Category Archives: Bible Study

Posts of Bible study lessons, most of which involve worry, faith, fear, surrender, God’s sovereignty, and more.

Taste And See

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For those of you who regularly read my blog, I’m sorry it has been so long since I’ve written. Last Saturday my sisters and sister-in-law threw a baby shower for me. It was wonderful to visit with family and friends and everyone was so generous in the gifts they bought for the baby. Considering I have only seen one or two people at a time in 9 weeks, and I still had to be confined to the couch, the shower was a little overwhelming, but in a good way. However it has taken me several days of extra sleeping to recover 🙂

A friend texted me recently saying she had been reading Psalm 34. I was reminded as I read it how great our God is. How much He loves us that He answers when we call and He delivers us from all fear. I especially like how it ends. Read it with me:

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!

I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

The last verse is worth repeating: The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. Call upon the Lord in times of need and times of plenty. You won’t ever regret it.

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A Lake With No Storms

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“Peace doesn’t come by finding a lake with no storms, but by having Jesus in your boat and trusting Him” Dr. Tim Sisk said in a sermon he titled Keep Calm. It’s part of a series he called Flourish, about how Jesus came to give us abundant life. Part of living an abundant life is trusting Him.

Have you ever been in a boat when there was a storm? Or have you been in a place you knew God wanted you to be, but all of a sudden there were great difficulties and you wonder why God brought you here? That’s what happened to the disciples:

“On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd, they took Him with them in the boat, just as He was. And other boats were with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.”

Jesus told them to get in the boat and go across the lake, but now when there is a storm, Jesus is sleeping? The disciples were experienced fisherman. They knew how to handle boats and I’m sure they had been in many storms in their lives. But this storm was enough to really scare them.

“And they woke Jesus and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’”

Have you ever asked that same question, wondering if God really cares about you and the situation you are in?

“And Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?'” Mark 4:35-40

There are a lot of lessons to learn from this passage: Jesus does care, We should have faith and not doubt, Jesus has the power to calm our “storms.” But what strikes me most right now, is that even though the disciples lacked faith and questioned Jesus’s care for them, the disciples still went to Jesus for help. When they were in trouble they called out to God. That is certainly an example we should follow. Peace isn’t about not having storms, but calling out to Jesus when the storms come.

“Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” Jeremiah 33:3

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Eyes On The Prize

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Eight and a half weeks of bed rest complete. Six and a half weeks remain. At the doctor last Thursday I received more good news: my cervix is totally closed again, I can sit up for four hours a day, and I can go to church every week! Just to know I have the option to sit up feels like a new freedom.

Sunday marked 30 weeks in this pregnancy, which means I only have about 10 more weeks until I’m holding the baby in my arms. I’ve been so focused on getting through each day that I’ve hardly thought about the end of this journey. It had seemed so far away, but now feels like its right around the corner. I think as the end of this race draws near it is even harder to be disciplined.

Over the weekend Jeff ran the Go Ruck Challenge. As a team, the 28 people who signed up loaded their backpacks with 40 pounds of bricks and water, and set off at 1am to do whatever their leader told them. Twelve hours and 20 miles later they completed their journey. Push ups, sit ups, carrying each other, in and out of Lake Michigan, up and down hills, crawling, crab walking, and more. They were exhausted and sore, but they finished the race and they did it together.

The journey of faith is hard to complete on your own. It’s so much better to have other believers surrounding you, encouraging you, facing challenges with you. I went to church Sunday for the first time in 9 weeks. I had tears in my eyes just walking in. Even though we didn’t see people we know, it was encouraging to know all the people around us are also walking in faith following Christ.

I think church is such a special place to come together with other believers and worship the Lord. We can lean on each other to finish the race.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

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Wither or Flourish

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A few weeks ago a friend came to visit and brought a plant for me. It sits on my dresser across from the bed so I can see the pretty flowers. It looked great for awhile, but then one day it looked dead. So then I watered it. Surprisingly it came back to life! However another week passed, the plant looked dead, then I watered it, but it has not returned from the dead this time.

