Getting daily with devotions

Do you struggle with reading your Bible every day? Do you get out of bed with intent to read your Bible and then get distracted by emails, or Facebook messages, and miss out? You aren't alone in your struggle.

Many Christians desire to read their Bible daily and fail. Don't beat yourself up over your lack of Bible reading. Instead, make a plan to succeed in this beneficial habit and you'll beat the distractions.

First, know that you are in a battle. There are forces outside yourself that are distracting you and interfering with your inner desire to read the Bible daily. When you read the Bible you will defeat those forces.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph. 6:12 NIV)

Why you should read your Bible every day?

Bible reading feeds your spirit and your mind.

Just like eating physical food nourishes your body and sustains your physical life, reading your Bible nourishes your spirit and mind and helps you grow closer to God, transforming your thinking.

Bible reading changes your thinking.

Reading the Bible changes the way you think. It renews your mind. It short circuits the defeating messages that go through your mind every day, and replaces them with God's love messages for you.

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:2. NIV)

Reading the Bible changes your behaviour

By thinking differently, you can change defeating habits. Many problems have their roots in negative thinking. "I do everything wrong." "I'm stupid." "Nothing ever works for me." "I am always to blame." Negative thoughts zap your energy and prevent you from making beneficial changes in your actions and feelings. By changing how you think -- renewing your mind -- you can overcome the habits that hurt you. Daily Bible reading will help you short circuit the negative thoughts and change you, making you stronger.


Make daily Bible reading a habit

It takes 30 days to develop a habit -- so start today and commit to reading your Bible every day for 30 days. When you do anything regularly, 30 days of repetition will form the habit in your life. After 30 days, the habit will be formed, making every day of Bible reading easier, like eating or brushing your teeth. Start now.

How you can short circuit the hindrance

When you decide that you are going to work to form a new habit, you will have interference. That doesn't make you weak-willed or lazy. Look for the things that are hindering you from making the good choice to read your Bible and confront the hindrance head-on.

Are your emails and Facebook friends getting their messages to you before God's message can reach you in the morning?

Make Bible Gateway your homepage. Bible Gateway has several daily Bible reading plans that will meet your needs. Sign up for a plan and that will be the first thing you see when you open your web browser. Read it first and get God's message to you, before you connect with your friends.

Are your eyes struggling to read the Bible, making the task tiring?

My husband struggled to read his Bible every morning because of aging eyes. His progressive lenses made reading small print very difficult, compelling him to remove his glasses and squint at the page to make sense of it. Getting prescription reading glasses made the task of Bible reading easy on his eyes, and changed his attitude toward Bible reading. Perhaps a change in prescription or storing an extra pair of reading glasses with your Bible will make daily Bible reading more enjoyable for you.

Are you a nonreader who is guilt-ridden because the task of reading is daunting?

Change the format of your daily devotions by listening instead of reading. Bible Gateway has several audio Bibles available for you to listen to. You pick the book and the chapter, make sure Flash Player is installed on your computer, and press play. Close your eyes and let God's word transform you.

If you've never read the Bible before, a good place to start is "The Story of Jesus", a concise single narrative of the life of Christ, based on the NIV bible. You can listen to it at Bible Gateway.

Do you find the Bible difficult to understand?

Pray and ask God to open your mind and give you understanding before you start to read. He will.

What is hindering you from forming the habit of daily Bible reading? Have you found ways to overcome the resistance? Leave a comment.

Guest post by Chris. Read Chris' blog.

Share the goodnews with your friends from the Church Website

I just added this kool 4-part video to the Gospel Chapel website. Have a look. Share it with a friend.

Ben is the new Youth Pastor

Well I have just finished another chapter in my life. I have finished a degree in Youth Ministry with a minor in psychology. I have finished four years of school at Briercrest College and it is a very happy and very sad time of life right now. I am starting to realize that there is a long list of events and people that I will likely never see again. Gone are the days of interacting with some of the most brilliant theological minds in Canada, living in a dorm with fifty amazing guys who are struggling just like me, and being able to be a part of so many amazing ministries in one place. I will miss you Briercrest and at the same time I am very glad to be finished and moving on to something new.

I have grown in a lot of ways over four years. I started my freshmen year with a massive gotee not knowing a soul on campus and being afraid to eat alone in the cafeteria. I ended a new man knowing more about God and myself. I ended with some life long friends who I am truly blessed to know. I ended with a degree and feeling equipped to do kingdom work!

