve your life using this text as a guide?
  • What can you learn from Peter's vision and sermon to Cornelius in Acts 10? What changes need to be made in your life?
  • Feel free to write on any topic of faith in your journal. The purpose of the journal is to be a tool to strengthen your faith and improve your walk with Christ.

So, to this end, and in my role of being an example for my church members, I will strive to begin journaling on these topics as well. I will also try to post the week's Bible reading on this blog. I pray that it helps you in your walk with Christ, and I pray that it helps you share your faith.

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