The One Year Voyage

Bon Voyage

We set sail today on a one year voyage through the Bible!! I am looking forward to what God will do in my life and in yours. I truly believe this will be a life-changing experience for us all. If you have not signed up to be a part of the voyage and have not received the one year chronological Bible and accompanying journal, please e-mail me at landon@lakenormanbaptist.com. Even if you don't get started today, you can get on board at any time. Below is my journal entry for 1/1/2010. Bless you all!!!

Landon Horton

Whatever Floats Your Boat

In the days ahead, as we set sail on this voyage together, I hope you will share comments on this blog about "whatever floats your boat." I would like to hear about your thoughts, questions, experiences. What are you doing to make the most of this voyage experience? Are you a part of small groups outside of your Sunday School class? What creative and meaningful things are you doing that motivates you in this journey and "keeps your boat afloat?"

Journal Entry -- January 1, 2010

Today, I set sail along with approximately 900 youth and adults on a one year voyage of reading through the Bible in 2010. One year ago today, there were about 100 of us who set out to read through the Bible in 2009. Less than halfway into 2009, several who had committed to reading through the Bible were feeling discouraged because they had fallen "behind" in their reading. I began to think and pray about how we could increase participation in personal Bible study at our church and help each other accomplish this task. I believe what came was a vision for 2010. I guess you could say it became a "20/10 vision" as we soon came to dedicate this new year to focusing intently, more than we have before, on reading God's word together, journaling our experiences, sharing these with each other, and experiencing Sunday School lessons and sermons each week that correspond to our daily reading. This comprehensive focus is now church wide, and it will be exciting to see what God accomplishes through this. I know of others who do not attend our church who have decided to join us in this voyage. They plan to do this on their own or with a small group in their local church. I know of one small group in Shelby, North Carolina who started their voyage today as well.

Today's reading was Genesis 1-3. There is so much in these three chapters that you could probably spend half of a year just on the truths and issues that are revealed. In these chapters, I read about:

1. The majesty and power of God displayed in His orderly act of creation
2. The origin of all things
3. The uniqueness of humanity, made in His image, given stewardship of His creation
4. The war between Good and Evil -- Chapter 1 everything is good. Chapter 3 there is death.
5. Satan
6. Temptation
7. Pride
8. Disobedience
9. The origin of fear, pain, guilt, shame, sin, separation from God, and death
10. The husband and wife relationship
11. God's grace

Perhaps the saddest part of this section of scripture is when the all-knowing God asks, "Where are you?" to Adam and Eve. Why would a God who knows everything have to ask where someone is? The more I think about it, I don't think it was because He needed to know where Adam and Eve were. Rather, it was because Adam and Eve needed to realize where Adam and Eve were. They had disobeyed and now they were doing something they had never done before. They were running from the one who gave them life -- the first game of hide-and-seek. The irony is that in this game the "hiders" were also the "seekers." They had to find themselves, and they found out that the path to disobedience leads to a place you don't want to be.

But there is hope! God gives them clothes to cover their shame, an early sign of God's grace that will ultimately be displayed in the sacrifice of His son, Jesus, whose blood covers the shame and guilt of all sinners who believe.

Life Application:

1. Acknowledge God as Creator/Owner
2. Be a good steward of all God has given, especially His creation
3. Give thanks for my wife. Tell her how much I appreciate her.
4. Practice obedience in all things
5. Confess sins
6. Receive God's grace

My prayer today:

"Dear God, I acknowledge that you are the creator and owner of all things. You are an awesome God! Thank you for the things you have entrusted to me to manage. I especially thank you for my wife. Bless her and help me to be a blessing to her. I pledge to be a better steward of your creation including the areas of responsibilities I have as a husband and a father. Forgive me for my times of disobedience. I desire to flee from temptation and not from you. Thank you for your grace. With joy, I receive your grace now so that I may be the person you want me to be. In Jesus' name, Amen."

I Just Made Chicken

I have heard it said that there is nothing better than to enjoy the work you do. Makes sense. It would be difficult to get up and get to work on time every day if you viewed your job as something you had to do out of necessity, and it really was not something that you loved to do.

Just the other day, I found someone who loves what they do. I found her at a fast food joint that I frequent. I frequent this place because I love sweet tea, and they make it right! Even though I am on a diet now, I cannot seem to give up sweet tea. To satisfy my need for good sweet tea, I try to locate restaurants in the area that make it "just right." After all, if this is my splurge item on the diet plan, then it's got to be worthwhile! So, I have my list of drive through restaurants that I hit on a regular basis in order to satisfy my craving. Bojangle's is a local fast food chicken and biscuit chain that just happens to have made my top five list of sweet tea joints. It was there at the Bojangle's on local exit 28 that I found the employee who loves what she does.

Here's the story: It was time to splurge, so I took leave of work for a few minutes and drove myself to splurgedom (Bojangle's). At the outdoor menu at splurgedom, someone I could not see began a conversation with me. She said, "Welcome to Bojangle's. May I take your order?"

I replied, "Yes, I would like a medium sweet tea."

"Would you like anything else?"

"No."

"That'll be $1.07. Drive around."

I drove around to the window where I saw the face that went with the voice. It was a young face and a rather happy-looking face.

"How are you today?" she asked.

Remembering etiquette 101, I replied, "Fine. How are you?"

Her response to my question was a surprise to me. I thought she and I were just playing that cordial "I-don't-really-have-time-and-maybe-don't-really-want-to-know-your-answer-I'm-just-being-nice" game that we sometimes play with people in passing. That wasn't her game, because with pleasure on her face and joy in her voice, she replied, "I'm good! I just made chicken!"

I laughed. I turned to see if she was laughing too, but she wasn't. She really was good, and the reason was because she really had just...made...chicken! As I took my tea from her and began to drive off, I laughed again. You might think that I laughed because I was about to experience the complete joy of sweet tea made "just right" for me. You would be wrong. I laughed because I had just experienced a taste of that employee's complete joy of a job made "just right" for her. I guess you could say that Bojangle's is my sweet spot for satisfying my craving for sweet tea, and it is her sweet spot for satisfying a craving we all have -- to love what we do.

The writer of Ecclesiastes adds commentary to this. In Ecclesiastes 5:18-19(NIV), he writes,

18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to
find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of
life God has given him--for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man
wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be
happy in his work--this is a gift of God.

Do you find joy in your work? You can if you view it as a gift from God, and if you perform it as a gift to God.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV)

"How are you today?" she asked.

"I'm fine. How are you?" I replied.

"I'm good," she said. "I just made chicken!"

Think about your work. What did you just do? How would you fill in the blank, "I'm good. I just ________________?" Did it satisfy your craving? Did you love it?

Ahhhhhh!!! Nothing like a good old drink of sweet tea, is there?