At the risk of being unpopular

I am going to address our discussion time for WIW this week.

The purpose of this particular discussion time is to share what God has shown us through the study we have completed that week. Each day of our homework starts with a suggestion from the author to pray that God will open our hearts and give us understanding. Once we have asked God to lead us through the study, we start reading passages and answering questions, but let's never forget that it is God who gives us insights and shows us our hearts.

I love a lively discussion as much as anyone, and I agree whole heartedly with the fact that we as Christians should be involved and active in issues that affect our world.

Father God I pray that you will lead and guide our discussions for WIW. It is our desire to always keep YOU at the center. Thank you for opening our eyes and giving us understanding through your Word. We so enjoy the tabernacle study and how this study bridges the Old Testament with the New. Your word is so complete and full, nothing we think or feel could ever compare. In the name of your precious Son, Amen

Holy is the Lord God Almighty....

the earth is filled with your glory...

Sunset on Siesta Key beach October 21, 2008.

Something wierd is happening here...

So this week I am in Florida, I heard it was 40 degrees at home this morning...it was 85 here today...not trying to rub it in or anything ;-)

I would like to say I am enjoying the time away from the daily grind and work hassles, but well, I have this little shop...and it is run by this lit up box...oh wait, I think the lit up box actually runs the shop...and it's cranky owner...and although I am like 4 states away from home, that stupid box, and this little joy that lives in my pocket called a cellular device are ruining my fun.

I arrived in Florida on Monday afternoon, and Ted and I met up with his sister and her husband who happened to be visiting Florida but live in New Jersey for dinner. We don't get to see them often enough, and sitting in the sunshine on the deck of Bahama Breeze restaurant, overlooking the gulf, listening to beachy tunes and laughing at the top of our lungs was the highlight of our trip so far.

I was put in charge of planning a mini conference for some members of the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops, an organization I belong to...so that means this year conference is on the BEACH!!! We stayed at an adorable little compound off of Siesta Key beach in Sarasota Florida. 5 mini cottages painted Florida colors; flamingo pink, bright yellow, and my personal fav. turquoise. The cottages are decked out with quirky "Florida" antiquey things, and being resalers, we all enjoy the funky nature of our dwelling place. It is less than a block's walk to Siesta Key Beach...world famous white sand beach...it is truly a sight to behold as the sun sets on the water...amazing.

I was told that a condo on the beach in Siesta Key will run ya about 5 million bucks, so I've been hanging out with a lot of rich elderly people the last few days. I feel just a little out of my league in some ways, but mostly, I am meeting just regular people...yeah they seem to have some spoils in life, like the couple riding their personal segway scooters on the beach...but they are warm and friendly and they smile and take time to chat...they are retired...they are not stressed out over money...they are all tan...life is good.

I'll make a long story short here, the lit up box that runs my life got a virus...aww poor baby got sick...one of my employees downloaded some stuff she shouldn't have, and I nearly lost the hard drive. (Know anyone looking for a part time job?) So, my poor mom, who does not love the little box very much in the first place, called while I was drinking fresh squeezed orange juice with my honey at an outside table, of a cutesy little breakfast place.

What to do...no computer...it has to go to the computer Dr. next door to get treatment for it's newly aquired virus. I don't know how it takes so much effort and time for us to figure out that we could probably do something so silly as to add things up on a calculator and make change without the box's input, but eventually we come up with that brilliant plan, and it all works out in the end.

Mom did a great job of handling the situation, and I got a little smarter, and turned off my cute little cellular device.

I'll just stop that story right there for now, but I'll fill ya all in on the rest of the conference events sometime soon.

So here's the wierd part. While I am sitting with dear friends I get to see twice a year at best, talking shop, learning really good stuff to help improve my business, ON THE BEACH (I'm a fan of the beach if you haven't noticed) I start to get this funny feeling. I'm a little lonely. It is Tuesday night and I miss my Women in the Word. I miss their laughter, and all the great insights they share with the group. I wonder how their week is going, and I just MISS them greatly.

And Wednesday morning, I actually shed a few tears (I should probably mention that pms may play a small part in the tear shedding, lest you think I'm a hopeless case) I need my fix of the women in my life, who share their hearts with me, and even more, I need my fix of God's Word which I suddenly realize has been absent nearly all week long.

