God really spoke to me during Week Six -- what about you?
I loved how Beth encouraged us to think of loved ones and their needs and to pray specific Scriptures. For example, one couple that I prayed for needs God to answer prayers about the sale of their house, schooling for kids, etc. A couple of the verses that I am now praying for them are Psalm 119:133a ("Direct my footsteps according to your Word" and Isaiah 8:17, "I will wait for the Lord ... I will put my trust in Him.")
And I was reminded of the many times when I've prayed for things and later have been so grateful that God did not answer my prayers. For me this included houses that we did not buy, jobs that I didn't get, places that we didn't move to. God just knows so much better than we do! He has the big picture of our lives. Too often I'm caught in the "nows" of life.
I thought what Beth said about Jabez was really interesting--How "his mother had named him Jabez saying, 'I gave birth to him in pain'" (1 Chronicles 4:9).
What did you think about this paragraph that Beth wrote: "In the story of Jabez a blatant association occurs to me. In my opinion his mother made an idol of the pain associated with his birth. I wonder how many of us have also made an idol of our past pain. Not only did she bow down to it, she also inflicted the same sentence on Jabez--until one day when he decided maybe his God was bigger than his name. Bigger than his pain."
I've sure known people who have made idols of pain. And there have been times when I've done that myself--not good. Have you ever done that?
He is able,
Mary
http://www.marymaywrites.com/
http://grandconnection.blogspot.com/
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Week Five: Believing You Can Do All Things Through Christ
Wasn't this another great week of Bible Study! Beth looked at the lives of Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and Rahab.
"As we continue our walk through the Hall of Faith museum," Beth said, "the stories of flesh-and-blood mortals who believed God over what they saw and felt will convince us that we can do the same."
If you're like me, you may want to read that last sentence again. Faith is believing God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do. Faith acts on that belief—not on feelings.
Rahab, a prostitute, believed that the two spies were from God and she hid them. God rewarded her faith. We are told in Joshua 6:22-25, "Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, 'Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.' So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
"Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day."
And who is an heir of Rahab—Jesus Christ himself! Just read Matthew 1:1-16. Rahab is right there in verse 5, "Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab."
Beth said that she likes how God made sure that Rahab was in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. "He painted her picture among the greatest heroes in the Hall of Faith," she says. "I like His style."
So do I.
Beth asks: "Who was Rahab's son according to Matthew 1:5?" The answer: Boaz, the kinsman redeemer of Ruth. Somehow, until this lesson, I had overlooked this important fact. What about you?
I love what Beth said: "I wonder where he got such a redemptive heart and a faith to believe that what seems plan B might just have been plan A all along. From his mother, perchance? At one time Rahab must have felt destined to leave a legacy of shame. The day she first believed that the God of Israel was the true God of heaven and earth all that began to change."
I don't know about you, but I want to say, "Wow! We serve an awesome God!"
He is able,
Mary
http://www.marymaywrites.com/
"As we continue our walk through the Hall of Faith museum," Beth said, "the stories of flesh-and-blood mortals who believed God over what they saw and felt will convince us that we can do the same."
If you're like me, you may want to read that last sentence again. Faith is believing God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do. Faith acts on that belief—not on feelings.
Rahab, a prostitute, believed that the two spies were from God and she hid them. God rewarded her faith. We are told in Joshua 6:22-25, "Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, 'Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.' So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
"Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day."
And who is an heir of Rahab—Jesus Christ himself! Just read Matthew 1:1-16. Rahab is right there in verse 5, "Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab."
Beth said that she likes how God made sure that Rahab was in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. "He painted her picture among the greatest heroes in the Hall of Faith," she says. "I like His style."
So do I.
Beth asks: "Who was Rahab's son according to Matthew 1:5?" The answer: Boaz, the kinsman redeemer of Ruth. Somehow, until this lesson, I had overlooked this important fact. What about you?
I love what Beth said: "I wonder where he got such a redemptive heart and a faith to believe that what seems plan B might just have been plan A all along. From his mother, perchance? At one time Rahab must have felt destined to leave a legacy of shame. The day she first believed that the God of Israel was the true God of heaven and earth all that began to change."
I don't know about you, but I want to say, "Wow! We serve an awesome God!"
He is able,
Mary
http://www.marymaywrites.com/
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