Category Archives: Bible_Reading

More On Our Philippians Study -Introduction by Eileen-

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My name is Eileen Lawyer – I am a wife to Mike (pastor) and mother to Rachel (junior in high school). We live in a small town in northern Idaho, USA. I will be teaching a Bible study on Philippians to some ladies in our town, and thought that perhaps I could teach the same study online. I want to reach women who love our God as I do, and yet may not have the opportunity to attend Bible studies. The purpose of this study will be to encourage all of us to be women who know our Bibles and, therefore, know and love our Savior. This study will, with the Lord’s blessing, equip us to study other books in the Bible using the same method we apply to Philippians. God has the power to change our lives as we grow in knowledge and grace of Him.

I plan on teaching this as an eight-week course. If you are interested in joining this study, please come to “class” (Becky’s blog) with your Bible, colored pencils (or highlighters) if you have any. If you do not have any available to use, that’s OK. Just have your Bible, some paper to write on and a pencil. I will ask you to do a little ‘homework’ throughout the week before the next class. It is up to you if you want to do it. However, remember that the more you put into the study, the more you will get out of it.

Since I am writing the ‘class’, I will also be shortening the study from its original workbook (Mining God’s Word – How to study the Bible; Foundation Series, Bethlehem College and Seminary Press) I will, however, attempt to reach and discuss what I feel are the highlights. If you would like to purchase the workbook, please feel free to use it during class. I will have mine with me. It is a wonderful tool – not to replace our Bibles, but to enhance our understanding of our Bibles.

With all of that said, I look forward to trying this new avenue of teaching a Bible study online. I welcome your comments, questions and even suggestions. Becky’s blog usually has a place where comments can be made. If you need to reach me about a question that you would feel uncomfortable asking online, you may reach me: eileenlawyer(at)gmail(dot)com

To God be the Glory!
your sister in Christ,
Eileen~

 

 

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Time to Study Philippians (in Eight Weeks)

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Do you remember my friend Eileen? She wrote a series of posts on Homeschooling One Child earlier this year. It was a blessing to learn from her and now I am grateful to have her back again.

Eileen will be guiding us through an in-depth inductive study of  The Epistle to the Philippians. She will be here every Saturday (for 8 weeks), so I encourage you to come and join us. Bring your markers, your notebook and a copy of the book of Philippians, she says it will be helpful to have it handy because we will be highlighting and marking the text.

This Saturday, October 9, will be our first study session, please pass the voice and invite your friends to join us.

Isn’t this a great opportunity to go through a Bible study with your teenage daughter besides you? I am planning on doing this. Mom and daughter studying the Bible together is a gift from above.

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

 

 

 

















You may also like (from the archives):

Daniel’s Prayer
Desires and Prosperity
The Secret of the Believer’s Boldness

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Peace Under His Sun

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We are journeying under His sun daily,  fighting a battle against our flesh, against the world, against the devil; we find a corner in our home and sit while everything is revolving around.

Eugène Delacroix: The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1854

Do you feel like you are losing your peace?

Peace, a beautiful word, a great longing of our soul, yet so misunderstood.  Peace, my dear friend, first of all cannot be found elsewhere but in Jesus; true peace is only found when we know that our sins have been washed away by His blood.

I am not talking here about that kind of peace that many “Christians” pursue nowadays; they live in sin, but they say that their soul is not troubled and they are at peace, so it should be ok. O, I have heard this, it breaks my heart to see people deceiving themselves and mocking God. This is not the peace I am talking here.

The perfect peace I am talking about is that which comes from God the Father to his own; is that peace which is a gift from God to those who honor and fear His name.

I am talking about the peace that perseveres and walks hand in hand with our trust in God’s Word.

“You keep him in perfect peace
 whose mind is stayed on you,
 because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
 for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”


Isaiah 26: 3-4

Read again the Bible verse, read the promise…God is not only the one who gives us true peace, but He is the Keeper of our peace. He keeps us in perfect peace. He does that.

