The Beth Moore Patriarch study is incredible. On the first lesson we were talking about Abram leaving the land of UR. And Beth Moore suggested that we all have our Ur’s that we have to leave to follow God. Then she suggested something that blew my mind:

UR could mean our Usual Routines. Boy do I have some URS that I can leave.

Later today I will try to type some notes for you, but to be honest, I am also trying to clean my house. Too bad the housework cannot take care of itself so that I could study more. And believe me, I would have my nose in the Bible way more if housework did not interfere.

Unfortunately I don’t think that focusing on God will cause housework to follow, without a bit of my own elbow grease. My vacuum cleaner is in serious need of bonding.

Heather

Went on a date with my husband. A date is when we can go somewhere without the kids, and spend some time together. We drove to Poughkeepsie for some business stuff, then ate lunch in Barnes and Noble and I have to confess, bought books.

I found a delightful, funny and provocative book that you might enjoy:

God’s Blogs: Insights from His Site by Lanny Donoho

It says you can’t reproduce any part of the book without the author’s permission, so I am not sure I can quote much from the book.

But at one point it suggests going to the copyright page for a laugh, and I found this:

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ALL WRONGS FORGIVEN

Cracked me up, but if you want to introduce people to God as a very loving personal God, this is the book that can do it.

What a wonderful treat, and then to have a date with my husband, awesome.

Tomorrow I will try to put up more of the Bible studies we have been having. Still am working on my two minute testimony, what a challenge because I tend to be more talkative than that.

Hope you are having a great day.

Heather

Guess what, if you want to hear and see some of Pastor Don’s sermons online go to this link:

http://www.ihnministries.org/teaching.html

On the left side of the screen scroll down to where it says “Say Amen” and there are sermons that you can watch that are put on Pastor Don’s TV show. They are about a half an hour long.

Heather

I am undertaking three studies over the next few months, discipleship, and in October a few of us are beginning the fourth part of a study on Revelation using a book by Kay Arthur. And today the Woman’s Group I belong to started the study called the Patriarchs by Beth Moore. So there will be lots of tidbits to share.

Well I might as well walk around barefooted because my socks got knocked off again, sigh.

Genesis 11:1-9 talks about the tower of Babel.

And in verse three it says, “Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”…

And in verse seven God says, “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

Beth stated that God responded to man’s come let us with His own. God’s US is the trinity, way more powerful than man’s puny efforts.

But what was the sock removing statement is this. “The order of the consonants in the Hebrew word for “let us confuse” is N-B-L. The order of the consonants in the Hebrew word for “bricks” is the reverse: L-B-N.” God will unbrick what they brick.

I think that is an awesome play on words. For (Heather’s thoughts now). When God wanted the Israelites to sacrifice their altar was not to be made or formed, it was to be a rock or something that God provided so that people realized that it was God who not only provided the sacrifice, the altar, etc, that man cannot get puffed up in pride by their elaborate work of man’s hands.

Now man had to make the bricks to form the tower of Babel, and it was in direct disobedience to God. For God told the people to scatter. They committed the same sin that satan did, thinking that they were equal with God or could as a group best God. God can undo anything that we do in our own strength. The only enduring things are those ordained by God.

What job did the Israelites have in Egypt, making bricks with their hands, and God liberated them from that back-breaking work. We often in our lives make bricks with our own hard work, rather than trusting in God and letting the Holy Spirit guide us.

Oh, how I pray that I am more led by God, and less by my own desire and efforts. I know that what is led by God will last.

Heather

Heard a teaching today that really knocked my socks off.

Where is Jesus now? Sitting at the right hand of the Father. If you look at the Temple, you see that there was no place for the High Priest to sit down. There was the Altar of Sacrifice, there was the altar, the lampstands, the table, etc. but no chairs. Why? Because the work of the High Priest was never done! No matter how many sacrifices they made, there was still sin in the world.

Only Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, completed the work of atonement for our sins. He could sit down because of Him the work was finished. Praise God for this!

Heather

We had discipleship Friday and were given an interesting assignment, one that I am beginning to work out in mind. I thought it would be an interesting challenge for you as well.

