This last week has truly been a roller coaster. I received my official letter that my job will be moving out of state by the end of March 2013 but I also had two interviews for new jobs. I had a little out-patient surgery that caused me to miss teaching class Sunday night. But in God's wisdom and timing I had already been able to study ahead and had notes prepared to continue on with the next few verse of Genesis. Tricia, my friend and ministry partner, was able to step in and lead the ladies. So today I'll share what the Lord taught my and then ask you to share your thoughts and/or questions in the comment section below. {To leave a comment simply click the comment button in the share line at the bottom of the post. You can either set up a Google account that takes a few seconds or you can simply be anonymous}. However you choose I can assure you that your comments are always welcomed.
We begin this week with the fifth day of creation. The day God formed both the birds and the seas. He formed all the diverse types of birds and sea animals at the same time. They did not evolve over millions of years and they did not develop from the plant life that was already created. Once this day was coming to an end God blessed them. He blessed them telling them to "be fruitful and multiply." They had a job to do. He had given them a purpose that only they could fulfill.
On the sixth day God moved on to the next step in His plan when He created the land animals. Notice in verse 24 just like back in verse 20 and again in other verses to follow, we are told that that each was to produce "according to its kind". God deliberately structured plenty of variation within a kind, but one kind does not become another kind. For example, structure among dogs is diverse. The teacup poodle is very different from the Great Dane, but they are both dogs. However, they won't ever become mice, no matter how much breeding is done.
He then continues His work for that sixth by creating humans in his own image. Again He blessed them and gave instructs to "be fruitful and multiply". But with the man He gave more instructions and with that more authority. He said, " Fill the whole earth and govern it. Reign over the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry the earth."
I love the fact that God blessed them before He gave them their directive. To me that shows that He gave them all the wisdom and ability that they would need to fulfill the duty He has sat before them. That give me hope and encouragement that He will do the same for me. God had pronounced the creation good, He really meant it. At the time it was entirely good: there was no decay on earth, yet. But once He sees the man He has created His analysis of His work He declares it to be 'very good'.
God has created us all for a purpose, given us authority, and blessed us to fulfill that purpose. Are we doing all that we were created to do ? Will He declare us to be very good ?
Holley's God-sized dream challenge for this week is, "find a God-sized dreams buddy in your everyday life or online. Share your God-sized dream with that person and ask for their encouragement and prayers on your journey."
"I hope it is okay that I volunteered you to make the dressing for the office Thanksgiving dinner. We need enough to feed about 25 people." My sweet hubby said these words to me late one evening a little of a month after our wedding day. He had not taken into consideration that I had never ever made dressing before in my 20 years of life. I quickly called my mother-in-law to plead for her help. She gave me a shopping list and told me to come to her house the next night and she would help me.
WHEW!!! What a relief.
As I carried bags of ingredients I was really expecting her to take them and start mixing it all up then I would walk out with a finished pan of golden brown dressing. Little did I know Nana had other plans. She poured herself a tall glass of sweet tea, sat at the table and begin giving me directions. I chopped, measured, mixed and baked one small pan of dressing. She took one bite, "that's good but a little dry." She explained what I had done wrong. Again I chopped, measured, mixed and baked another small pan. "Better but needs more sage." I was getting frustrated and very upset. As I slumped in the chair next to her she gently placed her hand on my shoulder and assured me that I would get it. "Just try one more time." So for the 3rd time I chopped, measured, mixed and baked. This time she put a large spoonful on her plate and declared this pan to be perfect.
Nana has spent the last five Thanksgivings at the banquet table in Heaven but each time I get ready to make the dressing I think of that night she spent hours teaching, instructing and encouraging me.
I have been so bless to have different people pour love and knowledge in to various areas in my life. First is my sweet precious momma. We had a difficult time in my teen years but through it all she taught me how to love with an unconditional love. Then I have my best friend and ministry partner, Tricia, that is always just a phone call away to listen to all my ups and downs. Deb, another dear friend, that is just a little farther down the motherhood road than I am. She is the one that loves me with the greatest love yet she is there when needed to point out the times I am letting my emotions over run me. These three along with a church full of other Godly ladies speak truth and light into my life in so many different ways. I also have had several professional mentors that have spent time with me to point out my strengths and weakness in the business world for my "real" job.
Each and every one of these encourager/mentors have played a part in molding me into the person I am today. So as I looked back at Holley's challenge I realize that I have already met this challenge. I have shared my dream with Momma, Tricia, Deb, Ladies bible study group, co-workers and here online. Yet I feel God pushing to go a little deeper. See all of these ladies love me, pray for me and encourage me. They know my desire to serve God. They know my story. They know me. Each one of them will do whatever they can to help make my God-sized dream of speaking/teaching God's word to become a reality.