He keeps us in perfect peace, he we watch the news, and when our husband job is not going well, He keeps us in perfect peace when we have work to do and we are in that 28 days’ cycle,  we are kept in peace.

God is the one who keeps us in peace, but He asks one thing from us here, perseverance.

He asks us to stay our minds upon Him.

We must persevere in His Word; this the way to live in His perfect peace under His sun.

Let us abide in His word.

Let us read the Word, let us drink from it until our soul finds rest; let us memorize it, meditate upon it. This is the only way to pursue true peace.

We easily “lose our peace”, not because God has left us, but because we have not been persevering on the meditation of His Word.

Listen to the words of your mouth, listen to the thoughts of your mind. Is the Word of God reigning in you? Are you abiding in the Word?

 “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15: 7-11 ESV

May your journey today be peaceful, full of Him, full of His Word.

Have you seen the invitation? Would you like to read along a great book about what does it mean to be a godly woman?

Join me, I am giving away one book, just leave a comment and you are ready to participate!

The giveaway will be tomorrow, so sign in today before midnight!

Daniel’s Prayer

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The Prophet Daniel, Michelangelo Buonarroti

Daniel was reading Jeremiah and the inspired words he read brought him to his knees in prayer.

Now I read what Daniel, under the inspiration of God wrote, and I am brought to my knees in prayer.

God speaks through His Word, and I respond in prayer; and yet, some times, like Daniel, my response should be accompanied with fasting.

I read and I pray, I read and I see my sin and repent, I read and I find promises and I find rest.

We kept on reading at the family table the book of Daniel, my son knew I love this chapter and asked Dad if I could read it. I did, and I found in his prayer, my prayer.

“Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.  O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” (Ch 9:16-20 ESV)

Jesus had not come yet, however, Daniel, through the Holy Spirit knew why he could present himself  before the Almighty God in prayer. It was not because of his own righteousness; he knew this would be impossible, but because of God’s  great mercy, because he had been called by God’s name. This was the ground on which he stood firmly before a Just and Righteous God.

We can come to God, to our Father, because of Jesus’ name; if He has called you by your name, if you have heard his voice, do not delay your coming to Him in prayer; find His voice in the Scriptures, pray, see your heart in the light of the Word of God, and repent of your sins. His mercies are new today, His grace never ends, He is delighted in hear us calling on His name.

While Daniel was still praying, the Lord sent an angel to assure him that his prayer had been answered, that he was greatly loved!

An angel will not come to us anymore. We have  now a greater assurance that our prayer has been heard, we have Jesus’ precious words:

“In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”         John 16: 23.24 ESV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”     Matthew 7:7-10 ESV

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”     Mark 11:24 ESV

  “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”     John 14: 13- 14 ESV

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7 ESV 

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”      John 15:16 ESV

May you hear his voice today through the reading of His Word and fall on your knees in prayer, to find His grace and never ending mercy.

Take God’s Word with you, Praying God’s Promises @ Challies
Read it Very Much, a great article by George Müller, find it at Penned Pebbles.

Desires and Prosperity

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You have read your Bible over and over again, day after day and suddenly one verse pops out as if it had never been there, have you experienced this? Well, this I read in Proverbs for the “first time” yesterday…

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied”.
Proverbs 13: 4 (ESV)

We know how Proverbs teaches us to be diligent in all work, but here it is talking about the matters of our soul.

I read biographies of godly women, I see the life of many others in our day, and they inspire me to grow in my sanctification, but there is ONE thing all these women have in common, they desired, they longed to grow in the Lord and were not sluggards regarding their spiritual state, they were diligent in pursuing their sanctification.

I have forgotten to work on a new Bible verse to memorize, I have not always been diligent in guarding the words of my mouth. I must again go to my Master’s feet and find his forgiveness and strength to walk diligently in the matters of my soul.

I found this at Grace Gems this morning and the author says what I have been meditating, but his words are better than mine:

“The points of contrast are many and striking. The “sluggard” has his religious “desires,” and nothing more. He would sincerely be saved, but makes no effort to get salvation. He would be religious, without real religion; pious, without true piety; claiming the fruit of godliness apart from the root of godliness; looking for the reward of labor, without the labor that secures the reward; expecting the conquest of sinful habits without the battle that ensures the victory: in a word, looking for heaven without taking one real step heavenward!”

