Seeking Him: Lessons 4 & 5 ~ Repentance (The Big Turnaround) and Grace (God's provision for every need)
Submitted by Leah Page on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 9:03pm RevivalSH011
From Class Discussion:
"...Humility and honesty provide the fertile ground in which seeds of grace and revival can grow and bear fruit. The next step, then, is responding to God's conviction in genuine repentance." ~NLDeMoss
Repentance:
•Mourning over our sin
•A sense of desperation with regard to "getting the sin out" (as a vile infection must be removed!)
•Turning from sin ~ and Turning (and running full tilt) toward God
•Turning not ONLY from sin, but turning from SELF-EFFORT, to call on God to do what only he can in, for, and through us
•Posture of "face down" worship
•"Poverty of (poor in) spirit"
•Seeing our sin as God sees it ~ Asking God/Allowing God to expose our sin to ourselves in all its ugliness [because we are trusting HIS goodness!]
•Speaking in "agreement" with God about our sin ("confession")
•Turning from "passing the blame" ~ and Turning toward accepting responsibility for our own actions
•Crying out for the Lord's mercy
•Mind/heart = Roots; Doing/behavior = Fruits
•GODLY sorrow ~ vs. WORLDLY sorrow
characteristics of GODLY sorrow include (from 2 Corinthians 7:8-12): leads to repentance, according to the will of God SO THAT suffering of loss is decreased or removed, without regret (though may regret "for a little while"), leads to salvation/life, earnestness [desire to be holy], eagerness [to make things right], indignation [sin is detestable!], fear [a holy "dread", reverence for our God who is offended by sin], longing [intense desire], zeal for holiness [hatred for anything that robs God of his glory!], punishment [making right/restitution], results in INNOCENCE ~ gives evidence that repentance has had its full effect.
Some of the "personal inventory" questions from day 5 of study on Repentance:
~Does sin in my life bother me?
~Do I have an attitude that says, "Lord, everything I know to be sin, and everything You show me in the future to be sin, I am willing to forsake!"?
~Am I willing to call my wrong actions "sin," rather than viewing them as weakness, "struggles," or personality traits?
~Am I willing to accept personal responsibility for my actions, without pointing the finger of blame at anyone else?
~Am I willing to take whatever steps may be necessary to make complete restitution for my sin?
~Am I more concerned about grieving God than about the consequences of my sin?
"Is God calling you to turn away from any particular sin in your life? Responding to God is more important than whatever you were planning on doing next. If God is speaking, the time to respond is NOW. Will you humble yourself and allow Him to being restoring you?....He loves you, offers grace to cover any sin, and longs for you to walk in freedom and joy." ~NLDeMoss
"At this stage in the process, it could be easy to feel overwhelmed with a sense of conviction, failure, and guilt; some may even be tempted to give up on seeking God for revival. The good news is that God does not ask us to meet His requirements on our own -- in fact, He knows we CAN'T live humble, holy, obedient lives without Him." ~NLDeMoss
Grace:
•God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble
•We weren't SICK, we were DEAD in our sin
•We were children of God's WRATH by nature (born "in Adam")
•Grace is the means by which God SAVES - secures our redemption
•Grace is also the means by which God SANCTIFIES - keeps us and delivers us TO our ultimate redemption
•God, BY GRACE, provides the way of escape in temptation
•God, BY GRACE, provides means of endurance
•God, BY GRACE, readily gives help in time of need
•God, BY GRACE, removes the PENALTY (guilt) of sin, and the POWER (authority/rule) of sin, and progressively even the PRESENCE of sin, realized finally and perfectly once "we shall see him as he is" in Glory!
•God, BY GRACE, trains us to renouce ungodliness and worldly passions
•God, BY GRACE, trains us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in the present age
•God's grace is SUFFICIENT for us, even in suffering - God's power is perfected in our weakness
10 February, 2011
GCC - Seeking Him, Lesson 3: Honesty ~ Silence is Not Always Golden
Seeking Him, Lesson 3: Honesty ~ Silence is Not Always Golden
Submitted by Leah Page on Wed, 02/09/2011 - 5:38pm Revival SH011
Lesson 3: Honesty ~ Silence is Not Always Golden
Guardrails for discussion:
It seems very "trendy" - especially in "mainline" Christianity - to talk about being "honest" these days. It takes different forms, such as being "authentic" or "transparent," etc. But right up front, I'd like to set some "guardrails" for our discussion, with the disclaimer that as always there should be "wisdom" in our disclosures.
Being "authentic" in our post-post-modern culture often resembles far more a kind of "uncertainty" about the truth. As if to be "honest" means you must admit "I don't really know what I think I know about thus and such." But this is not the kind of "honesty" we are talking about today. By way of recommending a good resource for further discussion on this kind of faux "honesty," our book plug for this week's lesson is "Why We Are Not Emergent By Two Guys Who Should Be" - coauthored by Pastor Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. You can actually obtain a copy of the first chapter online for free which in and of itself would be very helpful in considering this topic. CLICK HERE.
As to WHY this appeal to "authenticity" is so attractive, it has largely to do with conveying a humble, teachable spirit. And THIS truly IS desirable - not merely appearing to have such a spirit, but actually BEING humble before God (roofs off!), and with others (walls down!). Humility, however, is not the same thing as "uncertainty." What do we mean?
