The Divine Mentor, Part 1?

Yeah, I hate to write "Part 1" because I'll feel bad if I don't follow through and write a "Part 2" later... but I really do think I'll be writing a bit more at some point.


Here's the book:


(and I have no idea why in the world I cannot post images all of a sudden-- so I dunno-- google the darn thing or look it up on Amazon!)


It's called The Divine Mentor.  It's written by a guy named Wayne Cordeiro.  He's a church planter and pastor of a Foursquare church in Honolulu who has devised this super simple, but really cool plan for staying in God's Word and "feeding yourself."  Now, I'm only roughly halfway through the book, so I am still entitled to change my mind later on (I'm a woman, come on I can do that!), but from what I've read so far, I'd like to buy up a big case of these things and pass them around.  I absolutely love that their whole church and people all over the place following this plan could be reading from the same passages every day... just all that God-breathing everywhere... coupled with people listening and acting... could be a very powerful thing.


The basic method is S.O.A.P.-- appx. 40min per day... written down in a journal...
S= Scripture-- You have a somewhat lengthy passage which you read, noting a smaller portion, perhaps a verse or part of a verse that jumps out at you.  Listening for what God wants you to see in the reading for that day.
O= Observation-- What you observe about the verse or verses in context... what story is it telling?
A= Application-- How does God want you to apply this scripture to your life?  What does He want you to do about what you just read and observed?
P= Prayer-- Write down a prayer.  It can be short and as simple as "Father, help me to apply what I just learned to my life today!"  


There are some more in depth things he suggests to do with the journaling... but you get the gist of it from the simple acronym.  


It's  a good good book...  The main point that Mr. Cordeiro makes is that you can choose between two teachers:  Consequence or Wisdom.  And the Bible is full of men and women who have learned (or not learned as the case may be) from both.  You have the opportunity to be mentored by them and their experiences by sitting at the feet of Jesus each day in your devotion time... soaking up these bits of story and storing them away in your heart as Wisdom for life.


Here is a small excerpt from the book, page 70-71 that really spoke to me:

     To achieve success, to be productive, to feel satisfied and fulfilled--to become an important part of the solution rather than a significant part of the problem--we must practice the same regimen, day in and day out.

     Daily devotions.

     When you miss your devotions one day, you notice.  When you miss them two days, your spouse and kids notice.  And when you miss them three days, the world notices.

     When you and I skip our "scales," in no time at all we start falling back on worldly knowledge and wisdom.  We may not even realize that's what we're doing, but it's almost inevitable.  

     Furthermore, we get spiritually weak.  If we go without food for several days, how do we start to feel and act?  We get cranky, suffer headaches, become abnormally edgy.  Starvation causes us to make chaotic choices.  Every action is imbalance; every motive skewed.  Neglecting to feed our spirit and ignoring the hunger of our soul causes spiritual weakness; this results in desperate decisions and stinking thinking!

     A starved soul and a famished heart will find you in a party... a pity party.  The surroundings?  A pitiful dump.

     Regularly and consistently practicing our scales will embolden us to climb out of the landfill and exchange our odorous clothes for a fragrant wisdom that will mentor us away from the slippery slopes that snared us in the first place.

I'm looking forward to putting what I read into practice.  I have had some trouble "feeding myself" as of late.  For me, physical illness is a huge stumbling block and fatigue from sickness makes me mentally lazy and apathetic.  I'm going to settle on a time every day that will work for me and stick with it.  I'm more tired of giving up than I am just tired, so that's a good sign I think!  I'm really excited to finish this book and will try to fill you in on any pertinent details, but so far, I think you'd be well served to just go ahead and buy the book and read it yourself!