Heavenly Father, all I can do is give you thanks and praise for the work you do in our hearts through WIW. You have taught me the true meaning of the Family of God thru the love of my sisters. I needed that lesson, I needed these women, and as always You knew what I needed long before I did. You are so awesome. Thank you...

Accountability is that really what we want?

Last night I watched the video teaching on all the lessons we can apply to our own lives found in the story in which God provides for the needs of the Israelites in the desert through daily manna in Exodus 16. It was the third time I watched it, and I could really watch it again.

I think what amazes me most is that I've learned that manna story a million zillion times, read it over and over and over...yet here I am, with a whole new level of respect for God and the way His plan is so perfect, so good, so wise, and so complete. I am humbled not only by God and who He is today, but I am humbled by the sheer power of THE WORD.

How many times have we prayed "give us today our daily bread" without relating that to the manna story? Am I just out of the loop? Did you all learn that and maybe I ditched that Sunday school day? I will never pray the Lord's Prayer the same way again.

Me, of oh so many words, I just can't even fit all of my feelings about this lesson onto any number of pages.

Anyway, in our Tuesday night group, the word accountability was thrown around a lot, as we discussed the way our God is a daily God. One of the points in our book was that we had an objection to God's DAILY approach to relationship.

Objection, I thought that seemed a bit harsh...do we really OBJECT to God's daily approach, don't we just run out of time, and have too many distractions, and okay so maybe we are just a bit full of ourselves, but do we really OBJECT to it?! Well, yeah, I do object when I simply do not allow God to be the center of my life. I am guilty of objecting to God's daily approach.

Something about holding eachother accountable wasn't ringing right in me. Do you guys have that? prickling that says hmmmmm let me think about that some more. Well, I've been thinking about the notion that we need to hold eachother accountable or even that we need to hold ourselves accountable to have daily relationship with God.

Here are my thoughts on the subject, I don't mean to step on any toes, but I think we might be missing something big here.

I am so good at guilting myself. Those of you who know me are shaking your head uh huh right now. So, I can so clearly see that tendancy to say okay, I just know I want this daily relationship with God, but I'm probably gonna mess it up, like I always do, I haven't been a faithful Bible study girl in the past, I'm a bit of a slacker sometimes and I'm just downright really busy and distracted....and...and...and...I need to be held accountable for this Bible study, so that I get my daily bread. I can really see where this accountability talk comes from, but...

I guess I'm not seeing daily bread defined as this WIW Bible study, or a daily devotional book, or even in studying the Bible every single day thinking that will be our relationship with God.

I'm afraid we might be getting a little hung up on thinking that this Bible study is the sum of what a relationship with God is. Doing the 5 days of homework in our workbook will certainly bring us closer to God by studying his character, and learning new meanings to words which gives whole new meanings to familiar Bible passages is wonderful, and seeing ourselves in the Israelites struggles is bringing it to a whole new level. But what we really want in our lives is not on the pages of a workbook, right?

We want a changed heart, we want God the center of everything we do, and I don't know how I can hold you accountable for that.

I feel like I'm writing and writing words and not getting what I'm feeling across, so here is my story again, it seems the only way I can express this.

When I was growing up I looked just like you would want your kid to look. I sang in choir, I didn't even miss night church, I knew the answers to the questions and I'm a very good communicator, so I'm sure I sounded like I had it all together in the "God" department.

Looking back, I was pretty shallow. I walked the walk and OH YES I could talk the talk (we all know I can talk) by about the time I turned 18, it was pretty clear that I did what I wanted to do without even a consideration of what God would have wanted me to do. I was a big huge fake in the relationship with God dept. I made all kinds of bad decisions, and ended up in a big ole mess.

Then I had the nerve to blame God for all the things wrong in my life, and I was downright turned off from God all together. Oh, I occupied a pew on Sunday, but only the morning to protest and only out of some deep rooted obligation and mostly probably because I knew my parents would raising their hands for prayer requests for me at church on Sunday night if I didn't at least sit in the dumb pew, how embarrassing. So there I sat, me and my big ole chip on the shoulder and crummy attitude.

So how does the girl I am describing end up leading a Bible study?! I admit I am that exact same girl, and I have no powers of transforming myself. I didn't do it. No amount of joining a Bible study, and filling in blanks could ever have changed me the way God has changed my heart.

So I'm not saying it's not good to be held accountalbe, but I am wondering out loud here...is that what we are really after? Do we still want hearts that need to be held accountable for a daily relationship with God?

