Bible Study

Bible Study-it's the thing I do, the thing I am very passionate about. This week I asked myself a question…Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I passionate about it?

The main reason for me is that I believe the Bible is God's Word and it is the primary way He speaks to me. As a believer, I want to know all about God and how He desires for me to live my life. 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 says:

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (NIV)

I believe this is the truth. Do you? Do you study the Bible? If so, why do you study it? Please share.

Despair or Discipline

Do you remember what it was like when you were discplined as a kid? I do. I am the middle child, the overachiever and the baby girl in my family. When I got into trouble, it was easy to pout, fake cry or somehow manipulate my way out of punishment...sometimes! The point is I failed to reap the benefits of the discipline. I spent my time despairing over what I couldn't have or do and finding a way out.

Today many of us are facing our own discplines or challenges. Some of them major, some of them minor. The question is do we see the benefits of the discipline or are we just despairing? God's word has amazing promises for those who are trained by His discipline. Last week I "unpacked" Hebrews 12:10-11 in my Bible study. (I recently heard or read the phrase "unpack the verse". It's not mine, but I loved the visual so I'm borrowing it!!) Here's what the verse says:

"Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." NIV

God's discipline according to these verses is:

• for our good
• to share in His holiness
• to produce a harvest of righteousness
• to produce peace

As Christians, I believe we would all say we want these things. We also probably agree with verse 11 that discipline is not pleasant and sometimes is painful. The challenge for us is to not seep into despair but to be trained by the discipline.

Take some time to identify where God may be discplining you. Determine to not be despairing, but rather focused on the goodness, holiness, righteousness and peace of God that will come as you are trained by Him. Your faith will be stronger.

Interrupted!

Check this out...a new bible study!

Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith, by Jen Hatmaker, is a new short-term Bible study from Threads.

If you go over to All Access you can win a free copy.

I'm going to check it out myself. Love me some Bible study.

The Dark

I love driving down country roads and reading all the local church signs. Recently I came across one that has stayed on my mind. Probably because it spoke directly to the Bible study I’m currently doing, Walking by Faith by Jennifer Rothschild. Here's a picture.

The question I keep coming back to is this…can this be said of me? Do I really want to walk with God in the dark? When I’m not sure what is happening in my life or what the next step is for me, does my life say “I’d rather walk with God in this?” Do my actions, attitude and/or speech tell others I’m walking with God? Or do they say I’d really rather have some “light” on this situation? Seriously, I don’t want to walk around my own house in the dark and I know where everything is!

In this past week’s lesson, Jennifer had us look at one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It’s the story of Peter walking on the water with Jesus. You can read about it in Matthew 14:22-33. Often we hear this story used to illustrate a lack of faith, or what happens when we take our eyes off of God and focus on the storms of life. For me there was another lesson this week.
Peter asks Jesus, if it’s Him to bid him come. Peter doesn’t just want to go with any cool person who happens to walk on water. He wants to be with Jesus! After Peter gets scared and starts to sink, the passage says Jesus reaches out his hand to Peter. The next verses say they get back in the boat and the winds die down. I’m thinking Jesus walked (on the water) back to the boat with Peter. It was dark; the storm was still happening; but Jesus didn’t leave Peter.

No doubt I am a little biased toward Peter. My life is full of spontaneous moments that have gotten me into trouble or at least a slap on the hand much like we read of Peter! I can’t help but think that what if in the “dark” instead of asking God to shed light, I ask God if it’s Him, let me come to Him, let me walk with Him. My focus is no longer on me, but on the One who is directing my life. The One who made me, knows me, and watches out for me. Jesus is the One who knows where I might stub my toe, walk into a wall or fall flat on my face. When my focus is on the One, the dark is not so scary.

Walks

This week my Gather and Grow group started our next Bible Study. We're working through Jennifer Rothschild's study called Walking by Faith: Lessons I Learned in the Dark. For our "ice breaker" question we asked each lady to tell us about a favorite place they've walked or enjoy walking in. The responses covered everything from walking down the isle to get married, to walking in parks and enjoying God's creation, to the walk they made to receive Christ. I talked about a walk I took with my family last summer to see Black Beach in Maui.

