Worship: What a beautiful time of fueling as we gathered on July 29! Ginny Wall graciously led us in a time of worship together. Ginny, if you don’t know her, is a soft-spoken person who loves Jesus deeply and has a beautiful folksy style voice. She knows many Scripture songs and whenever she sings, it brings a peaceful atmosphere of God’s presence. She was singing at this particular meeting about the Lord being a consuming fire and asking Him to ignite our hearts. Through the songs she had chosen as well as her spontaneous singing to the Lord, we were singing about surrendering to the Lord and inviting Him to have His way in our lives. I love these worship times and the opportunity to lift Jesus up together with others as well as the opportunity to be still and listen for what the Lord is speaking. It’s awesome the way He will highlight something to different individuals during worship that He will weave together throughout our time together that confirms what He is speaking to each of us. I had this experience as I knew the Lord was speaking to me personally about learning to really listen for His voice. After worship, Matthew shared a passage from Kings about Elijah hearing the voice of the Lord not in an earthquake or a fire or a great wind, but in a still small voice. This confirmed what I was sensing from the Lord that I need to learn to be STILL and just BE with Jesus and learn to discern His whisper. The Teaching: Matthew reviewed what we talked about in June: Beholding the Lord! There is a door standing open in heaven (Revelation 4) and that indicates an invitation to COME UP and see the One seated on the Throne. He said that all we talked about last week was worth repeating because God has continued highlighting this message even since our gathering in June. Since that Lampstand gathering, Matthew shared the same message again at a church in Mooresville. He and I also both had dreams in the same week about beholding the Lord. In his dream, he was speaking at a conference and knew he needed to talk about Psalm 27:4 and beholding the Lord. In my dream, I was also speaking to a gathering of people on a VERY high platform (about 50 feet or more up in the air) about seeking the Lord (the high platform would indicate that He is elevating this message in a pronounced way!). Then more recently, he had another dream about a blue sheet we use at prayer containing “Hymns of Revelation” which are songs and pictures in the book of Revelation about Jesus, broken down into phrases so they can be prayed. In the dream, he was praying from these prayer sheets and the words were being projected onto a dry erase board l and the letters were becoming BOLD and then the words were growing in size! Through these various encounters, the Lord is highlighting to us that it is truly critical to “behold Jesus.” To fix our gazes on Him and be transformed because gazing on Him in love changes us. He felt like all of this, particularly the latter dream, was a challenge to go deeper in the word of God and to enter into a prayer journey with the Lord. He quoted Skip Cone’s prayer from TRIHOP the previous night, “Open the natural mind of man and interpret the Scripture for us!” We listened to a brief exhortation from Julie Meyer who has been with the International House of Prayer in Kansas City for many years and is a lovely worship leader, mother in the Lord, and prophetic singer. In her message she was exhorting people to sing the word! Singing the Scriptures over our own hearts transforms us and gets the word written deep within us as it becomes a tool to encourage others! Response: Our response time was worship, and in this time Ginny shared a song she had written from an experience she had when she lived through a hurricane in Florida. She also led us in a Scripture song from Revelation, “The Spirit and the Bride say come!” This was a powerful time of agreement with the Lord and asking Him to encounter us in His word. Also, asking Him to prepare and fuel our hearts for the “storms” we may be facing either on a large scale as a nation or in our individual lives.
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Last month I shared about the Lord highlighting the theme of “Beholding the Lord” to both Julie and me. For some of that story, read Beholding the Lord for a little background to this blog. It is clear to me the Lord is directing us to “Behold Him,” yet I struggle with practically how “beholding Him” would be fleshed out in my life. Is there some specific aspect of Him or His word that the Lord is wanting me to focus on? It can seem a little overwhelming what to concentrate on. I am already in a couple other studies, and I want the time I have available to spend to count. Since I wrote the last blog, I had another dream with more Scripture in it regarding the subject of “Beholding Him” that answered some of these questions about specifics. In the dream I was looking at some blue paper with specific passages from the book of Revelation on it. I knew immediately that it was a sheet titled “Hymns of Revelation” that are often available as a resource for people on our Friday night meetings with the Tri-Cities House of Prayer. This is a collection of verses that either describe the character of God or are a proclamation of praise and worship. In the dream, I was looking at those blue sheets and then the verses would appear on a large dry erase board. Certain words would be highlighted (either appearing in bold print or becoming enlarged). For example, the word “throne” would appear larger and bolder. When I awoke, I