Womens Bible Cafe™ |
|
Posted: 25 Jan 2015 07:32 PM PST
 Welcome to online Bible study at the Womens Bible Cafe! We're discussing Week Two from the book Covenant by Kay Arthur. It's not too late to join this online Bible study, our small groups are open attendance and everyone is invited to participate! This week we studied "The Customs of Covenant” and our lessons included:
What an awesome picture this is of what it means to be one with Jesus Christ. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are entering into a covenant relationship with Him. He is the robe we wear, and we have taken on His identify. When we wear the robe of Christ, we now have the awesome responsibility to keep it clean and blameless, not to soil the robe or get it dirty with unclean acts, thoughts and deeds. You may ask, well how do we keep it clean? We are cleansed by the blood of Christ when He shed His blood on the Cross for our sins. When we put on the robe of Christ, we were made clean once and for all. Our new robes will stay white, because our sins have been forgiven. We put aside our former way of life (taking off our old dirty smelly robe), and we put on Christ (the shiny and new white robe), and we take up His Cross daily and follow Him. Jesus Christ exchanged robes with us!! I find that incredibly fascinating and mind-blowing! What does your robe look like? Are you wearing the robe of Christ today? ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEK:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THIS WEEK (answer in small groups or post a comment here)
Blessings! Sheree Poole    |
|
Posted: 25 Jan 2015 07:31 PM PST
 Welcome back to the online Bible study of Kelly Minter’s What Love Is We’re discussing Week 2 in the book, which covered these themes:
After a week of summer dance camp, she declared that she absolutely did not want to take ballet in the fall. Did she enjoy dance? Yes. Did she have fun at the camp? Absolutely. Did she want to try the dance classes? No. End of story. No explanation. No answering any of my questions about it. A few months later, we sat together on one of the benches in the dance studio waiting room watching the tiny dancers file out after class. We picked up my oldest daughter and headed out the door. That's when my girl said it: "I didn't see Madelyn in the class." Madelyn? Who? Then she exploded with the report that “Madelyn” always wanted to sit on the triangle at dance camp even when other kids wanted to sit on the triangle and she wouldn't let anyone else sit there no matter what. She sucked in one big breath, harumphed, and tossed her arms criss-cross around her chest while stomping her feet for effect. Well, babe, Madelyn was in dance camp, but she isn't in the regular dance class. "Oh." Long pause while 3-1/2 year old process new information. "Well, I want to take ballet then." For all those months, territorial conflict with another preschool child had dominated her life choices. Territorialism, jealousy, just plain old being annoyed with another person….it doesn't get any easier handling all that mess as a grown-up. We've all been there, forced into relationships with folks that drive us insane maybe with their negativity or pettiness or meanness, maybe insecurity, pride, constant bragging, insistence on arguing with everything you say, trying to compete with everything you do. I tell my daughters this: You don't have to be best friends with mean kids, but you have to be kind and loving to everyone. 1 John 4:20 says it this way: "If anyone says, 'I love God' yet hates his brother, is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom He has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."John writes that “love one another” is both a new command and an old command. Kelly Minter explains, “The new command to love is loving like Jesus loved (1 John 2:7-8)” (p. 52, emphasis mine). Sometimes I want to edit this, soften it a little, make it fit a little more comfortably instead of stepping on my toes. Maybe: "For anyone who does not love his brother….when his brother is a pretty nice person….cannot love God, but when his brother is annoying, a jerk, mean, or immature, then it's fine not to love that guy." Of course, that's not Jesus. God is love, and Jesus showed that by loving the unlovely, by loving the enemy, and by dying on the cross for you and for me when we were still covered in the mess of our own sin. So, I could pit myself against the 'unlovable' or I could choose Jesus and the discipline of kindness and sacrificial love. This is at work and it's at church. It's with the annoying mom in the PTA and the gal who drives us crazy on the sidelines at soccer. It's in our own homes, too. Sometimes love is hard and sometimes love is a choice. In fact, some days, loving others feels impossibly out of reach. How can God ask me to love “her” or to love “him?” On page 52, Kelly Minter reminds us that: Now that Jesus has entered the world….we can love our neighbors as ourselves more fully than we ever imagined! Why? Because the old commandment to love has now been revitalized and energized because of Christ (the new law). The new ability to love dwells in Him and also in us….”In other words, we can’t fulfill this commandment on our own. We can’t love others like Jesus loves them in our own strength or because we’re particularly nice or extraordinarily loving or patient people. It’s because of Christ in us. We can ask Him to give us that love for others, to show us how to love them, and then we must make the choice to obey His command. BIBLE STUDY TIP:Sometimes we all fall behind in our Bible study lessons. Shocking, I know! Life can get unexpected and more than a little crazy. Satan, though, would like nothing more for you to just give up rather than sticking with it, persevering, and finishing this study. Please don’t give up! God will certainly bless your determination to finish what you’ve completed.Here are some ways to catch up:
ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEK:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THIS WEEK (answer in small groups or post a comment here):
  |
| Email delivery powered by Google | |
