So what exactly is SPAM, where does it come from, and why did I do it? Well, as I mentioned before, SPAM stands for Spiritual Preparation and Meditation, and it encourages "fasting" from, primarily, secular technology, but also from secular reading material, secular music, etc. in favor of development of a closer relationship with Christ.
The idea for this comes from Bruce Wilkinson's book, The Prayer of Jabez for Teens. I was given the book by my youth pastor in fourth grade, and, interested, I read it. It centers around the verse 1 Chronicles 4:10, which we had been studying in Sunday school for the past few weeks. In the verse Jabez calls out to God:
"Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain."
In the book, Wilkinson tells the story of Ashley, who takes the "SPAM challenge." He explains the basics of SPAM and then gives Ashley's SPAM testimony. She tells about her week-long experience of going without TV, teen magazines, etc. and giving her time to God instead. She would write in her SPAM journal and read her Bible, listen to Christian artists rather than her usual boybands, and when the week was over, she found herself closer to God than she had ever been before.
I read that years ago. Three years ago, I had a miniature revival in me. I was baptized my freshman year, and later that year, I went on a life-changing retreat. Or, at least, I thought it was life-changing at the time. Now when I look back on it, it really did nothing to change my life immediately after I returned home. But this year I went on another "life-changing" retreat, and this one really was life-changing. And with the conviction I've felt from this retreat, the conviction I felt three years ago. Anyway, the next year, I felt like I had drifted from my former conviction, so when I found The Prayer of Jabez gathering dust on my bookshelf, I pulled it out and read it again. I found the section on SPAM and decided I was going to try it. Again, the revival was temporary. I did SPAM for a month, as I had planned, and then I was done. I went back to my normal life.
But this time, I'm determined to make things different, with God's help, of course. And so far, so good. I read a few books during SPAM: Mere Christianity and The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis; More Than a Carpenter, by Josh McDowell; Straight Answers to Tough Questions About Christianity, by Peter Kreeft; and She Said Yes, by Misty Bernall. And now I'm reading Mister God, This is Anna, by Fynn. I also started The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel, by Walter Wangerin, Jr. All of them are great books, and I haven't put down a single one of them without feeling changed and filled with God's Holy Spirit.
All credit goes to God, of course, for teaching me to know and love Him. But I would also like to thank my grandfather. My father's father was a pastor in Japan, and at one point he even started a church. When he moved to America nine years ago, he would often guest-preach at the church where his wife's brother-in-law was the pastor. Sadly, he passed away last September. That was the first time I had ever had anyone close to me die. I was shaken, but I was determined to not be someone who fell away from God because of a death. (I had actually had three deaths in my family at that point, my grandfather being the third, and I also lost my uncle this past February. But the two before my grandfather were more distant relatives and — don't take this the wrong way — did not have a significant impact on me. I didn't know them very well, after all.) So with this mindset, I refused to accuse God for my grandfather's death, and I refused to be angry with Him. Instead, I prayed to Him.
Only a few days before my grandfather's death, I was reading my Bible when I came across the story in 2 Kings 2:1-18. In the story, Elijah the prophet tells his apprentice, Elisha, that he is going to be taken away by the Holy Spirit. Elisha, desiring confirmation that God has chosen him to be the next prophet for the Israelites, asks Elijah to give him a double-portion of his spirit so that he can lead the Israelites with God's mighty power within him. When Elijah is taken up by God, Elisha finds through the performance of a miracle that his request had been granted. Having read this, I knew exactly what to do in the face of my grandfather's death. I asked God to grant me a double-portion of my grandfather's spirit so that I would not fall away. And sure enough, I believe God answered my prayer with a resounding, "Yes!" I have had such a desire for His word and a longing to get to know Him better and to share His word and His love with others that there is no reason to believe that He did not answer my prayer.
So I continued to grow in faith as time went on. I returned from my life-changing retreat after New Year's, and a week later, I decided to try SPAM again. This time I took the advice of my mother and scheduled SPAM for the same time as Lent and encouraged others to participate. That way those who were less enthusiastic about giving up technology could give it up as part of Lent rather than having to give something up twice in the same year.
Anyway, I'm getting a little off track... but I think that's about all I have for now. So until next time, God bless!
