Great Bible Study plus great friends plus cherry life savers

I love the Women's Bible Study at my church.  I love the learning and the sharing and the encouragement  and the accountability and the vulnerability and those are just a few of the things I love!  This year in particular has been really rich.  The study has been spot on for me. One thing we differently was after we shared in our large group about the homework we did, we broke down into small groups to pray and OH. MY. WORD.   I have a particular rough spot in my life at this point in time and lo and behold a friend that God put in my small prayer group has that too!!!!  We prayed and cried and prayed some more.  Another lady in our small prayer group said that it made her more aware that that particular rough spot could even exist and she is taking measures in her life to smooth it out.

One of the last assignments of the book was to make a commitment to have a quiet time for 30 days.  I have a hit or miss quiet time.  My pledge to myself and God was to truly meditate on my verses for 2013.  I have 4 more verses to memorize chapter 8 of Romans.  I will put another plug in for the Scripture Typer.  It has helped me with my memorization tremendously!!  As I was reviewing my verses with Carl here are his observations on verses 33, 34, and 35-

verse 33-Who shall bring any charges against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
verse 34-Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right of God,who- indeed is interceding for us.
verse 35-Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 

Carl shared that these verses are legal terms.  Who shall bring charges?  Who can condemn? Who shall send you away?  If you are a believer, no one!!!  What Good News that is!!!

As I memorize scripture, I picture in my mind a cherry life saver that I savor and prolong as I enjoy it.  I try to do the same with the verses that I am learning, letting them soak down into my brain and heart.  Let the above verse soak into your brain and heart for a minute.

  I am looking forward to all that I will learn in my 30 days of quiet times.  Stay tuned...

Our fall Bible Study book.  Highly recommend!

Foolish Galatians, Foolish Ellen

Carl is teaching Sunday School this semester on the book of Galatians. I have learned so much.

- Many of the same issues brought up in Galatians are in Romans
- The Law is like a mirror, it shows us how things are but also like a mirror, it can't fix anything.  If you look in the mirror and your hair is a mess, the mirror can't fix your hair!
-my inheritance doesn't start when I die, it started at redemption
-chapter 4 vs19- Christ is formed in me- this shows the passiveness of salvation
-Paul's conversion was amazing, Isaac's birth was supernatural and my conversion and yours equals the amazing, supernaturalness of both those events.  Every conversion is a wonderful gift!  Marvel in that today!

Above is a new Bible that my friend, LindaG recommended.  I have enjoyed the layout and comments that I have read so far.

Below is Gpapa with Mr Wonderful and boy are they having some kind of conversation.  I hope Atticus always listens to Gpapa like this.  On a side note, isn't that a cute little fat baby hand!

do you forget?

The Bible Study that my church has done this fall and will finish in the spring is Maximum Impact by Wayne A, Mack. It is a study on I Corinthians 13.  Honestly, it is not my favorite book that we have studied but the discussion that we have during our small groups has been some of the best ever.

We start our study with a lecture on the topic and then we discuss the questions from that chapter in the book.

Yesterday the lecture was given by Carrie.  It was on the topics of 'Love is not provoked' and 'Love keeps no record of wrongs'.  Outstanding.  She shared many wonderful things but the one that I have been pondering is that-if love keeps no record of wrongs and we should forgive, do we forget?  Her thoughts were, that no we don't.  And her answer to our tendency to keep reminding ourselves of the wrongs done to us is to keep remembering all that Jesus has done for us.  Her tag line was 'to forget, keep remembering'.  I love that.  I need that. It made me think of putting on the full armor of God from Ephesians 6:10-20.  I need the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace on my feet, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of truth.  Her talk made me realize that but putting on the armor of God, it will protected me from all the 'wrong remembering' that satan wants me to do.

Get yourselves ready for the day.

Grab your Sword.  

Do you feel like Tinkerbell today???

I have been trying to read a chapter in the book of Proverbs every day. Trying is the key word here.