knew that it was an invitation to me to study these passages, even searching out meaning of phrases and words. But it was an invitation not to just study but to talk to the Lord and worship Him while I study. Recently, at one of our Tuesday prayer meetings, I prayed through one of these passages on the microphone. Taking the description of God the Father and Jesus from Rev. 1:4-8 and asking for the Bride of the Tri-Ciites to have a greater revelation of who God is, I experienced the unction of the Holy Spirit! As I prayed, I was receiving faith to believe for what I was praying, and there was greater boldness on my words. Oh, how God likes to breath on His word! Then yesterday, I listened to a message by a man named Gary Ham from Times Square Church in New York City, entitled “Behold the Man.” Because of what the Lord had already been highlighting about “Beholding Him” I was interested in listening and I was greatly impacted, even weeping over the simple message about fixing our gaze on Jesus. To listen to that teaching (I strongly recommend it!), CLICK HERE. As I share all this I want to encourage you with three specific things: 1) There is a journey that God wants to take each of us on that leads to greater and greater encounter with Himself. 2) He wants to strengthen us in His word and breathe life on His word so it becomes LIFE to us! 3) He is inviting us to BEHOLD HIM and experience life transformation and fascination. WOO HOO! With the solar eclipse coming Monday, August 21, 2017, people are talking a lot about this historic event. Some people are mostly interested in getting their glasses to view the spectacle, but we have also seen some interesting conjecture about the end of the world or other cataclysmic events because of the eclipse. It also seems to stir up a lot of questions about the times we live in and there seems to even be anxiety about what this can mean. We believe this is not only a historic event, but a prophetic one that we should pay attention to. At our recent TRIHOP meeting, our director Skip Cone shared a very helpful explanation of this event. He described two extremes of responses to the total eclipse that will soon be crossing our nation: we can look at it as simply a natural phenomenon and ignore what God may be saying with it OR we can move into prophetic mania. Skip’s words regarding the eclipse: “At best, it is an opportunity for us to consider our ways and cry out for our nation to return to the Lord. At worst, this could be a final warning for us to repent before God severely chastens our nation.” You can read his thoughts in their entirety in a document about the eclipse that I thought was helpful. Check it out.
I think more than anything we need to turn to the Lord. He is always interested in getting our attention and leading people into deeper relationship with Himself. He wants us to ask questions of Him and to seek Him in His word. We need to lift up our eyes, not just to see the sun eclipsed by the moon, but to see the Son of God on the throne and to bring our own hearts into agreement with His word.
We should guard against turning to prophetic meanings without turning to the One who is actually speaking. Sometimes, we get more fascinated by the message and we miss the point which is to behold the One with the message. The fact that we can see something like this in the heavens at all is reason to lift our eyes and consider the One who created these things and it should cause us to heed what God may be communicating to His church through this sign in the heavens. It is worth it to ask if this is a prophetic indicator of what He is already speaking? If You are speaking, Lord, what is our response to be? The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. 2 Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. Psalm 19:1-4 Recently, I was praying from 2 Peter that God would deliver His church from damaging doctrines and false teachers and one verse jumped out at me. 2 Peter 2:14 “having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.” This verse is specifically speaking of false teachers but what jumped out at me is that “unstable souls” were the ones being enticed. What exactly makes one’s soul unstable? I think a great answer is looking at what the Scripture says stability IS. “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is His treasure.” (Isaiah 33:6) If we want stability in our lives, it is directly linked to the wisdom and knowledge of God. This is not a wisdom or knowledge that is human philosophy but rooted in the truth of the Lord and the revelation of Him in Scripture. We have a famine of biblical knowledge in the Scripture in our culture and even in the church. In an article, “The Epidemic of Bible Illiteracy in Our Churches” by Ed Stetzer in Christianity Today, he sites some of this lack of biblical knowledge: “But it's more than simply not knowing stories from Scripture. Our lack of biblical literacy has led to a lack of biblical doctrine. LifeWay Research found that while 67 percent of Americans believe heaven is a real place, 45 percent believe there are many ways to get there—including 1 in 5 evangelical Christians. More than half of evangelicals (59 percent) believe the Holy Spirit is a force and not a personal being—in contrast to the orthodox biblical teaching of the Trinity being three Persons in one God. As a whole, Americans, including many Christians, hold unbiblical views on hell, sin, salvation, Jesus, humanity, and the Bible itself.” To read the entire article, click here. So if there is such a problem in the nation and