Michael
—————————————————————
"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." ~ 1 Timothy 2:8
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to live is Christ and to die is gain." ~ Philippians 1:20-21
Saturday, April 10, 2010
SPAM - First Bible Study
Here are my notes on my first individual Bible study that I did for my "presentation" in my small group.
——————————————————————
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Sexual Immorality
""Everything is permissible for me" — but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me" — but I will not be mastered by anything. "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food" — but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. all other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. therefore honor God with your body."
12) As human beings with free will, we have permission to do whatever we want. but our choices don't always work out for our good.
Paul says, "I will not be mastered by anything." This relates to Jesus' teaching in John 8:34-36, where Jesus says that whoever sins is a slave to sin, or has been mastered by sin. But verse 35 says that if the Son sets us free, we will be "free indeed," or free forever, never to be enslaved to sin again.
Paul discourages the Corinthians from falling into sin again because they have been set free and should not want to be slaves again.
13) Everything was made with a purpose, but nothing material will last. "The body is not meant for sexual immorality," so we should not use our created bodies for something we were not made for. God created us to worship and glorify Him, and He sent His Son to earth to die for us so we could be with Him forever. This explains Paul's statement, "The body is... meant... for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." Why give ourselves to something material and perishable when we can give ourselves to something holy and imperishable?
14-15) We are the body of Christ. Paul argues that uniting a "believer" with a prostitute would be the same as if Jesus Himself was united with a prostitute. But God's perfect power, which raised Christ from the dead and will later raise us, can have no company with sin, so it is impossible for Jesus to become involved with a prostitute. We should not give the world the wrong image of Christ.
16) If Jesus were to sleep with a prostitute, they would become one flesh, making Jesus a sinner by taking on her sin of prostitution. He would then no longer be pure, and He would be unworthy to be offered as a sacrifice for our sins.
(The wording in this note is kind of confusing. What I meant was that, by uniting Himself with a prostitute, Jesus would become an adulterer, a sinner. And a sinner cannot pay the price for other sinners. Jesus had to be perfect in order to serve as an acceptable sacrifice for our sins. So if He were to commit adultery, His sacrifice would have been in vain. When we commit adultery, we give the world the impression that Jesus would have done the same thing. But we cannot give that impression, because if that were true, then everything we believe would be pointless. We would still be condemned.)
17) Instead, Jesus devoted His entire life on earth to doing god's will. The Holy Spirit lived in Him, and He obeyed the Spirit, making the two one. We should do the same, living in the Spirit so that we can have Christ's righteousness and salvation on Judgment Day.
18) Paul charges the Corinthians to avoid sexual immorality, saying that it is the one sin man commits against himself. To a society obsessed with self-image and acceptance, this statement hits the selfish Corinthians hard. To know that sexual immorality is a sin against one's own body is likely to cause the Corinthians to repent of their ways.
(This note refers back to my small group's meeting from the week before. We had been discussing 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, in which Paul rebukes the Corinthians for condoning and even encouraging a man for having inappropriate relations with his step-mother. Paul accused the Corinthian church of overlooking the man's sin for the sake of acceptance. Unfortunately, by doing so, the church gave the impression that such sins were acceptable, so the church drew in members by advocating what its doctrine should have been discouraging. This makes the church appear selfish and as if its only purpose were acceptance: accepting sinners and being accepted by the community.)
19) To make matters worse for the Corinthians, not only are they defiling themselves, but they are also defiling God's temple, the Holy Spirit's home. Jesus banished the traders from the temple when they turned the holy place into a merchant's haven in Mark 11:12-19. In a sense, the Corinthians are guilty the same way the traders were: they have turned God's house into something it was not meant to be. By committing sexual immorality, we not only sin against ourselves, but we defile God's house and sin against the Spirit within us.
20) God sent His Son to die for our sins. The least we can do in return is live apart from sin to make our portion of His load a little lighter. (My wording here was not quite appropriate for what I meant. Making His load "lighter" makes it sound like I meant removing our sins from Christ, but I really meant not adding any more to His load.) We should live pure lives so that the Holy Spirit has a good home to reside in in return for our redemption through Jesus' sacrifice.