I had the best time reading chapter 21. I was struck with verse 3 To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

What does 'doing' righteousness and justice mean???

I asked Carl and he said that it meant doing what is right and loving it when right things are done. Cool.

Later in chapter 21 verse 21 says Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness and honor. Ok, so now I not only need to do what is right I need to pursue doing what is right and now let's add kindness in there too! Wow! I liked that.

I so can do this- how soon I forgot Proverbs 16:18 which I commonly refered to to my children as Mr Pride and Mr Fall!

I somewhat pictured myself as a Biblical Tinkerbell flying through life sprinkling rightness and kindness everywhere I go.

And then I left the house...

First stop was the library, they had two books for me to pick up. They must have had two books for all of Little Rock to pick up. I have never seen so many vehicles there. With my back situation I can only walk or stand for about 15 or 20 minutes so I have to have life situations planned out that I can do. There are two handicapped parking places at my library. Both were filled. I drove around abit and one came open. I pulled up just close enough to let the other person out but make my intention known that I wanted that spot. The big ole honking truck that was parked there pulled out and before I could get my foot off the brake and onto the gas a car came out of nowhere and got the spot. I was stunned! And my first thought was to block them in, no maybe key their car----Hellooo, where was the Biblical Tinkerbell??? She was no where to be found.

I parked as close as I could, walked in, didn't look at any other books, checked mine out and then got back to my van. I made it just fine. Next stop, Kroger

I need to add here that Robert is with me and we are headed down to eat lunch with Marisa.

Back to Kroger... Heading for a handicap parking spot that was empty and a BIG SUV comes up the lane the WRONG WAY and turns on a dime and gets the handicap spot. What in the world!?! Robert says "I have never seen anything like that before" I told him I was ready to key their car too! Then I heard the fluttering of the Tinkerbell wings- wow, now I am 2 for 2. We found another spot, went in to Kroger, got our stuff and headed off.

We got to the restaurant to meet Marisa with no parking issues. Over lunch I told Marisa and Robert about my quiet time and what I had learned and then what had happened so far in my day. Robert with great alarm said " Is stuff that this going to happen to you all day? You need to go home!" I just laughed.

We did come home. I, with a greater understanding that we are to be spreading rightness and kindness all around but not in my power but only in His power because when I do it and you don't respond the way I think you should, well, things don't go well.

Be Careful

Wow! Read this one sitting down and then again on your knees

your eyes, dog bones and humility

Here are some thoughts from Sunday School and Bible Study from the past few weeks. They are not mine but from the teachers that God has blest me with. May they be embryonic thoughts that take root and grow our understanding of who God is and who He wants us to be.

+ Ps 3:3 But you , O Lord, are a shield about me. What does a shield do? It takes the blows that the soldier holding it should have taken. It receives the punishment that I or the soldier should be receiving. This verse is picture of Christ on the cross. He received the punishment for my sins that I should have received.

+ When we under go a season of suffering, we have a tendency to retreat and there is a time for that but in Ps 3, David shows us that we do need to get our mind back 'outward looking'. In the first part of the Psalm David is looking at himself and his problems and by the end he is looking to God and what God is going to do. This should be a pattern for us too.

+ Most folks want to find the sin that is behind the reason for their suffering, but some suffering is just so we will be obedient and for God's glory, ie Job's suffering. This also makes me this of the Andrew Peterson song The Queen of Iowa. She has Aids as a result of a rape 20 years ago. She was engaged to be married at the time. Her fiance married her and she is now bed ridden on a sofa in Iowa. She loves Andrew Peterson's music and her husband asked if he would do a home show for her. She, for the most part, cannot speak because of the brain cancer that she has. Andrew came with one other band member. They had to put on hospital clothes to protect her. She sang or mouthed his songs with him. She some how communicated that she had something to say to Andrew, he bent low to her and she said "We serve an awesome God." Andrew was greatly humbled by her faith. If you need a wonderful CD, order an Andrew Peterson one.