I see where I have come from....to where I am now in my relationship with God, and I am quite clear that I am not responsible for that, I take no credit for attending Bible studies, or learning more info. The thing that changed for me is my very heart, who I am, what I believe, I am powerless to change that in myself, else I would have been perfect all along, right?

And I think it's impossible to "show" someone how to change their heart. I thank God that just the complete 100% change in me was so drastic that I had no other option than to accept that I didn't have anything to do with it. This new heart was a pure gift, unearned to this very day, and my excitement for God and learning His Word is out of just knowing that A. I don't want that old heart back, and B. just pure amazement at a God who can completely change my heart. I'm stubborn....it was no easy task, kicking and screaming all the way with a million excuses and a whole lot of attitude. If God can change my heart, I really want to see what else He can do, and so I read about Him, I talk to Him, I worship Him, not out of obligation in any way, I want to do it.

So I say to all of you who are occupying a pew, or filling in the blanks of a workbook for the sake of being accountalbe for doing so, STOP right now, and just ask God to change your heart. He's got this amazing and beautiful plan for your heart and your busy work won't earn it, you are going to have to trust God to purify and change it and make it clean for you, and then you'll want MORE of Him, not just at church or in Bible study but every day, every hour, every minute. You want HIM in your heart.

I am grateful that praying and study the Bible for me, is a response to what God has done for me, and not out of obligation or because I feel accountable for doing it, and I pray for that for each of you.

Okay, sermon over.

Christmas Brunch/ potluck what do you think?

Okay ladies Cathy's busy brain has been thinking...LOOK OUT!

Okay I don't have my Bible study stuff with me at work but I had on the Wed. morning schedule, a Christmas brunch either the first or second week in Dec.

The Tuesday night group decided to have a potluck supper that week.

Well, I was thinking...how do you Wed. morning ladies feel about coming together as one big group on Tuesday night?

One thing to consider is that there will not be childcare for that evening, so plan accordingly.

I'm going to get some feedback Tues. night and Wed morning next week, to make a final decision, but I gotta tell you, both groups are just brimming with great and fun women, I think it would be great fun to fellowship over dinner with one another!

A beautiful poem, by a beautiful woman

The following is a poem composed by a woman in The Word who would like to remain anonymous, I know you will be as blessed and moved by it as I am, in light of our study of God as Jehovah Jireh, God as the Father who gives his children everything they will ever need:

A poem from Community CRC's

"Women in the Word" Bible study

"We are learning how God provides everything we need by studying the Israelite's trek through the desert. God provided their food, water, clothing , and best of all His presence as they were wandering. As women, we can get a little hung up on life's material needs, such as what shall I wear? The covering God freely gives us is much fuller & more beautiful than anything we could think of providing for ourselves!!

What Shall I Wear?

I look into the closet that overflows,

and feel as if I have no clothes.

Nothing to wear that would reflect,

Your Glory, Your Honor and my Respect.

I come today with nothing to wear,

Naked before you, my shame I bear.

What can I offer, what can I give,

Something to show You the thanks I live?

Fool that I am, I can't find it here;

The clothes that I need are the ones You bear!

Clean, white linen* your hand proffers,

Surpassing all choices my closet offers.

I take from Your hand the garment you give,

Your Salvation, Your Righteousness, in

these clothes, I can live!

*Fine linens, bright and clean was given her to wear. Revelations 9:8"

Thank you dear sister for sharing your poem with us. We all love you!

God tests us with abundance...

In our study this week we see how God gives the Israelites "bread from heaven" to test whether they will follow his commands.

From the beginning of the Bible in Genesis, I have caught myself wondering WHY God does what He does. Seriously, why put the forbidden fruit in the middle of the garden anyway?

The same with the manna, couldn't God have simply given only enough for the one day, why send more if the Israelites weren't allowed to store it?! The why question is answered in the Bible, because God was testing them, and He tests us too.

I have a friend who is very comfortable in life, financially her family is well off, and she admits that she doesn't want for much.

I have never heard her celebrating her wealth. I have never heard her say, "well, we work hard and that is how we get what we want" or "we've just figured out a way to make money and it works for us".

Nope, her very attitude shows thru in the way she talks about God, she knows that her wealth is from God, that all they have is His, and without Him all that stuff means nothing.

