Tag: Bible Study

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Tell Of His Wondrous Acts to Perform

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

We are instructed in Psa 105, to “O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name; make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto him; talk ye of all His wondrous works.” When we pray asking the Lord to guide us, that is what we are suppose to do. To allow Him to guide us, not walk ahead of Him; but that is exactly what I have been doing.

When we moved to Arizona, we had spent many hours in prayer asking the Lord to lead us to the church home that He wanted us to be in service to Him. After visiting churches around the area, we found a church that had amazing preaching and people who were so very easy to love. Even though it was very different from the churches we have been members in both Texas and California, we felt that this church had great folks and great preaching, so we decided that this would become our church home. Each week, we would leave the service and get in the car and I would get teary eyed. Randy would take my hand and say, “I know this is not what we are used to, but churches out here are very different and I guess this is the best it’s going to be.” I know this is not the attitude that we should have, but I began to think that if we joined, maybe it would feel more like our “home church” and being a member would make us feel better about things. So I began to tell Randy that we should begin the church membership process. This is certainly not something that I am proud of, and is exactly why we are encouraged to allow the husband to be the head of the household. I could tell he was not feeling the same about joining, but after me continuing to say that “we need to do this”, he agreed and we went forward in preparing the church membership videos. The appointment was set to meet with one of the pastors and we went. The entire hour we met with this sweet young man, I felt a check in my spirit, but just decided that maybe it was because I was still trying to “make it happen”. So we joined. The two Sundays after joining, each week, we would leave the service and get in the car. Tears would fill my eyes, and we both knew that we had indeed got ahead of the Lord and was not in the place where we should be.

The week after joining, a friend called me to tell me that they felt that they had found their church home. She began to tell me about it and let me know that it had a traditional service and had Sunday School and a Women’s Ministry, which is something that has always been such a passion of mine. As she spoke, I remembered the whole past year of both Randy and I praying and asking the Lord to allow us to find a church which had Sunday School and a traditional service and a Women’s Ministry. Randy had heard the whole conversation because I had my phone on speaker phone. This was on a Thursday. Right then I decided that for once, (yes I do get ahead of God so many times) I would not even mention this to Randy, but to let him be the one who suggested that we attend Grace Community Church. Calling my BFF in Dallas, I began to relay the whole story to her when she spoke up and said, “Trudy do you not remember me mentioning Grace Community to you when you first moved there?” No I didn’t remember. She had heard about it from her daughter who lives in Scottsdale and had friends who attended Grace. The next Sunday morning, we got up and began to get ready for church when he quietly said, “what do you think about going to visit Grace Community this morning?” Quickly I responded, YES! So off we went. After the service, we walked out and got in the car and just looked at each other. As he looked over to me, I said, “what did you think? He told me that he loved it and we both said that it was a church we could see ourselves growing old in and serving” The next 3 weeks, we went back and have begun visiting Sunday School classes. But now the burden of telling our sweet friends who have been not only our small group leaders, but my ladies Bible study leader who invited us into their small group. We left for a couple of weeks for vacation and we ask friends in California to pray for us as we felt badly for now telling these folks who had become such sweet friends to us, that we would be leaving the church. But God….He truly goes way beyond our needs and answers prayers which still amaze! When I talked to Marilyn, she was just so sweet and kind and told me she totally understood. Then she told me a story. She said that as soon as she got my email explaining our story, she went in to tell her husband. It was then that he revealed to her that he had just received an email from a couple who had tried once before to get in their small group, but there wasn’t room. The man had written to Bob and had ask him if there was still no opening in their group, as their small group had disbanded and they were desperate to be in a small group. So us leaving allowed them to be able to invite this couple into theirs. All that happened on the very same day. A confirmation from the Lord that we were being called to a new place. So from this circumstance, several things were learned.
1. Do not try to “make things happen”. Allow God to lead in His timing, not mine.
2. Don’t settle for something less that what God has intended to give you. We had been praying for a year for a church that was more like our home church in Texas and California. We didn’t wait, but took it upon ourselves to get ahead of the Lord, thinking that this was as good as it was going to get. God never gives you anything but His best. Why can I not learn that?