Guardrail #1: Our Hearts are Deceptive
We know our hearts are deceptive in part because we know ourselves. But we also know this because God has given us the light of his word to shine into our hearts and expose the sin rooted there. So our HUMILITY is a necessary component (as we studied in lesson 2), because we do not in fact always "know" what we think we know. Or act for the reasons we think we are acting. We must always be cultivating a humble dependence on God to search us, to know our hearts, to see if there be any wicked way in us, and to LEAD US in the way everlasting.
Thus,
Guardrail #2: God's word is SURE
Our reasons for confidence in God's word are many, and it is not the intent of this study to establish those evidences, necessarily. But for our discussion on HONESTY, especially as we are seeking God and asking him to REVIVE us from the inside out, we must be always evaluating our own hearts and intentions, (and the instructions we receive), etc. against the standard of God's self-revelation, God's righteous requirements for our lives, God's work IN us that we might will and do his good pleasure.
Honesty for the sake of mere self-disclosure is not in itself revitalizing! Honestly only exposes the gunk we carry around, it doesn't help REMOVE it! So for that, we need the sure, gentle, unrelenting surgeon's scalpel of God's word (wielded by our good and loving heavenly Father!) to do a deep and penetrating work.
Psalm 15:1-2
Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.
Psalm 24:3-5
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
What does it mean to "speak truth in your heart"?
"Ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed God, the tendency to cover our sin has been a part of our sinful human nature....We don't have to be trained how to hide or pretend -- it comes naturally. Even after we are redeemed in Christ and the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, we often battle the urge to deceive. But God cannot bless or revive a heart that refuses to acknowledge the truth." ~NLDeMoss
Psalm 32:1-5
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered [by GOD, not by a covering of our own making!]. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
We are not only inclined to hide our sin from each other, and to hide our sin from God, but we hide it even from ourselves. We don't want to believe that we are really "that bad." But God desires truth in our inner man - and as we talked about in our first lesson, he wants to send those plowing blades DEEP to turn up the soil, so our hearts will be soft and receptive and able to bear much fruit, fruit that will last.
One of the main ways the Lord does this work is to bring us to a point of confession, as David committed himself to in the above Psalm. To "confess" is to "speak in agreement with" God over our sin. That is more than just saying/speaking our sin - it is to agree from our heart that this sin is as offensive to us as it is to God. Let's call it what it is! Putrid, rotten, defiling, grotesque, damning, and it MUST MUST MUST be exposed to its root so it can be fully put to death!
How do we know if we are being sanctified? How do we know if we are being revived? We are growing to LOVE what God loves and HATE what God hates, and instead of justifying ourselves, we call sin SIN. We allow the Lord to shine his light into the dark and ugly places of our hearts - not for the sake of condemnation, because if we are in Jesus we are no longer condemned! But because God must cut out ALL the cancer or it grows back and worse than before.
Hebrews 4:13
...And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
"...It is for our good and by God's mercy that He reveals the truth about us, no matter how shameful that truth may be. We learn that the reason God discloses our thoughts, actions, and motives is to bring to us peace (rest; Hebrews 4:11-12). God is not a bully; He is a Savior. He cannot be soft on sin. His justice requires holiness that we, in our humanity, do not have the capacity for. The demands of God's justice have been satisfied through the sacrificial, substitutionary death of Christ on the cross. However, we must come clean; we must confess. Silence only condemns us by keeping us guilty.
"Think about this...confessing our sin -- breaking the silence -- ushers in the forgiveness and cleansing of God. So, why hide? Why remain silent?" ~NLDeMoss
One last word ~ One of the greatest weapons in the arsenal of our spiritual enemy is that of ACCUSATION. Satan literally means "The accuser" of the brethren. If, then, we have willingly followed the Lord's Spirit into the deep dark places of our hearts, and we are willingly letting our loving FATHER do the work of digging about, unearthing our hidden sins and shining the light on them so that they begin to shrivel up and one by one be cast aside, what power or authority or right does our Accuser have in heaping guilt upon us?! By walking with God, in humility and honesty and ready confession, we DISARM our enemy!
Proverbs 18:10
The name of the Lord is a strong tower ~ The righteous run into it! and are SAFE.
NEXT LESSON: REPENTANCE
Submitted by Leah Page on Wed, 02/09/2011 - 5:38pm Revival SH011
Lesson 3: Honesty ~ Silence is Not Always Golden
Guardrails for discussion:
It seems very "trendy" - especially in "mainline" Christianity - to talk about being "honest" these days. It takes different forms, such as being "authentic" or "transparent," etc. But right up front, I'd like to set some "guardrails" for our discussion, with the disclaimer that as always there should be "wisdom" in our disclosures.
Being "authentic" in our post-post-modern culture often resembles far more a kind of "uncertainty" about the truth. As if to be "honest" means you must admit "I don't really know what I think I know about thus and such." But this is not the kind of "honesty" we are talking about today. By way of recommending a good resource for further discussion on this kind of faux "honesty," our book plug for this week's lesson is "Why We Are Not Emergent By Two Guys Who Should Be" - coauthored by Pastor Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. You can actually obtain a copy of the first chapter online for free which in and of itself would be very helpful in considering this topic. CLICK HERE.