the church we are sure to be the “unstable souls” that would be enticed by false preachers. It is time to take a serious evaluation of our own lives in the word. Are we growing in knowledge and stability? Matthew 24-27 24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Sometimes you know you’re on the right track because of the opposition that comes. This Lampstand meeting certainly presented some interesting challenges in the week leading up to the meeting. I don’t know if we were wise enough to realize that much of what we were facing was a tactic of the enemy to get us off track, but thankfully God gave us grace to persevere, we faced the meeting, and God worked in it! Bethany Oakes led us in a beautiful time of worship, ministering unto the Lord and focusing our attention on Him. It was so good to set aside all the things that had been pulling at us and trying to distract us and to simply fix our eyes on the Lord. We are so grateful for Bethany pressing in to touch the heart of the Lord and leading us into that place of encountering Him. At our last meeting, we announced that we would be taking a deeper look at some themes in Scripture that will fuel our hearts. At this meeting, we began that deeper look with a topic that Matthew and I both love so dearly: the “Beauty Realm”. This is the term we use to describe the places in Scripture that describe visions of God, His throne, the heavens, and His beauty. Revelation 4 is one of those amazing passages, a “theophanies” or picture of God in the Scripture. It begins with John seeing a door standing open in heaven. Matthew shared from this passage and talked about how Jesus is the door (John 10). He wants to open up revelation of His excellence and beauty to us. He also talked about “Beholding the Lord”. We want to have a gaze that is fixed on the Lord. He shared from an article by the late David Wilkerson, founder of Teen Challenge and pastor of Time Square Church in NYC. The article was entitled, “The Ministry of Beholding His Face.” This article references 2 Corinthians 3 and describes the ministry of every believer as the ministry of beholding the Lord. Beholding is a strong expression that means fixing our gaze. Matthew shared it this way, “I won’t move from my position. Before I do anything else, before I try to accomplish a single thing, I must be in God’s presence.” Beholding is like looking intently, trying to see something more clearly and to understand it deeply. We want to behold Jesus! We want to look intently at Him and try to know and understand Him in a personal and intimate way. An amazing thing happens when we gaze at Jesus: we are transformed. We become like what we worship, what we gaze at! When we spend time studying Jesus in the Scripture and talking to Him and worshipping Him, we are changed. We become more like Him. RESPONSE: We value these times to respond to whatever the Lord is highlighting in worship and in the message. We don’t always pray for each individual, but on this particular night, we felt that was the right response. So, we gathered around each person and spent time asking the Lord to open up more understanding of who Jesus is. Each one responded to the message and asked for greater revelation of the Lord and His beauty. What a precious time to pray together. I love the way the Holy Spirit will move among us as we lift each other up to Him. It is one of the most refreshing and encouraging things to feel other believers gather around you and agree with the Lord’s heart for you. I love the way He will stir His spirit in each person and release encouragement through words, prayers, and scriptures. For the past year I have pondered the issue of slavery in our nation’s history. This is partly from reflecting on two outings our family was able to take. One was a tour of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home near Charlottesville, VA and the other was a trip to Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky. Both trips significantly impacted me. I cannot get out of my head one of the tour guide’s comments from the slavery tour at Monticello. We were standing on Mulberry Row, which was, in Jefferson’s time, a literal row of slave quarters and shops. Now they have recreated some of those buildings. From that row, you can easily see Jefferson’s home. We were standing on the lot where the original “nailery” would have been. The guide suggested a possible story of a day in the life of a young slave boy who would have had to make so many buckets of nails or face being whipped or being moved to work in the hot fields. As he worked to make the nails, maybe he would look up at Mr. Jefferson’s house, where the author of the Declaration of Independence lived, in which he wrote, “All men are created equal.” What would that young boy think as he faced a life of slavery, never to leave its grasp? Ugh, that thought weighed heavily on me that day as it has many other days in this past year. It has been recently revived in my thoughts from the news that I heard of archeologists finding the room that they believe was designated for Sally Hemmings. Sally Hemmings was a slave with whom Jefferson probably had 6 children. The fact is, no matter how many stories would like to romanticize the relationship between the two, and whether there was an element of romance with Mr. Jefferson or not, Sally Hemmings was his property, not allowed to leave his estate. At Mammoth Cave National Park we took the historic tour which was absolutely fascinating yet disturbing, again because of the issue of slavery. Using slave labor