She often explains that when one is not struggling financially, it's hard to remember to trust in God. Things just go along smoothly in life, which is great, yet she is always aware that, their family has been given wealth by God, and that they need to trust Him for everything and not start relying on themselves, or congratulating themselves on their success.

Honestly, having grown up in a family that struggled financially at times, and finding myself a single mom at age 21 with 2 kids to feed, the thought that of having things "too good" financially was kind of a joke to me.

And just like I tend to do once in a while with Bible stories, I wonder WHY???? Why are some people given everything in life while others have nothing God, I don't get it!

A while ago my wealthy friend told me that she was having a hard time with one of her kids, I started to say, "Oh I'm so sorry to hear that!" but she cut me off. She told me she believed that God was reminding her to trust Him, that it was good for their family to rely on God thru this hard time.

Wow, what a true believer right?!

I mean, okay, after the fact sometimes we "see" the "why" of what God is doing in our lives, but right there in the middle of it, she could see that God was testing her, to trust Him with her family, with her children.

Wow, such an inspiration my friend is to me. To always know that God loves me, not just when I'm getting what I want, but also when things go wrong. To believe that God has my best interest at heart no matter the "test" at hand.

Thank you God for giving me a friend to serve as an example of a godly woman, though blessed by you in wonderful ways, she does not forget you, or take the credit for herself, and in the middle of a "test" she can see you working in her life to challenge and teach her to always rely on You. Thank you for godly friends. In your Son, Amen

God just gave it to her...

After study the woman who originally suggested we sing hymnal number 32 told me that she was simply thumbing thru the Psalter trying to find a familiar one and God "gave her" Psalm 32, it popped into her head.

Thank you God for giving Psalm 32 to my sister in The Word, the words of your song have stuck in my head and ministered to my spirit. I praise you for you are AMAZING. You've got my sins covered, thru the blood of your Son, how can I ever thank you for that?

The trouble with the night session of WIW is...

I can't sleep when I get home. New ideas toss and turn in my brain even after I wear out my husbands ears for an hour or so after I get home.

Earlier I had posted about our small group study last Wed. breaking into song. We sang Psalter Hymnal #32, which is from Psalm 32? Well I wanted to share with the night session our experience on Wednesday, so we gathered into the front few rows of the sanctuary and Jan Miller led us in the first 2 verses of "How Blest Is He Whose Trespass" has freely been forgiven, who's sin is wholly covered before the sight of heaven...

And then, interestingly enough....during the video, we turn to....none other than Psalm 32. The women thought I had planned it.....nope. I watched the video for the first time with the group last night, I had no idea Psalm 32 was in it, and Marjie dD who picked the hymn for us originally on Wed. morning had no way of knowing it would be in our next video either.

Wow, I no longer believe in coincidence. I think God has a great sense of humor...I picture Him thinking...here this will really freak her out!!!!

So why I couldn't sleep...In Sunday School as a kid, when we learned about the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve realized they were naked after sin, and covered themselves. I took that literally to mean naked means sin means we need to cover ourselves from nakedness...are you with me? Did you learn it the same?

So in last night's study we learned that "naked" for Adam and Eve didn't mean no clothes naked like it does for us. Adam and Eve had never seen clothes so how could they compare naked with not naked in terms of clothing. Adam and Eve felt their shame, they were naked before God as in, knowing they had sinned. They tried to cover their shame, not neccesarily their body parts.

Then God comes and he "covers" them, not just their exposed body parts, but their shame, he covers it by the first recorded animal sacrifice, which is a sign of the ultimate sacrifice of his son on the cross.

So why did that keep me up at night? Because I am so grateful to see the story differently than when I grew up. I always pictured God thinking oh you lousy adam and eve, now I have to cover you up b/c you blew it. But no, God covers our sin, it's so much bigger than I know it to be.

I need to get to church to set up the food table (grrrrr Michelle...you are killing me with this food!! ;-) but I just need to get this out...what a difference to serve a God who covers your sin, than a God who covered your nakedness. There has always been shame in being naked, in our bodies, and the covering up comes from Genesis I am sure. But Jesus bore my shame with his naked body in my place. That shame is not for me, God's got me covered.

I'm having a hard time putting it into words, I'll tell you this, I got 2 phone calls after I got home last night from women saying WOW with me. New concepts take time to sink in, but praise God today for seeing him and his character in a new light. What a JOY to serve a God who's got you covered, as opposed to serving out of guilt or trying to somehow redeem yourself....WOW

More later.