As it’s already been stated, Bible reading and prayer are the two most basic spiritual disciplines of Christian faith. Prayer in the simplest way is talking to God. It is sharing with your loving Father your heart, thoughts, emotions, requests, needs, cares, anxieties, worries, praises, thanksgivings, hopes, and desires. The list could go on for days. God speaks to you through His Word and you speak to Him through prayer. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of prayer.
Tip #1: Set up “triggers” in your life. We talked about triggers last week. Take things that you do everyday and make them triggers for you to pray. Here are some ideas to help you get started: taking a shower, using the bathroom, getting in your car, making coffee, getting in bed, getting ready to read your Bible, finishing reading your Bible, driving to work, driving home, finishing lunch, eating eggs, sailing on a boat, scratching your nose, and buying a tambourine. You get the idea. Take things that you do everyday and use them as a trigger to pray.
Tip #2: Have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you can easily become a random prayer. Whatever comes to your head at the time is what you will pray for. You will constantly be praying for the same things over and over. This isn’t necessarily bad, but there are a lot more things/people in your life that could be praying for. So have a standard place where you keep track of all the things that you want to pray about. Then review this list at least once a day. This way nothing gets left behind.
Tip #3: Talk to God. This might sound dumb to some, but for others this will be an epiphany. I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but some people like to use what could be called “prayer talk.” This is where a person suddenly embodies the spirit of a TV evangelist and sees how many times they can say the words God, Father God, Lord, or Jesus (whichever is the persons favorite) in a prayer. It comes as a surprise to most that you can actually just talk to God. You don’t have to use His name as the punctuation to every sentence. You don’t have to speak in old English. You can just talk to Him. Just like you talk to your friends about your troubles and your successes, you can talk to Him. You can tell Him your struggles and failures. You can tell Him jokes. You can even be angry and cry out to Him (read a few Psalms and you’ll get the idea). Prayer is you simply talking to God. No flair. No technicalities. No special formulas. Just talking.
Tip #4: Write it down. When you develop a habit of constantly praying, it becomes easy to forget what you’ve prayed about. Therefore, you can lose track of whether or not God has answered your prayers. This is so you can look back and see how God has answered your prayers over time. Keep it simple though. Don’t set a limit. That means no minimum or maximum. It puts an unnecessary burden on you. Some days you will write pages worth of prayer to God. Other days it will be the simple phrase, “God help me.” The idea is to simply write it out.
Tip #5: Keep it simple. During the time of Jesus, Jews would have standard prayers for everything that they would do. You would have a standard prayer for plowing a field, eating a meal, drinking wine…even going to the bathroom.[i] The key was that most of these prayers were only a sentence long. The reality is that our prayers don’t have to be five minutes long for God to hear us. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best prayers. If you can only think of a few things to say to God, then say them. God isn’t keeping a tally of how much you pray. He just wants to hear from you.
Tip #6: Keep it sweet. Remember whom you are talking to. While God is the King of the Universe, He is also the Lover of your soul. One of the reasons that David was a man after God’s own heart was because he was passionate and honest with God. He was open and honest as you can only be with a closest friend. The worst prayer isn’t a long prayer or a prayer said in Old English but a prayer that has no heart. If you aren’t praying out of a love for God, then are you really praying? The reality is that this is the core of all prayer…to seek the face of God….to seek after His heart. Prayer is one of the most intimate times we have with God. Treat it that way.
As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM. Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S. I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.
Brook Sarver
Like someothers, Brook and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog (I starting see a trend with church planters and beer). Although I’ve never met Brook in person, I consider him a good friend. Brook loves Jesus, has an amazing wife, and has some mad photography skillz.
Brook also has a huge heart for the people of Thailand. After going on a several month mission trip a few years ago, they have had a passion to go back. So they’re doing just that. A few weeks from now, Brook and Sara are moving across the world to spend 10 years preaching the gospel of Jesus.
To learn more about Brook and his journey, you can follow him on twitter or read his blog.
As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM. Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S. I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.
Brad Ruggles
Brad Ruggles and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog. Although I’ve never met Brad in person, I consider him a good friend. He is one of the top three creative people I know (yeah I number them…I have a points system and everything), has a wonderful wife, and some adorable daughters.