 And please, do not misunderstand me, I am not thinking that one must do something in order to achieve salvation. God forbid. I believe salvation is only by grace through the faith, which is a gift from God. I am saying that many Christians, long and desire to be more holy, more like Jesus, many desire to swim in the ocean of His grace yet are sluggards. It is easier to sit and contemplate others in their journey,  longing to have their soul richly supplied and yet, they just sit back. No diligence, no gain, no victories, no satisfaction. No crown.

Regarding the soul of the diligent man, the author says,

“It is, too, the lesson of daily life and of our whole life. Each day should find us growing in an acquaintance with Christ; augmenting our stock of grace; strengthening the graces of our Christian character; and “increasing in the knowledge of God.” Nor is this diligence to terminate but with the termination of our Christian course. “We desire,” says the Apostle, “that every one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.” The necessity of watchfulness, earnestness, and perseverance in the things relating to our eternal future will exist until that future is reached.

The race we run, admits of no pause; the pilgrimage we travel, of no halting; the battle we fight, of no truce; the prize for which we compete, of no compromise. There is an end before us, and that end we must keep full in view. The Savior has said, “He that endures to the end shall be saved.” “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life that fades not away.”

This is what is in my heart today, what I am meditating upon, and so I start today a new day on my journey.

Please, if you have time, read the whole article on Spiritual Diligence here, and be encouraged.



One Passage, Nine Days

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Read, ponder, meditate over a passage for seven nine days, “meet God in the same place…”, Lyla suggested and I did so, and I was blessed.

The passage was I John 3; those words I ate for nine days.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (v. 1a)

See…just see what kind of love the Father has given to us…
and I had to stop there.
I had to see.
Lord, the only way to see, to really see your love is looking
to the cross.
The Father sent His only begotten Son to suffer,
to die,
to bear the sins of many.
He then turned His face away from
His Son who in spite of not knowing sin,
became sin.
The Lord appeared.
You, Lord, hanging there; You God made man,
humbled unto death,
bearing my sin,
my guilt;
And I did not love you, I did not deserved you;
and yet you died.
I see the kind of love
the Father has given us
and I ponder over it for nine days.
And thus I start my nine days pondering over one passage; and then, the word of God which is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword; pierced  to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerned the thoughts and intentions of my heart. 
I cannot write here all I learned, it is kept in the quiet chambers of my soul.
He appeared! (v.4) The Lord appeared to take away the sins of His own, and He appeared to destroy the works of the devil (v.8) And this is should make us rejoice, and I thanked Him, but the context says more …
“No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” (v.6)
“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” (v.9-10)
No one who has sin Him keeps on sinning.
There is no excuse.
If I have seen hanging on the cross,
If I have truly seen Him.
I have no excuse
for my sins.
I cannot live in sin.
And the words are there, more words in one passage ready to pierce my heart.
The first sin John mentions I should not live in is lack of love. (v.11-18)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us…
as I see the Father’s kind of love for His own, 
I see how far from loving like He does I am.
And I see that lack of love is murder,
and not loving like He does 
is to live holding and not giving.
Love reaches out.
The kind of love the Father gives
is love that gives until death.
The passage has not finished, neither my desire to learn from it. Verses 19- 24 are  more that I deserve.
The Father sent His Son to die on the cross, to suffer my guilt, and that was not all…Now He, as  loving Father, gives me precious promises.
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” (v 21-22)
Now we can come before God, with a cleansed heart, a heart free from the bondage of sin because of the blood of Jesus. And not only that, but we can come and ask boldly before the Throne of Grace, knowing that He hears us and wants to give us whatever we ask from Him…. if we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him.
And I close my Bible and I pray.
I see Him.
I have seen His love.
I am loved.
And all is grace,
undeserving grace.

This post is linked to Lyla’s post today. (Gracias Lyla)