As to WHY this appeal to "authenticity" is so attractive, it has largely to do with conveying a humble, teachable spirit. And THIS truly IS desirable - not merely appearing to have such a spirit, but actually BEING humble before God (roofs off!), and with others (walls down!). Humility, however, is not the same thing as "uncertainty." What do we mean?
Guardrail #1: Our Hearts are Deceptive
We know our hearts are deceptive in part because we know ourselves. But we also know this because God has given us the light of his word to shine into our hearts and expose the sin rooted there. So our HUMILITY is a necessary component (as we studied in lesson 2), because we do not in fact always "know" what we think we know. Or act for the reasons we think we are acting. We must always be cultivating a humble dependence on God to search us, to know our hearts, to see if there be any wicked way in us, and to LEAD US in the way everlasting.
Thus,
Guardrail #2: God's word is SURE
Our reasons for confidence in God's word are many, and it is not the intent of this study to establish those evidences, necessarily. But for our discussion on HONESTY, especially as we are seeking God and asking him to REVIVE us from the inside out, we must be always evaluating our own hearts and intentions, (and the instructions we receive), etc. against the standard of God's self-revelation, God's righteous requirements for our lives, God's work IN us that we might will and do his good pleasure.
Honesty for the sake of mere self-disclosure is not in itself revitalizing! Honestly only exposes the gunk we carry around, it doesn't help REMOVE it! So for that, we need the sure, gentle, unrelenting surgeon's scalpel of God's word (wielded by our good and loving heavenly Father!) to do a deep and penetrating work.
Psalm 15:1-2
Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.
Psalm 24:3-5
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
What does it mean to "speak truth in your heart"?
"Ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed God, the tendency to cover our sin has been a part of our sinful human nature....We don't have to be trained how to hide or pretend -- it comes naturally. Even after we are redeemed in Christ and the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, we often battle the urge to deceive. But God cannot bless or revive a heart that refuses to acknowledge the truth." ~NLDeMoss
Psalm 32:1-5
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered [by GOD, not by a covering of our own making!]. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
We are not only inclined to hide our sin from each other, and to hide our sin from God, but we hide it even from ourselves. We don't want to believe that we are really "that bad." But God desires truth in our inner man - and as we talked about in our first lesson, he wants to send those plowing blades DEEP to turn up the soil, so our hearts will be soft and receptive and able to bear much fruit, fruit that will last.
One of the main ways the Lord does this work is to bring us to a point of confession, as David committed himself to in the above Psalm. To "confess" is to "speak in agreement with" God over our sin. That is more than just saying/speaking our sin - it is to agree from our heart that this sin is as offensive to us as it is to God. Let's call it what it is! Putrid, rotten, defiling, grotesque, damning, and it MUST MUST MUST be exposed to its root so it can be fully put to death!
How do we know if we are being sanctified? How do we know if we are being revived? We are growing to LOVE what God loves and HATE what God hates, and instead of justifying ourselves, we call sin SIN. We allow the Lord to shine his light into the dark and ugly places of our hearts - not for the sake of condemnation, because if we are in Jesus we are no longer condemned! But because God must cut out ALL the cancer or it grows back and worse than before.
Hebrews 4:13
...And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
"...It is for our good and by God's mercy that He reveals the truth about us, no matter how shameful that truth may be. We learn that the reason God discloses our thoughts, actions, and motives is to bring to us peace (rest; Hebrews 4:11-12). God is not a bully; He is a Savior. He cannot be soft on sin. His justice requires holiness that we, in our humanity, do not have the capacity for. The demands of God's justice have been satisfied through the sacrificial, substitutionary death of Christ on the cross. However, we must come clean; we must confess. Silence only condemns us by keeping us guilty.
"Think about this...confessing our sin -- breaking the silence -- ushers in the forgiveness and cleansing of God. So, why hide? Why remain silent?" ~NLDeMoss
One last word ~ One of the greatest weapons in the arsenal of our spiritual enemy is that of ACCUSATION. Satan literally means "The accuser" of the brethren. If, then, we have willingly followed the Lord's Spirit into the deep dark places of our hearts, and we are willingly letting our loving FATHER do the work of digging about, unearthing our hidden sins and shining the light on them so that they begin to shrivel up and one by one be cast aside, what power or authority or right does our Accuser have in heaping guilt upon us?! By walking with God, in humility and honesty and ready confession, we DISARM our enemy!
Proverbs 18:10
The name of the Lord is a strong tower ~ The righteous run into it! and are SAFE.
NEXT LESSON: REPENTANCE
08 February, 2011
GCC Women's study; Seeking Him, Lesson 2: Humility ~ Coming to God on His Terms
Lesson 2: Humility ~ Coming to God on His Terms
"Humility is a virtue more often praised than sought. Who wants to think little of himself? The world admires the self-confident, the ambitious, yes, even the proud! Yet biblical humility - recognizing oneself as a sinner before the holy God - is a prerequisite for starting down the path to revival."
As we looked at in week one, the work of the Lord in bringing revival begins with breaking up of the fallow groud of our hearts, using the deeply penetrating work of the spears of a powerful plow (the double edged sword of God's word!) which dig down into the tender places of our soul, to turn over the hard soil and bring the nutrient rich soil of a broken and contrite heart to the surface.
