Christian Archives - Lauren Sparks

A few months ago I heard someone on a podcast refer to their time with God as the “daily office”. I loved this so much that I have adopted it. “Quiet time” and “devotions” can both be valid, but time in prayer, bible study and meditation are truly the work of the Christian life. And my daily office is a top priority for me. I must confess that it usually doesn’t happen in a quiet house in a cozy chair while drinking my coffee from a pretty mug. That is – at this time in my life – a romantic dream. And it doesn’t always happen at one time for me. I try to attack prayer and scripture meditation before I leave the house in the morning and prayer again before I go to bed. Key word being TRY. And there are often short arrow prayers shot up throughout the day. And my time reading scripture? It sometimes happens on the treadmill or waiting in the pick up line at school. I have two part time jobs, 2 busy kids and a house to maintain. So I choose to make it a fluid part of my day. It’s what works for me.

It can be challenging to stay connected and engaged when the most important part of my day is often sliced up into bite sized chunks. But I have a feeling some of you might relate to a harried schedule. So I’m sharing my favorite Bible study tools.

My Christian Planner. I use the calendar pages to write out scriptures I want to memorize, to jot down prayers and to praise God for the thing I am most thankful for that day. It also gives me pages for sermon and bible study notes and anything else I need to write down that’s important. You can find one like it here.
The Echo app for my phone. This prayer tool allows me to record requests, descriptions, add an image and add a reminder of when to pray (such as a surgery or doctor’s appointment date). It also gives me the ability to mark a prayer answered or simply delete and has a prayer timer to help with this discipline.
The Devotable App. I have had the privilege to write daily devotionals for this handy instrument. For days when time is running really short or I’m on the go, a short scripture, perspective and prayer keep me in line.
The Blue Letter Bible App. The capabilities of this tech make me a much better student. I can search for scriptures by simple terms or exact phrases. It also contains a concordance, explanation of original word language, translation comparison, text commentaries and cross references.
NIV Quest Study Bible: The Only Q and A Study Bible. This new tool may become my favorite. I was gifted a copy by the Bible Gateway Blogger Grid and am amazed by all it offers. 1000 people where asked, “What questions do you have about this portion of the Bible?” Focus groups decided what questions should be included alongside the biblical text. As an example, the margins beside Proverbs chapter 22 contain the answers to these questions: “Why does God make some rich and others poor?” “What is the explanation for God-fearing people who are poor or unhealthy?” “Will good training guarantee that children will not rebel?” And it designates for us the top 100 most asked questions. This Bible’s study helps include beautiful color maps, a dictionary concordance, subject index and prayers, promises and perspectives from the Bible. Order one here to pump up your study time.

What are your favorite tools for time with the Lord? Comment below. One of yours might become my NEXT favorite!

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The cry for tolerance has long been a plea for groups feeling oppressed and marginalized. For hundreds of years, religions, economic classes, political parties, and racial and ethnic minorities, and more recently – the LGBTQ+ community – have asked for freedoms and forbearance from the majority of society. As a teenager and into my young adult years, I grew to hate the word tolerance. The root word TOLERATE left a bad taste in my mouth. I thought I could either “like” someone or “tolerate” them, but I couldn’t do both. Almost as if “tolerate” and “disdain” were first cousins.

I’m not sure how I arrived at my skewed interpretation. Maybe it’s because I only ever heard the word bandied about in circles of hatred. Maybe because each occurence of it in the news involved protests or violence or the like. But somewhere along the way I decided I would never say I tolerate anyone. I loved everyone – whether we agreed or not. That was that. And I felt like a much better Christian because of it.

In our current, volatile, easily offendable climate we seem to have forgotten some basics. Like how to love, how to disagree, and even how to converse. People and groups of all walks of life wish to be seen and heard – but don’t offer the same courtesy. We all want people to see through the same lenses we wear. And since the bulk of our communication is done by computer or phone, we no longer have to look at someone and see his or her pain and frustration.

To love is to agree. That seems to be today’s unspoken mantra. We vilify those who see things differently in this country and rarely try to walk a mile in anyone else’s shoes. In A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today’s World, the authors refer to this as ad hominem fallacy – attacking the person rather than the argument.

Brett Kunkle, one of the authors of the book, spoke at my church recently. He gave this definition of tolerate – “to recognize and respect others beliefs without sharing them”. I found a similar explanation on thefreedictionary.com. “To recognize and respect (the rights, beliefs, and practices of others).” I searched several dictionaries, and more negative definitions exist, but I prefer this one. Tolerance assumes there IS some disagreement. And yet respect and recognition coincide with it. All people are created equal. We are all image bearers of the Creator. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27 NASB All ideas and behaviors, however, are not necessarily equal. So as long as there are people, we will have differences of opinion.

We need to once again embrace the idea that debates can be civil. Love and disagreement can lay side by side…in the same bed…under the same roof. We need to recognize that one belief or characteristic does not a whole person make. Just because you vote differently than I do, does not mean I can’t see that you are kind and generous and fun to be with. And just because our socio-economic backgrounds are like night and day doesn’t mean you aren’t smart and dependable and humble. My race, class, religion, sex, family status or sexual orientation are not the whole of who I am. And they don’t define you either.

Are you a tolerant person?

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“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body ^[a]to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NASB