We were talking this week about evangalism. Not everyone is an evangalist, but at times everyone will be asked by God to share our faith with someone else.

In reaching out to other people a few points are really important. One is to listen to the person. For us it is often hard to listen. I know that sometimes when I am listening to someone my mind is working overtime trying to figure out what I am going to say in response to them. But that is not REALLY listening to what they are saying.

When we talk about Christ to others, we also have to be careful that we are speaking in a language that they will understand. If a person is not a believer, some of the things that we say as Christians can be very puzzling to them. Examples might be going into one’s prayer closet, being washed in the blood, standing in faith for you, etc.

The other thing to remember is that when you are sharing your testimony, the other person does not always have to know the depth of the sins you committed, for they may then compare themselves with you and decide that they are not nearly as “bad” as you, so therefore they do not need to listen to you about Christ. Way better to talk about the feelings that got you to the depths of your sin, because everyone can understand those kinds of feelings. We are to be able to answer the question “Why are you a follower of Christ?” in plain English without using religious terms.

Then we learned more about what makes a great testimony.

1. a broad view (the world) – to locate where the person is coming from, their point of view, how they look at the world. Because while your testimony must be the truth (not fabricated or made worse or better), it need not be told in its entirety. But it is better to pick some part of your testimony that can touch on a point that your listener has experienced and can relate to.

2. personal goals that you have.

3. how you looked at religion before you changed.

4. and then we talk about what led to our Jesus moment, where you realized that something had to change, where you knew that you couldn’t keep doing what you were doing.

5. That then leads to the point where “I realized that there was a change.” That is kind of the Prodigal Moment, like in Luke 15:17 when the prodigal son came to himself, where a life is changed.

6. then after you share that, you are checking to see if the person you are sharing with has felt similar situations, and if they have, then you can ask them if they want us to tell them what else happened.

7. That leads to sharing the Gospel, and ultimately you find out if they want Jesus to do this for them. If the answer is I have questions, answer their questions or find someone who can answer their questions. If it is No, but thanks, end the discussion. It is not a failure because you have still planted a seed that someone else may water. And if the answer is yes, then we lead them in a simple prayer of repentence, and asking the Lord to come into them, and dedicate their lives to the Lord.

This is what we discussed in depth this Friday in discipleship. Now here is the assignment we were given. I will share what I come up with with you, and I would love to hear what you come up with for this assignment if you care to share your response to the assignment.

We are to be ready to share our testimony. We should have a 2 minute testimony, a 5 minute testimony, a 15 minute testimony, and for those rare instances an hour testimony, sort of planned out in our head. That way when the opportunity arises we are prepared.

Now most of the time all you have is 2 minutes to share your testimony. Given the guidelines above, our assignment is to pick one of these imaginary people and prepare a 2 minute testimony that reaches them where they are:

1. An IBM employee whou earns 100,000 a year, has everything they want, and doesn’t need anything.

2. A bored housewife with three kids

3.A homeless guy who has nothing, and is happy about it.

Our testimony should include our Jesus moment and our prodigal moment.

We are going to give these testimonies at our next discipleship class.

I am already figuring out what to say to the bored housewife.

Have fun with this assignment. It really opened my eyes that it is not necessary to give your entire testimony, that a piece of it that really fits the life of the person you are sharing with can make a greater impression.

Have a blessed weekend.

Heather

Heather steps up on her soapbox:

There are many entries on tolerance that I have come across recently in Xanga, and I thought it might be interesting to look at tolerance from a Christian point of view. From where I sit, tolerance seems to have taken on a bit of a different definition. Below is the dictionary.com definition of tolerence.

1.The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.

Christianity and Judaism have been billed as intolerant because the tennents of Christianity and of Judaism state that we cannot worship any other God but God. That means we cannot accept Allah, Zeus, Isis, the Great Mother, Gaia or any other God but God as our God. To some this seems intolerant, but it is one of the 10 commandments that God gave Moses, and Jesus also gave this commandment as one of the two commandments that we must obey. To claim that other Gods are also God would fly in the face of this commandment.

And Christianity also states very clearly Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

And in John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

For a Christian who believes Jesus, we have to believe what Jesus says, and he clearly without any holds barred says that we must come to God through Jesus. There is no other way.