One example from our study included looking at Isaiah ch. 6 in which Isaiah recounts his face-to-face encounter with the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, seated on the throne of heaven and appearing in his GLORY. When confronted with the glory and perfection and holiness of our Good God, humility is immediately conscious of its falling short, its imperfections, its "undone-ness" as Isaiah observed, "Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips!"
Which is the exactly necessary disposition to then receive FROM God the very cleansing, merciful work. We see the dispatching of a burning coal to remove Isaiah's obstacle for standing in God's presence, namely, his unholiness, his "woeful" (cursed!) state.
We examined snapshots from the lives of both Rehoboam and Asa in 2 Chronicles. Even acknowledging that these snapshots don't give us all the complexities of the lives of these two Kings of Judah, we nevertheless trace the reverse patterns in each of their lives: Rehoboam ruled from a place of pride, was confronted with the word of the Lord by means of one of God's prophets, and he and the people's response was to humble themselves before God, and so they received deliverance. Asa started well, ruled from a place of humility and even observed first-hand how the Lord gave grace, but when given the opportunity to seek his own solutions rather than being led by the Lord, he exercised his pride, and when he was confronted with the word of the Lord by means of one of God's prophets, he responded with even more pride, angered by the rebuke, and suffered in his own body the consequences of his refusal to seek and depend on the Lord.
Certainly, these summaries aren't the whole of their stories, but they give us, nevertheless, living pictures of God's GRACE even to confront our pride by means of his word!, and yet, how we respond to that "cutting" of God's discerning even between the thoughts and intents of our hearts will determine the path that then we walk.
"For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.'" ~Isaiah 57:15
"For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do." ~Hebrews 4:12-13 (Amplified)
God opposes, and brings low those who are proud and self-sufficient. But not only does he give grace to the humble, he does so by drawing NEAR to those who have acknowledge that in themselves they are spiritually bankrupt, or as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, they are "poor in spirit." Our God "makes his dwelling place" with us (!) when we surrender our firm grip on our own self-importance and self-exaltation. Loosing our fingers in this way frees us to lay hold of HIM who has laid hold of us.
Next Lesson: HONESTY
"Humility is a virtue more often praised than sought. Who wants to think little of himself? The world admires the self-confident, the ambitious, yes, even the proud! Yet biblical humility - recognizing oneself as a sinner before the holy God - is a prerequisite for starting down the path to revival."
As we looked at in week one, the work of the Lord in bringing revival begins with breaking up of the fallow groud of our hearts, using the deeply penetrating work of the spears of a powerful plow (the double edged sword of God's word!) which dig down into the tender places of our soul, to turn over the hard soil and bring the nutrient rich soil of a broken and contrite heart to the surface.
One example from our study included looking at Isaiah ch. 6 in which Isaiah recounts his face-to-face encounter with the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, seated on the throne of heaven and appearing in his GLORY. When confronted with the glory and perfection and holiness of our Good God, humility is immediately conscious of its falling short, its imperfections, its "undone-ness" as Isaiah observed, "Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips!"
Which is the exactly necessary disposition to then receive FROM God the very cleansing, merciful work. We see the dispatching of a burning coal to remove Isaiah's obstacle for standing in God's presence, namely, his unholiness, his "woeful" (cursed!) state.
We examined snapshots from the lives of both Rehoboam and Asa in 2 Chronicles. Even acknowledging that these snapshots don't give us all the complexities of the lives of these two Kings of Judah, we nevertheless trace the reverse patterns in each of their lives: Rehoboam ruled from a place of pride, was confronted with the word of the Lord by means of one of God's prophets, and he and the people's response was to humble themselves before God, and so they received deliverance. Asa started well, ruled from a place of humility and even observed first-hand how the Lord gave grace, but when given the opportunity to seek his own solutions rather than being led by the Lord, he exercised his pride, and when he was confronted with the word of the Lord by means of one of God's prophets, he responded with even more pride, angered by the rebuke, and suffered in his own body the consequences of his refusal to seek and depend on the Lord.
Certainly, these summaries aren't the whole of their stories, but they give us, nevertheless, living pictures of God's GRACE even to confront our pride by means of his word!, and yet, how we respond to that "cutting" of God's discerning even between the thoughts and intents of our hearts will determine the path that then we walk.
"For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.'" ~Isaiah 57:15
"For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do." ~Hebrews 4:12-13 (Amplified)
God opposes, and brings low those who are proud and self-sufficient. But not only does he give grace to the humble, he does so by drawing NEAR to those who have acknowledge that in themselves they are spiritually bankrupt, or as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, they are "poor in spirit." Our God "makes his dwelling place" with us (!) when we surrender our firm grip on our own self-importance and self-exaltation. Loosing our fingers in this way frees us to lay hold of HIM who has laid hold of us.
Next Lesson: HONESTY
17 January, 2011
"Seeking Him" - Lesson One: Revival (What is it and Who needs it?)
"Seeking Him" - Lesson One: Revival (What is it and Who needs it?)
Submitted by Leah Page on Mon, 01/17/2011 - 9:24pm RevivalSH011Sovereignty
LESSON ONE
Key Verse(s): Hosea 10:12-13
"Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you. You have plowed wickedness; You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, Because you trusted in your own way, In the multitude of your mighty men."
