The GT Weekend! Desperate Week Three

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The GT Weekend

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with other women in prayer, rest your soul in reflective journaling, and spend time worshiping the Creator who longs for intimacy with each of us!

Journal With Us!

Journal Prompts

1) Israel flourished because of their heart change. Where in your life do you want to flourish instead of flounder? Are you willing to allow God to make you new?

2) Think of some of your everyday tasks that you could allow Jesus to bring life to. Choose one area to focus on being intentional with this week.

3) What are some of your scars? Think deeply on these and then find one close friend to share it with. Allow healing to begin!

Worship In Song

Music Video: Kristian Stanfil’s “Come to the Water”

Pour Out Your Heart

Jesus, let me know Your deep love for me as I pray Your Word back to you.  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.  Ephesians 1:3-10

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In everything, with praise and thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God!
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Day Fifteen
Desperate for Redemption

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Click & Read
Matthew 12:9-21
Isaiah 42:1-9
Isaiah 40:27-31IMG_4982
Psalm 147:1-6

“For it is exceedingly bitter to me…that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”

We all have those sore spots.
Come on, don’t cover them up with cute Christian slogans,
“Oh, I’ve forgiven that. The Lord knows best. God is just so good. Let’s just rejoice always.” All true, but sometimes we use clichés to cover our hearts.

The thing about God is that He knows our hearts. And if we aren’t being up-front and honest about the state of affairs in our hearts with God and ourselves, then we have stunted what would otherwise be a growing, intimate relationship with the Creator.

What makes your list of “the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”?
Cancer
Early death of a loved one
Material loss
Infertility
A career that dropped out
Addiction
Emotional wounds
Abuse
Abandonment
Unfaithfulness

Scars. Some you can see, many that you can’t, but hurt even worse.

Naomi was a woman whose pain was so close to her that she seemed resigned to forever be wearing it.
Exceedingly bitter was her autobiography.
She even changed her name from Naomi (meaning pleasant) to Mara (meaning bitter).
With the collapse of her finances, severe famine and drought, the death of her husband followed by the deaths of both her sons, Naomi’s life had indeed gone from “pleasant” to “bitter”. She was aged, abandoned without security, home or husband, and so she did the only thing she could, she made the long trek back to her homeland. Shame-faced and spent from a 7-10 day walking journey on dusty roads, Naomi faced the people she’d left years before.

As if the heaviness her heart already held wasn’t enough, she now faced the shame of coming home empty when she had left so full. We watch Naomi’s story unfold and we see ourselves. Hopeful, dreamy, until the circumstances became too much. One thing after the other, heartbreak after heartbreak, and eventually we find ourselves at the very end of our tattered rope. Unsure. Lost. Scarred. Perhaps even past desperate hope to a place of empty resignation.
“The hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”

She hadn’t abandoned her faith, she knew God was still sovereign, but she just couldn’t see His goodness anymore.

Are you there, Sister?
Are you the bruised reed, the broken hearted, the abandoned and emptied?
Maybe you’re not anymore, but perhaps those broken places still linger somewhere in the corridors of your heart. You try to avoid them, but sometimes a light shines on them and the searing pain you feel is like it happened yesterday.

For Naomi, or Mara as she preferred, the Lord had not abandoned her. God was using her heartbreak to bring her home, to redeem her heart.
He was working in her as she welcomed new daughter-in-laws, one of which would become so attracted to Naomi’s solid faith that she would willingly leave her own homeland to follow Yahweh.
God was working in the pain of her heart to give her enough faith to return, despite her shame and emptiness.
The good Father was working in the timing so that Naomi would come home right at harvest season.
She couldn’t see His hand, but He was still there.
Her cause had not been disregarded by her God despite how she felt.
Her Abba desired “pleasant”, not “bitter” for His daughter.

It’s the same for us, as His adopted heirs. He doesn’t say the pain is good, but He does promise to bring goodness for our hearts from it. He promises fullness.

Naomi’s husband and sons didn’t rise from the dead. Her pain wasn’t eradicated in one fell swoop. It was still there, but God was good and He showed up. Because of her faith, God blessed Naomi through Ruth and her new husband Boaz with security, an inheritance, and an heir. An heir that would place Naomi as the great-great-grandma of King David through whom would come the Savior, the Eternal Redeemer, and our own very rich inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ.

