Remembering

How are you doing with this week's homework?  There's a LOT of writing!  However, I pray that you are seeing GOD's hand at work throughout your life as you remember.  As I did day 4 today, Beth asked us to read through Psalm 106 and write out the cycle of the Israelites...This is what I came up with:  Praise GOD for His marvelous works, forget about them, rebel/fall into sin, calamity/destruction, remember GOD's marvelous works, cry out to GOD, GOD delivers (again), Praise GOD...(repeat)  Then she asked us to write out our own cycle of remembering/forgetting, and this hit me hard.  I know a lot of Bible and I know that many, many times the Israelites were just dummies.  They kept forgetting and going back to their old ways even when GOD had just done something miraculous in their midst.  But now, as I was challenged to look at my life in this light, I see that I do the same thing.  GOD comes to my rescue and reveals Himself to me, so I praise Him.  But then time goes on and I forget.  I allow myself to fall into old habits and then I find myself back in old pits that I had been rescued from.  So I remember GOD and His power and I cry out to Him and He rescues (again) and I praise Him...So I am not so unlike the Israelites.  I will be kinder to them in the future.  :) 

But I am thankful for this study and the "reminder" that GOD has been faithful, is faithful, & will always be faithful.  This is comforting to me because seeing my cycle of fickleness, I rely on Malachi 3.6 where GOD promises "I the LORD do not change."

Scripture Blessings

Well Ladies, I hope you're having a great week & that you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day.  I feel bad that I have not been blogging/updating like wanted to.  This week has not been about being behind, but being SO involved in the bible study/homework.  I hope that you are doing the work...even if you're behind...keep going, it's REALLY good. I've talked to a couple of you in person about the "blessing others with scripture prayers" concept & how it is really speaking in your lives.  I agree.  For me, I'm realizing that even though I love these people in my life & want GOD's best for them, sometimes my prayers are just repeated dribble instead of praying for them the focused Word of GOD.  So I've got my index cards out & I'm searching me some scripture!  :)

Well, I pray that wherever you are in the study, that GOD is speaking to you.  

So, there is some great discussion/questions being posted in the facebook page this week!  It's awesome!  So sorry that I haven't posted this week...yet, but these posts were so good I wanted to make sure that our non-facebook friends could read them & comment.  Can't wait to see you all tomorrow night & hear about how GOD is working in your lives.  :)

Paula Blair:  Hey Girls, Hope you are having a great week. Beth's teaching on what I can ask for vs. what I can claim is changing my prayer life and changing me. I am sad to admit that I am still so stinkin' carnal. I catch myself asking for things and for circumstances to go my way. In the last week, I have purposefully begun to ask for internal things, i.e. new levels insight of who God is, the hope to which he has called me/us, and revelation as to the power at work in me/us. What about you? What's God speaking to you?

Jennifer Perron:   I agree with you, Paula....I ask for things to go my way, as well. And if we are walking with God and communicating with Him all the time, hopefully, we are looking to please God in what we do, so it works. When I think about it - are we just supposed to ask "God's Will" on everything and leave it at that? I mean, that's should be ultimately what we are striving for anyway, right? Is that ultimate faith then? - Believing without knowing or seeing? Or should we pray about things specifically and then ask that those requests are the will of God? Anyone else? Thoughts?

Lisa Heaton:  Ask specifically for sure!  The closer we get to Him, the more what we ask for is His will.  Once He tinkers around in your heart, your will comes more in line with His.  As I said in my post above, I ask very specifically.  With that prayer though, I know I am a smaller part of a bigger whole.  So what I ask for may not be in line with the big picture, and it also may not be in line with what He wants for me or even what I am ready for.  That is my faith...that He alone knows. Remind me to tell you my Blaze story.  I will tomorrow night.  One more thought as I re-read Paula's post. Where she says, " I have purposefully begun to ask for internal things," that is God's will. That's just a given. What she asked for this week is God's will, so she can believe with absolute certainty that He will answer.

Jennifer Perron:

Me (in a tizzy) : God, can I ask you something?

GOD: Sure.

Me: Promise you won't get mad?
... ... ...
GOD: I promise.

Me (frustrated): Why did you let so much stuff happen to me today?

... GOD: What do you mean?

Me: Well I woke up late,

GOD: Yes

Me: My car took forever to start,

GOD: Okay....

Me (growling): At lunch, they made my sandwich wrong and I had to wait

GOD: Hmmmm..

Me: On the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call

GOD: All right

Me (loudly): And to top it all off, when I got home, I just wanted to
soak my feet in my foot massager and relax, but it wouldn't work.
Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?

GOD: Well let me see..... the death angel was at your bed this morning
and I had to send one of the other angels to battle him for your life.
I let you sleep through that.

Me (humbled): Oh...