The same thing happens in our lives. We go along for awhile with everything being fine, forgetting or pushing aside God, we don’t need Him anyway since life is good. But difficulty comes and we find ourselves withering. We refocus on Christ, read the Bible and pray, and we come back to life. The difficulties don’t seem that bad. But we keep following this cycle, only calling on God when life isn’t good and easy. Pretty soon we’ll end up like my plant: dead, lifeless, no longer pretty.

One of the best habits I ever started was reading the Bible everyday. I would journal too writing down the verses that stood out to me and how it applied to my life. I did this for years. Then one day I didn’t read. I must have slept in longer or been in a rush. But that one choice made it easier to choose again not to read. I wasn’t turning my back on God. I was still very much following Him, just not making it a priority to read His Word.

I don’t think it’s a sin if I miss one day reading the Bible. I don’t do it because it’s a ritual. I read the Bible because it is life-giving. It shows me how to live, how to love others, what to do in difficulties, and how much God loves me. It’s like water for a plant. You can’t wait until its dead to water it. You need to give it attention everyday. Then it will sustain difficult seasons.

If you haven’t made a commitment to read the Bible everyday, start today. Turn to the very beginning and read a page. I guarantee you won’t regret that time.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8

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I Can Do Nothing

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My favorite Bible verse isn’t John 3:16, or a widely known verse about God’s love, or even about the grace offered to us. Instead, my favorite verse is John 15:5 where Jesus says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” That’s just the last half but it’s a reminder I often need. The whole verse is Jesus saying, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.”

I woke up on the “wrong side of the bed” this morning. It was early, I was already bored, uncomfortable, and lonely, and not looking forward to the day, even though I get to go out to the doctor this afternoon (which also means a trip to Starbucks). There are enough emotions with being pregnant that I try not to give into emotional bursts, but this morning I was struggling. It’s been almost 8 weeks of bed rest, but I have 7 weeks left. With the weather being so nice this week, I’ve found it especially difficult to stay in bed laying down.

Pushing through my tears, I grab my Bible-verse-a-day calendar and flip the page to find John 15:5 as today’s verse. It’s like I can hear Jesus speaking right to me, “Remain in Me.” Read the Bible, sing some praise songs, stay close to the One who loves me and is always with me. Because apart from Him, I can do nothing. Apart from Jesus I can’t do bed rest, I can’t survive this mental game, I can’t find joy or peace or comfort. But with Him I can do all of this and so much more. Now to Him who is able to do more than I ask or imagine be all the glory (Ephesians 3:20).

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The Snowball of Suffering

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I’ve been reading the book Stronger by Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family. Throughout the book are stories of hope, people persevering through trials and suffering. He uses the analogy of a snowball and I thought I would just share that with you.

“Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Romans 5:3-4

Consider, if you will, the snowball. Left by itself it doesn’t amount to much. It’s just a little round chunk of white frozen water. Yet place the snowball on the top of a steep hill on a snowy day, and things begin to change. If you invest some time rolling that snowball so it picks up snow and grows larger, you begin to create something big and heavy. If you invest even more time and energy (this is where perseverance comes in), you might get that ball rolling down the hill. And the longer it rolls, the faster it goes, the bigger it gets.

Now you’ve got something powerful… I believe that equation of suffering, which produces perseverance, which produces character, works in a similar fashion. Our willingness to trust and rely on the Lord in a time of trouble invites His power to work in our lives. The more we trust and depend on Him, the easier it becomes. As the Lord says, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt 11:30).

Pretty soon our perseverance enables the Lord to add character to our “snowball” – and the more we persevere, the stronger we grow. We find ourselves rolling downhill toward a godly life. It still might be a bumpy ride, but the size and momentum of our snowball just about guarantees that as long as we are pursuing God’s will for our lives, nothing will stop us.