3.When we don’t wait on God and lead ourselves, instead of allowing God to lead, there are consequences. Yes, He forgives our trying to control situations, but my consequences were that I had to go back then and tell precious friends that we had made a mistake and acknowledge that this was just not the place for us.

4. Quit trying to be the spiritual leader of our home. Randy was not ready to join, and had I listened to him, we would not have signed a church membership covenant.

Lord, there are so many times when I try to get ahead of you and think that I know better than you how to live my life. Forgive me Lord and may I learn to trust You more and more and may my faith in You grow no matter the circumstances.

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:24

2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Words & Wonder

Chocolate Castles8 Comments

Saturday morning I went to a brunch where friends from our Bible Study gathered together around the dining table to share some great food and to share the word that the Lord had given to us for 2017.

About 4 years ago a dear friend use to tell us about having a “word” that she had ask the Lord. This “word” would seem to show up in devotions, in sermons, scripture or songs and she always told us that it was a word which the Lord would use to teach her, more of Him. So those of us who took Bible study from her began to ask the Lord if He would give us a word. I remember the first year that I began to ask for a “word.”  I wish I could tell you that I prayed with a believing heart that He would lay something upon my heart but as I prayed I felt myself wondering if truly, I would hear from Him. Each year, always in different ways, He would reveal a word to me that helped me focus on a certain aspect of Bible study which invariably  led me into a deeper knowledge of God and what He desired from me. The first year my word was serve, I began to write down scriptures which I would come across that centered on “serving”. As that year progressed, I found myself serving in ways which I had never thought about.

The following year, being thrown into a year of disruption of our lives and circumstances, the Lord clearly gave me the word, “restore” as I struggled with finding a new purpose, all the while knowing that He still loved me and wanted me to know that just because my circumstances had changed, His will for me had not ,and that was to continue serving Him, just maybe in different ways.

Well, in November of 2016, I began to pray, asking God to reveal to me what word He wanted me to have for 2017. As weeks passed, I wondered if He was ever going to give me the “word”.  On December 20th, I woke up at 5:30 a.m and the word, “tenacity” was just what I woke up saying. I wondered what in the world it meant. It was a word which I do not ever remember saying, much less using it in a sentence. I fell back asleep and woke up at 7 a.m and there it was again, “tenacity”. I thought about it all day and told Randy that “I think the Lord has shown me what my word for 2017 is going to be.” A couple of days later, there in my daily devotion, the word “tenacity” jumped off the page at me. It was then that I realized that yes, the Lord had truly spoken what word my focus would be for the year.  Looking up the definition, i realized that it means to “persevere” and to remain faithful through any circumstance.

As the ladies gathered around the table, last Saturday,we began to share just how God had revealed their words. This was new to each of them, but as we began to share the words which the Lord had given to us, we begin to realize how intimately God wants to be involved with our lives. Most of us were in circumstances which we would not have chosen, but God, in His infinite love and mercy had given each of us a word which shows His love and faithfulness to us. As we listened to the stories that morning,  some of the words which we revealed the Lord had given to us were; hope, steadfast, trust, rest, and calm. It was such a blessed morning to hear how God had been working in each of their lives and how they had been given their word for 2017. As I came home, I began to think about what had just transpired. Women who had never before ask the Lord for a word, had just shared how God had spoken to them, all in a different way, but each one, feeling so blessed by God that He loved them and answered their prayers of receiving what they had ask, a word that would be encouraging and cause them to remember how much He loves each one.

Why do we continue to wonder if God still speaks, when it tells us in His Word, that He has given us His Holy Spirit to speak truth to us.

John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

Psalm 91:15 “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver hi and honor him.”

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do to know.”