One woman’s pain.
One woman’s faith.
One True God who lovingly worked in the darkness to bring about His light, not just for her, but for humanity.

At the birth of Naomi’s grandson her community couldn’t possibly ignore the goodness of God in her life and proclaimed:
“Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

In turning over our scars to the One who gave His Own Hands to be scarred for us, may His light shine so brilliantly, even in our darkness, that our community, our city, our nation, our world can’t possibly ignore His Eternal Redemption.

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Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Fullness! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Click the above image for today’s Digging Deeper!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Desperate!

Day Fourteen
Desperate for Truth: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper posts are intended to help us go farther into God’s word than a simple surface reading
and are designed to help us discover new tools in the process.
Curious as to why we Dig Deeper? Here’s Why! 

The Passage

Looking for yesterday’s Journey Post? Check out Desperate For Truth!

John 4:20-24 English Standard Version, ESV

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

My Questions

1) Why was this woman arguing with Jesus over where to worship?

2) In v.21, Jesus says “an hour is coming”, what is referring to?

3) How is Jesus defining “true worshipers”?

The Tools

A trip to www.studylight.org is in order here.
We will get super cozy with this site as we study Scripture together!
Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom!
It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse?
Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage?
Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

The Findings for Original Intent

1) John 4 shares an encounter that Jesus has with a Samaritan woman. In order to understand why she is arguing about worship location, we look to the history of the Samaritans. In the history of the Israelite nation, there was a kingdom divide, the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) and Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom while Jerusalem was the capital of the Southern Kingdom. When the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom (Israel) they carried off a lot of the Jewish families. However, there was a group of Israelites that remained and the Assyrians repopulated the Northern Kingdom with five eastern tribes to squash the Israelite identity and customs. As a result, these eastern tribes and the Israelites intermarried and assimilated into one culture. They became known as the Samaritans and were considered “half-breeds” because they were only part Jewish. Eventually, the Babylonians conquered both Northern and Southern Kingdoms and the entire region became known as Samaria. This led to the Exile which was prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11-12). The exiles were taken in waves to Babylon but there were some that were never taken. The sick, the weak, the poor, and the unskilled were left behind. Those that were left behind in Samaria began to establish their own practices of worship, their own place of worship (Mount Gerizim), and their own adapted Pentateuch in Aramaic. When the Jews returned, this caused tremendous strife and tension between the orthodox Jews and the Samaritan Jews, which still exist today. When the Samaritan woman argues with Jesus, her argument is based on hundreds of years of bad history between the “real” Jews and the Samaritan Jews.

2) Throughout John’s gospel, Jesus refers to “an hour is coming”. We see this phrase used when Jesus is foretelling his crucifixion and resurrection. In John 12:27, “But for this purpose I came to this hour.” Digging into the word “hour” here helps us to understand it does not mean a fixed time on the clock, rather a definite point of time. It refers a time where something will happen to change how she will worship.

3) A true worshipper worships in spirit and truth. Again, word study helps to gain a clearer representation of the phrase “true worshipper”. The word “true” is that which has not only the name and resemblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name, in every respect corresponding to the idea signified by the name, real, true genuine. There is understanding in Jesus’ words that a true worshiper will know God and the place they worship will not matter but more their heart and desire for the one true God in that worship.

The word “spirit” here is the same word for the third person of Trinity. Apart from the Holy Spirit in our life, we cannot worship God. The role of the Holy Spirit is to “teach you all things, and bring to you remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26) In this passage, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will come when He leaves to remind us, help us, and guide us into God’s truth (John 16:13). He, the Holy Spirit, enlightens our eyes to the truth of God’s word so that we may worship Him.

Some Applications for Our Everyday Lives

1) The Samaritan woman’s argument with Jesus gives Him opportunity to explain the New Covenant. In her mind, she has been made to feel like she is less than a “true” worshipper of Christ because of who she is and what she has done when in fact Jesus takes this opportunity to set her right. Consider ways you feel “less than worthy” of an intimate relationship with the Almighty, and let your heart listen to the words of Jesus. It isn’t the place of worship, our past, or the rules we try to keep, that dictate intimacy with Christ, but rather the authenticity of our faith in the One True God.