rented from a neighboring county, saltpeter was mined in the caves. “During the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, much of the large quantity of saltpeter needed to fight the war was mined at Mammoth Cave. The cave owners relied on a work force of approximately 70 African American slaves to mine this valuable mineral.” (https://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/35mammoth/35facts2.htm) I love to learn about American History. But honestly, the slavery we had in this nation sickens me. It’s a blight on our nation that continues to leave its effects. This injustice, with the cruelty that was expressed to human beings, is a major part of the sins of this nation before God. What do you do when you see such an atrocity? The solution is not found in trying to cover over the atrocity, somehow whitewashing our nation’s history, our forefathers, or even our own actions and attitudes. The solution is not found in having certain people do penance or get punished for what their former relatives may have done. The Scripture gives a clear prescription of what a nation is to do when they have sinned against God and turned their back on Him. I find it encouraging and comforting knowing we lean into the mercies of a God who can forgive and heal. 2 Chronicles 7:14 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. This Scripture is in the context of God giving instruction to the nation of Israel when they would turn from God and then experience resulting crisis. As we face the atrocity in our nation’s past we must not try to whitewash what has been an offense toward God. We don’t deny it happened. But we do as Daniel did with his nation; he identified with the sin and prayed to God for mercy (Daniel 9). We turn to God, ask for forgiveness, and offer forgiveness to others in that same vein. Without it the atrocities and injustice will continue in ignorance, vengeance, and retaliation. God, we repent of our past sin. The atrocities that our nation has committed, the darkness we have embraced. We are sorry for slavery which infected our nation’s past and we are sorry for the racial wars, prejudice, injustice, and discrimination that continues today. God, help us to humble ourselves. To bow low and kiss the Son (Psalm 2) and say we were and are wrong. Help us to seek your face and know you, to know how you feel about all this, and to know what our current actions should be. Help us to forsake any wicked thoughts, motives, and actions. We ask that you would hear us and respond with the extension of your forgiveness and healing. I feel like the Lord is highlighting a message of great importance in this time: the message is BEHOLDING HIM. I have for many years resonated with this call to behold the Lord. In my college years (1995-1999), the Lord showed me part of my calling in Him was to be a watchman. The word “Watching” in the Scriptures, means to stay awake, be alert and aware, be closely observant, and vigilant. A watchman can be described as one who keeps awake and aware to warn people of coming danger. Although, I wholeheartedly agree that this is part of the watchman’s role in the body of Christ, I believe the primary occupation of a watchman in the body of Christ should be seeking the Lord, gazing on Him, looking for Him. We should be desiring to know what He looks like. We should be asking what He is doing. I read an article years ago by David Wilkerson that articulated this desire in my heart: https://worldchallenge.org/newsletter/ministry-beholding-his-face (Here is a sermon with the same title, also by David Wilkerson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91XRVnc0RMY ) Speaking of 2 Corinthians 3, Wilkerson talks about being transformed as we behold Jesus. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. The truth of this transformation is impacting as we consider that we actually become like that which we behold (or worship). If we behold and worship Jesus we become more Christ-like. If we spend our days with our primary affections on the idols of money, people, or self, we will become greedy, lustful, covetous, and self-centered. Beholding the Lord is not looking at a physical picture of Jesus for hours. It’s actually gazing at who He is through the truth of the Scripture. Seeking His face is learning more about Him, studying His character, seeking His desires, wanting to do what He wants you to do. David Wilkerson’s article defines the ministry of beholding His face as “focused, devoted worship.” He defines gazing on Him as: “we ‘fix our eyes’ this way, determined to see God's glory in the face of Christ. We're to shut ourselves in the holy of holies, with but one obsession: to gaze so intently, and to commune with such devotion, that we're changed.” At our last Lampstand meeting in June, I talked about the Ministry of Beholding Him, referring to this David Wilkerson article. I also referenced Revelation 4 and the open door we have that gives us access to the Lord. Later, on June 25th, I shared at Rio de Vida, a Hispanic congregation in Mooresville, NC where our good friend, Luis Sosa, pastors. I spoke again about beholding the Lord and being transformed. One night since that time I had a dream I was about to speak at a conference on “Beholding the Lord.” In the dream the Lord directed me to share Psalm 27:4 first and how David was one who beheld the Lord. One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple. Around the same time, Julie also had a dream in which she was standing on a very high platform and was speaking about “seeking the Lord” and