I will now be heading to Camp Imadene to work alongside some of my closest Briercrest friends! I'll be working maintenance for four months which I am really excited about. I know the Lord has equipped me with gifts of ministry leadership but I am excited to do something a bit different and take a break for awhile in that sense. Once September rolls around I'll be starting a job that was only available to me in my dreams, I'll be working as the youth pastor at Gospel Chapel in Grand Forks being able to use my degree four months after I got it which is a huge blessing!

The only way I can explain the course of my life is through God leading the way and blessing me in SO many ways! May God receive the glory for everything I do!

-ben jepsen ;)

Win 2 free tickets to Soul Surfer Coming to the Gem Theatre soon

SOUL SURFER is the inspiring true story of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack and courageously overcame all odds to become a champion again, through the love of her family, her sheer determination and unwavering faith. The film features an all-star cast, including AnnaSophia Robb and Helen Hunt, with Carrie Underwood in her film debut, and Dennis Quaid.

See the movie trailer:






You can win two free tickets to this inspiring movie coming to the Gem Theatre April 29, 30 and May 1st. Fan us on Facebook and enter the draw today. The tickets will be drawn from the Gospel Chapel Facebook fans on April 28th.

Let your friends know, too.

Marriage Retreat March 4 and 5

The First Annual Gospel Chapel Marriage Retreat is March 4 and 5th at Christina Lake. It is a video course. Cost is $180 per couple and includes accommodation, lunch and dinner during the course.

Attendance is limited to 20 couples. Call the church office to reserve your spot or find out more information.

New feature on the website!

For several months now I've been working on getting a place on the Gospel Chapel website to host Pastor Henry's sermons. It seems pretty straight forward. Other churches put sermons on the web, so we should be able to do it.

First of all, Pastor Henry's sermons are taped on a cassette tape. The cassette tape has to be played in real time through an inline cable into a computer set up with an audio editing program. We are using Audacity, a free open source program. It worked very well with this project, taking the cassette input and creating a raw stereo audio file.

Audacity allowed me to remove all silences and pauses, edit out loud, distracting noises, and check the sound quality.

Learning to use the program with my Windows 7 computer took me, novice as I am, from 2pm on Sunday afternoon until 8pm, at which time I realized I had no sound on my computer except through the program. What? Then another couple hours trouble shooting to find out that somehow my speakers had been made nondefault -- no speakers! That was fixed.

Then the web page was edited to put the audio file "Zechariah sermon" on it. It was exported as an mp3 file. Then the 39 mb file was uploaded. Well it wasn't really. The server timed out in the middle of the upload 4 times. So an hour and a half later we were no further ahead.

The problem was solved by splitting the sermon into two parts -- another 3 hours of editing to break it at just the right spot -- won't take so long next time now that I've figured it out -- and another 50 minutes to upload and we are successful! Yes!

Ok, after all that effort was it worth it? Yes, the sound quality is great. Listen for yourself. -- well, except for the place that they turned the cassette over to record on the other side. No we don't plan to spend 6 hours every Sunday afternoon editing and uploading the sermon.

A new piece of sound equipment will capture the sermon in a WAV file for editing. We just need to wait patiently while the right piece of equipment is found. Then it will just be a matter of uploading the file, doing an hour of editing. Splitting the file into two parts at a logical junction, and then uploading two files. The editing and upload will probably take 2 or 3 hours a week.

Pastor Henry's sermon notes will also be available for download with the sermon, once the feature if fully functional.

If you've missed Henry's series on the Old Testament, the cassette tapes are available in the Church library. Its was a great series -- like an Old Testament Survey course. The New Testament begins with the book of Matthew in two weeks.

Check out the Star of Bethlehem for yourself

After viewing the videos on the Star of Bethlehm (see below) and doing some background research in the book (also below) you may be curious to see the conjuctions of Regulas and Jupiter or Venus and Jupiter that took place in 2 - 1 BC, yourself.

You can see it for yourself by downloading Stellarium, an open source planetarium program that lets you view the night sky from any place on earth and on any date and time.

Download the program for free and set it up on your computer. Then select Israel for your place and the dates:
The Regulas-Jupiter conjunctions
Sept. 12, 2 BC
Feb. 17, 1 BC
May 19 1 BC

June 17, 1 BC -- Jupiter-Venus Conjunction (4 day conjunction in Leo)(pictured above)
Dec. 25, 1 BC -- Jupiter stops over Bethlehem

I am in awe of how the God who created the universe, placed in the heavens the clockwork for the sign of the coming Messiah, before man sinned. Before man needed a Messiah, God already planned to be our Messiah.

"♥♪Oh, the love of God is greater far ♫♫ than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.♪♪♥"