——————————————————————
I hope this helps someone in some way. Part of the reason I started this blog was that, as I went through SPAM, I began to feel like God was calling me to do some kind of ministry through my writing. My awareness of that calling grew even more when I realized that my writing became more and more open as SPAM went on after my youth group leader encouraged me to share my writing. It was kind of strange for me because the knowledge that others would be reading my writing (whether verbatim or in summary) actually made me write more openly rather than more closed off. So pray that God would use my writing in this blog in some way to share His word and His love and bring others into His kingdom.
Until next time, God bless!
Michael
—————————————————————
"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." ~ 1 Timothy 2:8
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to live is Christ and to die is gain." ~ Philippians 1:20-21
——————————————————————
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Sexual Immorality
""Everything is permissible for me" — but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me" — but I will not be mastered by anything. "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food" — but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. all other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. therefore honor God with your body."
12) As human beings with free will, we have permission to do whatever we want. but our choices don't always work out for our good.
Paul says, "I will not be mastered by anything." This relates to Jesus' teaching in John 8:34-36, where Jesus says that whoever sins is a slave to sin, or has been mastered by sin. But verse 35 says that if the Son sets us free, we will be "free indeed," or free forever, never to be enslaved to sin again.
Paul discourages the Corinthians from falling into sin again because they have been set free and should not want to be slaves again.
13) Everything was made with a purpose, but nothing material will last. "The body is not meant for sexual immorality," so we should not use our created bodies for something we were not made for. God created us to worship and glorify Him, and He sent His Son to earth to die for us so we could be with Him forever. This explains Paul's statement, "The body is... meant... for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." Why give ourselves to something material and perishable when we can give ourselves to something holy and imperishable?
14-15) We are the body of Christ. Paul argues that uniting a "believer" with a prostitute would be the same as if Jesus Himself was united with a prostitute. But God's perfect power, which raised Christ from the dead and will later raise us, can have no company with sin, so it is impossible for Jesus to become involved with a prostitute. We should not give the world the wrong image of Christ.
16) If Jesus were to sleep with a prostitute, they would become one flesh, making Jesus a sinner by taking on her sin of prostitution. He would then no longer be pure, and He would be unworthy to be offered as a sacrifice for our sins.
(The wording in this note is kind of confusing. What I meant was that, by uniting Himself with a prostitute, Jesus would become an adulterer, a sinner. And a sinner cannot pay the price for other sinners. Jesus had to be perfect in order to serve as an acceptable sacrifice for our sins. So if He were to commit adultery, His sacrifice would have been in vain. When we commit adultery, we give the world the impression that Jesus would have done the same thing. But we cannot give that impression, because if that were true, then everything we believe would be pointless. We would still be condemned.)
17) Instead, Jesus devoted His entire life on earth to doing god's will. The Holy Spirit lived in Him, and He obeyed the Spirit, making the two one. We should do the same, living in the Spirit so that we can have Christ's righteousness and salvation on Judgment Day.
18) Paul charges the Corinthians to avoid sexual immorality, saying that it is the one sin man commits against himself. To a society obsessed with self-image and acceptance, this statement hits the selfish Corinthians hard. To know that sexual immorality is a sin against one's own body is likely to cause the Corinthians to repent of their ways.
(This note refers back to my small group's meeting from the week before. We had been discussing 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, in which Paul rebukes the Corinthians for condoning and even encouraging a man for having inappropriate relations with his step-mother. Paul accused the Corinthian church of overlooking the man's sin for the sake of acceptance. Unfortunately, by doing so, the church gave the impression that such sins were acceptable, so the church drew in members by advocating what its doctrine should have been discouraging. This makes the church appear selfish and as if its only purpose were acceptance: accepting sinners and being accepted by the community.)
19) To make matters worse for the Corinthians, not only are they defiling themselves, but they are also defiling God's temple, the Holy Spirit's home. Jesus banished the traders from the temple when they turned the holy place into a merchant's haven in Mark 11:12-19. In a sense, the Corinthians are guilty the same way the traders were: they have turned God's house into something it was not meant to be. By committing sexual immorality, we not only sin against ourselves, but we defile God's house and sin against the Spirit within us.