The bulk of our discussion, last week, as we reviewed our study time in lesson one, focused on the questions laid out on pages 16-17 in our book. Based on that discussion, these were some of the main themes we discovered and/or traced throughout:
•Revival is for the BELIEVER ~ We must first have life from God to be able to experience life afresh. This isn't to say that the Lord doesn't newly save individuals in the context of, for example, a "revival meeting," but rather it is to emphasize that "Revival" is not some external activity or event (or something we ourselves can "drum up"). Rather, it is description of a work that takes place from within, and can only be brought about by God, who in Christ Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith.
•Revival is God's gift for his children, to give grace so that we have both the desire and the power to return to him. It's ultimately about our intimacy with our heavenly Father, and how that intimacy changes us from the inside out.
•As Nancy pointed out in the video segment of our study, the first step in the process is to "break up the fallow ground" ~ For us to have hearts that are soft and made ready to receive the good seed so that we may yield a harvest of righteouness, we must first have hearts that have been broken, tilled, plowed. And the plow needs to dig DEEP so that the soft soil underneath can be turned up, and the hard soil on the top can be broken up and made soft. It was by means of this analogy that Nancy warned us that these first few weeks of this study will be the most difficult, perhaps the most painful part. The Lord will begin exposing the soft undersides of our heart, and we will no doubt be disgusted by what he finds there. It makes us unconfortable, but we must be willing to submit to the process if we want to experience revival ~ Lord, we want you to search us and know us and see if there be any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting. (see prayer at end of Ps. 139)
•One of the tools in our lesson, this first week, was a kind of heart "inventory" we took on day 5 ~ examining our own hearts, looking at our lives in light of Scripture, being honest about whatever sin we might be seeing there. Several of us found this very helpful!
•Questions 4 and 5 on pages 16-17 were especially revealing. Both touched on the issue of what other things - often even GOOD things! - in our lives to we hold on to for security, or do we turn to in place of God? And as we discussed, we are quick to depend on our money, our health, our intelligence, our family relationships or friendships, or any number of other GOOD things that can very easily become idols of our hearts. We cling tightly to our expectations (demands?)!, rather than "holding all things," as Pastor Krogh has said, "with an open hand." We become distracted from loving the Lord, deceived even by our own hearts, so we go about "trusting in our own way" rather than fully following after the Lord.
•It was a point of conviction - in keeping with the hard and painful work of "plowing" our hearts - but there is a sweetness to it! We must remember that it is the KINDNESS of the Lord that leads us to repentance! It is for our GOOD that the Lord exposes the uglinesses of our hearts to ourselves, so that these sinful motives, these sinful desires, these self-preserving actions can be seen for how ugly they really are - and WHY are they ugly? Because they keep up from the love of our Father, they keep us from living righteous lives as God desires - and God's desire FOR us in this regard is not only for his glory, but for our JOY.
•Let us keep that JOY before our eyes, even as we humble ourselves to the Spirit's examination of our hearts! Let us, like King Josiah (see "going deeper" corner on p. 1, and text in 2 Kings 22:8-13, 18-20), weep over our sin, to the degree that we would "rend our garments" in mourning over how we have failed to obey the word of the Lord. And let us truly invite the Lord's life-giving work, trusting that he is GOOD, and that he changes us from the inside out because of his great LOVE for us.
Book Recommendation: "The Valley of Vision" compiled/edited by Arthur Bennett
This is a collection of prayers from several writings from many "Puritan" Christians from the past several hundred years. This collection has been SUCH a blessing in my own life, and as I said in class, if I could own only one other book besides the Bible, it would probably be this book.
Like nothing else I've read, I feel this book has taught and is still teaching me how to pray, and the poetic phrases - aside from just being beautiful and worshipful in their expression - contain some of the richest theological truths that in themselves are teachers. These heart-felt prayers encourage us to give our all, and to willingly invite the Lord to do the work that only he can....
This next Wednesday, we will start class with a time of prayer, using p. 18-19 in our book as a guideline.
~Leah
Submitted by Leah Page on Mon, 01/17/2011 - 9:24pm RevivalSH011Sovereignty
LESSON ONE
Key Verse(s): Hosea 10:12-13
"Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you. You have plowed wickedness; You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, Because you trusted in your own way, In the multitude of your mighty men."
The bulk of our discussion, last week, as we reviewed our study time in lesson one, focused on the questions laid out on pages 16-17 in our book. Based on that discussion, these were some of the main themes we discovered and/or traced throughout:
•Revival is for the BELIEVER ~ We must first have life from God to be able to experience life afresh. This isn't to say that the Lord doesn't newly save individuals in the context of, for example, a "revival meeting," but rather it is to emphasize that "Revival" is not some external activity or event (or something we ourselves can "drum up"). Rather, it is description of a work that takes place from within, and can only be brought about by God, who in Christ Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith.
•Revival is God's gift for his children, to give grace so that we have both the desire and the power to return to him. It's ultimately about our intimacy with our heavenly Father, and how that intimacy changes us from the inside out.
