Over at In Light of the Gospel you can read an article about different Bible reading plans. This is a great place to start for those of you who are planning to read through the Bible this year. The author offers up the following suggestions:

10 ESV Bible Reading plans can be accessed in multiple ways including:

• web (a new reading each day appears online at the same link)
• RSS (subscribe to receive by RSS)
• email (subscribe to receive by email)
• iCal (download an iCalendar file)
• mobile (view a new reading each day on your mobile device)
• print (download a PDF of the whole plan)

Daily Reading Bible

M’Cheyne One-Year Reading Plan: This plan involves a big commitment. I agree with the author in recommending D.A. Carson’s For the Love of God  as an excellent tool for those who are going to take the plunge with M’Cheyne

The Discipleship Journal Reading Plan

Bethlehem Baptist Church bookmark plan

Book-at-a-Time Bible Reading Plan

Please check out the post to sort out the pros and cons of each schedule HERE.

Of course the best thing you can  do is order a copy of Treasury of Daily Prayer…and read it daily .. check it out HERE!!!

As many of you know this week’s sermon was entitled Criticism and the Cross and it was aimed at pointing us to the Cross of Christ and how Christ enables us to overcome our natural tendency to resist correction and instead to learn to welcome criticism as a blessing from God and a means of personal growth.  

Because I believe that constructive correction is a sign of genuine love, I am writing to ask for a favor. As you know, we all have areas of weakness, areas where we need growth in character and in the ways we relate to others. I recognize that I am a sinner who is usually blind to my own weaknesses. So I am turning to those I minster to and with to ask for candid advice on where I need to change and grow. I am asking you because I hope that you are committed to my ministry, the ministry of this congregation, and the ministry of the entire Body of Christ. I want to hear from you because I believe these promises: "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses" (Proverbs 27:6), and "Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness" (Psalm 141:5).

As my brother or sister in Christ, please take some time to prayerfully answer the following questions. Please don’t be afraid to wound me! I know I will not like it but your candor will help me to grow. I will take your thoughts seriously as I ask God to help me plan for spiritual growth in the months ahead.

1. What characteristics do you see in me, or what areas of growth have you recently observed in me, that enable me to serve and relate well to others and have a positive witness for Christ? (I want to thank God for the gifts and strengths he has already given me and continue to build on them.)

2. Please describe three character qualities, attitudes, or behaviors that have disappointed, annoyed, or offended you or others, or seemed to undermine my witness for Christ. Please give specific examples if you can.

3. I believe that lasting changes in behavior require genuine changes in the heart (Matthew 15:19; James 4:1). Please click HERE to read the online article Getting to the Heart of Conflict. This article explains how our desires control our behavior, and describes a biblical dynamic called "the progression of an idol." Reading it will help you to answer the following three questions, which will help me to identify desires that may be ruling my heart.

a. What things have you seen me make idols out of? (An idol is any desire–even for good things–that I have elevated to a demand, become excessively preoccupied with, looked to for security, had to have in order to be content, or allowed to control me.)

b. How have you seen me judge or criticize you or others when my desires were not satisfied?

c. How have you seen me manipulate or punish you or others in order to get what I want?

4. If there were just one change God would bring about in me in the next six months, what would you pray it would be?

5. I know that I am dependent on God’s grace. I am in great need of God’s wisdom and encouragement, especially when I stumble. What word of promise or hope from God’s Word would you suggest that I keep in mind as I seek to grow?

Thank you for your help. Please pray for me as I seek to understand myself more fully and glorify with God as he works to free me from worldly desires and help me to be more like Christ.

Sincerely

Pastor Dan Vojta ..Click HERE to send me a message.

A Conciliator’s Prayer by Ken Sande, President of Peacemaker Ministries

Oh Lord God,

Today I am called to be a peacemaker, but I am unfit for the task.

By nature I am a peace-faker and a peace-breaker, so I myself need help.

Others ask me to understand and guide them, but my ears are dull, my eyes are dim, and I lack the wisdom they need.

But you, Lord, have all they need, so I come to you for supply.

Make me fit for your purposes, so I might serve them and honor you.

Cleanse me from my own sin so I will not add to their problems;
take the logs from my eyes, so I can remove the specks from theirs.

Fill me with your Spirit so they may benefit from your fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Give me wisdom from above so I might be pure and peace-loving, considerate and submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

Open your Word to my eyes and to my heart, so I will have a steady lamp
to light our path.

Strip me of my own agenda and desires, so I might look only to others’ good and be absolutely worthy of their trust.

Help me to model everything I teach, so others can see the way.

Give me humility to admit my weaknesses and confess my wrongs,
so others might do the same.

Draw me again and again into prayer, where you can strengthen and correct me.

Make me submissive — help me to show that I myself am under authority.

Help me to treat others as I want to be treated, so they may see the essence of your Law.

Make me creative, versatile, and adaptable so I can adjust to the surprises ahead.

Help me to accept others as you have accepted me, and thus bring praise to your name.

Give me faith and perseverance so I will not doubt your provision or abandon your principles, even when others fight against them.

Grant me the gift of encouragement, to give others hope and help them believe
that our labor is not in vain.

Help me to model your forgiveness so relationships are healed and your Gospel is revealed.

Grant me discernment so that I may read the deep waters of others’ hearts, sort fiction from fact, and know when it’s time to act.

Give me boldness and courage, tempered with kindness, to confront others in love so they might see their errors and find their way back to you.

Help me to prepare thoroughly and not presume upon your grace.

Make me just and fair, so that even if people disagree with my counsel they will believe that I treated them well.

In short, Father, please give me the Spirit of Christ so that I might walk in his steps
and guide your people into the path of your peace.