2) Jesus’ “hour” finally came, in part, with his death, burial and resurrection. Romans 8:18-19 says, “18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” We wait for the “hour” to come just as the Jewish people awaited a Messiah that would set them free. We eagerly wait for the “hour” that Christ will return and restore all things. In what ways can you live focused on that approaching hour?

3) Just as Jesus wanted the Samaritan woman to realize that God desired an intimate relationship with her, He’s extending the same offer to us! It was the woman’s choice to worship the Lord, not a country or people or even her past that defined her. Just a woman standing in front of a great big God, submitting out of reverence, awe, and a desire for authentic worship. Because we have Christ’s resurrection power, we too can “put to death the deeds of the body” (Rom 8:13) and truly be free to worship!

Want To Try It For Yourself?!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read through it (always more than a verse or two).
3) Write down your questions as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers.
Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes
(click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and
embrace the fullness of God in your everyday!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Desperate Week Three! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? See all past studies in Desperate!

Day Thirteen
Desperate for Truth

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Click & ReadDesperate-Week3-Day2
John 4:1-42
John 8:31-36
Isaiah 12:2-3

She needed truth, but she tried to sustain herself on her own.
She sought relationship after relationship, but they all failed.
She wanted love, but everyone let her down.
Her life was a mockery.
Her community scorned her for her endless love affairs, but as heavy handed as their judgment was, she could easily see through their false fronts.
She knew their lives were no different on the inside than hers was on the outside.

Until Jesus.

One completely ordinary day.
Doing a completely ordinary thing
(getting the daily water from the well).
The same way she had been accustomed to doing
(in the heat of the day so she wouldn’t have to see any other women from her village).
Right in the middle of her lonely, emptiness,
Jesus met her.
And he asked for an ordinary thing,
“Give me a drink.”

The significance of this seemingly simple request wasn’t lost on either of them.
She was a Samaritan, ousted from God’s chosen people, the Jews, because of their insistent decision to worship other gods and intermarry with the Jews, bringing their false worship with them.
He, a devout Jew.
With so many recent examples of cultural and racial differences around us, it’s easy to imagine how deep their differences ran.

“How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” she asked.
Even sharing common utensils, like a water dipper, was forbidden, their peoples’ mutual hatred was so ingrained.

You can almost hear Jesus’ winsome tone and kind eyes searching hers as he replied with depth and prodding, easing her into life-changing conversation,
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

The woman squirmed, despite the man’s kind invitation.
There was something about Him…something that insisted on vulnerability.

But rather than accept his invitation, she pulled on her “go-to” armor of self-defense and she turned a taunting question sharply towards Jesus,
“Are you greater than our father Jacob?”
Simultaneously laying claim to the faith and lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of the Jewish faith, while mockingly provoking this man to make good on his claim of having the prophetic “living water” declared by Jeremiah and Isaiah, prophets long since dead in their graves.

Though she stirred vigorously at the waters of hate that separated their peoples, waiting for him to flee from her like everyone else had, Jesus, ignoring her taunts, pointed insistently towards himself as being the ultimate fulfiller of her deepest needs,
starting with the truth of who He was, the author of Eternal Life. (John 4:14)

Again, the woman missed the point.
Perhaps from fear, perhaps the armor she constantly carried was too thick to hear Jesus’ heart and so she stayed focused on literal water,
but she also let loose a small bit of insecurity,
           “…so I won’t be thirsty or have to come here to draw water anymore.”
Hidden behind the seemingly practical of not making a water run anymore, perhaps the woman wished for more. Her desperation for a life free from the shame and judgment from her community came through in her answer.

Oh how much we are like her!
Wishing for depth.
Aching to be known and loved.
……Yet buried in desperation!

Jesus saw her emptiness and leaned into it
because He had more to offer her than she dreamed, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

Though he knew full well that she had no husband. (John 4:17). When she admitted as much, Jesus went on to tell her the truth about who she was and the details of her past.