•As Nancy pointed out in the video segment of our study, the first step in the process is to "break up the fallow ground" ~ For us to have hearts that are soft and made ready to receive the good seed so that we may yield a harvest of righteouness, we must first have hearts that have been broken, tilled, plowed. And the plow needs to dig DEEP so that the soft soil underneath can be turned up, and the hard soil on the top can be broken up and made soft. It was by means of this analogy that Nancy warned us that these first few weeks of this study will be the most difficult, perhaps the most painful part. The Lord will begin exposing the soft undersides of our heart, and we will no doubt be disgusted by what he finds there. It makes us unconfortable, but we must be willing to submit to the process if we want to experience revival ~ Lord, we want you to search us and know us and see if there be any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting. (see prayer at end of Ps. 139)
•One of the tools in our lesson, this first week, was a kind of heart "inventory" we took on day 5 ~ examining our own hearts, looking at our lives in light of Scripture, being honest about whatever sin we might be seeing there. Several of us found this very helpful!
•Questions 4 and 5 on pages 16-17 were especially revealing. Both touched on the issue of what other things - often even GOOD things! - in our lives to we hold on to for security, or do we turn to in place of God? And as we discussed, we are quick to depend on our money, our health, our intelligence, our family relationships or friendships, or any number of other GOOD things that can very easily become idols of our hearts. We cling tightly to our expectations (demands?)!, rather than "holding all things," as Pastor Krogh has said, "with an open hand." We become distracted from loving the Lord, deceived even by our own hearts, so we go about "trusting in our own way" rather than fully following after the Lord.
•It was a point of conviction - in keeping with the hard and painful work of "plowing" our hearts - but there is a sweetness to it! We must remember that it is the KINDNESS of the Lord that leads us to repentance! It is for our GOOD that the Lord exposes the uglinesses of our hearts to ourselves, so that these sinful motives, these sinful desires, these self-preserving actions can be seen for how ugly they really are - and WHY are they ugly? Because they keep up from the love of our Father, they keep us from living righteous lives as God desires - and God's desire FOR us in this regard is not only for his glory, but for our JOY.
•Let us keep that JOY before our eyes, even as we humble ourselves to the Spirit's examination of our hearts! Let us, like King Josiah (see "going deeper" corner on p. 1, and text in 2 Kings 22:8-13, 18-20), weep over our sin, to the degree that we would "rend our garments" in mourning over how we have failed to obey the word of the Lord. And let us truly invite the Lord's life-giving work, trusting that he is GOOD, and that he changes us from the inside out because of his great LOVE for us.
Book Recommendation: "The Valley of Vision" compiled/edited by Arthur Bennett
This is a collection of prayers from several writings from many "Puritan" Christians from the past several hundred years. This collection has been SUCH a blessing in my own life, and as I said in class, if I could own only one other book besides the Bible, it would probably be this book.
Like nothing else I've read, I feel this book has taught and is still teaching me how to pray, and the poetic phrases - aside from just being beautiful and worshipful in their expression - contain some of the richest theological truths that in themselves are teachers. These heart-felt prayers encourage us to give our all, and to willingly invite the Lord to do the work that only he can....
This next Wednesday, we will start class with a time of prayer, using p. 18-19 in our book as a guideline.
~Leah
12 January, 2011
New Study for GCC Women - "Seeking Him" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
New Study - "Seeking Him: Experiencing the JOY of Personal Revivial" (Nancy Leigh DeMoss)
Submitted by Leah Page on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 3:28pm
INTRODUCTION
Greetings, Ladies! Last week, we met together by way of introduction to our new topical study, "Seeking Him," which is focused on the who/what/when/where/why/how's of experiencing "REVIVAL" in our hearts and lives.
This past week, we started our journey together, working through the first lesson, and tonight we will begin discussion in earnest. It is my prayer that the Lord is already working in our hearts and minds, to search us, to know our hearts, to see if there be any wicked way in us, and to lead us in the way everlasting. And I hope, particularly, that this small group of women will become for you a "safe place" to share and fellowship and encourage one another as we grow in our intimacy with our Savior!
Over the past couple years, I have led what we have affectionately termed as one of the "non-precepts" studies offered for women at GCC. But even though we haven't worked through the sometimes more labor-intensive process of inductive study as laid out in the Precepts studies, we have nevertheless taken a more "inductive" approach. Working through "Before His Throne" (Malachi), "Lord, only you can change me" (Sermon on the Mount), and an 8-week Lifeway study on "Covenant" (various texts tracing the doctrine of Covenant from Genesis through Revelation), we have investigated texts for meaning, and I think it would be fair to say we have been learning much ABOUT God and his word, and thus also about ourselves.
"Seeking Him" is a different kind of study ~ more "topical" and introspective. And I think the Lord's timing is perfect! I am persuaded that he has already been "making ready a people prepared for the Lord," so that seeds of "revival" may already have been planted in your soul. I hope that this study will give us the opportunity to APPLY much of our knowledge (both new and old) about God to our own, everyday lives - Even as we are seeking to gaze more deeply into the face of our Savior, the fruit of that is the sharpening of our focus as we do serious heart-examination on ourselves, and labor to bring every area of our external and internal worlds under the headship of Christ. And I pray that the fellowship and exhortation we share, over these next 12 weeks, will be as water and nourishment for these seeds of the work God is doing!