 

Lord help us persevere in our suffering so that You can produce character and hope in our lives. May we always keep our eyes fixed on You and pursue Your will for our lives.

 

His Grace is Enough

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They call it “Incompetent Cervix” but I really dislike any part of me being called incompetent. Today at the doctor my cervix was funneling (open from the baby to the stitch). Last week it funneled under pressure (when they simulate a contraction) but today no pressure was needed. My doctor isn’t concerned because this is what a patient with a cerclage and incompetent cervix normally looks like. But I don’t like it.

I realized I was only looking at the negative and not seeing the positives. There are several good things to consider:
1. I’m 28.5 weeks along. Most babies born now survive.
2. I’m not in labor. My cervix isn’t dilated at all.
3. The funnel is narrow so there isn’t pressure on the stitch.
4. The distance from the stitch to the outside is 1.9 which is good. It hasn’t shortened.
5. My current state is considered normal for patients in my condition.

It’s a lot harder to keep the faith when I don’t have amazing medical proof. I’ve asked God for a full-term baby and I have believed He will answer. But I’ve had amazing reports from my doctors which have made it easy to believe God. I heard a Bible verse on the radio on my way home which was just what I needed:

God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Cor 12:9

Yes my cervix is incompetent and weak, but God is showing His strength because of it. In Him I can always trust. His grace is enough for me.

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A Culture of Impatience

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The culture we live in is training us to be impatient.  When was the last time you waited for anything? 

  • At the grocery store we have self-check out lanes so you don’t have to wait in line.
  • At amusement parks you can buy a fast pass to skip the lines.
  • Call ahead to restaurants ensures a table when you arrive.
  • Order food, groceries, you name it over the phone so you can just walk in and pick it up.

Even while all the technology we have makes many things much easier, it also makes us available all the time.  I’m currently waiting for a friend to text me back. It’s been 2 hours since I wrote her, but honestly after 10 minutes I was wondering if her number changed, or she lost her phone, or if we’re not friends anymore.  I’ve been trained to expect immediate responses. I’ve been trained not to wait. But frequently in the Bible we are told to wait.

  • Abraham was told he’d be the father of many nations, but it was decades before God gave him a son.
  • David was annointed king over Israel as a teenager, but waited until he was in his 30s before taking the throne.
  • Even Jesus, the Son of God, waited 30 years before beginning His ministry on earth and fulfilling His purpose.
  • Esther waited a few days before presenting her request to the king.

Whether its days, years, or decades, waiting is a Biblical principal.  Beth Moore says, “we won’t see the fulfillment of our greatest purpose, if we don’t wait on the Lord.” I don’t like waiting because I feel like I’m not accomplishing anything.  I could be doing better things with my time than waiting. But in our waiting, even if we feel inactive, God is at work.  God is often preparing the hearts or circumstances of those involved.

Isaiah 40:31 says “Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.” The verse shows us that not only will those who wait on the Lord renew their strength, but that means that those who do not wait on the Lord will lose their strength. The longer your wait is, the more your strength is being renewed.

So the next time you’re at the grocery store, instead of searching out the self check out or shortest lane, challenge yourself to stand in the longest line.  While you’re waiting with your groceries be reminded that God wants you to wait on Him – His timing for your desires to be fulfilled, your purpose achieved, your dreams to manifest.  And as your waiting in line, wait on God, and know that your strength is being renewed.

Facing Our Fears

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Do you know what is commanded most often in the Bible? Is it “do not sin” or “be holy” or “do good to others”? None of those. Overwhelmingly, what is commanded most in the Bible by God, angels, or Jesus, is “Do not fear.” Don’t be afraid. Fear not! Such a simple command, yet it’s repetition throughout Scripture is probably a signal that we have a hard time obeying this one.

There isn’t a person in the world who hasn’t been fearful. I don’t mean “phobias,” like afraid of bugs or heights. We’ll leave that to the show Fear Factor. I mean the scenarios that run through your mind. What if this, what if that? All the “what ifs” – it’s like IF is an acronym for I Fear.

