Category: Bible study

Lessons from Gideon #3

Carolyn

GideonThis summer I’ve been tracking here some of the things we’ve been learning in our summer Bible study on Gideon. Priscilla Shirer, the author of the study, suggested using social media and the hashtag #lessonsfromGideon to do this. My “Lessons from Gideon” #1 and #2 are here and here.

At the end of the “Lessons from Gideon #1” after offering 6 lessons at the midway point of our study, it seemed like I should close that entry with some kind of concluding point, which as I thought about it was this: “7. God seems to be patient with Gideon as he makes him the mighty warrior that He called him to be.”

In fact, though I didn’t know it then, the patience of God was the theme for the next video session and the start of our Week 4 lessons. We discussed it last night.

One friend pointed out how amazing it was that the angel of the LORD would wait for Gideon while Gideon went to prepare his offering.

We saw how God was patient with Gideon as he questioned the angel of the LORD, then as he laid out his fleece twice, and as God Himself offered for Gideon to go down to the enemy camp to receive encouragement and confirmation before the battle. God is a God of patience.

That God should wait for us! How incredible is this?! If we have the notion of a God who is removed or uncaring, we need to think again. He is patient toward us to draw us to Himself, to salvation.

As I reflected more on this, it reminded me of this post on “The Patience of God” from Christmas 2013.

One other highlight from last night’s study: As we looked at Gideon’s assistant Purah who went with him into the enemy camp — perhaps so that if Gideon were to forget what he heard, Purah could remind him and help strengthen Gideon — we talked about our own friendships like Purah and how we can encourage one another and help hold each other accountable in various ways as we pursue God’s call.

At the end of the study, it seemed like we were all offering encouragement to one another, not necessarily completely intentionally, but as an overflow from our discussion. How beautiful it was to speak words of encouragement to friends, to come alongside them in their journey and say, “I see God in you through _____” or “I love the way God uses you to _____” etc. and to hear it back, “You are gifted in _______” etc.

One woman said something to me that I had never thought about in quite that way, though when she said it, I could remember immediately something even from childhood that evidenced it was true. But I’d never seen it as a gift, and in fact, recently had begun to diminish the whole idea of using it. To have it re-identified as a gift and consider how God might use it was something unexpected, but that sparked all sorts of ideas.

So these conversations allowed us to offer encouragement, receive encouragement, support one another in our giftings, and spark a little flame inside of what God could use, maybe something we’d long forgotten about or never known. I think we all left excited to look for ways to encourage others this week in things we see God doing in their lives.

I loved how Priscilla ended the video mentioning two parts — the part we do, but much bigger than that, the part God does. We cooperate in what He is doing, and He gives us His strength and the power of His Spirit to accomplish it for His glory. It is exciting to see what He is doing and be a part of His work in the world. (Ephesians 2:10)

Again, I only capture a few points here, but this is an excellent study. I continue to be grateful for it, for the women God has brought together this summer, and the enriching discussion we have each week centered around God’s Word.

Lessons from Gideon #2

Carolyn

It’s the early still of the morning, the best part of the day. The house is quiet. Through my den’s East-facing window, I see again the mercies of God as the sun rises on a new day, pointing me to the true Sunrise from on high.

This year I’ve been trying to give God the firstfruits of my day. Spending time in prayer and God’s Word in the day’s first moments has anchored me for the day ahead; given me time to express again my praise and trust in God and my need for greater faith; convicted me of sin; guided me in my path as I bring my requests before Him; given me peace and a time to thank Him; and blessed me in many unexpected ways.

But isn’t that always the case when we approach God in faith through Christ? In worshiping and surrendering to the One who created us and knows us and first gave to us — the One who did not spare His own Son so that we could be saved from our sins — we find our true identity, what we were made for, and are strengthened in Him for another day.

I shared last time some of the lessons from Gideon I’ve been taking away from my summer Bible study. Here are a few more:

Priscilla Shirer pointed out in the first session that Gideon was part of a nation that had stopped moving forward, how in this study we might find a “divine green light” on somewhere God might be calling us, and we can move forward in His strength.

As we’ve moved along in the study considering what God might be calling us to by looking at Gideon, Priscilla has pointed out that we have spheres of influence, and we must start in the circle nearest to us. So picture a target with a center bull’s-eye and the circles working outward. These are our spheres of influence.

Though Gideon was being called by God to deliver Israel from the Midianites’ oppression (Judges 6:14), Gideon’s work would began in the circles closest to him. He first had to pull down the altar of Baal that belonged to his father and cut down the Asherah (wooden symbol of a female deity, my Bible says) beside it (Judges 6:25). Then he was ready to move outward to another sphere.