it was connected to living holy and set apart. Then this past Sunday, our associate pastor, Bill Hauck shared a word about “beholding the Lord” being our occupation. He also shared out of Psalm 27:4. So, what is the Lord saying in all of this? Although this is a ministry for every believer (2 Corinthians 4:1), I know he is highlighting “BEHOLDING HIM” specifically to us in this season. And, it’s brilliant. With all we are facing as a family—the activities, the challenges and pressures and decisions—IT IS WISDOM TO TAKE TIME AND LOOK AT HIM. With all the events that are occurring so rapidly in our region and nation, IT IS WISDOM TO TAKE TIME TO GAZE ON HIM. With all of the news that comes from around the world with reports that grieve and trouble us—IT IS WISDOM TO TAKE TIME TO BEHOLD JESUS. It is exhilarating to know He is speaking to us, that He cares about us, and that He has a strategy that is not overwhelming. It’s simple, yet so difficult to actually place this ministry of seeking the Lord as a priority. But, it is so worth it! As the Lord is directing us, know He wants to direct you too. Maybe He is using this to encourage you to SEEK HIS FACE! Psalm 27:4 When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Recently, a good friend and I were talking about emotions and how they affect our lives. He shared some thoughts from St. Ignatius of Loyola. “Saint Ignatius of Loyola 1491-1556 was a Spanish Basque priest and theologian, who founded the religious order called the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).” He spoke about thoughts and emotions in His third person autobiography “From experience he knew that some thoughts left him sad while others made him happy, and little by little he came to perceive the different spirits that were moving him; one coming from the devil, the other coming from God.” This discovery has been described by different people in different ways. One source I found very helpful was an article discussing Ignatius’s thoughts: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/making-good-decisions/discernment-of-spirits/introduction-to-discernment-of-spirits “The feelings stirred up by good and evil spirits are called “consolation” and “desolation” in the language of Ignatian spirituality. Spiritual consolation is an experience of being so on fire with God’s love that we feel impelled to praise, love, and serve God and help others as best as we can. Spiritual consolation encourages and facilitates a deep sense of gratitude for God’s faithfulness, mercy, and companionship in our life. In consolation, we feel more alive and connected to others. Spiritual desolation, in contrast, is an experience of the soul in heavy darkness or turmoil. We are assaulted by all sorts of doubts, bombarded by temptations, and mired in self-preoccupations. We are excessively restless and anxious and feel cut off from others. Such feelings, in Ignatius’s words, “move one toward lack of faith and leave one without hope and without love.” As I have pondered this, I have found this description of desolation and consolation very helpful for my own processing of feelings. I have often described to people when I am struggling in different circumstances and situations that the greater struggle is with the emotions and feelings I am having rather than my actual thoughts (although the thoughts are always attached to emotions I have). I will admit that I have more of a melancholy personality. I don’t see that as all negative. There is often a battle to not be led by, overly influenced by, or controlled by EMOTIONS. Yet, I find that I am able to overcome obstacles to obedience by strong feelings of love for the Lord and for people. I see the difference of feelings and thoughts of desolation. Hopelessness, anxiety, abandonment, rejection, fear, etc. are all feelings/thoughts that make sick our souls and lead to spiritual death. Sometimes, I can attribute these negative feelings to evil spirits. It is certainly the enemy who wants to accuse us and make us believe his lies. At other times I believe it is just our unenlightened human thoughts that are not renewed by God’s truth. In contrast I have seen the Holy Spirit, the only true Spirit of Consolation, bring enlightenment of the truth and encouragement to my soul. He ministers to us that we are not without hope of salvation in Jesus. He highlights that Jesus is a loving Shepherd to guide and direct us, and give us hope for a future in Him. We need not fear or be anxious about anything because He cares for our needs, guides us into all truth, and comforts us. We are not abandoned or rejected because for those who know Him, we have been accepted into His presence, adopted as sons, and prepared to be a bride for the King of all kings. These are my conclusions as I have been meditating on desolation and consolation. I want to reject the feelings of desolation that the enemy would use to lie to me and cause me to miss the mark. I also want to embrace the Holy Spirit, the spirit of consolation; I want to be more committed to the word which will ground me in the truth about who God is and how He sees me. I want to stand ever more firmly against the lies of the enemy and believe the truth, having my mind and subsequently my emotions transformed. I look forward to the consolation that God will bring to my soul and the hope in the midst of any darkness I face. I pray for all those reading this that you would have the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your lives, drawing strength and truth from His majesty and presence. Romans 12:2 