Good morning ladies! I pray that you are all doing well and drawing close to God as we continue to read and think upon his awesome grace! Praise God that it was for freedom that Christ set us free! We are free so that we can love one another and walk by the Spirit and not the desires of the flesh! Isn't that when we experience the most joy in life? When we walk in God's ways and love others...YET there is this opposition! "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." Galatains 5:17 My biggest take away so far from this study has been learning to recognizing this opposition not as bad, but the nature of the flesh and the Spirit conflicting within me. I want to grow in maturity in the faith to pause when I feel the opposition and evaluate what is the root, and then by God's grace crucify the flesh and walk by the Spirit!
Heavenly Father, thank you for your forgiveness for all the times I grieve the Spirit and choose the ways of the flesh instead. May you work in each of our lives to reveal to us the ways of the flesh that we are hanging on to and to crucify these ways so that we can experience true freedom in Christ! You are a good God and I praise you for working for our good even when it comes to refining who we are! Thank you for these ladies and their love for you! In Jesus Name, Amen!
hey ladies...i'm still all mixed up- i got ahead at one point, now i think i'm behind again...anyway...here's what i wanted to get the group's feedback on, re: week 6/day 2; here's the message i got: be active, not passive, in helping others find the right path. Ok, here's why that's so applicable to me- my approach to sharing Christ, so far, has been showing Christ's love rather than talking about it. At work, given that i work for a state-funded agency, well, it sounds tricky, but it really isn't, i try to show my clients how Christ loves and doesn't judge and forgives. Similarly, while homosexuality or abortion isn't something i would choose for myself based on what i believe the Bible tells me related, i've taken the stance, maybe as a chicken, to not inform my homosexual peers, for example, of what i think when they ask, but to simply reply, "it's not for me to judge, my commission is to love as Christ loves, but it's not for me to judge." but at the same time, this lesson talked about how to give peers feedback about their spiritual health, so am i just being a chicken? a cop-out? it sounds like it, particularly in light of Bobby's message this morning...so instead of continuing to show and defer to God, i need to be more direct in my sharing of the gospel...
ReplyDeleteok, so here's my confession...i haven't done our Bible study in about a week...here's what happened: ok, so yes, there was a lot initially i got out of our study in itself, but then it started spinning me off in directions that were so applicable to where i was, what i was struggling with...so i went deeper in other books (both of Bible and other Christian works)...and it has been tremendously helpful! but suddenly, i realized i hadn't even touched ours in a week...the two books that i was directed towards (the Bible verses are too numerous to count) were "A Hunger for God," and "The Bondage Breaker..." just an FYI...but that's where i am...
ReplyDeleteoh, and related to my above post, i decided to be more forward with my evangelism...i downloaded small wallet-sized gospel cards from the Billy Graham Evan. Assn. website and plan to start leaving them in public places (i've been doing that with a mental health crisis hotline for a while, why not the gospel!). i've also started looking for faith-based agencies with which to work professionally...so that's the progress prompted by our study...am i going the right way?