Are we going to start with the Faith lesson? Everyone drop a line, how you are doing, thoughts on the lesson, prayer requests, just write as the Spirit moves! Love to you all and I can't wait to hear from everyone!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Welcome to Green Pastures
Hello! I hope you are all enjoying the beginning of summer and this posting finds you well. I'm so excited to continue our discussion of Gospel Transformation with everyone! Jeanette thought of the name Green Pastures, from psalm 23. Which I think is great, what a beautiful picture of walking with the Lord and reading the word together, lying down in green pastures. I pray that as we continue to walk with Him beyond college and this school year that we would find peace and grace as He makes us lie down in green pastures. However, if someone else has another opinion toss it out there, we can always change our name.
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I LOVE the name and the green background too! Way to pick my favorite color :) And I agree, let's start with the faith lesson. Can't wait to start this blogging journey with you all as we enter this next phase of our lives!
ReplyDeleteYay! Thanks so much, Kelly for getting this started. The faith lesson sounds like a good start. :)
ReplyDeleteI realize that not everyone has joined yet. Even so, I would like to start off so that we get this going at least for the first lesson.
ReplyDeleteIn the lesson "Living by faith", I was struck by Jesus' response in John 6:29.
When he was asked what they must do to be DOING the works of God, Jesus answered differently than they expected. He answered with one thing: believe in him whom he has sent.
Believing something isn't really hard to do. And anyone can do it. It wasn't that we are supposed to memorize all of the Torah or anything. (I don't think I would be able to do that, that's HARD). It was simply believe in Jesus Christ. But that is a different type of "hard". It involves our actions and our hearts as well.
Then I was thinking about how Jesus phrased his response. He did not say that "To do God's work you must believe". Rather he said "This is the work of God, that you believe..." So my thought is that perhaps it has nothing to do with us at all. It has more to do with God. It is God that softens our hearts to believe. It is God's work. I know that we have a choice, that is certain. But it's not that I first loved God; He first loved me. I did not choose to seek after God and believe with all my might that Jesus is the Son of God. In fact, I rebelled against it at first. So my thought is that when Jesus responds to the crowd, he is saying:
1. our work is just to believe
and
2. that work is not entirely our work, it's God's work.
Great thoughts Jeanette! That is so refreshing knowing that it is not about what we do, but merely to believe in Him.
ReplyDeleteIt is so amazing to see how faith is really the bedrock of everything and how often I don't get it and how often Jesus told the disciples they didn't get it. I really enjoyed the section with all the verses in it this is what I took away:
FAITH allows us to do what Christ did and more (John 14:12)
FAITH causes obedience (Romans 1:5)
FAITH in LOVE is all that counts (Galatians 5:6)
Through FAITH Christ dwells in our hearts (Ephesians 3:1-17)
Work is produced by FAITH and is what spurs us on (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thess 1:11)
The Gospel is meaningless without FAITH (Heb 4:2)
Our FAITH pleases God and overcomes the world (Heb 11:6; 1 John 5:4)
When I look at this I see just how important faith, but then I look at my own life and see how much faith I lack. Too many times I am like the disciples that flip out when the storm crashes into their boat.....
"And a great windstorm arose, and the waves o were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and p rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and q there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “WHY ARE YOU SO AFRAID? HAVE YOU STILL NO FAITH?”
It is my prayer that I would become a women of faith that I would not fear when life's storms roll in and I would laugh at the days to come. How amazing would it be to grasp this faith that is so vital.