Brad left his job, started doing freelance design, moved 120 miles (through a 2300 mile journey) from Fort Wayne to Carmel, IN, set roots, and is in the beginning stages of planting a church. He has an amazingly compassionate heart. I can’t wait to see how God uses him in Carmel.
If you would like to learn more about Brad and his church plant you can:
As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM. Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S. I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.
Clayton Bell
Clayton Bell and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog. Although I’ve never met Clayton in person, I consider him a good friend. Through reading his blog and a few online chats, I know that he is a wonder husband and loving father.
About four years ago, Clayton felt the call to plant a church. Like me, about a year ago he felt that God was calling him off the bench to start his church plant. This last Sunday, He left his job at Every Nation, Tallahassee, where he served as Family Pastor for the past year and is moving to the Tampa/Trinity area of Florida to start Trinity New Life Church.
If you live in in the Florida area and want to join Clayton on God’s mission to reach the lost of Tampa, you can email him at info@trinitynewlife.com for more information.
Please be in prayer for Clayton, his wife, and daughter as they follow God on this wonderful journey.
I’m going to come out and say this…I have a man crush on Moses. Of all the men in the Bible, I have always found myself drawn to Moses. I truly think this is a God thing. Because of all the men in the Bible, I relate to Moses the most.
We’re both miracle babies (my mom wasn’t suppose to physically be able to have children). We’re both overly ambitious (although I haven’t killed anybody…yet). We’re not the “bestest” of speakers. God has used trials, tribulations, and time to prepare us for our callings. Most importantly, I feel like God has given me the same clarification on my calling that He gave Moses.
In Exodus 3, God tells Moses that He is going to use him to deliver His people out of Egypt. Moses’ response is the same as any person who has a great calling put before them, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Moses is scared, perplexed, shaken and lacking confidence. How could a screwed up man like him complete such a large task after he had failed so many years before? He has been hiding in the desert for 40 years, and he is looking to God for a sign to give him confidence in his calling.
God’s response is classic. He doesn’t give him some pep talk about how awesome Moses is and how God has been preparing him 40 years for this very moment. Instead God tells him, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
This one verse has been the summation of my entire calling. October 27 of this last year marked the 10 year anniversary of God calling me to vocational ministry. I have known since then that God is calling me to serve Him as my full-time job. And as I have sought Him for clarification of the years, His sign has always been the same. It’s not a pillar of smoke or fire, or a damp towel on my front porch, or a star in the east. Instead God has quietly told me He will be with me, and I’ll know I’ve fulfilled my calling when I look back and see that I’ve fulfilled my calling.
For this reason, I have never really looked forward to try and figure out what God wants me to do. Instead I’ve looked backwards to see what Jesus has done in my life to determine where He wants me to go next.
By looking at the last 10 years of my life, I can see that Jesus has been moving me towards pinnacle moment in my life. In college, I went on a mission trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for two-and-a-half months. My main point of contact there was the head of the Purpose Driven Church Planting movement in Rio. Him and others spoke into my life saying they saw in me great potential to plant churches in my future. I filed the information deep in the recesses of my brain and went on with my life.
I came back to Eastern New Mexico University, started a interdenominational Bible study with my best friend, married the most beautiful woman in the world, graduated, and got a job as a youth minister in a small town in the panhandle of Texas. It was during my time as a youth minister that God stirred the memories of Brazil in my head and moved in my heart.
I don’t remember the day or the time, but I remember the intense emotions and distinct clarity. I knew that God wanted me to plant a church. So I did what any young ambitious newly married kid does only a year-and-a-half out of college, I turned in my two week notice and made plans to move to Portland, OR (motivated by the book Blue Like Jazz).
When reality snapped to, we figured out that we had no jobs, no place to live, and no friends in Portland. Therefore we did what every young ambitious church planter does, we packed up all our stuff and temporarily moved into my mother-in-law’s house in Albuquerque, NM. It was going to be our half-way point on the way to Portland
We tried our best to find a way to get to Portland, but God kept shutting the doors. And the longer that we stayed in Albuquerque, the more Jesus opened my eyes to the beauty of this city and broke my heart with the sin of its people. In the quiet of our hearts, God showed us that He had other men for Portland, but He wanted us to stay here in Albuquerque.