Jesus gave the woman truth.
First about himself,
then about herself,
and with poignant purpose and divinity, pointed her to deeper truth,
           “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”

He disarmed her lies about her false lineage and her false sense of security of laying claim to “Father Jacob” and his faith inheritance.
Instead of shaming her, He invited her in to know truth.
“…the Father is seeking such people to worship him”.
And what kind of worshippers exactly?
Those willing to honor God in spirit and in truth.

It hit her suddenly, like a load of bricks that fell from her back in a moment;
she could be free!
Free with new purpose, given a new inheritance and welcomed into the family of the Almighty God, the one true God, who was seeking after her! It was unfathomable!

The truth that had set her free, suddenly made her abandon her fear and her water jug as she ran headlong towards the very people who had shamed and judged her.
It didn’t matter anymore what they thought of her for she had found truth.
Truth that become the cornerstone of her testimony,
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did (truth!).”

One woman met Truth at the well that day despite her sin, her shame, and her emptiness. Jesus was willing to enter in and span the chasm that separated them in order to set her free. As a result, her fellow villagers embraced truth for themselves as well.

And so it is with the gospel of Christ.
Truth.
Grace.
Fullness.

Encouraged? Don’t miss a single post!
Want to read stories of dramatic life change?

Join the GT Community and share your thoughts!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Desperate Week Three! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Desperate!

Day Twelve
Desperate for Change: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper posts are intended to help us go farther into God’s word than a simple surface reading
and are designed to help us discover new tools in the process.
Curious as to why we Dig Deeper? Here’s Why! 

The Passage

Looking for yesterday’s Journey Post? Check out Desperate For Change!

2 Corinthians 5:16-21, English Standard Version (ESV)

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

My Questions

1) What is Paul referring to with “therefore”?

2) What does Paul mean when he says “old” and “new”?

3) What is the “ministry of reconciliation”?

4) What does it mean to be an ambassador of Christ?

The Tools

A trip to www.studylight.org is in order here.
We will get super cozy with this site as we study Scripture together!
Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom!
It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse?
Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage?
Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

The Findings for Original Intent

1) When you see a “therefore” in Scripture, ask yourself, “What is it there for?” In chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, Paul is making the argument that all is for the glory of God. No one should boast in his own works, but rather in God’s righteousness alone. As followers of Christ, we long for the day that all will be made right. When we encounter God, our desperation is revealed and the desire for change consumes us. Paul makes the argument that God uses us as believers to be His glory on display in the world around us.

2) We all know what the words mean but here is an analogy used by Paul to make a separation between what was and what is now; what life is before Christ and what life is after Christ. The transformation in our hearts is so great that we go from old, dead, fleshly driven humanity to new, alive, spiritually focused ambassadors.

3) Looking at verses 18 and 19, Paul tells us the definition of the “ministry of reconciliation”. God reconciled us to himself through the death and resurrection of His Son Christ Jesus, because of that we have a job assignment from now until eternity…tell others! God entrust believers with the task of telling others of the change that has taken place in our lives, the dramatic transformation from death to life. God made a way for us, therefore, we must be the eternal town crier letting the world know the reconciliation that comes from knowing God.

4) The word ambassador in the original language literally means ambassador in English as well. The dictionary defines ambassador as “an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country or a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity.” Christ-followers are aliens and foreigners in this world (John 18:36) and we are accredited by the power of the Holy Spirit to be in this world, but not from it. We are God’s representative and promoters of His loving righteousness in a crooked and twisted generation. (Philippians 2:15)

Some Applications for Our Everyday Lives

1) Paul’s argument is life-giving truth for a desperate soul. We are made new creations in the power of Christ’s resurrection. “O death where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:54b-57)

2) Old and new gives a visual representation that we can relate to. Think about when you buy a new pair of shoes. They are pristine, without blemish. Now wear them every day for a year. What do they look like? They are worn, scrapped or tarnished in some way. This is the difference, praise be to God He never leaves us in a worn out, blemished, separated state! Rather He pursues us, transforms us, and reconciles us to Himself!

3) “God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19) Through Christ’s death, God bought us into favor with Himself. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10) We have received mercy and our change should prompt a desire to see other’s change.

