GMG ~ Week 1 ~ Why the Last Supper Matters

Week1 Challenge:
Make a list of things in your life that you're tempted to rely on other than Jesus.  Every day this week take time to pray over your list, asking God to help you place your full dependence and trust in Christ alone.

I am choosing to keep my list private.  I know what my temptations and obstacles are.  So does God.

Week 1 Memory Verse:
Now, that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should wash one another's feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 
~John 13:14-15

GMG ~ Why Easter Matters ~ Why the Last Supper Matters Week 1 Day 1

Today begins GMG Why Easter Matters Study.  And this week is 'Why the Last Supper Matters.  What a deep study I had this morning chewing on these words.  I was a bit apprehensive about what this study would bring to my heart.  Wow!  Off to a great start.  I am looking forward to the teaching I am about to receive.  Please feel free to add your thoughts and comments.  Join me in this four week study, won't you?

Hyssop

S:  Exodus 12:13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will Passover you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike.

O:  Blood is to be sprinkled on your doorposts. Not just shed, but sprinkled.  Will cause you to be passed over and no plague will touch you. 

A:  Wow!  How cool is it that we were commanded to have a very real mark-sign of who we are?  Sprinkle blood on our doorpost to show exactly who we are.  If not, we will die.  Simple?  Am I willing to wear that mark?  Or do I want to go with the flow?  Fit in?  Not stand out for Christ?

P:  Father God,  Thank you for giving me a clear cut decision.  Be with you or against you.  Thank your for your word this morning.  Thank you for this study.  Thank you for giving me the desire to dig DEEP into your word.  My thoughts here on paper are only a small scratching of what you are laying on my heart and mind.  Please be with each one who joins this study.  Help us to gain more knowledge of you but not only knowledge, but a deeper relationship with you to further your kingdom.  Thank you for the blood of your Son who takes away my sin and cleanses me.  Give me the desire to STAND OUT.  Be marked.  Be proud to be your child.

~Amen

Preparing my heart for the new GMG Easter Study

Good morning.  This has been a very busy week for me.  I have been in some intense training for my job and my brain is exhausted.  When I am this exhausted, I am more easily distracted.  I think satan uses these times to weezle his way into our lifes and soak up our time.  There are so many mind numbing distractions, TV, radio, internet, etc.  Please share how you overcome the obstacle of distractions in your study life.

I am really looking forward to starting our new study next week for many reasons.  But most especially to have a clear direction on what we are to study each day.  I need to regain my focus.

My S.O.A.P.  for today is just perfect for next week's study.  I asked God to please help me find something to S.O.A.P. today as I was going for my coffee.  When I came back to the room where I study, laying on the floor was a book marker with this scripture.  How wonderful God is!!!  I love when He does this for me.  (and I recognized it, often, I miss these little treasures)

S:  Colossians 3:16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.  Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.  Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.

O:  Rich message about Christ.  Teach and counsel each other with wisdom from Him.  Sing songs to God with thankful hearts.

A:  This message is perfect for the journey we are about to take.  Over the next few weeks, let us take the richness of God's message and share with each other what He lays on each of our hearts.  Let us teach and counsel one another with the wonderful wisdom that can only be found in His word.  Then, let's worship Him with songs and thankful hearts for the rich message of wisdom we have gained from Him.  All glory, honor and praise be to God.

P:  Father, thank you for giving me your word this morning and every morning.  Be with each of the women in this group, each that has trusted and obeyed your calling to this study to dig deeper into your word and in a relationship with you.   Be with each of us exactly where we are right in this moment.  Guide and protect each of us as we go about our day.  Help us to recognize where we are needed and help in each situation.  Even if we each reach just one for you, we are expanding your kingdom.  May all the praise and glory be to you Father, forever.

~Amen

Have a beautiful day ladies.

~Be blessed and a blessing.

#SRT ~ Jonah 3 & 4

A second chance
Obedience at last
Repentance
Hope
Grace

Oh how we are like Jonah!  We run far away in our sins.  We realize how far we have sunk in our sins so we repent.  We are forgiven.  We come to obedience.  God has mercy.  He shows undeserved mercy.  We judge.  We point fingers.  We get angry.  God is so gentle and kind and shows us mercy, even in our anger.  We don't deserve the matchless grace and mercy He freely gives.  Yet we fall to our knees and ask for it over and over.

What a vicious cycle.  Our sinful nature sometimes gets in the way of showing others how loving God is.  We get angry when in our minds others aren't deserving of the grace and mercy He gives.  Thank God it isn't up to us to decide.  Who are we to judge?  God shows us grace, mercy and forgiveness and we don't deserve it.

Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

#SRT ~ Jonah 1 and 2

Good morning Sweet Sisters~

I have started this post several times.  Today I am going to write from my heart and stop making this difficult.

How often does God speak to us like he did Jonah?  I hear his voice all the time and have gone in the opposite direction plenty of times.  Sometimes not as far as Tarshish, sometimes farther than Tarshish, and sometimes to Tarshish.  The point is I have at times completely ignored His calling.

I, like Jonah, have even endangered others in my disobedience.  We have the ability, unfortunately to cause others to sin or be in danger of sinning in our own disobedience.  The other sailors didn't even know The One and True God.  I believe that is why God allowed Jonah to board that ship.  Sometimes we are so comfortable in our own sin we don't even realize it.  We are sound asleep and cozy while the storm is raging around us.  It is time to wake up Sisters and chase after God as fiercely as He is chasing after us.

Our God is so in love with us.  He would bring us to a place of safety in our own disobedience, even inside of the belly of a whale to save us, to get our attention.  Think of how stinky and slimy it was in the whale's belly.  Isn't that the way it is in our sin?  It can be very stinky and smelly!  Especially our 'favorite' sins.

I believe as Jonah prayed to God, his cries of repentance and desperation were like nausea to the whale.  Causing the water brash that happens just before you vomit.  God was causing that whale to be sick to save Jonah from his disobedience and spewed Jonah right out on the shore.

How much more do we need to send us in the right direction?  How many times have we been spit out of a difficult situation and still gone on our merry way in our slumber?  Wake up sisters!  We need to be about God's work.  We need to show His love and mercy to all we come in contact with.  So many people around us are walking in a slumber of darkness and do not even know the one true God.  We must be the light for Jesus.  We need to be the Jonahs and be obedient.

Take off your PJ's and put on your full armor of God and go to Nineveh.  Preach it Sisters!

~Be blessed and a blessing

~Peace

GMG ~ Intentionally Focused Study ~ My Reflection

Take time to write out what God has spoken to your heart during this study.  How is your life going to change?  What is God asking you to do in order to live more radically, more intentionally, more focused for Him?  Consider sharing your results with your GMG group.

This is the first Monday morning in eight weeks I haven't started with my favorite group of women from the GMG Intentionally Focused Study.  I honesty have to say I'm sad and miss them.  We shared our hearts with each other.  We shared our struggles and our joys.  I pray God will bless each of us as we go forward and pray we will each continue in our desire to spend time with God and study His word, His direction for each of our lives.

My life has changed, maybe not dramatically changed, however, changed I am.  I believe if you commit to doing something for more than two weeks it becomes a habit.  I believe this study has not become a habit but a desire.  A desire for more of God.  More of His direction for me.  I look forward to my time with Him and seeing what it is He is saying to my heart.  I have seen a change in my attitude.  I have seen a change in my obedience.  I have seen a change in my waiting to hear His voice.  I have seen a change in the way I care for His temple.  I have a long way to go.  I know with His help and guidance, I will continue to change.

Thank you GMG for your diligence, your prayers and your dedication to this group of people.  I have been blessed beyond what I ever expected by this study and look forward to what is to come.

Be blessed and a blessing.

~Peace

#SRT Psalm 38

A psalm of David, asking God to remember him.

What I do, God, is wait for you, wait for my Lord, my God--you will answer!
The Message

David is crying out to God in his sickness and pain because he is guilty of his sins and ashamed of how he has disappointed the Lord.  Completely overcome to the point of physical illness.

Even his family and friends turn on and away from him.  He can't even defend himself due to his shame.  He cannot even bring himself to hear or comment on what they have to say about him.

He cries out to God.  He is waiting for an answer.  Still trusting for His reply.

Praying.  Even in his weakest, lowest point.  Praying.  He confesses and repents.  Alone.  Weak.  Sick.  He begs God not to abandon him and asks for help.

I can't imagine the physical and emotional pain he must have been feeling.  Everyone had turned their back on him and he was literally dying.  Yet he was still able to trust and wait on God.

Sisters how much time have we spent waiting for the Lord in our trials?  I have had some difficult times in my life.  Times when I was angry and wondering why God wasn't answering my cries for help.  But He was always there.  Always listening.  My time is not His time.  I can only hope to have the patience David had.  Even in his misery he waited.  He prayed.  Oh I am sure there were times when he was ready to give up.  But continued to wait on the Lord.  Sisters I encourage you to wait on the Lord.  He tells us time after time in His word, He will not leave us.

Pray.
Ask for help.
He listens.
Spend time waiting.
Be still.
Remember our time is not His time.
Trust.
Have confidence.
Know He will answer.