As Shannon and I began to settle into Albuquerque, getting jobs and a home of our own, we started looking for a church that we call home while we prepared to plant. We scoured hundreds of church websites and visited numerous in person. We began to get so discouraged by what we found. And as time went on, we began to see why God wanted us to plant a church in Albuquerque.
But like a diamond in the rough, we came across a small church that was meeting in a run down theater on Central Ave, City on a Hill (now Mars Hill Church Albuquerque). The church was a place of love, grace, and mercy as you would see the rich rub elbows with homeless and the messed up mingle with the self-righteous. The pastor, Dave Bruskas, had planted the church only a few years earlier and had a heart to help young men plant churches in Albuquerque. He had a deep love for the city and an even deeper love for Jesus. His passion was infectious (and still is to this day).
It was during this time that a few things happened. First, I felt like God told me to wait. I had some growing up to do, and like the disciples, I needed to go up to my room and wait for the Holy Spirit to come. Second, I learned about Acts 29, Mars Hill, and Mark Driscoll. Through them I learned what it means to be a church planter and more importantly a husband and father. Third, I got a job with UPS doing sales. By working for UPS, I have traveled all over Albuquerque (and half the state of NM). I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of this city.
But one area has always stood out to me as I make my daily visits to customers. Uptown has to be one of the more unique areas of Albuquerque. If Nob Hill is the cultural hub of Albuquerque, I would say that Uptown is the socio-economic center. You have the wealthy and affluent who come to work in the high rises and play at Q Mall, but there are also the gang-bangers who come from the War Zone to roam the Coronado Mall. You won’t find another place in Albquerque where more diverse group of people live, work, and play. It has captured my heart (but more on this later).
The last thing that happened was I listened to a podcast that would change my thoughts on church planting for the rest of my life. Up until this point I had planned on flying solo. I was going to gather a small group of people and start our own church named after a weird latin term or vague Harry Potter incantation. But God had other plans. As I listened to Doug Swagerty from Harbor Church in San Diego talk about why and how they do multi-site churches, God made it clear to me that this was His plan for me.
The organization, efficiency, and team-work that went into planting a campus as opposed to a new church spoke to the core of who God made me as a person. It was then that I had determined that God didn’t want me to plant a church, but to plant another campus for City on a Hill in the Uptown area. He wanted me to carry the vision and mission to another part of our beautiful city.
This brings us to this moment in time. For the past three years, I feel like have been metaphorically sitting on the bench waiting for God to call me into the game. Like Moses wandered in the dessert shepherding sheep for 40 years, God has been having me wander in the dessert waiting for His timing. But as City on a Hill has made the transition to becoming Mars Hill Church Albuquerque, I feel like God has been calling my number. The Holy Spirit has began to move fresh my heart, and I hear God saying, “Qualls…get in the game.” I feel like God is calling me to be on mission with Jesus in Albuquerque as He reaches our city to impact a region to influence the world.
Working along side Dave Bruskas, we are looking to start a Mars Hill Church campus in the Albuquerque Uptown area. Through Mars Hill’s campus model we hope to reach hundreds of thousands of people through preaching the gospel, planting Acts 29 Churches, and hosting Resurgence and Acts 29 events.
In preparation for this, I will be going to Re:Train starting on August 16th of this year. Re:Train is a one year training center that trains “missional leaders to live for Jesus and lead their churches to effectively reach their cultures with the gospel by staying culturally accessible and biblically faithful.” I see God using this training as a final step to prepare me for the mission put before me.
Looking back on the past ten years of my life, I can see how Jesus has been leading to this moment. Each trial and tribulation has been there to bring me to this point in time. He has led me here, and now He is telling me once again, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” I don’t know exactly what the next few years entail. But I know this, years from know there will be a Mars Hill Church in Uptown Albuquerque, and we will worship and serve our Lord Jesus on that mountain.
Here’s the deal though, I know I can’t do this alone. And I know that I’m not the only person that God has called to do this. I need all the help I can get. More importantly, I need your help. I completely believe in the sovereignty of God. So if you have gotten through the 1841 words of this post to this point, I believe that God has a part for you in this. I ultimately don’t know what that is for you (that’s between you and God), but I have a few suggestions.