Now tolerance as the world would want us to show tolerance would be to say that the above statement is in error and that people can get to God and be saved from many different paths. For a Christian that would then be disobeying what Jesus said, and we cannot do that.

There are many different beliefs about God and who God is, and what one must do to attain salvation in whatever form the religions state salvation for them is. Many are contrary to each other. Muslims say that there is no God but Allah, a Christian or Jewish person cannot believe that without disobeying the commandments we are given. We have to choose what we believe. There really is no way to reconcile the differences in the beliefs of many of the religions, so a person makes a choice as to what they believe. To fully believe the choice they make, they must practice ALL the tenents of their faith, not some, not pick and choose what is the most acceptable to them.

Today there seems to be a trend for what I think of as the supermarket religion. I like this statement from this religion, that statement from that religion, and the belief from this religion. I will put it all together, shake it up, and make what seems right to me. Romans 1: 22-25 describes this trend. “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen”

Frankly, I tried many beliefs out for 40 years before I came to Christ. Beliefs like “Thou are god.” and stating that there are as many paths to God as there are rays of the sun, and creating my own universe through control of my thoughts, etc. But when you think of it, how many of us are really in charge of even our own bodies? Can I with my mind divide a cell, create blood, tell myself to breath in or breath out 24 hours a day? So much of what my body does is automatic, I am not in control of it, much less how the earth spins around the sun, creating oxygen. I cannot control what another person thinks or does, there is no way to pretend I am God. I cannot create new life from dust, and for that matter, I can’t create the dust to begin to create new life. Who am I kidding when I told myself that I was god and in charge of my own universe?

I want a God that is bigger than my small imaginings. In the Bible there are many stories of how people tried to put God into a box, figure out how He would act. So often God acted in ways that did not make sense to our senses or ways of thinking. If I try to form my own religion, peg God to what is acceptable to me, am I not limiting God? Am I not fooling myself? If I cannot limit God, force Him into a box of my own limited understanding, perhaps I should then CHOOSE to obey what He says and believe what He says.

But the definition of tolerance does not state that we have to BELIEVE and ACCEPT  the beliefs of other systems to be true and accurate,  just that we have to recognize and respect their beliefs.

I recognize that there are other beliefs besides Christianity, in fact I used to have other beliefs. I also respect a person’s right to choose beliefs contrary to Christianity, and I respect the fact that the people who choose these beliefs believe them with passion and in many cases with much dedication to their beliefs. But, from the experiences I have had, the religions I have studied and practiced, I have to state that for ME I choose to accept Jesus and his statement that it is through Him that we are saved.

We are all given the right to CHOOSE. And I will defend anyone’s right to choose what they will believe, even if I disagree with their choice. But some choices will not be the right ones. And I pray and try to show others what I know from my own experience to be the right choice, but respect their right to disagree with my point of view. 

A person may choose not to accept gravity, but if they jump off of a tall building, believing that gravity does not exist, they will soon discover that their belief in the lack of gravity does not make gravity cease working. They will meet with the earth regardless of their belief.

Sometimes people say that Jesus’ statement is harsh, that it isn’t right. I kind of figure that the creator of the universe has a right to pick and choose the rules that we operate under. In this case one way is very merciful for it prevents me from making a mistake and picking the wrong way. If a town has one policeman, one police car, one police uniform, one police badge, it is very hard for a fraud to pretend to be a police man. If a town has many, many policemen, cars, uniforms, badges, etc. then a counterfeit can come in claiming to be a policeman and it is much harder to detect the counterfeit. I think sometimes God makes things simple for us because we can get so lost in complexity.

Today I was listening to the news and there was commentary on how one sect of the Muslim faith was seeking to bomb the Shiites, and destroy them, for their beliefs are not acceptable to the other sect. In my mind that is a remarkable lack of tolerance. And even here in this country intolerance is evident. Every holiday concert at school I notice that the kids can sing songs from every religion but Christianity. A child at my kids’ school had to have her parents threaten to sue the school because she chose to wear a teeshirt with a Christian theme. The principal wanted her to turn it inside out so it would not offend other students, but she called her parents and had it resolved that she had the freedom to wear the shirt. I still see so much prejudice occuring, even after years of equal rights. If our country could truly practice tolerance, we would be a better country, but the concept of tolerance is being misused today.

