Self Feeding
Self-feeding is simply - “you taking responsibility for your own spiritual growth.”
At North Point Church, we talk a lot about self-feeding. Simply put — get a bible and begin reading it daily. Make sure that it is a good study bible with good commentary notes that help you understand the background, setting, and theological and historical implications of what you are reading. Pray daily and journal your thoughts. Be consistent with church attendance. If you are not in a small group, and you go to NPC, save the date August 28. August 28th is the next opportunity when NPC new groups will form. Get connected with a class at North Point University starting on Wednesday August 26th. Make sure that you are serving in an area of ministry. I could go on and on …….. but seek God, have relationships with other believers that can help you with the journey, and do the daily disciplines that help keep you sharp as a Christ follower. Below is something that we give to our small group leaders to help them to challenge their group participants with self-feeding.
Self-feeding Tips
- Pick up a Study Bible at a local bookstore.
- Read one chapter in Psalm and 1 chapter in Proverbs daily.
- There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, read the chapter that coincides with today’s date.
- Read one chapter in one of the 4 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)
- Journal your thoughts, feelings, questions, insight about what you read.
- Pray for your family, friends, and needs. Thank God for all that He has done in your life such as salvation, grace, creation, provision, etc.
- Spend time in solitude. Try to be still and listen to what God has to say to you. Write your thoughts down as you are quiet.
- Make self-feeding a daily routine. We are all busy, but self-feeding is vital in our relationship with Christ.
- Control your schedule, don’t let your schedule control you!
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Thanks Tommy, This is a good guide for me. I too, tend to be task oriented and seeing it in black and white here helps give me a disciplined routine to follow
Tommy
This is a great guide, but it’s a lot to bite off. Both time wise and personality trait wise. What about those who are not readers/writers?
If we look at Jesus’ modeling it was prayer, solitude, and knowing the scriptures of old.
Paul doesn’t talk much about knowing scripture, but does talk about knowing God- How did he expect us to know God if we didn’t walk the streets with him 2000 years ago? Not a rhetorical question- I’m serious - How are we to know God?
Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God. I want eternal life. I want abundant life- what ever that entails; wealthy or poor, comfortable or not.
I have large amounts of guilt because I don’t read my bible very often. I do have conversational prayer with God quite a bit throughout my days, but not much quiet time in solitude. I do think a lot ABOUT God, but it’s mostly questions and pondering.
I see the mystery and wonder of God in lots of books that I do read that are not religious books. Reading a great book right now called Da Vinci and the 40 Answers. It points to the creator all through it.
I think I learn the most about him and experience him more through my small group than any where else. Hands down.
How did people who lived before the printed bible (just widely available in the last 100 or so years) get to know Jesus? Did following Christ look that much different a couple of hundred years ago?
[...] 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment Tommy Sparger has a good blog on “Self-Feeding:
Anything you want to do well, and do well consistently, takes discipline. Anything that you are committed to doing (whether it’s studying, being a good friend, etc.) you make time for.
It looks like the book you mentioned as reading, Brian, is a business book, so I’m guessing you own a business or are a manager. Clearly you are committed to improving yourself in that facet of your life and have made time to study. No different with going deeper on your walk with God. If you are able, I would highly recommend getting a One Year Bible, if reading your regular Bible seems too daunting, which will give you readings each day - usually about 20 minutes or so worth (depending on how fast you read.) Alternatively, you can find lots of Bible reading plans online.
For me personally, I am not satisfied with simply hearing a few snippets of scripture or taking someone else’s word for it about what the Bible says. I guess it’s partly my personality type, but I generally need to see/read things for myself. In the case of the Bible, there are SO many “interpretations” and conflicting messages - even by people with the best of intentions!
Like Jesus, Paul had the Torah memorized. There were no “Christian scriptures” per say to refer to, just the teachings of Jesus that had been passed on. The apostles, missionaries, evangelists, and believers brought the “Good News” to others. Remember Paul rebuking others for false teachings and not having sound knowledge. When churches were built and religion more “organized” (or disorganized as the case may be!), believers learned the Word of God there as well. Without access to Bibles of their own, they had to memorize. I’m no theologian, so I may be slightly off - I’m sure others can correct me!
