Live Righteously

I am about to conclude a short study in my Bible study group that isn’t studying the Bible much at all. Instead, we are learning how to study the Bible. It has been extremely informative and I hope that everyone who is interested in biblical studies would take the time to learn this.

Learning how to read for context and how to examine the different genres of scripture is fascinating. Once I become better at studying the Bible, I would like to teach others how to do it. If anyone knows of any good books on the subject, I’d love to hear about them!

Thank you!
Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: Bible Study, Biblical Concepts, Today

Are We Preventing God’s Blessings in Our Lives? I would dare say that we are.

Yesterday I was just sitting reading and my dog came up and wanted some attention. So being in a spiritual mindset (I was reading about evangelism) I prayed to the Lord to have my dog go away for a bit. But then I did something really stupid and contrary to my prayer… I reached down and started to pet the dog. Now why would I reach down to pet him and give him love if I want him to go away?!?!? I have no idea.

Now this made me start thinking, how many times have we prayed that something would happen in our lives when we are doing something completely contrary?  How often do we limit the power of prayer in our lives? Do we say “Lord, please remove this temptation from me!” as we’re reaching our hand into the cookie jar? Do we say “Lord, please  heal me of this disease” as we’re deliberately disobeying the doctor’s orders?

Seriously, how often do we do this?!?!? I am going to start examining my own requests and actions to see where I am praying but acting contrary to what I have asked for. I encourage you to do the same and then take action to behave in a manner in accordance to your prayers and requests.

Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: Biblical Concepts, How to Live, Power of Prayer, Today

This morning I woke up (as I occasionally do) with a praise song repeating in my head. The lyrics that I kept repeating were “So what can I say, What can I do, But offer this heart O God, Completely to You”. I had to look it up to find out that it is Hillsong’s “The Stand”. Hillsong, thank you for writing such a great song and so many others like it.

So after I got up and started thinking, I wondered how do we really offer our hearts completely to God? What does that look like? Is it something permanent or something that we must do every day?

Having no answers but only more questions I sat down to eat breakfast and read my bible passage of the day. Un-ironically, the passage was Galatians 5:16 - 6:18. What a godsend! That was exactly what I needed to read and God knew what it. God knew what I would be reading and he placed the song in my head to get my mind going first thing in the morning! I am not surprised that he does this, but excited. I love it when I really feel the Lord speaking to me.

Galatians 5:16 in the N.I.V. tells us “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” So I started wondering, how does one live by the spirit? Well, we know that the Holy Spirit lives in all who believe in Jesus Christ and are called to Him. Ok, so I have the Holy spirit, but how do I live by it? I am convinced that the way we live by the Spirit is through constant prayer.

By constant prayer, I don’t mean that we pray and do nothing else but that, in our daily lives, we pray when we have time. We should pray when we are driving, when someone makes us angry, when we don’t know whether we should go left or right… We should pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit in all circumstances. Prayers don’t have to be long, drawn out, well thought-out with lots of long words. We would do well to remember Peter’s prayer in Matthew 14:30, “Lord, save me!” There are only 3 words to this prayer but it was said in honest desperation and the Lord answered him and saved him. When we are angry or don’t know what to say, a simple “Lord, give me the words to say” will do wonders for us.

As I write this and pray about what to write, I am becoming more and more convinced that to live in the Spirit simply means that we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives and we submit to God’s will for us. And we submit by praying, listening and obeying. This is a lesson that I truly need to learn. I need to obey. And obedience to Jesus Christ is the only way to live righteously.

To whoever is reading this, I thank you for reading. I thank you for being interested in what I have to say and I hope that this helps you as much as it does me. Much of this isn’t written for others as much as it is written for me, that I may come to understand more about my own faith and I may grow in that faith. If you are encouraged by what you read here, please send me a comment. I’d love to know that you are being encouraged by my ramblings.

God bless you,
Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: Biblical Concepts, Holy Spirit, How to Live, Power of Prayer, Today

I can’t believe its already Friday! This week absolutely flew by and sadly I feel that I have very little to show for it. I almost missed my Bible study this morning because I forgot it was Friday. We are currently studying (ironically enough) hermeneutics or how to study the Bible. Yes, we are studying how to study…  =)

I started reading another book last night entitled “Called & Committed” by David Watson. It is about creating disciples and disciple makers for Christ. I’ll keep you updated as I go through it.

Have a great and safe weekend.
Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: Books, Today

Here in Southern California we’re having a rainy Christmas morning. But that doesn’t bother me. Unlike most Southern Californians, I actually like the rain. I love the peacefulness of the constant noise of the rain falling on the roof and it hitting the window awnings of our house.

Rain is beautiful and necessary. It provides the water to fill our aquafers and soak our hills so that we don’t have a terrible fire season like we did this year. Rain waters our lawns, trees and shrubs for free. Rain cleanses the impurities from our air and creates beautiful vistas. After a good rain, downtown Los Angeles is easily viewable from the top of the hill at the I10 and Via Verde in Covina, California. I love the views after a good rain.  =)

So on this day on which we celebrate the birth of our Lord, I want to take time to thank Him for the rain, this life that I live, the roof over my head, and and my wife who is asleep in the other room. Jesus, it all belongs to you and you let me use it. Thank you!

May the God that we serve bless your soul today.

Tim Biden

written by Tim \\ tags: About Me, Giving Thanks, Holy-Days, Today