4) Never forget your desperate state before you met Christ, never forget your story and God’s hand in bringing you into a reconciled relationship with Himself. Your story, His glory! We are accredited representatives for the Kingdom of God. Have you shared your faith story on our Faces of Grace? Now would be a great time to take that step of obedience by proclaiming Christ with your story!

What have you discovered on today’s journey? Share it with the GT Community!

Want To Try It For Yourself?!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read through it (always more than a verse or two).
3) Write down your questions as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers.
Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes
(click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and
embrace the fullness of God in your everyday!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Desperate Week Three! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? See all past studies in Desperate!

Day Eleven
Desperate For Change

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Click & Read
Jeremiah 17:9-10IMG_4988
Haggai 2:10-23
2 Corinthians 5:16-21

No one likes change. But sometimes, out of sheer desperation, we give in to it.

My husband and I sat in a counseling session and were asked, “Are you willing to work?” I replied, “We have to do something.” Desperate tears flooded my eyes and filled my voice. We couldn’t keep doing the same thing; something had to change before we lost everything.
Desperate.

Whether it’s making a game-changing decision in a relationship, choosing different parenting approaches, or standing up for the innocent in society, every choice is driven by a desperation that’s deep enough that we are willing to be different.

Ever read Haggai? Two pages hidden in the Old Testament, yep, two whole pages. But the impact of Haggai’s prophetic words carried a significance that bled into the New Testament and even our own lives today. His was a prophecy that pivoted on one axis: change. Not behavior modification kind of change, but a course correction so deep that it grew from a desperate heart realization. This was marriage-counseling kind of desperation, except on a scale large enough to encompass a whole nation. Theirs was a lifestyle of lies with one poor choice leading to a myriad of other ones, all the while attempting to keep up appearances before God.
They said the right things, sometimes.
They did the right things, when it suited them.
And they counted on the fact that enough good would eventually outweigh the bad.
I mean, God is gracious, right?

Know anyone like that? Going through life comparing one set of good deeds to another set of bad deeds and hoping it will turn out right in the end?

Enter Haggai, conveying God’s deep heartbreak over His chosen nation as he painted a clear visual for Israel.
‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” (Hag 2:12)

Before you get lost in “clean” and “unclean”, here’s a modern day visual:
“If a chef prepares a gourmet 3-egg-omelet with 2 perfect eggs and 1 rotten one, will the bad egg become good?”
Of Course Not! I’m not even going to set foot in that restaurant!
So Haggai cuts in, “So it is with this people….and with every work of their hands.” (verse 14)
Their good deeds didn’t cut it.
Their hearts weren’t right before God.
Israel couldn’t muster up enough good deeds to please a holy and perfect God;
and neither can we.
Israel’s leaders were cut to the heart with Haggai’s brief, but powerful message. They saw their sin and turned away from it because they were desperate enough to see how much they needed change.

God blessed their heart-change, brought them back into relationship with Him, and destroyed their enemies. In other words, Israel flourished because of their heart change. What’s more, Zerubbabel would be one of the few chosen to be in the lineage of Christ, the sinless Savior and redeemer of otherwise lost hearts. (see Matthew 1:12-13)
“I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.” (Hag 2:23)

Wait, it gets better!
“(He entrusted to) us the message of reconciliation.20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:19-20)

Zerubbabel was chosen to be the signet ring of the Almighty Yahweh and destined to be in the lineage of Jesus.
As believers, we are chosen to be God’s ambassadors and destined to be the lineage of Jesus.
In. Cred. i. Ble!
Seriously, that’s amazing!

The same God who has been calling for dramatic heart change since time began, is the same God who equips and calls us to keep extending the offer of new life to a world who Desperately Needs To Be Made New!

Shootings across our nation, unthinkable tragedies, racism, war in our world, broken relationships at home, prejudice, disease, financial ruin. People, how much travesty will it take for us to see how desperate for heart change we really are? May our desperation propel us into the arms of the only one who can fill us, fuel us, and redeem our broken hearts!

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Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Desperate Week Two! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Desperate!

The GT Weekend! Desperate Week Two

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The GT Weekend

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with other women in prayer, rest your soul in reflective journaling, and spend time worshiping the Creator who longs for intimacy with each of us!

