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Here’s some more quote lovin’ from Andy Stanley in Communicating for a Change.

… spiritual maturity is gauged by application not contemplation. James says it best, “Faith without deeds is useless. (James 2:20)” “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (James 1:22)”

Application

When asked which of the commandments were the greatest He summarized the entire law with two action-oriented imperatives, love God and love your neighbor.

Not Contemplation

It’s interesting that the group who knew the Old Testament Scriptures best were the very ones who considered Jesus a blasphemer and arranged for His crucifixion.

Acts of obedience allow our faith to intersect with God’s faithfulness. It is at that intersection that we see God work. And when we see Him work our faith gets bigger.
~ Andy Stanley in Communicating for a Change

Ever find yourself praying for more faith?

Pastor Stovall said something today that reminds me of my tendency to pray and wait on God.  “Waiting on God does not mean laying up on your couch with the remote (paraphrase).”

Now re-read the quote above from Andy Stanley.

There is so much truth to that quote. The Bible even confirms it. ;)

James 4:8 (NIV)
⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. […]

After we pray for more faith, how many steps of obedience have we taken?  Nada?  Zero, zilch, zippo?  Are we sitting on the couch flippin’ through the same old channels, watching the same old shows?  Re-runs suck.

Having powerless faith sucks even more.

Faith is built at the intersection of our obedience and God’s faithfulness.  God’s faithfulness to draw near to us as we draw near to him.

One step of obedience brings us two steps closer to the faith we desire.

What one step can you take today?

As of WordPress 3.0, this functionality is built-in without the use of plugins. These plugins are no longer necessary.

There’s a new kid on the blog when it comes to allowing a single WordPress install to be used for multiple blogs.  I used to use Virtual Multiblog but just recently switched to WP-Hive.

The main reason?

WP-Hive supports separate sitemap.xml files (and robots.txt, favicon.ico) for each blog without jumping through lots of hoops.

I recommend you check both of them out though. My needs are relatively basic so WP-Hive is wonderful, but VMB has served me well up until this point.

WP-Hive

Pros

• Installs like any other plugin.
• Super easy to add new blogs.
• Supports separate sitemap.xml, robots.txt and favicon.ico files for each blog. Hoping this will expand to other, more generic files in the future.

Cons

• Does not allow a separate wp-config.php file for each blog. That means all blogs have to be installed to the same database with the same database login and no ability to easily customize the table prefix.
• Does not support installing additional blogs to a directory (e.g. domain.com/blog2). It has to be either a top-level domain (e.g. domain.com) or a subdomain (e.g. blog2.domain.com).

Virtual Multiblog

Pros

• Allows each blog to maintain its own wp-config.php file.
• Supports additional blogs installed in directories (e.g. domain.com/blog2).
• Once initially setup, it’s easy to add new blogs (assuming you are using the “Easy Setup”). The “Advanced Setup” requires a little more work.

Cons

• Semi-complicated installation (even for the “Easy Setup”).
• Does not support sitemap.xml and other special files that need to be unique per blog.

For other alternatives to WP-Hive and VMB, check out the Installing Multiple Blogs page.

Sometimes it’s weird thinking we are God’s answer to someone’s prayer. The person receiving the answered prayer knows it’s from God without hesitation.  But often times we’re standing there scratching our head.  There was nothing spiritual about giving a friend in tough financial times $40.  Or calling a friend you hadn’t talked with in awhile just to see how they were doing.

For our personal prayers, do we subconsciously look for an answer/outcome that comes directly from God?  An obvious “miracle” or burning bush moment?

Throughout the history of the world, it’s important to remember God has chosen people to execute and carry out His plans.

With that in mind, how many people in your life are answering your prayers? How many answered prayers are we overlooking?

2 Corinthians 3:14-16 (NIV)
¹⁴ But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵ Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶ But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

I was at the beach last Wednesday praying with some friends.  We were early enough to see the sun rise above the horizon.  But as we finished our prayer, the sun was covered by clouds. One of my friends later pointed out no matter how much the sun is covered, it’s existence and impact on this world is undeniable. The same goes with God and his two sidekicks.  ;)

The analogy made me think about the verse above.  It’s been the verse that has been with me throughout most of this year’s season of prayer and fasting.

We live lives veiled with unbelief, fear or contentment.  Laziness, selfishness.  Pride.  Our minds are dull to the things of God (v14).  The power, confidence and fruit of God’s love are all missing from our lives.  Our vision is limited to the dense fog surrounding us.  There’s no eternal perspective.  There’s no clarity of vision of Jesus Christ himself.

What are we looking at?  Are we focusing our eyes on the veil two inches in front of us?  Or are we looking past what’s directly in front of us towards Jesus and the promise that if we turn to him, the veil will be taken away?

I can already anticipate the feeling of warmth as the sun emerges past the clouds and our lives become unveiled.