GOD: I didn't let your car start because there was a drunk driver on
your route that might have hit you if you were on the road

Me (ashamed): ............

GOD: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick and I didn't
want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn't afford to miss
work

Me (embarrassed): Oh.....

GOD: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going
to give a false witness about what you said on that call, I didn't even
let you talk to them so you would be covered

Me (softly): I see God

GOD: Oh and that foot massager, it had a short that was going to throw
out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn't think you wanted to
be in the dark.

Me: I'm sorry God.

GOD: Don't be sorry, just learn to trust me.........in all things, the
good and the bad

Me: I WILL trust you God

GOD: And don't doubt that my plan for your day is always better than
your plan

Me: I won't God. And let me just tell you God, thank you for everything
today.

GOD: You're welcome child. It was just another day being your God and I
love looking after my children..

Lisa Heaton:  Currently, I am believing God for something big. For the first time ever, I am simply asking without doubt. What I know is this, if He says yes, then woo hoo. If he says no, I firmly believe then that it is not what is best for me right now. For me, the deepest faith is faith in Him even if I don't get my way. I love you all tremendously and am so glad to be on this journey together. I have done this study before, and as today lesson made me recall, then there was still that "later" ahead of me. I was waiting. This time, I believe the time may be now.

 

Healing

I don't know about y'all, but this week is where it gets hard for me - today (day 3) especially.  I lost my mom to breast cancer about 9 1/2 years ago.  She was a "believing GOD" kind of woman.  And we prayed & believed GOD for miraculous healing...but her healing did not come on this earth.  Over these many years since, I'm learning that in GOD's sovereignty, I'm not going to always understand why he heals some & not others.  But it's a hard truth to swallow when someone you love is the "others not healed".  I do know that my mom agreed whole-heartedly with Paul when he said "to live is Christ and to die is gain."  But I still struggle with this aspect of my faith - believing that GOD can heal, even though HE might not.  

How are you doing this week?  What is GOD teaching you or doing in your life?

Rediscovering GOD

So this week we're learning or re-learning who GOD is as our foundational statement of faith:  "GOD is who He says He is."  Well there's a CD in my car right now by a group called Downhere.  It's pretty fabulous & inspiring, but even after listening to it for quite a while, a song I hadn't really noticed before became almost an anthem for me this week.  It's titled Let Me Rediscover You.  I do think that's what I'm doing on this faith journey right now.  Rediscovering who my GOD is.  How BIG & AWESOME & LOVING & FAITHFUL He is.  So I wanted to share the lyrics with you all.  Can't wait to see you tomorrow night! 

Let Me Rediscover You - Downhere

Your Spirit hovers, over my waters
Your love burns longer than the sun.
The skies of thunder, echo Your wonder
Your praises can't be over-sung.
The whole universe is witness
to only a part of what You've done.

Let me rediscover You
And breathe in my Your life anew
Tell me of the GOD I never knew
Let me rediscover You.

You see my weakness, my pride, my blindness
You wield Your power through them all
Of all your mysteries, still,
The greatest to me is that You're faithful when I fall.
How can I say I know You
When what I know is still so small.

Let me cry "Holy, Holy, Holy"
Let me awaken to Your majesty
And see a glimmer of Your glory
Let me abide in You

Let me rediscover You
And by Your grace I'll follow through
Reveal to me the GOD I thought I knew
Let me rediscover You.

Something Cool...at least to me

So today I did day 4 & Beth encouraged me forcefully (with written words) to read Romans 4.  So I did.  As I went through it, a verse JUMPED off the page at me - verse 18. Beth doesn't spend time on it, but I found it profound.  Verse 18 says (HCSB) "Against hope, with hope he believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what had been spoken:  So will your descendants be."  Did you see that?  It almost doesn't make sense:  "Against hope, with hope he believed..."  As I understand it (and I am NOT an expert), it seems to say "Even in a state of hopelessness, he had the hope to believe."  WHY?  HOW?  Because of what GOD had already spoken to him.  Later in verses 20 & 21, we're given more information, "He did not waver in unbelief at God's promise, but was strengthened in his faith convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform."  So my 'sum up' of all of that is:  God told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations & Abraham believed Him, fully convinced that GOD would do what He said - against hope.  I'm still not grasping this 100%, but it's pretty cool!  What are your thoughts on this or ANYTHING else that God is showing you in this study this week?

Your Book

I was so thrilled to see all of you last night in class.  I hope that you've started your journey through this study and are enjoying your time with GOD. 

I wanted to let you know, in case you haven't noticed, that there is a book mark & several memory verses on the back page of your book.  The bookmark has the 5 Statement Pledge of Faith & then there are memory verses for each week. Hopefully these will be helpful tools for you. 

This week's verse is:  Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."