Journal With Us!

Journal Prompts

1) Think of places where you’ve longed to belong. What was it that you were craving? How have those situations changed as you’ve grown in your walk with Jesus?

2) Where have you allowed your desire for love and acceptance lead to a negative situation in your life? Toxic friendships, abusive situations, premarital sex, bitter heart, manipulating people, or something else.

3) If you could ask for serious, deep healing in one area of your life, what would that be? Ask the Lord to begin healing that area!

Worship In Song

Music Video: Lauren Daigle’s Redeemed

Pour Out Your Heart

Father, thank you for Your word and its truths. I praise You for searching for the lost and bringing back the strays, for the way You bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. Lord, I ask that You would do that in my life. Show me places, Lord, where I’ve spent so much energy on finding acceptance outside of You that I’ve missed enjoying Your intimacies. Give me strength to stop searching for approval outside of You, to stop making decisions based on pleasing others, and to stop pretending like everything in my life must always look picture-perfect.  Jesus, I ask for healing. Pour out Your healing in my life. Let me feel your love for me to the very core of my being. Allow Your grace to wash over me as I accept the healing only You can provide. Thank You for continuously reaching down from Your throne of grace to meet me where I am on my journey with You!

Pray With Us!

In everything, with praise and thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God!
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Day Ten
Desperate for Love

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Click & Read!
adultery-woman_comJohn 8:1-11
Leviticus 20:10
Deuteronomy 22:22
John 3:17

She walked up to me in a crowded, dim auditorium; her wrinkled hands clutched a small book in front of her while her long white hair cascaded down her shoulders. This woman, dignified and well respected in our small town, had known me since I was a small child and had just watched me receive my final awards of high school.
She made eye contact with me as her steps hastened.

“Kendra, the Lord told me to give this to you.”
Her hands gently placed a small magazine in mine.

I didn’t look at the magazine until I got home. I read “Upper Room” and my gaze lowered to a picture. My eyes burned with hot fresh tears. I immediately knew which story this picture came from, and I knew why God told her to give me this magazine.
Because that woman on the cover was me.

For the first time in a long time, I opened my Bible to read about the woman caught in adultery.

Here was Jesus, sitting on a dusty road in a busy town, while a crowd gathered around to listen to him teach. A group of scribes and Pharisees of all ages, came pushing their way through the crowd with a woman; a woman caught in the very act of adultery.
I can imagine a scribe holding her arm tightly, carelessly dragging her along to Jesus, anxious to catch Christ in a trap he was certain was fail-proof. Perhaps Jesus saw them coming and chose unceremoniously at that moment to sit, with humility, in the very dust of mankind. He clearly wasn’t looking for a fight.

“The Law of Moses commanded us to stone such a woman!” The angry scribe breathed with haughty victorious anger. And then for the scribe’s punch-line, “What do you say?”

Jesus, without saying a word, bent his head and began to write in the dirt.
But they pressed harder. Intent on justice.
So Jesus stood and declared that if any of them gathered there were without sin, they should throw the first stone.
Silence. Here was justice.
One by one the scribes and the Pharisees left while Jesus crouched back down and continued to write in the dirt.
As each man walked away, a piece of this woman’s fear went with him.

The crowd of onlookers held their breath as they waited anxiously to see what Jesus would do next. It was just him with the woman now, the only person in the entire world who could have actually thrown a stone at her, and He gently asked, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” Her voice just loud enough for Jesus to hear, “No one, Lord.” And he looked at her, with so much love and compassion, because that is who he is, and he said,
“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on, sin no more.”

The tears rolled heavily as I finished reading verse eleven and held the magazine up so I could gaze at the picture of the desperate woman before Jesus.
The words of Jesus echoed to my soul, “Neither do I condemn you…”

Here I was, a broken and hurt teenager, living in sin and guilt and shame.
I was so desperate to feel loved in a way I had never felt love, that I gave my heart to someone who didn’t deserve it and before I knew it, found myself “caught in the very act” of my own sin.
I knew this woman from the Bible, because she was me; a woman so desperate for love that she was willing to do anything to gain affection. Even at the cost of finding herself in the absolute depths of despair, perhaps moments from her own death.
Like her, I was not looking to the source of Love. I was looking for love in all the wrong places. But when I finally found myself at rock bottom, all I had to do was look up, and He was there. Love was there. The entire time.