However, there are the business aspects of ministry that many times we want to ignore. That is the area I lack direction and confidence in. I struggle with if I am suppose to sit back and simply wait for God to open the door for speaking opportunities or if it is okay to do some marketing. I don't have the answer to many questions on how to book events, what the best way to interact with event coordinators and many many more. So as a next step towards my God-sized dream I am looking and praying for God to put someone in my life that not only shares this dream but has already brought it into reality. Someone that is willing to walk along beside me as God's plan unfolds.
Do you have a Dream Team ? What types of different support strengths does your team offer you? Is the an area that you need more assistance and encouragement in ?
My parents have always enjoyed going to flea markets and yard sales. Mother would spend time carefully digging through a box just in case there was a treasure at the bottom. While Dad would walk around touching each and every piece of furniture, equipment or any other big item trying to decide how much he could talk the owner down. One Sunday they loaded us kids in the van and head to the largest indoor flea market in town. After we have walked past hundreds of vendors, I saw something I wanted to get a closer look at so I let go of my daddy's hand and walked away. It was only for a minute but I was focused on the sparkly object of my desire I also took my eyes off dad. Even when I began walking back towards my dad I still keep looking back to the object. I slow slipped my hand into his and took a few steps. I finally looked up to ask if I could get the treasure I wanted. Imagine my surprise when I lifted my eyes up to see a face I did not recognize. I was holding the hand of a man I did not know. He smiled, dropped my hand but I began to cry. I quickly looked around and right behind me was my daddy. As he scooped me up in his arms, he wiped my tears and said, "You don't have to worry I had my eye on you the whole time."
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of our head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31
I have often found myself looking to the shiny objects that the world has to offer. When I do that means I take my eyes off of the Father to lead me. But it is always such a comfort to know that no matter how far I wonder off He keeps He eye on me and is waiting for me to look up, look around and come running back to Him.
If you have walked away following things lift your head, look around and He is there to pick you up, dry your tears and hold your hand going forward.
Remember the TV commercial with the little boy asking the wise owl, "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?" The owl licks it once, twice, three times and then CHOMP! he bites into it. He declared it only takes 3. Just three licks is all the owl could stand before he knew he wanted more.
I am sure you are wondering why I am talking about Tootsie Pops on a post that is suppose to be about our study of the Chronological bible. Here is the connection: The first year my group read through the bible we began to realize just how much of God's word we really did not know. So we spent that year just trying to wrap our mind around it all. Come December of that year we realized that we wanted to know more.
We went into the next year just hungry and thirsty for so much more. We would read all week long but then when we would came together and began discussing/sharing what God had been revealing to us we did not have enough time. Every year God would show us more through our study but just like the owl with the tootsie pop we wanted more.
I explained in my last Wednesday in the Word post how we plan on going slower this time around even if it takes us 3-7 years.
Following are a few of the notes from last Sunday night :
Before we can even began to understand and trust in God then we must decide in our hearts why we believe the words of the Bible. As I have pondered this question I came across this video by Pastor Voddie Baucham that explains in detail why we can believe the Bible it true.
We do not know who wrote the Book of Genesis. And we do not know when that person wrote the book. There is an ancient tradition that Moses was the author. Modern Bible students have many other ideas. But we can see that Genesis is a very old book. Even the oldest books in the Bible refer to it (for example, Exodus 3:15; Job 28:25-29).
The book of Genesis begins with three different accounts of one creation. Chapter 1, verses 1&2, sum up the whole of creation. Chapter 1, verse 3 through Chapter 2, verse 3, speaks of the seven days of creation. Chapter 2, verse 4 through 25, speaks of the creation of man. It is an expanding summation of the same occasion
Genesis is a very careful account, which teaches the main principles in the Bible. The author describes the nature of God. The author explains God’s plan for a perfect world. The author describes *sin and *sacrifice. He speaks about God’s promise to forgive. And, he speaks about God’s promise to send Jesus. The Bible teaches that the author was not merely setting out his own ideas. Instead, he wrote inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.
Genesis is important to the New Testament. There are at least 165 passages in Genesis either directly quoted or clearly referred to in the New Testament; many of these are quoted more than once, so there are at least 200 quotations or allusions to Genesis in the New Testament
In Genesis’ 1:1-25 – God proved both his power and his love by creating.With just a simple spoken word he brought into existence all that we see and know around us
Sunday January 6, 2013 we just cover Genesis 1:1-19 - The first four days of creation.