1. Pray
I have seen God move in amazing ways through prayer. I know that God chooses to work through the prayers of His people. Therefore, I desperately ask for your prayers as I move forward with this endeavor. Pray for me as I go through Re:Train. Pray for God to bring laborers. Pray for my family. Pray for provision (finances, locations, volunteers, ect.). Pray for a pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Albuquerque.
2. Join
Join in on the mission in Albuquerque. As we get closer towards starting this, I will be getting out more information. For now this would simply mean joining the Mars Hill Church campus in Albuquerque. Join a community group and start serving. If you are interested in joining, email me, and we can start a conversation.
3. Give
Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. – Ecclesiastes 10:19
Unfortunately, it is going to take money to do this. Fortunately, I know that God will provide. He will use His people (you) to provide for the tasks that are ahead. The biggest financial burden at the moment is Re:Train. I need to raise $2,000 in the next five weeks. This will pay for my first month of training, travel, lodging, and a basic laptop. Please pray if God would have you support this task financially. If you feel moved by God, you can use the ChipIn Widget below or email me and I will send you my mailing address.
I am excited to see what God is going to do in the next few years. I look forward to sharing with you what God is doing as we go through this journey together.
With only a few days away from running in my first triathlon, I wanted to share some words of encouragement and wisdom with my fellow athletes out there. I didn’t grow up a very athletic person. I’m not that coordinated, and I’m not that strong.
I tried playing basketball, but I was to aggressive. I would generally only get to play for five minutes before I would foul out. I tried playing football, but I wasn’t big enough, strong enough, fast enough, or aggressive enough to be any good (it didn’t help that the coach wanted me to play center at 6′ and 135 lbs). There was really only one sport I was good at…track.
It doesn’t take a lot of strength or skill to run. So I did really well. I wasn’t fast, so I ran longer distance events. I wasn’t the best, but I always placed. I ran on the varsity track team at my school starting in eighth grade until I graduated. (we were a small division school). I loved pushing my body to it’s limit and then some. I loved competing. It’s this history of competition that starts to bring up some long lost feelings inside of me.
Some of my feelings are good and some are bad. I think sports can bring out the best and the worst in people (and sometimes at the same time). I know from experience that sports and competition can bring out a laundry list of sins in people…pride, selfishness, arrogance, timidity, course language, unrighteous anger, belittlement, ect.
I have seen people pray before a game and in the same breath speak crude and prideful words against the other team. I have been an arrogant winner and a sore loser. I have been poor sport. I have cheated. I have belittled and demeaned other athletes and teammates.
But I have also seen athletes become even more Christ-like through competition and sports. I’ve seen teamwork and unity abound. I’ve seen men with great talent and heart walk humbly in a knowledge of Who gave them their gifts. I have seen men suffer well in harsh anti-christian environments. I have seen men point to Jesus as their true prize and not some medal or ribbon.
It is with this in mind that I write this letter. I am determined that sports and competition will not bring me down. I am determined to not seek glory for myself. But I pray that my competing will be done in a way that brings glory to Jesus. I am determined that it is more important to finish the race with integrity proclaiming the good news of Jesus than to win and dishonor his name (not like I have a chance of winning). I am determined that Jesus is my ultimate prize. The reason I compete is to draw closer to Jesus and humbly point others to Him.
Whether I win or lose, I am determined to “run the good race.” I hope you are determined too.
Posted by GregQualls | Posted in Current Events, Life | Posted on 19-10-2008
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of all the political ads. I’m tired of the dirt flinging, but I’m mainly tired of the repeditiveness of the style. Pictures of the person with quotes next to them with a voice over. It is getting really boring.
If I was running for an office, I would hire the guys from the Sonic commercials. Or I would do a mac/pc commercial.
I’m curious. What style would your political commercials be?
Posted by GregQualls | Posted in Baby, Pictures | Posted on 01-09-2008
He is a total rock star!
Asa turned three months old this last thursday. The boy is really starting to grow fast. He has already doubled his birth weight and is over 12 lbs. All his clothes were starting to get tight on him. So, we had to pull out all of his 3-6 month clothes that we had stored for just this day.
I can’t remember if we bought this Rock Star outfit for him or not, but we just had to share the picture with everyone.