NKJV And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. John 16:13 NKJV However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. John 14:16-18 NKJV 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Romans 15: 15-17 NKJV 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Have you ever seen a Georgia O’Keefe piece of art? I can’t vouch for all of it, but some of her most famous works are very large paintings of flowers. The unique thing is that she paints in “zoom.” She takes one small square of an entire flower and “enlarges” it so that it’s like you have zoomed in very close to a flower and you are looking at in minute detail. The kids and I did an art project for school this year using Georgia O’Keefe’s technique of making flowers very big. We took a picture of a flower or plant and laid a one inch by one inch square “view finder” over the part we wanted to enlarge. We created some fun watercolor paintings by drawing the small piece to scale in a much larger square. I feel like this exercise is a lot like what Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones does in his sermon series on the book of Ephesians. He takes verse one and preaches two 45 minute sermons. He preaches three sermons on verse 3! In these sermons he keeps saying things like the following: “It is always good to pay attention to what an author at the outset deems to be necessary and important.” “I digress for a moment to point out that when we read our Bibles nothing is more important than that we should look at every word, and question it as to its meaning.” “We must learn how to read the Scriptures; and there is no one thing that is more important when we do so than just this, to ask questions of it.” Clearly, if this man could extract enough meat to preach 3 substantial sermons on one verse, I should take note and consider that there is so much more to gain from reading Scripture than a nice feeling that I completed my checklist of Scripture reading for the day! There is much in there to chew on! Like Georgia O’Keefe desired to make her paintings of flowers BIG so that people would have to stop and look, Dr. Lloyd-Jones is zooming in on each word of the book of Ephesians and making the Word of God BIG and BEAUTIFUL so that people will STOP and really look and really consider what the Lord is speaking through His word and how that affects you and me personally. I began this Ephesians study recently at the invitation of Skip Cone, our friend, mentor, and director of TRIHOP. He spoke so highly of it and I have not been disappointed! The teachings are excellent, giving me fresh insights and things to ponder. But, the real life of these messages has come as I have meditated on the Words of the Scripture and particularly in times with my kids. The kids and I have been “zooming in” on each verse by doing three things: 1. ASK – Ask questions of the Scripture. Sometimes our first question is simply, “What questions should I ask?” Who? What does this word mean? How does this apply to me? 2. THINK – Think about the possible answers to these questions, using the Scripture itself to help find those answers. 3. PONDER – Consider the implications of the questions, the answers, the words. Let these thoughts penetrate and awaken love for Jesus in your heart! This looks different each day. Sometimes we just talk together about the verse. Sometimes we each meditate on the verse by ourselves while we listen to music. Someone may write (or draw) in a journal on their own or we might do that together. Someone else may just think about the questions without writing them down. No matter what we are doing, there has been amazing encouragement as we take the “view finder” and sit it down word by word to enlarge the details of what God is speaking to us through His word. May we all feel challenged whether we are new in Bible study or seasoned students to think deeply about the word and let it transform us! All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. ~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Wow what a great May Lampstand meeting! Julie led our time of worship on the keyboard and did a fantastic job! We are thankful for these times to simply behold and worship the Lord. It is so good to sing about who He is, like from Psalm 46, THE LORD OF HOSTS IS WITH US, WITH US IN THE FIRE, WITH US AS A SHELTER, WITH US IN THE STORM! Whew! What power in declaring Truth! I (Matthew) shared from Psalm 19, specifically verses 7-11 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. What benefits there are from reading and studying the Lord’s word, His instruction! There is converting (change), restoration, and reviving for our souls! It brings gladness to our heart, makes us wise, and gives insight for living (our eyes enlightened!) If we really believe all this it will change our approach to the word. We see it is more valuable than gold! We then took some time and prayed through this Scripture as a group as we worshiped some more and responded in singing after voicing our petitions! We continue to press out oil by studying His word at these meetings and hopefully encouraging lifestyles of dedication to the word and connection with the Lord. We will be taking time in future meetings to discuss different subjects in the Scriptures that will fuel our hearts, like studies in the beauty of God, our identity as the bride of Christ and our relationship to the Bridegroom, etc. We are looking forward to receiving the encouragement the Lord has for us the rest of this year. |
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