The Exile
After severe warnings from numerous prophets, God’s people refuse to repent and reap the unfortunate consequences. God’s people are sent into exile and have to learn how to live for God in a land that did not.
🎧 The 2nd Mile
The Kingdom
At the height of Israel’s power, the people dramatically collapse. The grandeur of King Solomon’s kingdom is undone quickly as a result of idolatrous compromises. A nation splits, a people rebel, and prophets call for repentance.
The King
Once God’s people established themselves in the land, they desired to have a king like the other nations. The problem with their reasoning was that their qualifications for a king were insufficient. They received what they wanted but not what they needed.
The Excursion
As God’s people wandered in the wilderness, His faithfulness continued to them regardless of their unfaithfulness toward Him. As they entered and settled into the Promised Land, they had to yet again make a decision of who they would follow.
The Exodus
God created a world and covenanted with a people. As this family grew into a nation, they were sovereignly placed into the most powerful nation in the world. This nation now had the opportunity to tell all nations about the God above all other gods.
The Patriarchs
As God works through a family to usher in redemption to the world, the opening pages of the Bible portray a grouping of fragile people prone to multiple failures. Despite their missteps, God proves His unwavering faithfulness time and time again.
The Beginning
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. With that opening line, the Bible begins and God’s grand narrative for redemption never looks back. Beyond those opening lines, do you know what God is trying to communicate?
Bible Reading Challenge
For all the failed attempts at reading God’s Word, you still have this nagging desire to know it better. Instead of wallowing in regret or focusing on failures, make a plan to go forward. You can read the Bible. You can know God better.
Bible Reading Basics
We all know the discouragement that comes when we attempt to read the Bible with great eagerness only to quit once a personal streak is broken. If we are going to be committed to knowing the God of the Bible, we must maintain our time in it.
Finally Reading Your Bible
While much of the world is busy making resolutions that may not last the month, I want to encourage you instead to make a plan for the most life-changing habit you can have in this life – reading your Bible. It’s time to put down the excuses.
Reestablishing Your Plan
It’s that glorious time of year as you are considering making new year resolutions that will most likely not last the week. Instead of making promises, what about making a plan?
Regathering Your Voices
I’m about to encourage you to do something that you may think is odd or reserved for a particular elite. I want to encourage you to gather your family together and sing. Make it a priority to declare God’s goodness alongside each other and do it outloud.
Reclaiming Your Contentment
We all know the dangers of using social media too much, but a subtle yet significant threat is how the usage attacks our contentment as we are barraged with seeing the glamorous looks and expensive items of our friends and advertisements. It’s time to go the second mile in reclaiming your contentment.
Inspecting Your Approvals
Whether or not we realize it, we are addicted to affirmation. So much of what we do is attempting to draw the attention of others. Social media gives us an unhealthy opportunity to be fulfilled simply by the number of interactions we receive. It’s time to go the second mile in inspecting your approvals.
Reorganizing Your Device
Our phones are often like a junk drawer in your house. You consistently put more in there and rarely take anything out. If you are serious about setting healthy limits regarding technology, you will have to make some intentional changes. It’s time to go the second mile in reorganizing your device.Â
Reconsidering Your Comment
In recent years, the rise of our social media interaction has caused us to communicate very differently than ever before. People who are reserved to share certain things in person become emboldened online to the detriment of us all. It’s time to go the second mile in reconsidering your comment.Â
Reevaluating Your Filters
Technology opens a door to helpful content and dangerous opportunities. While you may have the best of intentions, are you doing everything you can to protect yourself and your family against the dangers of online material? Do you have a plan to combat it? It’s time to go the second mile in reevaluating your filters.Â
Setting Your Table
I want to reintroduce a revolutionary idea that could change your most important relationships. I want to encourage you to set the table. Gather the people closest in your life, sit down, eat a great meal, turn off the tech, and engage one another. It’s time to go the second mile in setting your table.Â
Regulating Your Entertainment
Entertainment can inspire us to enjoy the wonder of the life God has given us, or it can entrap us into addictive and unhelpful patterns. We all have certain shows, movies, and media we love, but the danger comes when we lose our filter and limitations. It’s time to go the second mile in regulating your entertainment.
Prioritizing Your Sleep
Sleep is one of those necessary parts of life that gets in the way of over-achievers, but it is essential to your ability to sustain what God has called you to do. When we neglect it, the effects can dramatically change our hours and our habits.