God willing, it is my intention to update this blog, weekly, with a summary of our classtime together so that this might be a useful tool in review, and also for those who might have to miss class for any reason.
And there is more information to come, especially concerning reviewing videos for nights missed.
Thank you for giving yourself to the Lord's leading, these weeks! I pray we are able to regard our time in preparation each week, NOT as part of our "busyness" but rather, as part of our REST and restoration as the Lord meets us in these carved out quiet times!
Blessings,
~Leah
Submitted by Leah Page on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 3:28pm
INTRODUCTION
Greetings, Ladies! Last week, we met together by way of introduction to our new topical study, "Seeking Him," which is focused on the who/what/when/where/why/how's of experiencing "REVIVAL" in our hearts and lives.
This past week, we started our journey together, working through the first lesson, and tonight we will begin discussion in earnest. It is my prayer that the Lord is already working in our hearts and minds, to search us, to know our hearts, to see if there be any wicked way in us, and to lead us in the way everlasting. And I hope, particularly, that this small group of women will become for you a "safe place" to share and fellowship and encourage one another as we grow in our intimacy with our Savior!
Over the past couple years, I have led what we have affectionately termed as one of the "non-precepts" studies offered for women at GCC. But even though we haven't worked through the sometimes more labor-intensive process of inductive study as laid out in the Precepts studies, we have nevertheless taken a more "inductive" approach. Working through "Before His Throne" (Malachi), "Lord, only you can change me" (Sermon on the Mount), and an 8-week Lifeway study on "Covenant" (various texts tracing the doctrine of Covenant from Genesis through Revelation), we have investigated texts for meaning, and I think it would be fair to say we have been learning much ABOUT God and his word, and thus also about ourselves.
"Seeking Him" is a different kind of study ~ more "topical" and introspective. And I think the Lord's timing is perfect! I am persuaded that he has already been "making ready a people prepared for the Lord," so that seeds of "revival" may already have been planted in your soul. I hope that this study will give us the opportunity to APPLY much of our knowledge (both new and old) about God to our own, everyday lives - Even as we are seeking to gaze more deeply into the face of our Savior, the fruit of that is the sharpening of our focus as we do serious heart-examination on ourselves, and labor to bring every area of our external and internal worlds under the headship of Christ. And I pray that the fellowship and exhortation we share, over these next 12 weeks, will be as water and nourishment for these seeds of the work God is doing!
God willing, it is my intention to update this blog, weekly, with a summary of our classtime together so that this might be a useful tool in review, and also for those who might have to miss class for any reason.
And there is more information to come, especially concerning reviewing videos for nights missed.
Thank you for giving yourself to the Lord's leading, these weeks! I pray we are able to regard our time in preparation each week, NOT as part of our "busyness" but rather, as part of our REST and restoration as the Lord meets us in these carved out quiet times!
Blessings,
~Leah
27 October, 2010
24 August, 2010
Choose Gratitude - 2 of 4 from July, 2010
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FB JULY 14, 2010
PART 2 of 4 from CHOOSE GRATITUDE
*Chapters 3-4 from Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss*
.....
Sorry for the lateness of the update. Truth be told, I forgot about the post until just this morning - has been a full week! I'll give a synopsis, here, in advance of our continuing discussion tonite, and maybe it will help "prime the pump" so to speak.
Ch. 3 gave us the story of a sinking ship, a rescuer nearly paralyzed for the rest of his life for his heroics on the night of the accident and not one of the 17 people he saved saying thanks; and we looked at the story of the 10 lepers healed, and the ONE who came back to Jesus to say thanks - not caring who heard him, not caring that he was the only one of the ten, he just found that out of the overflow of his having RECEIVED grace he now wanted only to be near to Jesus and express his thanks to him, a model of what we will be doing in eternity. And we were directed to Romans ch. 1 wherein one of the greatest rebukes against mankind, showing the horribleness of our turning away from God and the judgment that rightly brings - and at its root is, of all things, not honoring God as God or giving thanks to him. (v. 21)
We looked at 5 telltale signs of Ingratitude in our hearts:
*Unrealistic Expectations,
*Forgetting God and the blessings he's given,
*Feeling of Self-Entitlement ("I deserve...."),
*Comparison as if we're sacrificing more than others around us (and are therefore more "righteous"?!),
and
*Blindness to God's grace.
Ch. 4 gave us the example of Matthew Henry, praying after after he was robbed, expressing thanks that he had enjoyed NOT having been robbed at any time previous; and Nancy gave us 8 reasons WHY we ought to choose Gratitude.
Gratitude....
*Is a matter of obedience,
*Draws us close to the Lord (he inhabits the praises of his people!),
*Is a sure path to peace (what's stealing your peace right now? Consider Phil. 4 and the connection between rejoicing and giving thanks, and the MEANS by which God guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus),
*Is a gauge of the heart (gratitude comes from same root as gift - namely "grace" - is the heart full of grace? it will spill over in gratitude - that is, it is "grace-full" or "grateful"!),
*Is the will of God (for our hearts and lifestyle, not mere duty),
*Is the evidence of being filled with the Spirit,
*Reflects Jesus' heart,
and
*Gets us ready for heaven.