Christians are martyred more in this day and age and in greater numbers now than ever in the past. I know that men who profess to be Christians have also killed in the name of Christianity. I also know that they will have to answer to God for what they have done. Christians fight among denominations and sects in very vitriolic ways. We are not perfect in our Christian walk, but I shudder to think of what the world would be like if we did not have the basis of Christianity and Judaism, the Ten Commandments and loving one another as the basis of our behavior towards each other. If I am true to my walk in Christianity, my behavior will become more loving and holy. I will make mistakes, I will hurt others, but I have an ideal to strive toward, one that will only serve to make the world a kinder, gentler, and more loving place. I will continue to apologize for mistakes, ask forgiveness, and walk on toward following more in Christ’s footsteps.

I know that to learn to walk in the love that Jesus wants us to walk in is a challenge for us all. I fail daily at it, but I also know that I try very hard to walk in love. The me that you know today is way better than what I was, and I am still a work in progress.

Heather steps down from her soapbox, and wishes all a great day.

In love,

Heather

I have been exploring sites. Mastahpastah wrote something that blew me away, you may want to check out his post.

http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=Mastahpastah&tab=weblogs&uid=347588593&nextdate=last

I am trying hard to reach everyone’s site today,  but that depends on how much I get the computer.

I started at X today and am working my way backwards.

Heather

Thank you so much for your prayers and concerns. Things have eased somewhat, but life has been tough and hectic. Memories, fears, and a lot of self-condemnation have been issues that I have been dealing with. Sometimes I wish the healing would happen overnight, but I also know that it takes time, and that the Holy Spirit works at a pace that is good for me.

Anyway, here are the long awaited, notes from our discipleship course. This was an introductory class, and the Discipleship Course will be happening over several weeks, and comes with a book that Pastor Don wrote. I am assuming that one day this book will be published for all to share.

Memory Verse: Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore  and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen

Our course is going to begin with prayer, a teaching, a group discussion, regathering, and closing with prayer.

Pastor Don Moore said, a disciple must be a disciple of prayer. Talk to God and He will talk with you. It is not enough to just bless your food and have a bedtime prayer. But our lives should be lives of prayer.

Most people don’t like long prayers. They have not reached the level where the rewards of prayer come. A disciple of Christ must pray until they are almost upset that the prayer time ends. Strength is drawn from our prayers.

We need to let the Holy Spirit minister through us so that we can rightly divide the Word of truth. The Spirit of God speaks to us through the Bible, and as we gain Rhema Words, others will judge these words to see if they line up with the Bible.

When we begin to act on what we are learning from the Word, it is like casting a ripple in the pond. When the ripples happen, the forces against God will be notified that you are moving in your spiritual life. They will begin to act in your life to try and prevent your spiritual growth. It is then that, as a disciple, you have to make sure you are fighting the right battle. You do not react against the ripple, but you look to the source, and realize that it is because you cast the pebble that the ripple caught the eye of the enemy.

John 13: 31-32 So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.

We see Jesus on two levels in this.

1. The manifestation of the Glory of God as already having happened.
2. He will do it immediately.

This Glorification is not only in the material realm but also prophetically it had happened. Jesus speaking about this shows that it had already happened in the Spiritual realm even though we don’t perceive it yet. Jesus, at this time in John had not had his trial, beating, crucifixion, and resurrection. But spiritually the glorification was already a done deal.

This manifestation of the Glory of God had already occurred a few times in Jesus’ life. – The transfiguration, when the glory of God shown, and the three disciples saw Jesus as glorified.

The mere fact that we are here in this discipleship class indicates that God put it in our heart to be here.

John 13: 33-35 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, “Where I am going, you cannot come,” so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

No one can come to Jesus unless the Father called them to Jesus.

The sign of discipleship is to love one another as Jesus has loved us.

The problem in the Church is that people say I love you the way I want to love you, but that is not what Jesus is telling us. As a true disciple, stop loving people the way YOU want to love them. Stop expecting people to love you a certain way. Love people the way you are directed to love them by God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We expect people to treat us a certain way, and we feel they don’t love us when we are not treated that way.

