Thanks to Sarah for being the most loyal poster over the last few days!!! Julie is approaching the end of her tax push so I hope she will be back soon. Audrey is on vacation but will be back at the end of the week. Ann is just struggling to keep her head above water. Yep, it's a stressful time for many of you. I hope you will keep your eyes fixed on the One who can give you peace in the midst of stress and continue to study even if you don't post.
I am now reading through the book of Romans. The main message I received from yesterday's reading is that no matter what happens or what mistakes we make, God is faithful and righteous. I can count on that. After watching Clash of the Titans over the weekend, I realize what a great blessing that is.
2 comments:
woo-hoo!! winner winner chicken dinner!! just kidding :)
So my study this week is good--a lot of accountability--mostly about the fact that God brings us to each crossroads so we will grow, become more like Jesus, stretch ourselves--what we do with the crossroads is our choice--to try to do the right thing, praying for God to guide us, refusing to give in to Satan. I gulp even writing this because of course--I do not want more pain, but God says we WILL STRUGGLE, we will have pain--but promises through it all to comfort us, to care for us, to love us and that through the testing of our faith develops perseverance. The author notes a few more things I think are quite relevant to our society today--she states that we tend to think of the above verse as saying "consider it pure joy when your husband takes you out to dinner and a movie and you win a shopping spree" because we are spoiled. We think we deserve these things and forget that what we really deserve is to go to hell--but by God's love and grace we have a way to still get to heaven--EVEN THOUGH WE DO NOT DESERVE IT. She also notes that we are all living the perfect life--we are all being given the perfect life experiences for each of us in order to become more perfected, more refined. Although we would all prefer our trials were much less "trial-ish" that is not what God says makes us mature and complete.
Good thoughts, Sarah. They dovetail nicely with what I have been reading in Romans about the righteousness of God. As I was reading your comments I started thinking about how raising children and raising spiritually mature people compare. More thoughts on this tomorrow.
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