We “know” God through study of the Bible. We “know” God through His presence. I can’t claim that I’ve clearly “heard” the voice of God speak to me (although I can imagine him frequently saying “I can’t believe you just did that!”), but I can certainly see where He has been at work in my life - and the lives of others.
Great discussion and topic:)! Thank you to Tommy AND Daryl (comment 3/blog Soul Friends), two men that always make me ponder my relationship with my Creator.
I have to agree that I need to read my Bible daily to know Jesus better and I have started that more (However, I think Paul wrote about the fact that even those without God’s word can find him and his truth in Creation if they seek it…). I find that when I am in real need of God’s heart (AKA I can’t handle something all by my wonderful self) that I seek His will more. The way I do that… through scripture, solitude and prayer. My life is the same with any other discipline, I have to need it for some reason to do it (how weak the flesh is).
I have to add that Beth Moore, typically a female audience writer, is on to something with her studies…. they revolve around scripture memorization… To do this I have to work on the same passage repeatedly for weeks (and it has to be short). Once it is there though, it is stuck. Having said this, I feel I have very little scripture memorized nor do I read my bible in an entire year…. somewhere about Leviticus I always give up on all the laws and fall asleep. Thankfully Jesus said, when asked what were the most important laws out of the numerous Torah laws, that Loving God first and then Loving your neighbor second was best (thanks for the cliff notes Jesus… it is like you knew there would be me later on who needed them).
I wonder often, being raised in the church, if life-long church attenders or those who find Christ later in life (and may have more thirst than those of us same old same olders)… makes a difference? (Just throwing it out there).
Great discussion!!!
Kim
Great points. The Da Vinci book is a creative problem solving book, good for anyone who faces problems.
I am in management of sorts, and am in a MBA program. You’re right, I do spend plenty of time studying disciplines other than the bible.
I have a hard time accepting the uneducated or illiterate have less of an opportunity to know God because they can’t read the bible. For many they don’t have access to it in their own language. How do they know God? Are they tapping into something that I’m not?
I have been a slouch in memorizing scripture. However, I do make time to exercise, eat right, spend time with my wife and kids, and work hard. God shares all of those times with me. I don’t keep him out of any of it. So, what am I missing? Is it really just a matter of carving an hour out of my day to read, write, be solitary and quiet?
Maybe it’s a gender thing, or maybe a generational thing? Or maybe a get off your butt and do something Brian thing?
Brian you make me LOL! That is me… excuse girl. (Brian is my love)… I have to agree on the generational thing.
Those of us MTV, sesame street, Atari generations (and younger) all are ADHD driven (fast food, fast forward through commercials etc…) and may need multimedia (Nooma like or music) and short scripture memorization just to get there? Just a thought…. see… this is getting me thinking…..very very dangerous when I think…. might get ideas…. Wah ha ha ha (spooky laughter)… Thanks again Tommy.
Best of luck with your MBA program, Brian! No easy task!
Tommy’s suggestion was great, but I would also say don’t get too caught up in “you need to spend X amount of time doing this, followed by X amount of time doing that, and you need to do A,B,C everyday.” That may seem like going from 0-60. Personally, I haven’t gotten into journaling though I definitely can see the benefit of it; I don’t necessarily spend a set amount of time reading the Bible or a Christian book everyday - though during the week I usually spend my lunch hour reading one or the other; and I’m not as consistent in my prayer time as I would like to be. We’ve all got room for improvement! My brain has the memory capacity of a gnat - so I won’t even get into Scripture memorization! LOL.
I guess for me, though I am by no means the sharpest tool in the box, I like to try to understand things - and I LOVE reading. So studying the Bible and reading Christian books are both something I enjoy and also something that I feel I need to do in order to grow as a Christian. Not saying I’m better/smarter/closer to God/whatever than anyone else, just that that is what I am compelled to do and has helped me immensely as I walk this path.
A good comparison might be - how many classes have you had where you could just listen to the lecture and not read the book or do any homework and felt confident in learning the subject? Now, accounting for example, we all sort of learn the basics of it simply by handling our own money, paying bills, taking out a loan, etc. Money is a huge part of our daily lives. We don’t necessarily need to take a class or read an Accounting 101 book. But if we do do those things, a whole new level of understanding opens up.