20) God sent His Son to die for our sins. The least we can do in return is live apart from sin to make our portion of His load a little lighter. (My wording here was not quite appropriate for what I meant. Making His load "lighter" makes it sound like I meant removing our sins from Christ, but I really meant not adding any more to His load.) We should live pure lives so that the Holy Spirit has a good home to reside in in return for our redemption through Jesus' sacrifice.
——————————————————————
I hope this helps someone in some way. Part of the reason I started this blog was that, as I went through SPAM, I began to feel like God was calling me to do some kind of ministry through my writing. My awareness of that calling grew even more when I realized that my writing became more and more open as SPAM went on after my youth group leader encouraged me to share my writing. It was kind of strange for me because the knowledge that others would be reading my writing (whether verbatim or in summary) actually made me write more openly rather than more closed off. So pray that God would use my writing in this blog in some way to share His word and His love and bring others into His kingdom.
Until next time, God bless!
Michael
—————————————————————
"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." ~ 1 Timothy 2:8
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to live is Christ and to die is gain." ~ Philippians 1:20-21
Friday, April 9, 2010
SPAM - Week 1
Okay, so I've been off of SPAM for almost a week now, and I have to admit, it's been weird trying to readjust. It's almost uncomfortable being back on the computer again. So to adapt and integrate SPAM into my normal everyday life, I decided to take the advice of one of my leaders at my youth group and start this blog. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to use this yet, but for now the best thing I can think to do is start typing summaries of each week I participated in SPAM. So here's week 1.
Week 1: Days 1-7
Weekly Memory Verse: "Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you." ~ James 1:21
Daily Reading (Days 37-43 of my Bible reading plan): Proverbs 17-23, Psalm 37-43, Job 38- 42, Isaiah 2, James
Additional Reading: Colossians (I later decided to add Colossians to my daily reading plan, but I slowly drifted from that and have since stopped reading it every day, though I do still read it every once in a while), Hebrews, Philippians
For the first week of giving up unnecessary technology, this week was not very hard at all. In fact, it was almost fun. Well... okay, this wasn't really my first week. I started writing in my journal on February 17th, Ash Wednesday. This was when I had first planned to start SPAM. But in late January, as I saw SPAM approaching slowly, I couldn't wait any longer. After a less than friendly conversation with my cousin, I decided I needed some time to get my facts and priorities straight with God. Now. So I started three weeks before the official start date. But even then, the first week was much appreciated.
With unnecessary computer use out of the way, I started spending a lot of time with God. I had such a thirst for His word that I found myself actually wanting to read the Bible throughout the day. This was unusual for me because, before, I had only read the Bible as part of my daily routine before going to bed. But now I was reading more than just a chapter a day right before bed. A few weeks before, I had set up a Bible reading plan for myself. So now I was reading a chapter a day from Psalms and a chapter a day from Proverbs every morning, and all of James and a chapter a day from a specified book (I was reading Job at that point). But it didn't stop there. I was reading even more than that. In just the first week (the first official, recorded week), I had read all of Colossians six times, all of Hebrews, all of Philippians, and I had done studies on three different passages of Scripture, which I had never done on my own before.
Just a couple weeks before, I had joined a small group with other members of my youth group. Up until that point, I had been involved with a small group at a different church, but they met inconsistently as they had different "seasons" in which we would study one thing extensively, then stop meeting until a new topic was decided on. So I finally joined a more consistent small group, and I have loved every day of it. So it was for this that I conducted my first individual Bible study. In my small group, the students "present" the weeks Scripture for discussion. So I had to go through the next week's passage, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, and examine it so I could lead the discussion. I probably should have studied it over the course of the week, but I ended up doing the entire study on the first day, and then I just left it at that. All the same, I did feel like I got a lot out of that brief study session.
To summarize the week, it was a great week for avoiding technology and taking time to grow closer to God. A few friends and I went to a band clinic that weekend, and I was surprised when one of my friends asked me for my Bible. It turns out he has gotten into the habit of reading Psalm 23 before any audition. I was shocked because I had never really known if he was a Christian or not. So it was a nice surprise to find out he is a Christian, and now he has given me the idea of reading Psalm 23 before auditions and performances, and I plan to continue to do that. I have heard that some counselors will read passages from the Bible, and their patients will immediately grow calm. But it wasn't that weekend that I personally witnessed the counseling power of Scripture.