Or we love someone a particular way, and then wonder what’s wrong with them because they are not responding to our way of loving them.

Spiritual giants are slow to take offense. Often in discipleship it is not what you teach or preach, but how much do you love us that matters the most.

Did you walk in love with the brethren?

The love we have for the world will be a different kind of love than the love we have for the saints. Do unto the brethren what the Lord Jesus did to you. Jesus died for all, but his blood will only cleanse those who recognize that Jesus is Lord and that He died for them. If people reject Jesus’ sacrifice, the blood of Jesus will not cleanse them.

What is so remarkably awesome is that He chose us, before He died for us.

John 21 covers when the disciples went back to fishing, and Jesus came to them to remind them that they were not to be fishers of fish, but fishers of men. He also restored Peter to Himself.

There is a spirit of infirmity in the Church today. People use old methods and technologies to try and catch fish (sinners), but they catch nothing. God is so deep that He always has a next level for us. We cannot go backwards.

Jesus knew that the disciples would do the wrong thing (fish for fish), but still He went after them.

When Jesus told them to cast the net on the other side of the boat it was only casting about 4 feet differently. And it was not an easy task for the net had to be drawn in, brought to the other side of the boat and laid out. Now the disciples obeyed Jesus, not knowing who He was at the time. Yet their spirits knew enough to trust the advice of the man on the shore.

Our good ideas only produce fruit if God helps. He will do a miracle, even if you are in the wrong place (catching fish) instead of being where Jesus told them to be.

If the disciples did not learn this time, and continued trying to fish for fish, they would have died as fishermen instead of fishers of men.

All our needs are met in Christ Jesus.

Obedience is the difference between being on one side of the boat or the other. The Right side is to fish were Jesus tells you to fish.

Sometimes we are not where God told us to be, and we will not get a bountiful catch unless we drop the net in the right place.

John in verse 7 knows that it is the Lord.

When we are a disciple of Christ, his Word will speak and pull you even if your logic doesn’t see it. Faith is stupid to the worldly. Jesus has us love the ones who cannot love you back, give to those who can’t pay you back.

When the disciples came to shore, Jesus had fish cooking for them. Where did Jesus get the fish? there were 153 fish that the disciples caught.

When Jesus asked Peter if He agape me (loved Jesus), Peter would answer that he was fond of Jesus. Jesus asked three times (the same number of times that Peter denied Jesus). Jesus loved them in the agape, most affectionate level. Peter was fond of Jesus like a friend

Every time Peter put his foot in His mouth, Jesus was close to him. Think of Jesus and your relationship to Him. At whatever level you are with Jesus, you can go to a deeper place with Him. As we continue to be God’s disciples He will take us to deeper levels. We are all going to be tested in our faith.

If we study Jesus’ heart, the devil can never come between Jesus and us for we will know Jesus’ heart.

David had a heart for God. He was not after things that God could give to Him, but he was after the Heart of God.

United as disciples. Discipling is the way we treat one another.

Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus..

Discipling helps us to overcome our flesh.

It is good to consider one another, why people are doing what they are doing in our lives, discernment. God will use people to bring us to a higher place in Him.

Hebrews 10:25 ..not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

when you are at church it is not just to gratify your needs, but to exhort others, observe what is needed, build others up, comfort others, we are to show the love of the Father to others, pray, and help them develop their giftings. We are not to covet others’ gifts, for God has given us each our giftings. We must have the love of the Father.

The impartation of the Spirit is received through Faith.

We then stopped for the day, prayed, and Pastor Don anointed us with oil as we began our journey of discipleship.

Tomorrow is another discipleship class, I will share notes as soon as possible and hope to visit your sites before the weekend is over.

Thank  you so much for your prayers and kind wishes. You are all often in my prayers and thoughts.

Heather

Sorry for not writing sooner, it has been a challenging weekend for me, but I will try, after they go to school tomorrow to write the notes from our first discipleship course. It was profound. Right now I could use prayer for depression, there is a lot of emotional stuff emerging and I just kind of want to dig a hole and pull it in after me.

I am hoping your days have been better.

Heather