Leaving Your Work (At Work)
With the rise of technology, we have learned that you never really have to leave work. You are a simple laptop away from robust apps or a phone away from your emails or a cloud away from all your files. But with the inability to clock out, our souls and families suffer. It’s time to go the second mile in leaving your work at work.
Booking Your Relationships
n your hectic schedule, do you ever feel like the most important relationships get the least amount of time? We only have so many hours in a day, and many of us are so burdened by tasks that we miss the relationships for which we are called to invest.
Exploring Your Outdoors
The more that our society progresses, our souls seem to regress all the more. Our technological dependence forces us to stare at screens and avoid personal interactions. Our environments are caged in keeping us away from evidence of God’s Creation.
Limiting Your Social Media
Social media has given us a unique opportunity to know and to be known. As with any tool, it can be used for noble pursuits or nebulous purposes. We must determine if social media is using us or are we using it. And if we are using it, for what purpose?
Preparing Your Sabbath
We serve a God who commands us to rest. How could we ever doubt that he has our best interest in mind with such a directive? I grew up thinking the Sabbath was one thing but Scripture teaches something very different and life-changing.
Protecting Your Devotions
If you’ve been following Jesus for a while, someone has encouraged you to do a quiet time. Most likely, some of them made the unthinkable suggestion that the mornings are actually better, but you find yourself groggy and distracted as soon as you wake.
Silencing Your Phone
Your phone is an incredible gift. It has more capabilities than the most expensive computers of the recent past. The opportunities to experience and produce are like never before, but if you don’t control it, it will be controlling you. Learn to establish limits.
Scheduling Your Week
We all say that we are busy, but are we really busy with the most important stuff? If you don’t schedule your week, someone will do it for you. To honor God with the time he has given us, we must start scheduling our priorities. Let’s make the days count.
Stilling Your Soul
I go to bed looking for recent updates. I wake up groggy wondering what I’ve missed on my phone the last few hours. I go throughout my day tethered to a device that constantly interrupts my concentration on what matters most. If you’re like me, it’s time to go the second mile in stilling your soul.Â
Renewing Your Mind
To be a growing Christian in this culture is challenged on numerous fronts. One of the most significant conflicts we experience is how to be in the culture but not of the culture. To win the battles, we must change the way we think and act. It’s time to go the second mile in renewing your mind.
Silencing Speech
We all have those words that we regret. That conversation we wish we could take back. But once our speech has left the dock, there is no return for them. While we can’t change the past, we can prepare for the future.
Quieting Quarrels
Have you ever had that disagreement that lasted way longer than it should have? Probably most of your conflicts are that way in reality. Instead of letting something get out of hand, we must figure out how to reconcile peacefully.
Delightful Disposition
We are all wired differently when it comes to emotions. We all interpret situations uniquely and respond differently when challenges arise. Do you receive the stress of this life with joy or anxiety?
Surmounting Sensuality
Even if you don’t go looking for sensual content, it’s looking for you. And in every sphere of life, we are exposed to material intended to entice us to voyeurism and addiction. Apathy will not secure victory.
Exchanging Envy
We live in a culture of comparison. Everywhere we turn, we are reminded of people who have more chiseled bodies, more attractive features, luxurious homes, expensive vehicles, and exquisite toys. Jealousy can ruin us.
Taming Tempers
You don’t mean to let your temper take control. You never wanted to lash out the way you did, but you did it anyway. And you did it again. Maybe you feel like you are stuck in a cycle of regretting temperamental outbursts. It’s time to go the second mile in taming your temper.
Overlooking Offenses
Two things that are guarantees in this life is that we will sin, and that we will be sinned against. While we typically want grace for our mistakes, we want payback for others. How can a Christian filter through these scenarios? It’s time to go the second mile in overlooking offenses.
Harnessing Hatred
We typically believe that we can spot hatred when we see it. In our minds, it is reserved for those unreasonably angry people causing conflicts with no desire for subtlety. In reality, quiet hatred can damage just as much as when it is blunt and loud.
Fighting Fear
When we were kids, we were scared of the unknown things that went bump in the night. The older we get, our fears just transition rather than disappear. We can easily find ourselves paralyzed to live the life God has called us to live due to uneasiness.
Engaging Emotions
Each of us will either lead our emotions or be led by our emotions. When certain feelings creep in and begin to alter the way you think, speak, and act, how are you supposed to respond? Ignoring them will not make them go away.