That Saturday, a friend in my small group, sent me an email asking for a few Bible verses related to a specific topic we had talked about at the previous week's small group meeting. I debated for a little while whether or not checking the email would violate SPAM, but eventually I decided it wouldn't, so I read the email, then went to look up some verses. I realized that the verses I found had a personal application to my own life, so I decided it would be a good idea to do a study of the verses I had found. Unfortunately, I never finished going through all the verses. (Maybe that's one thing I can do to keep SPAM involved in my life now that it's over.) I got through two of the passages, and again, I felt like God was revealing a lot to me.
Over the course of SPAM, I have come to know and love my small group, and I'm very proud to have such godly brothers in Christ. We all help each other grow, and, as one friend said at the winter retreat, "If a brotha falls down, pick a brotha up." I'm very glad that I decided to join my current small group, and I'm even more thankful that God has given me the desire to know Him better such that the desire to be a part of a small group came along with it.
Sadly, I did miss one day of writing in my prayer journal in that first week. But later on during SPAM, I heard a sermon on legalism, which is the act of doing something simply to do it. So after hearing that, I realized that I had been doing some of the things I did in SPAM just so I could say I did those things. So even though I did not like the fact that I missed a day, I am now somewhat okay with it. After all, we are imperfect humans, so we can't expect to not make mistakes. If I miss a day, God won't love me any less. He does want us to get to know Him through the Bible and His Son, but missing one day isn't going to harm me... as long as I leave it at that and don't take advantage of that knowledge.
So with that, the first week of SPAM was over. The first checkpoint in my seven-week journey with God.
And now with that, I'm off. God bless!
Michael
—————————————————————————
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to live is Christ and to die is gain." ~ Philippians 1:20-21
Week 1: Days 1-7
Weekly Memory Verse: "Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you." ~ James 1:21
Daily Reading (Days 37-43 of my Bible reading plan): Proverbs 17-23, Psalm 37-43, Job 38- 42, Isaiah 2, James
Additional Reading: Colossians (I later decided to add Colossians to my daily reading plan, but I slowly drifted from that and have since stopped reading it every day, though I do still read it every once in a while), Hebrews, Philippians
For the first week of giving up unnecessary technology, this week was not very hard at all. In fact, it was almost fun. Well... okay, this wasn't really my first week. I started writing in my journal on February 17th, Ash Wednesday. This was when I had first planned to start SPAM. But in late January, as I saw SPAM approaching slowly, I couldn't wait any longer. After a less than friendly conversation with my cousin, I decided I needed some time to get my facts and priorities straight with God. Now. So I started three weeks before the official start date. But even then, the first week was much appreciated.
With unnecessary computer use out of the way, I started spending a lot of time with God. I had such a thirst for His word that I found myself actually wanting to read the Bible throughout the day. This was unusual for me because, before, I had only read the Bible as part of my daily routine before going to bed. But now I was reading more than just a chapter a day right before bed. A few weeks before, I had set up a Bible reading plan for myself. So now I was reading a chapter a day from Psalms and a chapter a day from Proverbs every morning, and all of James and a chapter a day from a specified book (I was reading Job at that point). But it didn't stop there. I was reading even more than that. In just the first week (the first official, recorded week), I had read all of Colossians six times, all of Hebrews, all of Philippians, and I had done studies on three different passages of Scripture, which I had never done on my own before.
Just a couple weeks before, I had joined a small group with other members of my youth group. Up until that point, I had been involved with a small group at a different church, but they met inconsistently as they had different "seasons" in which we would study one thing extensively, then stop meeting until a new topic was decided on. So I finally joined a more consistent small group, and I have loved every day of it. So it was for this that I conducted my first individual Bible study. In my small group, the students "present" the weeks Scripture for discussion. So I had to go through the next week's passage, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, and examine it so I could lead the discussion. I probably should have studied it over the course of the week, but I ended up doing the entire study on the first day, and then I just left it at that. All the same, I did feel like I got a lot out of that brief study session.