+Matthew 5 3-5 Getting the log and the speck out of all the eyes. If you have a splinter in your hand, you can get it out for the most part by yourself, but if you have something in your eye, you approach it very carefully, often times calling the doctor who specializes in eyes. When we are given the exhortation to approach our brothers as we would our eyes we are to remember this. Be very careful with your eyes and your brothers.

+ when we are right with God we are hard on ourselves and easy on others, when we are not right with God we are easy on ourselves and hard on others.

+ Matt 8. An old Jewish prayer was Thank you God for not making me a Gentile, a slave or a woman. In Matt 8 that is exactly who Jesus heals, mmmmm I wonder if He was trying to get a point across.

+ Also from Matt 8, would my faith cause Jesus to marvel?

+ God is always working on my humility. I should see situations from this view point and embrace it and know that God is working in my life and not get my feelings hurt so often.

+ Spiritual Gifts are given for the community. We are just stewards of them, they are God's Gifts.

+ we need to be mentally tough as we pray, we should be as a dog on a bone

+Matt 6 The Lord's Prayer. Should it be changed to The Children's Prayer? Only the children of God can pray this.

I hope you are blest by some of these as I have been.

I am so thankful for mercy!

Blessed are the poor in spirit...

Blessed are those who mourn...

Blessed are the meek...

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...

Can you finish those? Nancy started our study with this test. I was humbled.

This week are study was Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.

Again I learned how much I didn't know. When I think of mercy, I think of showing mercy by taking a meal to a family in need or handing a hymnal to a newcomer to church or calling a friend when I know they are having a hard time. I didn't, until the study, think that showing forgiveness was a facet of mercy.

John MacArthur said that Mercy is meeting people's needs. It is not simply feeling compassion but showing compassion; not only sympathizing but also giving a helping hand. Mercy is giving food to the hungry, comfort to the bereaved, love to the rejected, forgiveness to the offender, and companionship to the lonely. It is ...one of the loveliest and noblest of all virtues.

We live in a needy world and we can show the needy and hurting mercy.

The merciful are those who...

respond to human need

move among the suffering

give what they have to help those who have not.

Those who show mercy know the joy of...

giving

sharing

sacrificing .

We are able to extend mercy because we know the joy of receiving mercy ourselves from our Heavenly Father.

We need Jesus' eyes to see all the hurting around us.

Abraham showed mercy to Lot by going to rescuing him after Lot got to pick where he lived.

Joseph showed mercy to his brothers after they sold him into slavery.

David showed mercy to Saul by not murdering him.

The Good Samaritan showed mercy by taking care of the Jewish traveler.

mercy is not about me

we should show mercy everywhere

mercy to men doesn't mean mercy from men

mercy to men brings mercy from God

there are misunderstandings about mercy: people believe that if they show mercy then people will show them mercy- sometime this happens but many times not, also people believe that if you show deeds of mercy then God will show mercy to you- God is not dependent on you and your behavior for Him to show mercy to you.

Life is a process so we will be able to show mercy our whole lives. We are being sanctified through the Holy Spirit.

Corrie ten Boom said " Why should we hold on to the sins of others while our own sins have been cast into the depths of the sea? We have to pattern the scope of our own forgiveness upon God's. We have been forgiven much...we have to declare that same forgiveness to others."

In our small groups we studied Matthew 18:21-35. This is the story of the servant who asked for forgiveness for a GREAT debt and had it forgiven and then turned around and wouldn't forgive a very small debt.

I googled what the amounts that were forgiven. 10, 000 talents and 100 denarii

10,000 talents is 150,00 years wages- today that would be 2 billion, 2 hundred fifty million

100 denarii is one day of wages- lets say 64 dollars is you make 8 dollars an hour. Wow! I was so stuck by my sin against God is so large and what folks do to me is so small.