A few of the 'new' things we learned are:
V1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth:
This tells us that God used no pre-existing material to create the earth. The ancient Hebrew word bara (created) is specific. It means to create out of nothing, showing that that God created the world out of nothing, not out of Himself. God is separate from His creation. Unlike Eastern and pantheistic perceptions of god, the Bible teaches the universe could perish yet He would remain.
Men cannot “create” in the sense the term is used in Genesis 1:1. We can only “fashion” or “form” things out of existing material.When we paint a picture, make a pottery jar or any type of say art then we may use the phrase “I created that.” When actually we should say I formed that or I put these things together to make a final product.
God created: This summary statement will be detailed in the following verses, but the Bible simply and straightforwardly declares the world did not create itself or come about by chance. It was created by God, who, by definition, is eternal and has always been.
God created the heavens: The simple fact of God’s creation is even more amazing when we consider the greatness of God’s universe. A typical galaxy contains billions of individual stars; our galaxy alone (the Milky Way) contains 200 billion stars. Our galaxy is shaped like a giant spiral, rotating in space, with arms reaching out like a pinwheel, and our sun is one star on one arm of the pinwheel. It would take 250 million years for the pinwheel to make one full rotation. But this is only our galaxy; there are many other galaxies with many other shapes, including spirals, spherical clusters, and flat pancakes. The average distance between one galaxy and another is about 20 million trillion miles. Our closest galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy, about 12 million trillion miles away.
Louie Giglo spends about 40 minutes walking us through the details how awesome our God is by detailing our galaxy: In order words the universe as we can now see it through things like the Hubble telescopes show the imprint of God on every star.
V2. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the water.
It maybe that God first created the elementary principles of things; and this formed a grand mass of matter, without arrangement : a vast collection of indescribably confused materials, of nameless entities strangely mixed
V3-5. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
There was light: Genesis tells us that light, day, and night each existed before the sun and the moon were created on the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-19). This shows us that light is more than a physical substance; it also has a supernatural aspect. In the new heavens and the new earth, there won’t be any sun or moon. God Himself will be the light (Revelation 22:5).
We realized that this light was created before the sun, the moon or the stars. So we discussed what this light could have been. One of the explanations we came up with was this light was simply a word that God gave the author to explain that he was adding order to the Earth, Just like when you turn on a light switch when you first walk into a dark room
V6-8. 6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” 7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the space “sky.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.
I personally had never really notice the wording 'waters of the heaven' in these verses. After some studying I realized that since there was no rain until Noah these 'waters of heaven' was a heavy water vapor above the earth. It basically served like a global greenhouse.
V9-13. 9 Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened. 10 God called the dry ground “land” and the waters “seas.” And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened. 12 The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.
God does not call the earth good until it has become habitable, a place where man can live
V14-19 Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. 15 Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. 16 God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, 18 to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day
Letthem be for signs and seasons: We often look to the trees and flowers to show us signs of the seasons changing but I never knew that the stars changed with the seasons
This is just a few of the 15+ pages of notes that I had. I hope that going forward you will read along with us. I would love to hear what God reveals to you through our readings. Just post in the comments below.
{I recently came across Holley Gerth’s site where she invited us to begin thinking what our God-sized dreams are. Last Tuesday, I began following her God-Sized dreams link up with this post. So each week I will be journaling here about the dream God has given me and I would love for you to join me by sharing your dreams in the comments.}
I have worn glasses for as long as I can really remember but actually only since I was about 3 years old. I was born with Amblyopia or what is more commonly known as 'lazy eye'. Basically the muscles of my left eye were not strong enough to hold the eye straight. As I got older the doctor told us there were surgeries they could do to correct it but they were not guaranteed to work. The other option was glasses along with a wide array of exercises. Yes, exercises for eye muscles. The first was to wear a patch of the 'good eye' in order to work the weaker muscles in the left eye. I can not tell you how much I hated wearing that patch. The tape caused my skin to itch, I would get headaches and to be honest it was just ugly. I hated wearing it.
However, the second exercise was fun and I enjoyed it. The doctor had my dad to build me a beam that sat about 6 inches off the ground and was about 6 foot long. Every evening I was to walk across that beam back and forth at least 25 times. He instructed me not to be like the gymnast. I was not to hold my head high walking with my feet perpendicular but instead I was to focus on watching my feet. I needed to continually watch each step not worrying about how far it was to the end. The point was to use that eye muscle by forcing it to focus on a specific spot, my feet.
Last week after writing about my God-sized dream I began think of all that would have to happen before I could declare to myself that my dream was a reality. It was a long, long list. I was discouraged just thinking about. I just wanted to quit before I even got started. But I couldn't quit. I mean not only had I put it in writing but I posted here for the whole world to read. (Or at least the few family and friends that wonder by here on occasion). So I knew I had to at least try to follow through. I decided I could use my balance beam exercise to help me move forward.
