It’s Been A Long Time
I just wanted to share with you some reasons why I am excited about this upcoming bible study on Thursday night. The first reason why I am excited is because it’s the first time I have been able to teach in a year! I feel a little bit like a race horse that has been penned up and scrapping the ground in anticipation. A teacher not being able to teach is like taking a paintbrush away from an artist or a voice from a singer. It’s been absolute misery at times not being able to outwardly express the joy and beauty that God floods you with. This has been such an unusual experience. It is hard to believe that it was only short 5 or 6 years ago when God initially began to nudge me to teach that I was such a basket of fear and anxiety. It was never my desire to teach. I’ve always hated and feared any type of public speaking. My greatest desire was always to blend in, not stand in front of a class or any other group of people and call attention to myself. That was always my worst nightmare. But God actually called me, by planting that desire in my heart and slowly intensifying it until I gave in. I was absolutely miserable for an extremely long period of time as I tried to hide and contain the growing desire to share with others what I was seeing in Christ. The more I studied the more miserable I became. I was overfilled with no outlet. Soon my desire to teach far outweighed my fear of teaching and I was broken. This is how God moves us sometimes. This is a picture of what it means to be called, even when it is against your will. He simply changes our will to match his own.
Studying the Bible
The second reason I am excited about this bible study is because we are studying the bible. Don’t get me wrong I do love books and I love workbooks, and we have some awesome ones available to us today. Some wonderful treasures that others have discovered and are so anxious to share with us. But when we study the bible, we study God’s word in concentrated form and it is extremely powerful in our lives. Books are great, but they will never match the power and the impact that comes directly from reading God’s word.
The Book
The third reason I am excited about this particular bible study is the book we have chosen to study 1 John. I love this book, it is so short , only 5 chapters and yet so potent and relevant. It’s language is much like John’s gospel as Augustine so aptly put it, “ the Gospel of John is deep enough for an elephant to swim and shallow enough for a child not to drown.” Each verse seems to be packed with so much treasure that I really hate to limit this study to just 8 weeks. It really feels like a grave injustice because it causes us to skim over so much. In this book we are going to wrestle with what it means to say we know God, how we can walk like Jesus walked, our call to love others and how it is tied to our relationship with God Himself. We are also going to talk about what it means to walk in the light, freedom from sin, the power of the cross and what it means to abide in Christ. There is so much for us to dig into in this book and savor that I know we are going to be leaving each evening with our spiritual bellies absolutely full.
The Method
The fourth reason I am excited about this study is because of the method. I plan to share various ways you can dig into the bible and learn how to extract it’s hidden treasures yourself through various methods you can try out each week during your quiet time. It’s one thing for me to come into class and dump my treasures on the table. I do love sharing them and I do love showing them. But I want you to begin your own collection by diligently digging into God’s word for yourself and seeing how rich He truly is. God’s word, His spirit speaks more clearly, directly and deeply then I ever could. He does reward those who earnestly seek Him by revealing to us the greatest treasure of all – Himself. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” I think this can be applied to us spiritually also. There is a time when as children and infants we need to be continually fed by others, but maturity means learning to feed ourselves. Too many Christians are too content to be spoon fed by others through reading Christian books or listening to Sunday Sermons but rarely open the bible to feed themselves. We like those fast, already put together pre-prepared meals for our busy lives. Many of these books and sermons are good, very good and greatly satisfying. They are refreshing living springs that overflow abundantly with life. But we are intended by God to become individual living springs providing fresh water and life to all those around us as needed. Too many of us, especially women, live off the wells of other women instead of digging deep enough into God’s word to become a life giving well our self. I’ll be handing out some shovels so don’t miss out.
The Women
The final reason why I am excited about this study is because of the women who will be attending. I am excited to spend time with some familiar faces again and I am excited about meeting some new ones and hearing some new stories and sharing some old stories. I’m just excited to be able to spend some quality time together talking about what God is doing in each of our lives, how He is revealing Himself to us personally, what we are struggling with and how we are overcoming and how we can pray for each other and encourage one another. I’m excited about what God is going to do within and among us as we begin to get to know each other more and as we build new attachments and strengthen old attachments between us. I truly believe that some of the greatest treasures that we will find and unveil during this study will not only be found in God’s living word as we study it, but will also be found living among us in each other, as we see glimpses of Christ being lived out and shining from our hearts and as we see women among us sparkling with faith, love, grace, joy, hope, patience, humility, meekness, mercy and courage. God has so much to teach us about Himself through one another and I’m excited to be a part of it.