We had to answer questions like What was the master willing to lose? not only a huge debt but also his reputation- why wouldn't everyone now ask to have their debt forgiven?

How did the servant reveal his true attitude by his behavior? He felt he was owed forgiveness or either he didn't see the forgiveness

Four weeks ago when I first wrote about Bible Study, I closed my post by asking God to gently show me my sin. I am so thankful for His gentleness.

This week I was wronged. I mean it was in a situation where others noticed the offense and were as stunned as I was. I was so mad! How dare this person?!? and then I did my lesson. How can I hold a grudge? Who am I in the Bible story? I was so convicted. I must forgive and do over and over and over.

Bible Study week 4

This week in Bible Study LindaS taught.

We studied Matthew 5:6

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled."

What does it mean to hunger and thirst? It is an urgent need, we need to meet the need and when we wake up in the morning we will have the same need.

What are you hungry for? success, marriage, affirmation, or relief from a bad situation

What are we not to hunger for? 1) happiness- this is a by product. 2) experiences - like spiritual highs you get when you go on a retreat.

J. I. Packer said "To hunger and thirst after righteousness is nothing but the longing to be positively holy"

C. S. Lewis said "How little people know who think holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing it is irresistible"

Holiness is the desire to demonstrate the fruits of the spirits in my actions, the desire to know God, longing to conform to God's will and living a life of repentance

We can experience the hungry by being aware of our need as it is revealed by the Bible and prayer.

John Piper says that the Gospel is not a 'Help Wanted' sign but a 'Help Given' sign. We are in trouble all the time! We need to see it and call on Him more. We get the joy and He gets the Glory.

LindaS asked a few ladies to read verses. Liz got Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known." Liz said that her mama told her this verse was God's phone number. I like that.

We need to see ourselves as starving and we need to see that on a daily basis.

The study as usual was just wonderful.

One Tuesday in college and career Bible Study, Darrell pointed out that the cherubim in Isaiah 6:3 are not saying Immutable, Immutable, Immutable or Omnipresent, Omnipresent, Omnipresent but only Holy, Holy, Holy. Wow, that really made an impact on me and then hearing about it again from LindaS in this Bible Study made me sit up and take notice

He who is already down, cannot fall

The Bible Study lecture this week was taught by KatieM. The topic was meekness.

Katie taught us that as we study The Beatitudes by John Stott we must remember that these verses build on each other. As we are poor in spirit, we will mourn our sins. As we mourn our sins then we will be meek in our dealings with others.

We started our study with the dictionary definition of meek. It is 1) humbly patient or docile, as under provocation of others. 2) overly submissive or compliant; spiritless ; tame. 3) obsolete; gentle ; kind.

What does our society exalt? Power, self assurance, aggressiveness, and proud, self promoters. Meekness is synonymous with weakness, cowardice, shyness and limpness.

GK Chesterton said "What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert- himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt -the Divine Reason...We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table" GK Chesterton died in 1936. What would he think today?

A Biblical definition of meekness is one that begins and ends with God. You can't say 'Today I am going to be meek'

A meek person:

Trusts God-Psalm 37:3

Commits her way to God-Psalm 37:5

Waits for God-Psalm 37:7a and I Peter 5:7-6

Doesn't fret over the wicked- Psalm 37:7b and Psalm 147:6

Has power to absorb adversity and criticism without lashing back- Numbers 12:1-9

Is teachable and slow to anger Psalm 25:9

Handles conflict with love and speaks with a deep awareness that she is fallible and susceptible to sin and with her utter dependence on the grace of God- II Timothy 2:23-25

Is bold to assert God's rule and proclaim God's word- Proverbs 28:1

A Biblical definition of meekness is synonymous with wisdom.

Two men in the Bible are called meek. Jesus and Moses. The Numbers 12 passage tells about Moses and his meekness

The Ultimate Example is Christ

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls Matthew 11:29

NOW There is a promise with this beatitude - They shall inherit the earth. blessings now and in the future. A person that is truly meek is satisfied and content. The meek hope in what is to come- This gives them strength to continue in meekness when our natural inclination is to defend ourselves or become angry.