He is really starting to show his personality. He is a morning person (unfortunatly for mom and dad). Afte we feed him in the morning he loves to smile and play. Most morning he actually greats me with a smile as I come into his nursery. Oh and he is sleeping through the night now. Every now and then we’ll have to change his diaper at 4 am, but that’s about it.
Asa practicing for his graduation pictures.
He isn’t enjoying tummy time to much, but we keep working with him. He does love his Bumbo though. For those of you that don’t know a Bumbo is a special chair that lets pre-sitters be able to sit up. He’ll sit in his for hours if you let him.
He is also starting to eat a lot more. The boy puts down 6 oz easily every feeding. Mom and Dad didn’t realize if for about a week, but he was really fussy because we hadn’t been feeding him enough (you couldn’t tell from all the baby chub he has). But we uped his formula and the boy is happy now.
Well that is just about it for now. We’ll try to keep this site updated as much as possible. Hope you enjoy.
I’ve been reading through C.J. Mahaney’s book Humility with my friend Alf and it has been really good. We both decided that we needed to cultivate a little humility (ok a lot) in our lives. This book has been transformational. C.J.’s insights have opened my eyes to really see how much pride is really in my life.
In the last chapter we read, C.J. wrote about looking for God’s works of a grace in our lives and those that are around us. He talked about how Paul was able to see good things in the church at Corinth even though they were more screwed up than a peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich (my illustration not his). He talked about how only a truly humble person can see the work’s of grace in those that are messed up.
This hit really hard to home for me. I have to admit that I’m a pretty critical person. I’m not very big at looking for the grace in others lives and definitely not in my own life. I’m usually the first person to find faults and then exploit them through veil of sarcasm.
This hit home the other night after church when I was getting a few drinks with my friends at the Copper Lounge. We were all praying for my friend Carl (yes in a bar…and the waitress said it was beautiful) and Carl in turn started to pray for all of us at the table (he’s a great guy like that). He started praying about the miracle that was about to happen in my life and thanking God for the every day miracles in our lives.
It struck me at that moment that God is about to work a miracle in Shannon’s and my life. We’ve been in a little bit of denial that we are going to actually have a kid, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen (place you bet here ). This entire time of Shannon’s pregnancy and the upcoming birth I have been blind to the grace that God has been working in our lives. I have been blind to the miracle that is about happen.
God’s grace is blatantly obvious and I have been blatantly cold to what He is doing. I haven’t been aware of the way that He has sustained us during this time. How He has given us strength. How He has given us rest. How He has provided. How He has been there with us every step of the way and how He will be with us to the end. My eyes have been blind, but now I see (that’s kinda catchy…someone should write a song).
It’s funny how even though we don’t acknowledge God’s grace He still decides to work in our lives. But now that I’m able to see the miracle that is at hand, I have a new sense of excitement that has come over me. I’m waiting for a miracle and that my friends is going to be great thing to see.
So here is how it is going to go. This is pretty much you typical baby pool. You’re going to leave a comment below with your prediction for the baby’s due date, due time, and weight. There will be one prize for the person that gets the closest in each category (with the other categories being the tie breakers). The person that is the closest to all three will win a grand prize. I’ll give out a grand and runner-up prize for the people that are closest to the delivery time (weight will be used in the case of ties). The person who is the farthest off from all three will win the grand un-prize (my kids first dirty diaper).
Do you want to know what the prizes are? Well tell them Bob….
Ok so I don’t have that figured out yet, but I’ll get together with Shannon and I’ll update you in the future.
Grand Prize: $10 Starbuck Gift Card
Runner-Up: $5 Starbuck Gift Card
(Sorry it’s all I have)
To answer a few questions in advance:
The due date is June 1st.
No this isn’t an April Fools joke (I just happened to come up with the idea today).
No you can’t exchange you’re prize for something else.
This isn’t The Price is Right…you can guess over.
You must predict all three, or you will be disqualified.
If you don’t put am/pm, it will be assumed you meant am.
Any other questions can be sent to me via my contact form.
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989).
). This entire time of Shannon’s pregnancy and the upcoming birth I have been blind to the grace that God has been working in our lives. I have been blind to the miracle that is about happen.