“The journey of fulfilling our divine purpose will almost always follow this same pattern,” Priscilla writes.

She also notes, “Choosing to do our primary work in the smaller, less noticeable spheres and devote our best gifts there is often a foreign thought to us. We usually want to jump from the center directly to the perimeter of impact, skipping over the areas most closely connected to us. The result? A life and calling that eventually implode, caving in upon their shoddy, unstable structure.”

This resonated with me. It’s so easy to want to jump to something that looks bigger, to move outward to what might give me more gratification, without stopping to look inward or to focus on my first calling in the home. That is more invisible and often harder, with perhaps less immediate results, so it’s easy not to be as intentional with those central and foremost callings from God.

If we are married and have children, our husband and children are a natural calling not to be overlooked for something more. We won’t have to step on them to fulfill some other ministry. Other callings will enhance and be unified with those first ones.

I think this is so hard for Christian women today. We are being encouraged (in pure and good ways) to be dreaming, considering our passions and desires and how they can be used, taking new territory, moving to a next greater step, willing to give it all to go to something big and unknown. If we aren’t careful, though, we can begin to look to those things to fulfill us, rather than bring glory to God, and these things can cause us to shortchange the most central callings God has given us right in our home. What God calls us to will not be at the expense of our husband and children; it will be in conjunction and in harmony with our homes and family.

Priscilla writes, “These innermost circles are often the ones that offer the least amount of recognition. This is why so many people try to circumvent them. And yet your greatest impact will be done here — in the ordinary rhythms of your daily living.”

So I’m challenged not to look past the inner circles. In my life, I suppose it would look like this (I list church because I work there).

my spheres of influence
my spheres of influence

So while I began this study wondering or even hoping for some greater call on my life to emerge, the one that has settled in my heart is first and foremost in my home. I’ve become convinced that these calls don’t become separate, individual, and distinct, but work together in a way that will hopefully please God and bring Him glory. (These are lessons, though, I’ve been having to learn over the last 10 years!)

I’m thankful for a God who loves us, who calls us to Himself, who forgives us, who is merciful and patient with us, who gives us our identity in Him, and who does have purposes for us to accomplish in the world. May we seek Him for what that looks like so that we will neither move forward where He hasn’t led or shrink back in fear from what He is indeed calling us to.

Help us, Lord, as we work from the center out, to find ourselves in the center of Your will. Amen.

Lessons from Gideon #1

Carolyn

GideonThis summer my mom and I are hosting a small group Bible study on Gideon by Priscilla Shirer. This is the first Bible study of Priscilla’s that we’ve done, and we are loving it! She is a gifted communicator and teacher, and I also have a particular fondness for her knowing her connection with Dallas Seminary where my husband also studied.

We are at the halfway point of the study, and Priscilla encouraged us in the last video session to keep a record of the work God has been doing in our lives. She has also invited us to share throughout the study on social media our #lessonsfromGideon. This then is my attempt.

I am not a visionary. I don’t always see the big picture. I’m more analytical and in the details of the everyday. Throughout my working years, I have supported visionaries, who do see the big picture and future goals, by assisting with the details and hopefully helping to achieve the goals.

I often see this come into play in Bible study. I can do the lesson for the day and love it, but when I finish, I find myself wondering later what it was about and how the whole study fit together. It’s like I have a lot of separate puzzle pieces, each of which are interesting and helpful, but it feels a bit disjointed to me without the overall vision that I haven’t quite grasped. However, once it’s fitted together into the whole and I can see the big picture that’s been coming together, it starts to settle in deep in my soul, and I’m able to find the lessons God has in store. In Bible study, it often means I need to do the studying, not just be fed what others have studied, as wonderful as that is.

So this last week, I’ve taken these parts I’ve been holding, these puzzle pieces, and gone back to the Scriptures and studied for myself – in this case, Judges 6-9. It has helped me answer the questions that have arisen in our Bible study group and in my own mind.

Then this morning, when I awoke, it was like all the pieces were coming together. As I journaled out what God was revealing, I was encouraged by the wonderful truths he was leading me through. And as I turned back to the lessons for reinforcement of these truths, I realized this is what it had been saying all along — my heart just hadn’t quite pieced it together into the whole! I am so thankful that God helps me in my weakness — which happens to be a main theme of this study!