FUTURE The meek don't need the vain pleasures of one-up-manship, because God has already made them heirs of the world

After Katie lectured we broke up into our groups. Sonya led our group. I was struck with the study we did from Psalm 37. What impacted me was that three times in that Psalm, verses 1, 7, and 8 we are commanded to FRET NOT. This is not a suggestion but we are commanded. Wow. I hate to admit it but I enjoy fretting.

Thanks KatieM, God really spoke to me through your teaching.

Bible Study

I went to the Women's Bible study today. I missed last week as I was out of town. Our study is by John Stott, The Beatitudes- Developing Spiritual Character.

Today Clare taught and it was amazing. She taught on Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. John Stott teaches that this mourning is the mourning we should feel about our sin.

Some thoughts from Clare's lecture

Sin from God's perspective= separation, death, costly, final judgement and universal. There are no 'respectable sins'.

The story of the Bible is about sin- Genesis is the entrance of sin and Revelation is the eradication of sin.

The mission of Christ is dealing with sin. John 1:29 "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

Sin always leads to death-physical death, death of relationships, death of enjoyment of the world as God created it, sin destroys everything and it is 100% fatal.

Darwin Jordan said that the person you are in the world has to do with how you deal with sin.

John Piper said that sin is powerfully and suicidally appealing.

Is there any hope?

Indeed!

We need a helpless dependence on Christ and absolute confidence in the work of Christ. II Corinthians 5:17 says Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

David is known as a man after God's own heart. His sin with Bathsheba led to many deaths of many kinds- her husband Uriah, their baby, Amnon raped Tamar, Absalom killed Amnon and on and on and on.

But David mourned his sin Ps 32 and Ps 51 show us this.

Clare challenged us to really ponder the question- Do I really believe that sin causes death? Am I appalled at my sin? Do I understand the cost of my sin?

I was so convicted. I have never mourned my sin to the depth that they need to be mourned. Wow, My prayer this week is for God to show me my sin (gently please, Lord) and for me to own it and not blameshift or justify it or excuse it. I'll be on my knees lots this week.

Interesting

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. Luke 2:19.

Today in Bible Study, our teacher, Linda, said that the word 'ponder' comes from the word pound. She said that the first definition for ponder is: to weigh and the next is: to weigh in the mind.

Bible Study

We did the third chapter in our Bible study book- The Friendships of Women- The Darker Side of Being Crazy-Glued. It was facinating.

Day 1 We talked about the "God shaped vacuum" that Pascal said that each of us has. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Day 2 From I Kings 11 1-6 , how God commanded us to not marry those with other gods because they will pull our hearts away and what all Solomon did. In verse 6 it even says that Solomon did evil in the sight in the Lord. We looked at Ecclesiates and all that Solomon turned to to fill the "eternity" that was in his heart. He built houses, vineyards, gardens, pools, great herds, silver, singers- he kept his heart from no pleasure. He found all was vanity. Pat's comment on that was that it is hard to finish well.

Day 3 talks about one of the major 'Terrors' of women is isolation. Our sense of worth is grounded in the ability to make and maintain relationships.

Day4 was Overcoming Territorial Tendencies. Ps 119 : 32 says I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. Women tend to have their circle of friends and don't like to include others. When we give God our expectations, He enlarges our hearts and we can take in others.

One other comment that I thought was fascinating was ' hurt people, hurt people'.

I was really challendged with this study to really guard my heart, seek to include other, and reach out to others.

After the study our wonderful leader, Linda, put us in groups of 4/5 to go to lunch. We were to talk about what was the best thing about the stage we are in our lives and the worst. Linda placed us in two groups of younger and older. I was in the older group! She had some from each group in our small lunch groups. I ate with Liz, Anne, Elena, and Pat. We all decided that the best things about our place in life is also the worst. For those with no one at home that have time , they have to be wise with all their time. For those with small children as much as they love it, it is very hard. We had lots of laughs and I felt that lots was accomplished with this lunch.

