Hey Girls!
I don't have time to proof-read today so I'm asking for a liberal dose of grace!
Also, I'm counting on my sisters who attended today's class along with me to take a moment, grab a cup of coffee or other such thing, and pull up a chair in the Comment Cafe so that you can add your voice to what transpired this morning! Let's be women that come along side and encourage and inspire others as we pour in all that God has poured into us. I so enjoyed our morning together and all that came from it and judging from some of your comments to me afterwards...you feel the same way as well. Angie and Linda M., if you could just pop into the Comment Cafe at some point and perhaps share again some of what you were discussing with the class this morning, I know the girls that were away would greatly appreciate it!
As we went through the homework portion of Chapter Two we obviously took a closer look into the name of God, Elohim, as we looked into Genesis 1:1-3 and saw the Trinity on full display as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were revealed in those verses. We also looked at God as Creator of us as individuals and what it means in John 9:3 when Jesus said of the man who was born blind "...it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him." We also discussed what it means to bring God glory and of living in the light of it each day. Debbie S. had a bit to share about that! We moved on to discuss what it means to "give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness".
At one point, I took the class into Genesis 33:7-23 to show them Moses and his making a tent of meeting outside the camp. Keeping YADA (knowing God/Intimacy with God) as our cry of faith throughout these 17 weeks, it is important that we also have our daily 'tent of meeting', our YADA time with God. To get away and meet with God, to bask in all of Who He is and to get to know Him intimately. Out of these verses in Genesis we looked at the truth that to know His ways, is to know Him and the importance of not only knowing that He is with us, but of knowing the One Who is with us!
The third portion of our morning was spent in a beginning look into the Trinity. That God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are indeed Three in One, being One in purpose and yet having three distinct personalities and wills. God the Father has His will, God the Son has His will but came to do the will of the Father, the Holy Spirit has His will , but came to do the will of the Son, Who does the will of the Father. I took the class to Luke 22:42 and John 16:13 where this distinction in three separate wills is made very clear. We began (I will endeavour to make this a continuous teaching throughout this study) to touch on those attributes that are distinct to God the Father alone. The verses that we looked at were 1 Timothy 1:15-17. We also looked at how each in the Trinity are to be approached by us. All of Jesus' prayers were directed to the Father, Jesus Himself said that we are to pray, as He did, to the Father. "Our Father, Who art in heaven,...". The prayers that we pray to Jesus are immediately directed by Him to God the Father.
Each weekly gathering that we have always holds so much and it's the voices and contributions of your sisters that add to the blessing. Take full advantage of the Comment Cafe below to meet with your sisters throughout the week and to glean from them anything that you may have missed. Ask questions and share insights!
In light of our time this morning I will leave you with this...
Your Elohim,
your Creator God,
knew you from before you were ever formed by Him in your mothers womb.
He tells us in His Word that no matter your circumstances or experiences,
He will take the whole of your life, the good, the bad and the ugly,
and will work them all together for your good and His glory...
to shape you more and more into the image of His Son.
He knows all about you,
He created you.
Now, go.
Go into your tent of meeting...
and thank Him.
your Creator God,
knew you from before you were ever formed by Him in your mothers womb.
He tells us in His Word that no matter your circumstances or experiences,
He will take the whole of your life, the good, the bad and the ugly,
and will work them all together for your good and His glory...
to shape you more and more into the image of His Son.
He knows all about you,
He created you.
Now, go.
Go into your tent of meeting...
and thank Him.
Come on in,
pull up a chair,
and chat with your sisters this week in...
The Comment Cafe
Looking forward to chatting with you! I'll be popping in later tonight, hope to see you here! :)
ReplyDeleteHi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI am just so excited about our study and have really enjoyed the amount of input that has happened. We really can learn from each other! Cathie it is so hard because you have sooo much to teach us and yet we have so little time! What a dilemma but I am grateful that God has made it possible for each and every one us of to share in this class. I just loved looking at the Triune God and am every excited that we are going to learn more. I just can't get enough.
I am looking forward to this week's study and hope that I feel the peace that you and Linda felt this week but somehow I am not sure that God is ready to give it to me yet.
Debbie
HI Girls...For me, Monday was a good day. I found myself struggling over the weekend. I just could not put my thoughts down and felt stuck. The sun came out andI I decided to do some work outside. I have always loved my home and so I found myself thanking God for all that was around me and I just had a conversation with Him while I worked. I remember telling Him that this was His garden and I wanted to make His place beautiful. I started to feel such a sense of joy and was feeling His presence with me. I did not even notice that it had been raining. I should have been tired...but no just a wonderful sense of being in His presence and that He was pleased. Walking down the driveway back to the house the sun "Son" came out and a beautiful double rainbow was over my house.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing I would like to share with you is about my cousin Eddie. He was the youngest of three boys. His older two brothers were university educated. Eddie never was able to attend school. He never learned to read and we could not make out what he wrote BUT what he made clear was how much he loved Jesus. His pastor would let him stand up in church and take as much time as he needed to say "Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you! His bible was so worn from spending time in His Word. God communicated with Eddie in a very powerful way...he walked closely with his God. On a Sunday morning 8 years ago he went up to his pastor and said "going home". Four days later his pastor realized what Eddie was telling him. We sang a song that he loved...