“Woman, where are they?”

And as her eyes lifted to meet Jesus’, she saw Love for the very first time.

Don’t miss today’s Digging Deeper!     And we’d love to hear your thoughts from today’s Journey!    Comment Here!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Desperate Week Two! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Click the above image for today’s Digging Deeper!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Desperate!

Day Nine Desperate for Healing: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper posts are intended to help us go farther into God’s word than a simple surface reading
and are designed to help us discover new tools in the process.
Curious as to why we Dig Deeper? Here’s Why! 

The Passage

Looking for yesterday’s Journey Post? Check out Desperate For Healing!

John 10:7-18, English Standard Version (ESV)

7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

My Questions

1) Jesus seems to be talking about sheep, shepherds, and hired hands in this passage, what does that have to do with me?

2) Who are the “thieves and robbers” Jesus is talking about in this passage?

3) What does Jesus mean by “abundant” life?

4) What charge had Jesus received from the Father?

The Tools

A trip to www.studylight.org is in order here.
We will get super cozy with this site as we study Scripture together!
Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom!
It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse?
Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage?
Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

The Findings for Original Intent

1) This is one example from the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) of a parable. Jesus uses an analogy of earthly things to present an eternal truth. He is speaking to those who would have understood sheep and shepherd behavior so for them it would not have been a foreign analogy. A sheep farmer I am not, but I think we can understand what Christ means in this passage by thinking of each character in the story. The sheep represents the authentic true believer. The shepherd is Jesus. The hired hands are those who pretend to be the Shepherd, false prophets, or a false messiah.

2) In this analogy Jesus is specifically pointing His finger at the Pharisees and their misuse of the Law against the people and their pious stature as the religious elite. The thieves and the robbers are the Pharisees. Earlier in John 8:44, Jesus tells the Pharisees “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”

3) In John 10:10, Jesus promises the believer “abundant” life. This word means: over and above, more than is necessary, superadded, exceeding abundantly, supremely, something further, more, much more than all, superior, extraordinary, surpassing, uncommon, pre-eminence, more eminent, more remarkable, more excellent. This is what Jesus means by abundant. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20.

4) At the very end of this passage, Christ says He has received a charge. If we look at the previous verse, Christ’s charge is to lay down His life. In this passage, He is very clear that the sheep who follow Him are the beneficiaries God’s charge or command.

Some Applications for Our Everyday Lives

1) Jesus used stories to teach people about who He was and what He came to do. He desperately wants the audience then and readers now to understand that He is the Good Shepherd and we are lost sheep in need of a Savior. We will know Him by the sound of His tender voice, we will know Him by his merciful touch, and we will know Him by His eternal steadfast truths.

2) There are Pharisees in every generation. Even genuine believers can rob ourselves and others of joy by imposing legalistic laws and standards. The Pharisees of today are thieves and robbers who steal our joy, desire us to stray from truth, and present us with half-truths that are contradictory to Scripture. It is our job to listen to the Good Shepherd, know His voice and His word, enter only through His gate, and rest in His eternal pastures! How are you listening to His voice and becoming more and more sensitive to Him? Ask the Spirit for ways you may be laying extra rules on others and ask Him to give you a clearer picture of the gospel!

3) Abundant life doesn’t mean a life without issue, hurt, brokenness, or pain rather it points to an un-ending fullness made possible only in relationship with the Savior. With Christ there is peace in the midst of tumult, healing in the hurt, restoration in the brokenness, and security in the pain.  “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” John 16:33.

4) Christ’s charge is His sacrifice, which brought about our salvation and our hope. He willingly lay down His life at the Father’s command. A plan set in motion at the beginning of time that would restore a people back to their Heavenly Father. He is the Good Shepherd who intimately and personally cares for His sheep as they enter His gate!

Want To Try It For Yourself?!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read through it (always more than a verse or two).
3) Write down your questions as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers.
Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes
(click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and
embrace the fullness of God in your everyday!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Desperate Week Two! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? See all past studies in Desperate!