Can you imagine breaking free of all your fears? In order to break free, first we have to face our fears. Esther was faced with a difficult decision. She needed to approach the king in hopes he would save her people. Even though Esther was the queen, she hadn’t been summoned to see the king in a month! If she approached him and he didn’t want to see her, she would be killed. Faced with this choice, Esther said “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16). If I die, I die.

Think of your greatest fear. What if it happened? Most of our fears are pretty irrational. It is unlikely they will happen. But it’s not enough to have conditional faith that God won’t let our fears happen. Let’s think through a situation. One of my fears is that my husband Jeff would die suddenly.

What if Jeff dies?
I’d be devastated.
Then what?
I’d cry a lot. I’d go through more Kleenex than you can buy at Costco. I wouldn’t want to get out of bed in the mornings.
Then what?
I’d probably read the Bible a lot because I don’t know how I’d get through it without God.
Then what?
Eventually I’d begin healing and find ways to go on with life. I’d probably end up sharing the journey with others and helping people in similar situations.

Of course I still don’t want it to happen, but when you think through it step by step it’s not that scary. If God allows what we fear to happen then He has reason and purpose in it. It takes courage to face our fears. We have a choice to take courage and surrender our fears. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you have died to fear and are alive to Christ. (Romans 6)

If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Savior, consider it now. Jesus is the Son of God and He came to earth, lived a perfect sin-less life, and died on a cross taking the punishment for our sin. Three days later Jesus rose from the grave. He conquered sin and death once and for all, so that all who choose to believe in Him and make Him their Savior, won’t be subject to sin and death. Ask Jesus to forgive you for the sin in your life and tell Him you want to live for Him. Now when God looks at you, He doesn’t see the sin in your life, He sees the perfect blood of Jesus paying for your sin. The Bible says if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved. You will live forever in heaven with the One who loves you so much He gave His life for you. If you’ve just made this decision, tell someone. I’d love to hear from you and help you as you begin this journey of faith.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

Most of these words are my own, but the concepts come from Beth Moore’s Bible study Esther.

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Is Worry Your Only Friend?

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You’ve probably heard the song Trouble by Ray LaMontagne, a popular song choice on American Idol. It’s also been in this Travelers’ Insurance commerical. Watch the commercial before reading on.

The poor dog can’t find a safe place to hide his bone. My new nephew-dog Tucker knows how he feels. Every time Tucker hides his bone, my four year old neice takes the bone out of it’s hiding spot. It’s a fun game to her… but I’m not sure Tucker feels the same way.

Do you ever feel like there’s no safe place to leave your prized possession? Or no safe place to leave your concerns about your family, your job, what people think of you? Do you feel like your trouble has been “dogging your soul since the day you were born” or like “worry won’t leave your mind alone“? Has it gotten to the point where “worry feels like you’re only friend“? Maybe you think worry is just part of your nature, it’s who you are, it’s what people expect of you. If you didn’t worry, who would?

I think intertwined with worry is control, maybe a fear of losing control. I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly in control of my life. Everything works out exactly how I’ve planned… yeah right! The truth is I’m not in control and, hate to break it to you, but you’re not in control either. Sure there are some things we can control, like our attitudes and actions. But what happens in our lives is, for the most part, not in our ability to control even if we wanted to.

People worry about their jobs – what if I lose my job, then how will I provide for my family? People worry about their families – what if my kids get sick? what if my husbdand dies suddenly? what if my kids get bullied? what if my kid is the bully? People can worry about anything and everything, from what seems like a big issue to what seems like nothing at all. It’s a slippery slope, once you start to worry, and before you know it fear controls your life.

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?… But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-34

It’s not our job to worry. It’s our job to realize God has everything under control. Next time you’re tempted to worry about work or family or if you’ll find a parking spot at the mall, pray. Turn your worry and your fear into faith by choosing to believe God and trust Him.