We revisited the "equation" from last week - that "Unavoidable Guilt" plus "Undeserved Grace" = "Unbridled Gratitude" (p. 35). If we are not "feeling" grateful, does this give us the right to stop giving thanks to the Lord? And if we are not "feeling" grateful, is this an indication something is genuinely wrong? Or is it ok not to "feel" like giving thanks, all the time?
We talked about this pretty heavily towards the end of our time together, concluding in short that if at the Lord's right hand there are pleasures evermore (as described in Ps. 16), and if Jesus rebuked the church at Ephesus (Revelation ch 2) for having forsaken their first love, the fact we don't FEEL "grateful" (or joyful or "in love" with the Lord, or feel "hungry" for him as our only good) indeed ought to be an indicator that something is wrong.
Perhaps we don't have a right perspective about our Guilt or we have neglected to see or receive God's Grace, or perhaps we have misunderstood what biblically "feeling" grateful should look like - whatever the case we ought to a) never cease giving thanks as it is a matter of obedience to a biblical command REGARDLESS of how we "feel," but also b) never be satisfied to NOT feel grateful - or full-of-grace - and we should ask God, as at end of Ps. 139, to search our hearts and know our thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in us - ANYTHING that might set itself up as a stronghold against the knowledge of God - and beg him to lead us to where, ultimately, HE really wants us - GRATEFUL - FULL of GRACE - dependent on him, and spilling over with grace to others so that his grace and glory AND our joy is multiplied.
The plan: to continue reading through ch. 5-7 and complete up through day 18 in the dailies in the back of the book.
....
PART 2 of 4 from CHOOSE GRATITUDE
*Chapters 3-4 from Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss*
.....
Sorry for the lateness of the update. Truth be told, I forgot about the post until just this morning - has been a full week! I'll give a synopsis, here, in advance of our continuing discussion tonite, and maybe it will help "prime the pump" so to speak.
Ch. 3 gave us the story of a sinking ship, a rescuer nearly paralyzed for the rest of his life for his heroics on the night of the accident and not one of the 17 people he saved saying thanks; and we looked at the story of the 10 lepers healed, and the ONE who came back to Jesus to say thanks - not caring who heard him, not caring that he was the only one of the ten, he just found that out of the overflow of his having RECEIVED grace he now wanted only to be near to Jesus and express his thanks to him, a model of what we will be doing in eternity. And we were directed to Romans ch. 1 wherein one of the greatest rebukes against mankind, showing the horribleness of our turning away from God and the judgment that rightly brings - and at its root is, of all things, not honoring God as God or giving thanks to him. (v. 21)
We looked at 5 telltale signs of Ingratitude in our hearts:
*Unrealistic Expectations,
*Forgetting God and the blessings he's given,
*Feeling of Self-Entitlement ("I deserve...."),
*Comparison as if we're sacrificing more than others around us (and are therefore more "righteous"?!),
and
*Blindness to God's grace.
Ch. 4 gave us the example of Matthew Henry, praying after after he was robbed, expressing thanks that he had enjoyed NOT having been robbed at any time previous; and Nancy gave us 8 reasons WHY we ought to choose Gratitude.
Gratitude....
*Is a matter of obedience,
*Draws us close to the Lord (he inhabits the praises of his people!),
*Is a sure path to peace (what's stealing your peace right now? Consider Phil. 4 and the connection between rejoicing and giving thanks, and the MEANS by which God guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus),
*Is a gauge of the heart (gratitude comes from same root as gift - namely "grace" - is the heart full of grace? it will spill over in gratitude - that is, it is "grace-full" or "grateful"!),
*Is the will of God (for our hearts and lifestyle, not mere duty),
*Is the evidence of being filled with the Spirit,
*Reflects Jesus' heart,
and
*Gets us ready for heaven.
We revisited the "equation" from last week - that "Unavoidable Guilt" plus "Undeserved Grace" = "Unbridled Gratitude" (p. 35). If we are not "feeling" grateful, does this give us the right to stop giving thanks to the Lord? And if we are not "feeling" grateful, is this an indication something is genuinely wrong? Or is it ok not to "feel" like giving thanks, all the time?
We talked about this pretty heavily towards the end of our time together, concluding in short that if at the Lord's right hand there are pleasures evermore (as described in Ps. 16), and if Jesus rebuked the church at Ephesus (Revelation ch 2) for having forsaken their first love, the fact we don't FEEL "grateful" (or joyful or "in love" with the Lord, or feel "hungry" for him as our only good) indeed ought to be an indicator that something is wrong.
Perhaps we don't have a right perspective about our Guilt or we have neglected to see or receive God's Grace, or perhaps we have misunderstood what biblically "feeling" grateful should look like - whatever the case we ought to a) never cease giving thanks as it is a matter of obedience to a biblical command REGARDLESS of how we "feel," but also b) never be satisfied to NOT feel grateful - or full-of-grace - and we should ask God, as at end of Ps. 139, to search our hearts and know our thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in us - ANYTHING that might set itself up as a stronghold against the knowledge of God - and beg him to lead us to where, ultimately, HE really wants us - GRATEFUL - FULL of GRACE - dependent on him, and spilling over with grace to others so that his grace and glory AND our joy is multiplied.
The plan: to continue reading through ch. 5-7 and complete up through day 18 in the dailies in the back of the book.
....
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