Studying God’s Word is fascinating! It feeds our soul and leads us intro truth. We ask Him to guide us by His Word and Spirit as we seek Him and as we come with a humble dependence to know Him more. So what are my lessons from Gideon?

Here are a few:

1.  Partial obedience by God’s people led to giving up ground to the enemy until they ended up in dens, caves, and strongholds in the mountains, as a people oppressed and brought low with their land devastated and them lacking sustenance (Judges 6:1-6).

2.  I suspect when they first disobeyed (this partial obedience), the people did enough to think they were actually obeying, but they were really giving up ground, little by little, for various seemingly good reasons to their limited minds (i.e., the enemy had iron chariots in one case so that would surely be too hard to defeat, or perhaps it would be better to enter into an agreement with a group who could help them later rather than defeating them now, etc.).

3.  What they were doing that was “right in their own eyes” was actually “evil in the sight of the Lord” (Judges 6:1).

So I ask myself: Do I see my own partial obedience for what it really is? What ground am I giving up? Where am I doing right in my own eyes that may actually be evil in God’s eyes?

4.  Gideon may have wondered how he ended up in the wine press beating out wheat in hiding to keep it from their enemy. When the angel of the LORD appeared to him, Gideon questions why this oppression has happened and where the miracles were that their fathers had told them about. Was the LORD really with them? He doesn’t seem to recognize the people’s role (of disobedience, doing evil in the sight of the Lord) in this present situation.

Are we sometimes blinded from the reality of how something has developed in our own lives and wonder where God is when perhaps we have done things our own way?

5.  But God is rich in mercy. We see over and over again in Scripture that He responds to those who cry out to him (in this particular study, see Judges 6:6-7). Gideon is who God raises up to answer the cry of His people.

It makes me wonder: Are the wondrous acts of God reserved for those who call upon His name? We see the Israelites cry out from their bondage in Egypt, and God raises up Moses to lead them out. We see this same thing over and over again in the book of Judges, as with Gideon. We see it in many of the smaller stories woven in Scripture. We see it in the Psalms, telling us to cry out and He answers. And much, much more. So whether we are living in obedience and calling on His name daily and in this way seeing His mighty works — or whether we need to stop and return to Him and cry out to be delivered from an area of bondage– it seems the moment we call out His name, He stands ready to deliver and demonstrate His mighty power.

6.  Though Gideon sometimes appears fearful, it doesn’t seem so much a cowardly fear as a practical or reasonable one (not that that is necessarily better, and perhaps in some ways, these fears are the same, both demonstrating a need for greater faith):

  • He’s beating out wheat in the wine press because to do it openly would cause the enemy to take it (Judges 6:11).
  • He’s told not to fear after seeing the angel of the LORD face to face (6:23) because maybe he had heard that “no one can see God and live.”
  • He takes down the altar by night because he understandably fears his father’s household and the men of the city (6:27).
  • He asks for the signs of the fleece indicating some possible anxiety and needing a confirming sign given the task he was being called to (6:36-40).
  • He goes into the enemy’s camp, as God offers, so he can know that it will be given into their hands (7:9-15), indicating again some nervousness and need for reassurance.

7.  God seems to be patient with Gideon as he makes him the mighty warrior that He called him to be.

There is much more I could write and plan to write – much more that Priscilla points out, including our identity and callings, how we live life in the routine and ordinary, things we need to let go of, etc. But at this halfway point, I just wanted to list some things that are coming together for me.

Praise God for sending His Son, Jesus Christ, our Deliverer, who has redeemed our lives, forgiven us of our sin, and given us new life in Him through faith in Jesus. May we turn to Him and call upon Him, living in light of this reality every day, looking to Him to revive us, restore us, and deliver us. He is our Mighty Deliverer and a God of abundant and full redemption. Praise Him!

Daily Bible Reading

Carolyn

Why should we read the Bible every day, with regularity? Because it is God’s Word and has power to change our lives by the power of His Spirit. It’s that simple.

Life becomes much more complex when we go after it on our own, when we don’t seek God daily. We can give it our best effort, then get discouraged when we fail, all apart from spending time with God. Then we are deceived by thinking it’s harder than it is, that God isn’t our help, when God has so much for us. But we must stay in the way of truth so He can lead us in the way to go.

This, of course, does not mean we will never struggle. Part of the Christian walk, as we see in the life of Paul, is the struggle of what our flesh wants and desires against what we desire to do as those who know Christ (Romans 7:14-25). There is a war within us it seems at times! As Jesus said when he found his disciples sleeping instead of praying, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” – Matthew 26:41.