To summarize the week, it was a great week for avoiding technology and taking time to grow closer to God. A few friends and I went to a band clinic that weekend, and I was surprised when one of my friends asked me for my Bible. It turns out he has gotten into the habit of reading Psalm 23 before any audition. I was shocked because I had never really known if he was a Christian or not. So it was a nice surprise to find out he is a Christian, and now he has given me the idea of reading Psalm 23 before auditions and performances, and I plan to continue to do that. I have heard that some counselors will read passages from the Bible, and their patients will immediately grow calm. But it wasn't that weekend that I personally witnessed the counseling power of Scripture.
That Saturday, a friend in my small group, sent me an email asking for a few Bible verses related to a specific topic we had talked about at the previous week's small group meeting. I debated for a little while whether or not checking the email would violate SPAM, but eventually I decided it wouldn't, so I read the email, then went to look up some verses. I realized that the verses I found had a personal application to my own life, so I decided it would be a good idea to do a study of the verses I had found. Unfortunately, I never finished going through all the verses. (Maybe that's one thing I can do to keep SPAM involved in my life now that it's over.) I got through two of the passages, and again, I felt like God was revealing a lot to me.
Over the course of SPAM, I have come to know and love my small group, and I'm very proud to have such godly brothers in Christ. We all help each other grow, and, as one friend said at the winter retreat, "If a brotha falls down, pick a brotha up." I'm very glad that I decided to join my current small group, and I'm even more thankful that God has given me the desire to know Him better such that the desire to be a part of a small group came along with it.
Sadly, I did miss one day of writing in my prayer journal in that first week. But later on during SPAM, I heard a sermon on legalism, which is the act of doing something simply to do it. So after hearing that, I realized that I had been doing some of the things I did in SPAM just so I could say I did those things. So even though I did not like the fact that I missed a day, I am now somewhat okay with it. After all, we are imperfect humans, so we can't expect to not make mistakes. If I miss a day, God won't love me any less. He does want us to get to know Him through the Bible and His Son, but missing one day isn't going to harm me... as long as I leave it at that and don't take advantage of that knowledge.
So with that, the first week of SPAM was over. The first checkpoint in my seven-week journey with God.
And now with that, I'm off. God bless!
Michael
—————————————————————————
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to live is Christ and to die is gain." ~ Philippians 1:20-21
SPAM - A Summary
Hey, everyone. My name is Michael, and for those of you who don't know me, for about the last two months, I have been doing something called SPAM: Spiritual Preparation and Meditation. SPAM is basically Lent to the extreme. Whereas Lent allows you to pick anything to give up, SPAM centers on what we modern humans struggle with the most: technology (computer/internet, cell phones, TV, video games, iPods, etc.). And whereas Lent stops at just giving something up, SPAM goes on to say that the participant should take time out of his or her day to spend time alone with God, reading the Bible, praying, reading devotionals and other Christian books, listening to Christian music instead of secular music.
So for the last two months, I gave up Facebook, YouTube, video games, and more. (Technically, I gave up my cell phone, but I don't really use it that much anyway. Plus, I don't have texting. If I did, then that would be another major thing I would have had to give up.) Instead of sitting down at the computer every day after school, I would do a quick check of my email to make sure I didn't have any school emails, college info, or emergency emails, and then I would read my Bible. Instead of getting on Facebook before bed and staying up for hours, I would read my Bible and a little bit in whatever Christian book I was reading at the time, write a short (or not-so-short) journal entry, including my nightly prayers. And I found myself talking to God more than a handful of times throughout the day. And now I feel much closer to God than I ever was before.
Now, I think I need to explain why I started SPAMing. Over Christmas break, I went on a retreat with my youth group. We left New Year's Eve, so I got to celebrate the new year with all my church friends, which was amazing. We counted down to the new year, and within five minutes, we were singing, praising God. The next night, after our second daily "session," or sermon, we started worship. It was about 10pm. Lights out was at 11. The singer, my friend Bryce, said we would sing "a couple more songs" before we all went to bed. It wasn't until we had sung half of the songs the band new before we all finally decided we needed to get some sleep. It was now 2am. The same thing happened the next night, except we were up until 4, and we were supposed to be coming home the next morning.
That weekend changed me. Seeing all my friends so willing and eager to worship God moved me, and I knew the Holy Spirit was filling the room and all of us students. I got home so convicted by God that a few days later, I came up with a Bible reading plan for myself. I had been reading my Bible daily before then, but it wasn't until then that I had a set reading plan. What I read never really initiated any kind of change in my life until then. But after the retreat, I found that I was noticing God in so many places, and He was revealing Himself and His plans for me in His Scripture.