Fall Bible Study

We are studying The Friendships of Women Bible Study Guide by Dee Brestin. I read the book The Friendships of Women in 1990 when my friend Linda G. gave it to me. I really enjoyed it then and I am so glad to be reacquainted with it now. If you have not, I encourage you to read it.

Linda S. is our fearless leader again. She does a wonderful job of herder of this group of cats (not that we are catty which I know we all are but I mean we all go in different directions) into a study. She gently guides the discussion back on track when folks misunderstand where we are or go off on rabbit trails. Linda also has us praying, at the end, in groups of four, for two families a week in our church. That is so needed because I know of some deep pain of some close friends of mine and to know that they are being lifted up in prayer sure encourages me.

It is such an encouragement to gather together with this group of women.

Do you have a new song?

Bible Study on Thursday was fantastic. I was not able to do my lesson but went to hear the observations of my fellow soujourners. This study is set up a little different from Kathleen's Proverbs study. She begins each lesson with the Psalm you are to discuss. You are exhorted to read it throught several times including some 'out loud'. She then wants five observations. She has the lesson broken down into days . Some days have 5 questions and some only 2. The last day we are to reread the psalm again. I like that she has the Psalm written out for me. I can mark in my book the words or phrases that jump out at me or the thoughts that are mentioned several times.

This week we studied Psalm 33. Here are some thoughts from the study: In verse 3, Sing to him a new song- this phrase 'new song' is mentioned several times in scripture. Our teacher said that her interpretation of this was that we should see new things that God has done for us daily. Yes, we can harken back to what He has done for us in the past but we need 24 hour freshness of the newness that God is doing in our lives. We should have lots of 'new songs' to sing to Him.

In verse 6 He uses the breath of His mouth to make the host of heaven. What power He has that even His breath can create things. I can picture this from reading The Narnia books as Aslan created the world.

Verse 7 speaks of Him gathering the water. Who can even hold water and God can gather it

In verse 13 He sees all the children of man but in verse 18 His eye is on those who fear Him. We talked about how when your children are on a playground you see the whole group but your eye is on your own.

In verse 11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever but in verse 10 the LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. In this election season, it is great to be reminded of these great truths.

It was a wonderful study. I felt renewed.

Women's Bible Study

My church has a Bible Study for Women on Thursday mornings. I just love it. We share prayer requests and burdens and study the Word of God. Our teacher is LindaS. She is a saint. She keeps us going down the right path when sometimes it is like herding cats.

The study this semester is The Way of Psalms by Kathleen Nielson. We did Kathleen's study on Proverbs in the fall and it was so insightful. The author has been to our church to speak and I met her so I can call her Kathleen.

As an openning exercise we went around and shared our favorite Psalms. Wow! It was powerful. RuthMc says Ps 103 each night before she goes to sleep. She does it as a prayer and it goes something like this. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not His benefits, then she thanks God for all He has done for her.
Susanne says she likes Ps 8 because the chior sings an anthem which is taken from the words and is called Glory and Majesty. I love that song and didn't realize where it came from.
JanP has Ps 34:3 engraved in her wedding band as does her husband...Oh! Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together...how cool is that.

Later in the study Evelyn shared that in Ps 23 when it spoke of' the valley of the shadow of death' that that always scared her as a child but Becca spoke up and said that the way that verse was explained to her was if there is a shadow there is a light some where.

Sonja shared that her daddy died unexpectantly a few years ago at his farm. He was cleaning up some brush. He was by himself and they found him in a beautiful field by the creek. As she was getting ready to go to home her husband read her Ps 23. And they realized her daddy had had a Ps 23 experence. He was in a beautiful pasture and by some still waters. She said that that has brought her some much comfort.

I am looking forward to next weeks study!