But we begin to have victory when we know God’s Word, the Bible. Jesus gives us a solution in that same verse, Matthew 26:41, for when our flesh is weak: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” And Romans 8 tells us how to be free from this sin by not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit and setting our minds on things of the Spirit. We find these truths in God’s Word.

When we spend time in God’s Word, we find out about ourselves and our weaknesses, but we also find out about God who is our strength and gives us strength! We can be encouraged through our time in the Bible as we come to understand these things and how to live in a way that pleases God and blesses us for our joy and good!

When we don’t know the Bible, then when the world comes with its different messages – and it does! – those things can look and sound so appealing, and we may not be able to discern what the difference is, what the big deal is, why it matters, and how it is actually against God and his ways. This is not to be judgmental of the world – God will do that – but to be aware and alert and awake and sober and able to understand spiritual things. The temporary thrill of the world will not last, but sets people on a path to destruction. Don’t let the world or Satan rob and steal by believing these lies.

Remember that lies will always look and sound good – otherwise, how could they deceive us? Lies will also be subtle and not direct – because of their very nature as a lie, not as truth! Satan didn’t come right out and tell Eve to take and eat of the fruit so it could condemn all mankind and break her fellowship with God, right? Because if it’s obvious and direct, you will turn and run from it. Satan offered the subtle suggestion with this question, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'” So sin starts to creep in when we begin to question what God has said.

Then Satan lied with telling Eve something that sounded really wonderful: “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” And the Bible records the result. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” And we’ve been living in the devastating consequences ever since.

But when you are in the Word, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

So I encourage everyone I can to read the Bible every day. Even if it initially seems dry or boring, make it your practice, pray and ask God for help, and give it time. As I heard a lady (Nancy Guthrie) recently say, “Day by day, as I was in the Word, the Word did a work in me.” Our spiritual growth happens little by little as we continue in the Word. We grow more and more as we come to the table for this daily bread and eat of the food God has prepared for us in His Word. You will not be disappointed to spend time with the living God in His living Word each day. You will be rewarded.

The Law and Grace

Carolyn

I’ve been reading through the Old Testament in my yearly Bible reading and am currently in Deuteronomy. At the same time, our church is going through a series on the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew chapters 5-7.

I have been trying to memorize the Sermon on the Mount in short sections as they are preached each week. This gives me from January – June to learn the three chapters, using weeks where we have our Missions Festival or Easter services to review and catch up. Many of these verses are familiar, so it hasn’t been too hard to memorize, and it’s been such a beneficial exercise to have these verses being written in my heart and called to mind during the activities of daily life.

It is interesting to be reading about the Law in the Old Testament and then studying Jesus’ teaching to His disciples in the New Testament. Jesus gives us a higher standard in our personal relationships in His Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard that it was said…” [giving some command from the law, such as “you shall not murder” or “you shall not commit adultery,” etc.], “but I say to you…” [a new and higher way for that law is given, such as likening anger with murder or lust with adultery, etc.].

As I’ve read through the Old Testament Law, with its many details, and about the sacrificial system in place then, how thankful it makes me for Jesus! Through the Law, we see that we are sinners, that we could never keep it perfectly! We sin, intentionally and unintentionally. And Jesus became our single sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:1-18)! He came to earth, took our punishment for sin in His death on the cross, and rose again that we might have new life in Him. It was a complete and finished work that He did on our behalf. Through faith in Jesus, we can be born into new life in Him.

Jesus not only provided salvation from sin and death through His death on the cross and His resurrection, but He also gives His Holy Spirit to those who believe to help them know how to live and follow Him. We obey, not out of sheer commands to do so, but out of the joy and delight in Who He is and what He has done for us!

I’m also reading a parenting book right now called Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus. It contrasts the law and grace and our children’s need to understand grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ as the way through which they find life. It shows how rules can build a law-based method of parenting that keeps our children from understanding this lavish love and grace of God by which we are saved. I’m only 80 pages into it, but it echoes so much of what I believe, and challenges how much I act otherwise with my own children at times!

So these are some thoughts I’ve been pondering as I read lately. They are not too well developed here. I’m finding when I read several chapters of the Bible at a time (as when reading through the Bible in a year), I don’t spend as much time meditating on small portions of Scripture, but I do love getting the overall themes and tracing different concepts through the Bible as I read. What a beautiful Word God has given to us in the Scriptures! Thank you, Jesus.

Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

 Romans 3:23-24 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.“

Galatians 3:24-26 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”