It was only about a week later that I remembered something I had tried a couple years ago called SPAM. The last time I did SPAM, it was not the most enjoyable thing. After all, I was a high school sophomore. Who in their right mind would actually enjoy giving up technology for a month at that age? So I decided to try again, hoping that I would get a different outcome this time. And I definitely got what I wanted. First of all, last time I did SPAM, I just returned to my normal life with no noticeable change, inside or out. But this time, I would like to think that most of my friends and even some others have noticed a significant change in me since the retreat. I don't know how much I've changed because of SPAM, but I know that getting back on Facebook is almost awkward for me now. It doesn't seem right. It feels like I should be reading C.S. Lewis, not reading status updates and wall posts. I should be writing in my prayer journal, not chatting with friends over the internet late into the night. So now I feel like it's time I do something productive, somewhat related to SPAM, so that I don't repeat my last SPAM experience and fall back into my previous routine again. So that's why I'm here right now.
Well, I feel like I've typed enough for today, so I'll have more about SPAM and my post-SPAM activities next time. Until then, God bless!
Michael
————————————————————————
"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." ~ 1 Timothy 2:8
So for the last two months, I gave up Facebook, YouTube, video games, and more. (Technically, I gave up my cell phone, but I don't really use it that much anyway. Plus, I don't have texting. If I did, then that would be another major thing I would have had to give up.) Instead of sitting down at the computer every day after school, I would do a quick check of my email to make sure I didn't have any school emails, college info, or emergency emails, and then I would read my Bible. Instead of getting on Facebook before bed and staying up for hours, I would read my Bible and a little bit in whatever Christian book I was reading at the time, write a short (or not-so-short) journal entry, including my nightly prayers. And I found myself talking to God more than a handful of times throughout the day. And now I feel much closer to God than I ever was before.
Now, I think I need to explain why I started SPAMing. Over Christmas break, I went on a retreat with my youth group. We left New Year's Eve, so I got to celebrate the new year with all my church friends, which was amazing. We counted down to the new year, and within five minutes, we were singing, praising God. The next night, after our second daily "session," or sermon, we started worship. It was about 10pm. Lights out was at 11. The singer, my friend Bryce, said we would sing "a couple more songs" before we all went to bed. It wasn't until we had sung half of the songs the band new before we all finally decided we needed to get some sleep. It was now 2am. The same thing happened the next night, except we were up until 4, and we were supposed to be coming home the next morning.
That weekend changed me. Seeing all my friends so willing and eager to worship God moved me, and I knew the Holy Spirit was filling the room and all of us students. I got home so convicted by God that a few days later, I came up with a Bible reading plan for myself. I had been reading my Bible daily before then, but it wasn't until then that I had a set reading plan. What I read never really initiated any kind of change in my life until then. But after the retreat, I found that I was noticing God in so many places, and He was revealing Himself and His plans for me in His Scripture.
It was only about a week later that I remembered something I had tried a couple years ago called SPAM. The last time I did SPAM, it was not the most enjoyable thing. After all, I was a high school sophomore. Who in their right mind would actually enjoy giving up technology for a month at that age? So I decided to try again, hoping that I would get a different outcome this time. And I definitely got what I wanted. First of all, last time I did SPAM, I just returned to my normal life with no noticeable change, inside or out. But this time, I would like to think that most of my friends and even some others have noticed a significant change in me since the retreat. I don't know how much I've changed because of SPAM, but I know that getting back on Facebook is almost awkward for me now. It doesn't seem right. It feels like I should be reading C.S. Lewis, not reading status updates and wall posts. I should be writing in my prayer journal, not chatting with friends over the internet late into the night. So now I feel like it's time I do something productive, somewhat related to SPAM, so that I don't repeat my last SPAM experience and fall back into my previous routine again. So that's why I'm here right now.
Well, I feel like I've typed enough for today, so I'll have more about SPAM and my post-SPAM activities next time. Until then, God bless!
Michael
————————————————————————
"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." ~ 1 Timothy 2:8
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