Black Beach is a stop on the "Road to Hana" drive in Maui. You pull into this park area at the top of a mountain and then you take a pretty steep walk down to the actual beach. We took a picnic and ate some lunch before tackling the walk that day. But once we got down to the surf, it was amazing and so worth the trek. It's called "Black Beach" because the surf and beach side are full of black rocks, actually lava rocks. The rocks that are on the beach front are jagged and tough on your feet. But once you reach the edge of the water, the rocks are smoother and smaller. They've been tossed in the ocean enough to wear off the rough edges. Your feet feel like they're getting a constant massage...it's awesome! Defintiely one of my favorite memories from our vacation.

After I left the study this week, I couldn't help but think about how I almost missed this experience. The walk seemed so far and steep. The children might fall. We had so much more to see. The rocks on the beach front were killing our feet. All these things that I could see could have kept me from an amazing experience. All these things that I could see could have kept me from an amazing display of God's creation. I was almost blinded by my own sight.

God's word teaches us that we live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) Today be encouraged. Don't let what you see keep you from experiencing God's blessings.

Here are just a few of our pics from that day. Enjoy.

Gripped by His Glory

Several of the churches in our area are currently doing a series called "United". It is so encouraging to know that I can walk in the door of any of these churches and feel at home; a part of God's kingdom united by His glory. During the service this week, Mike, our pastor, talked about the fact that God has a grip on us and He never lets go. Sometimes we walk away from that, but God never lets us go.

At the end of the service, Chris Boggess came up and said something that has really resonated with me this week. Chris reminded us at the end of the service that what connects us as a kingdom of believers is not the "thing" we walk away from God to do, but the "grip" of God that never lets us go. It's all about God and His glory not our story.

This week I met with a group of women who go to different churches, who have different spheres of influence, who have different calls to ministry. The journeys we are on reach far and wide. The sweetest thing was knowing that we are connected by God's glory-the desire to make Him known wherever we are. That God would allow us to have an impact in His kingdom is a testament to His grace and mercy-not our stories.

I needed the reminder-thank you Jesus.

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10

Storms

How do you respond to storms, specifically the storms that come in your life? You know the things that happen and cause us to fret, to worry, to act differently than we normally would. Do you work harder, keep longer hours? Do you stop eating or like me eat way too much? Do you lose sleep or sleep more than usual? Or maybe you try to calm the storm by fixing everything? But what if God's plan is for you to weather the storm? What if He wants to take you through it? Maybe you come out a little battered, a little bruised, but very much aware of who your Deliverer is.

This morning I read Acts 27 during my quiet time. It's about a real live weather storm, a northeaster that causes a shipwreck. The Apostle Paul is a prisoner on the ship and for the most part the captain nor the crew will listen to him. As they grow more and more fearful in the storm, the crew begins to dump cargo and even the ship's gear. In verses 21-26, Paul tells them of God's promise to save them, all of them, and to deliver Paul to stand before Caesar. Oh and by the way, God also says they'll be shipwrecked on an island!

In verses 30 and 31, the sailors decide to try and leave the ship on the lifeboats. But Paul reminds them of God's promise; they'll be saved only if they stay on the ship...yeah the one that's going to be shipwrecked! So they cut the lifeboats loose. In the next few verses, Paul encourages the crew to eat. They have been so worried that they haven't eaten in two weeks. Again Paul reminds them that not one of them will perish. Then it happens; shipwreck. They hit a sandbar and the waves and wind begin to break apart their vessel. The storm was relentless. How would they survive? In verses 40 & 41, the crew was told to jump over and swim to shore. Those that couldn't swim hung on to pieces of the ship until they could be helped to land. Everyone survived, just as God promised they would.

I can't help but think that it's a good thing they ate! Had they not, they would've been too weak to make it to shore. What if they had gotten in the lifeboats? If the storm was bad enough to rip apart the vessel, what would it have done to the lifeboats? Today this makes me want to choose to respond differently to life's storms. I want to remain anchored to God's promises and to be ready for my deliverance even if it means swimming through the storm. What about you? I'd love to hear how you weather the storms of life with God?

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7