Daily Readings

This is going to be an amazing year!  It’s such a fun thought to know that there is a whole slew of us who want to know God better and are waking up and beginning everyday meeting with Him.  It makes those blurry-eyed mornings a little more “doable” when you know you’re not the only one in the world who is going for it! 

The Daily Reading section is going to be used for notes about the daily readings. The purpose is to simply highlight the fact that God wants to speak to us every day.  He isn’t silent!  Sometimes we just need a little extra perspective to see the things He may want us to see.  Our hope is that these daily comments would provide encouragement, open your heart in a new way or simply just “add to” your own personal time with Him. We are planning on having new entries each day – so keep checking in! 

God bless,

Phil Joel

What is deliberatePeople?

 
Ten years ago, Heather and I had an awakening – a realization. We became frightfully aware that we knew a lot about the Lord, but, if we were honest, we didn’t really know Him. We’d been moving so fast in life that our pursuit of Him was reduced to church on Sunday, prayer before meals, and the odd Oswald Chambers devotional. One-on-one time alone with Him wasn’t a part of our day, and prayer time really didn’t exist - we knew there had to be more. Not long after, someone gave us a Bible reading schedule that served as a tool to help us get into the Word and become more deliberate in building our relationship with Him. In years past we would have scoffed at the thought of getting up everyday to be with God, but once we made it a part of our lives, God’s presence and reality started to change us. He began to speak to us and show us things that only He could.

We came to see that as we pursue the reality of God in our lives we begin learning to hear His voice in this noisy world, we find our purpose in life – and that purpose is to be in a loving relationship with Him and with people. Without loving and enjoying God first, we don’t have anything of real value to pass on to our spouse, kids, friends, and world…

It’s simple. The idea of daily getting away to be alone with God and learning to hear His voice through reading the Bible and prayer is not exactly an original thought, but it is one that we believe God wants us to get back to in these crazy days.

Today, the culture we live in is in direct opposition to this. This is the age where faster is better. With the emergence of social network websites and instant everything, our communication, although at an all time high in regard to quantity, is heading to an all time low in quality. We collect friends with the click of a mouse and the art of true relationship through real communication and time is fast becoming a thing of the past.

Coming to Him, seeking Him, pursuing Him, drawing near to Him…however you want to say it, it’s all about a relationship with our Creator. He has ideas, dreams and plans for our lives and promises to show them to us as we take time to be still and ask Him to speak to us…positioning ourselves everyday to hear from Him and to communicate with Him. In essence, building a relationship.

SO…
If you’d like a new tool to help you “reboot the system” and begin spending time meeting with God then you may find our reading schedule and prayer guide helpful. You can download it in a printable PDF file for free when you click to the resource section. There you’ll also find the deliberatePeople journals that contain the reading plan, prayer guide and journal pages with helpful ideas on journaling the journey. You’ll also find some music that was written and recorded to stir and sound track a new move of God in your heart.

Well, with that, bless you as you become more deliberate in your walk with the Lord. And in case you don’t know this already - He is good, good, good and the relationship and adventure that lies before you will blow you away!

Blessings,
Phil&Heather Joel