"He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known."
That is my prayer for all of us!
Love...Always..
Angie
What a lovely way to draw this evening to a close, to hear the voices of my sisters articulate, each in her own way, the love that they have for God, and for the way that He so well and fully loves them.
ReplyDeleteThank you Angie and Debbie. We are indeed surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and the truth is, that many of them are with us in the here and now. I am blessed to have you both in my life... thank you.
Good morning Sisters...
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying this time of completely relaxting in the warmth of the sun. But I can honestly say I am sorry to be missing this Bible Study with all of you. I am missing the depth to which you are digging. Iron sharpens iron. I can say in doing the study on my own is giving me another layer of understanding of "knowing HIM".
The translation of the Hebrew names of GOD and appying that particular description to the individual identities of the TRINITY is an exciting new way of reading scripture. I am looking forward to doing just that. Cathie, i am thankful for your blog. It is a way for me to participate in the class from afar. Although I will miss the interaction but that is the price I must pay. So keep writing girls. Take care and love to all of you.
Your "very tanned" and well rested sister in Mexico. .....Edna
Hi Edna! It just tickles me that your gorgeous tanned self is able to pop into the Comment Cafe all the way from Mexico and chat with us! Send me some pictures via e-mail and I'll post them in the Gathering Place and we will do the same! Love that you are gleaning from the Word along with us!
ReplyDeleteLove you!
Cathie
Good Morning...I feel like I have been given a bonus...I don't have to do what I thought I was going to be doing and now will be doing what I didn't think I could!
ReplyDeleteEdna...so good to hear from you! I think the best thing about being on holidays is the time you have to be in His Word. Not only will you come back tanned [don't sit next to me] but your heart will be filled from being in His Rest!
Thank you Cathie for your teaching yesterday and giving us so much to chew on! I have a question before I begin this weeks study. I think I heard you say that God was before Jesus and when Debbie asked where that was in scripture you gave us a verse. Could you give us that verse again and maybe expand on it a little? Just when I think I have the trinity down...I realize...not so much!
Love...Always
Angie
Yikes! Angie, I honestly cannot remember saying that! This is where I miss having the audio podcast! The other girls are going to have to jump in here and help out!
ReplyDeleteGod, Elohim, has always been God in three Persons, the blessed Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you are remembering when I was speaking of the distinctions between God the Father and God the Son referencing 1 Timothy 6:13-16, that God the Father ALONE possesses immortality in that He has never died, nor will not ever die. We also covered that He alone dwells in inapproachable light, while God the Son was very approachable, that God the Father no man has seen or can see, while God the Son has been seen.
Oh! I remember! It might have been when I was showing that as God the Son is described as being the Alpha and the Omega, that God the Father is BEFORE the beginning and is AFTER the end! Because God the Father is Everlasting Jeremiah 10:10!
Is that it?!?!
Wow Cathie...that must be it! This is going to make Debbie and I sleep much better tonight!!!
ReplyDeleteSome really good things came out of it though and that is that I was determined to figure it out and I just kept coming back to the same conclusion...The Trinity has ALWAYS been...Thanks Cathie!
p.s. I wonder if the girls are finding this weeks study as challenging as I am
Hey, Angie, perfect timing to stop in for a chat, I just finished most of the teaching notes for this coming Thursday, so blessed! Linda Madu said that she stopped in earlier and will stop by later and do her best to enter into our chatter of all things God!
ReplyDeleteThis week is actually critical in our KNOWING God, and yes, it is definitely challenging! This would be a good week to begin a private journal as the content of scripture will in all probability bring out of our hearts some hard questions, if we are willing to go there. God will meet us in those hard places and answer our questions with Himself... these are very deep YADA moments that will only serve to strengthen our faith and trust in Him.
This is the kind of study that you could very easily fill in the blanks and be done in an hour... the challenge is not in the homework itself but in the challenge that comes when we allow His revealed Truth to enter into our hearts and minds and begin to stir up the dross, those lies that we have believed or those ways that we have avoided the fullness of Who He really is in lieu of the way that we have made Him out to be.
The reference, on the first page of Chapter 3, to Nebuchadnezzar alone just about did me in as I spent time in Daniel. Got me to thinking of why so many people seem to just lose their ever loving' minds! And when I was deep into Genesis 14, Angie, I promise hand on heart that I was giggling, thinking about all those conversations we had about Melchezidek... LORD have mercy!
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI tried to leave a comment on Sunday and, after writing a book ( or at least a booklet) I lost the comment so gave up at that point. So now I am confused by your answer to Angie. Jesus said He was the alpha and the mega but God is before the beginning and after the end???? Was not the Triune God present before the beginning and will be after the end? God the Father is immortal but Jesus came as a man and He died but was risen so is He not immortal now? I just can't wrap my mind around it.
Also, after completing Day 9 I am not sure I will ever be able to relate to God as El Elyon, The Most High. I have real trouble being content with whatever happens both in my own life and in the world. I can always bless Him and praise Him but I find it hard to feel thankful for all the bad, even though I understand that it is all according to His purpose and plan. Don't know if I am explaining this clearly but its the best I can do for now.
Looking forward to Thursday
Love,
Jan
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to discussions on tomorrow's class. Missing my sisters. XXXX Edna