Here is how:
I will not approach my dream with my head held high but instead I will always keep it bowed in prayer for guidance.
I will not set my eyes on the end and how far I have to go but instead I will just look to the one next step.
I will not rush to quickly that I lose my balance and fall but instead I slow move as the Lord directs me to.
When I do finally get to the end I will turn around and begin again.
I have taken a couple of small steps this past week. With the left foot I stepped forward to spend more time in bible study that will later become messages that I can share with women that will encourage them in their God-sized dreams. Then with the right foot I took a step to speak to a group of about 25 ladies on the subject of Joy. It is time to take a breath and bring the left foot forward again and focus on the next small step, to be consistent in posting encouraging words here on the blog, my facebook page and twitter. Then I will add the next step of working to schedule another event.
Last week this post from author Holly Gerth popped in my inbox. I normal let a few stack up and then read them all at one time but the title "God-sized Dreams & The “Do What You Can” Plan" made my heart almost skip a beat. She explained that a God sized dream has nothing to do with the size of the dream but more with the desire of the heart.
Today I am joining Holley and her "Dream" team in sharing my God-sized dream but first let me give you a short of the background story:
My journey towards my God-sized dream began many years ago in high school when I need one more elective class to finish out my junior year. I wanted to take an easy class that I wouldn't have to work to hard in. So I signed up for the speech class. I have never really had trouble talking in a group (it was the one-to-one conversations that scared me). Standing in front of 18 students giving my final exam speech was the extend of my time at the podium. That is until about 10 years ago. Shirley walked up to me one Sunday evening after church and said, "You know we need a teacher in the kids Sunday School and I think you would be good at it. Will you try it ?" Before I knew what was happening I had said, "yes." So a few weeks later once again I was standing in front of a class room and it just felt right. I taught that class for two years. I had gotten the routine of studying, preparing and teaching. It became comfortable. Almost to comfortable.
One evening a young guest preacher was speaking at our church and the only words I remember coming from his mouth was, "when you are the most uncomfortable is when God is going to use you." I knew then that God was calling me to move on to a new assignment. The problem was I had no clue what that assignment would be. But again the answer came from Him through a church friend when I was asked to help teach the adult ladies class. WOW !!!! teaching kids is one thing but teach women many of who were so much more mature in their faith is something totally different. As I sat at the front of this class my lip quivered. I broke out in a sweat. But the words flowed and it felt right. Once again I became familiar with the role and at easy. I am still teaching that class to as we began to read through the Chronological Bible for the third year. God has blessed me so much through the study and the ladies that I am humbled to lead. As much as I love digging into His Word with my sister I feel a tug at my heart to step out of the comfort zone I am in.
So here it goes.....my God-sized dream is to share all that God has taught me in my roller coaster journey through my depression to His joy. I want to share it in one on one conversations as well as the larger group presentations. God planted this dream seed in my heart several years ago. Slowing He has been watering it through the encouraging words of others. He then pruned it by opening my eyes to the true needs of others, showing me that it wasn't about me. Now I believe it is time for some blooming to occur.
Join me over at Holley's place to see all the God is doing through the dreams of women.
OK I have opened up and shared my God-sized dream so now it is your turn. What is your dream? Remember it is has nothing to do with size or scope and everything to do with heart and desire.
I have an old desktop that is so old that I do not even remember when I got. So I access Facebook, Twitter and any other social networking on my Precious (IPhone) as well as take phone calls and text with it. Then for Christmas Mike and the kids gave me a brand new Windows 8 laptop. I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to pulling files and data that I need from the old PC to load on my new laptop. I reviewed some word documents that were written by my son his junior year in high school (2005-2006) even some PDF files downloaded from as far back as 2003.
During the process I began to think of all the things we do through our media outlets.
We delete what we don't like.
We accept the things or people we agree with.
We like the ones that make us feel good.
We share our thoughts and opinions
We do all these things with the ease of a click. We don't think twice about. It all has just become second nature to us. So much so that we apply all the methods listed above to our relationship with God. Don't believe me ? Well, don't we delete from our thoughts the commandments that we don't like. They are still there but because we don't think they apply to us we just remove them from our minds. When we are in church do we only include the others that look like us? Are we diligent to seek out others that need to hear about God regardless of who they are or where they are ? As we study through God's word do we chose to share and accept only the verse that make us feel good, only the ones that encourage us, and lift you up. Do we watch for opportunities to share thoughts and opinions with other that will edify them?
In 2013 as I read through the chronological bible, it is my desire to welcome each verse
