Kneel Day 8 Believing The Best Of God

January 12, 2022 by Bethany McIlrath Leave a Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Philippians 4:5-7
Psalm 139
Colossians 1:3-14
Ephesians 3:14-21

Kneel, Day 8

Have you ever told someone a story, only to have them remind you they were there? Sometimes, while we’re talking, we forget to whom we are speaking: of course we remember their identity at a basic level, but we might also assume something of them inaccurately . . . like their presence or absence on a particular occasion!

The same thing happens in prayer.

We might pray, “Father,” and then speak, assuming God is distant, cold, and uninvolved. There are times when we tell Him all about a problem and how to solve it, grateful He knows every detail, but forgetting He also has power over every detail.

While there are many powerful insights to glean from the apostle Paul’s many prayers as recorded in the Bible, I am most often struck by Paul’s assumptions, or beliefs, about God as he prays.

“[I]n everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6, emphasis mine)

Everything.

Paul believed God wants to hear it all. In Psalm 139, the psalmist reveals God knows us intimately, even knowing our thoughts before they reach our tongues. If He’s aware of everything anyway, why not share everything with Him?

Paul’s prayer life demonstrates this reality. A quick perusal of all prayers recorded by Paul in the Bible show his prayers cover a wide variety of topics. Similarly, all the spheres of our lives – physical, social, emotional, work, etc – are fair game for prayer.

For example:
Paul prayed for healing and relief from suffering. (2 Corinthians 12:8-9)
He prayed for God to make him fit for his work and to enable him to share the gospel well. (Ephesians 6:19-20)
He thanked God for the fellow believers God placed in his life. (Philippians 1:3-6)
He prayed for others’ spiritual lives. (Colossians 1:3-14)

When we read Paul’s prayers for other believers, we also find Paul believed God wants us to know Him better.

To the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Similar words are echoed throughout his letters, as Paul prayed for other believers to be filled with ever-increasing knowledge of Christ, to be one in the Lord, to keep growing in God. Through his prayers, we learn Paul fervently believed God delights in filling us with His fullness, and He wants us to know His love.

Another hallmark of Paul’s recorded prayers is thanksgiving; gratitude is closely tied to the Biblical command to pray.
For example, let’s revisit Philippians 4:6 (emphasis mine): “[I]n everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Paul believed God was good at giving good things. If Paul was praying about a good gift, he assumed it came from God, which he lived out time and again, in thanking God for the very people to whom he was writing. If Paul was petitioning God for something, he believed God’s answer would be for his good. He thanked Jesus for strengthening him and working through him, even though Paul was a sinner. (1 Timothy 1:12-14) In everything, God’s good provision meant prayer could coincide with thankfulness.

I don’t know about you, but reading Paul’s prayers convicts me that too often, I believe less of God than I should when I pray. Afraid of being demanding, or getting it wrong, I don’t pray about everything. Concerned with things of the world or not being spiritual enough, I pray as if I should already know God thoroughly, and not as though He wants me to know Him more and more. And it’s easy to fall into the trap of praying, especially petitioning, without thanks!

But one of Paul’s go-to prayers, which marks many introductions and conclusions in his letters, offers encouragement, “Grace and peace to you.“ (1 Corinthians 1:3)
Today, as we engage with God in prayer, believing the best of God, we can also pray assuming we will experience His grace and peace as we learn.
Thanks be to God!

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Misunderstood Day 13 On Death and Butterflies

May 23, 2018 by Rebecca Adams 2 Comments

Read His Words Before Ours!

Romans 1:18-25
Ecclesiastes 3:9-15
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
I Corinthians 15:35-49
John 3:16-21

Misunderstood, Day 13

Loss hits each of us in varying degrees.
Financial, emotional, relational, and of course, physical.

The ache of physical loss is so deep, we naturally long for something more.
Something to wrap us up, assuring us that everything will be okay, that death wasn’t the end.
We ache for hope.

When I lost my son, the brokenness was like waves, rising and falling, each crashing mercilessly on my unspeakable hurt. I found myself repeating,
“This is the new normal. I will always carry this loss. There is no “going back” to before now.”

How to breath.
How to keep living.
Loss intensified my need for hope.

I am not alone, am I, sister?
You’ve been there, too.
Different stories, but the same need.
We each share it, this desperation for hope.

Someone I love was walking through loss, and one afternoon, she pointed to a butterfly and whispered through tears, “There she is”.
She wasn’t referring to the butterfly, but rather the loved one she’d lost.
She longed for hope.

Maybe you’ve wondered the same thing at some point.
A beautiful, fluttering butterfly. The soul of the one we love?
The coin on the street. Sent from Heaven with love from those gone before us?
The feather whispering through the air. A sign sent to us from above?

This life with all of its obvious brokenness and ugly,
gut-ripping hurt,
creates an ache for something
to staunch the flow of throbbing agony.

Butterflies are an amazing design.
Feathers hold stunning intricacies.
Money holds value.
But these created things were never meant to be an end,
they were intended to point us to the Creator.

As I began my research for writing, pulling up website after website of what it meant to
“find a feather” or “see a butterfly” after loss,
the most blaring discovery wasn’t found in what was said, but rather what wasn’t.
Every website was full of emotional statements worded as facts, but none of them gave reasons for why they believed what they did.
Folklore, tradition, emotional feelings, these were the basis for their beliefs.

The questions hounded me as I read more stories,
“Wouldn’t you want to know? For sure?
Wouldn’t whatever truth you uncovered be better than a feel-good falsehood?”
Lies, no matter how wonderful they feel,
hold nothing more than a vanishing morning mist.
Life can’t be built on mist.

I’ve had questions about life and faith countless times.
What if life after death is a fantasy?
What if Christianity was just created to make us feel better?
I wanted the truth.

What we believe matters,
but what the truth is matters even more,
because it doesn’t change,
whether we believe it or not.

Through a lengthy process of investigation, I came to a place where I could solidly stand on the claims of the Bible.
The deeper I studied, the more I came to know the Bible was real,
not because I wanted it to be,
not because I was raised that way,
or because it made me feel good,
but because it was true.

And Sisters?
The Bible doesn’t sugar-coat our pain.
In fact, our pain has an explanation.
And so does our longing for hope.

Loss happens because we live in a world broken by sin and death.
It was a choice Adam and Eve made in the Garden of Eden when they chose to trust their own desires over God’s design. The sickness of Sin travels to each and every one of us from the babe whose heart stopped beating before he even took a breath, to the eyes of those who have seen 100 years pass before them.
Sin affects us all; always bringing death, brokenness, pain, and heartache.

So, yes, we all hunger for hope.
Because we are all irreversibly broken.

But God…
God in His love,
God in His goodness,
God in His mercy,
brought Hope.

Hope that says the grave is not the end.
Hope that says broken can be healed.
Hope that says our sinful hearts can be bought back.
Hope that says Love Wins.

What does the Bible say about Death and Souls?
It says that souls are eternal and life after death is real.
The Bible says that when we die, we will either spend our eternity
delighting in relationship with God,
dancing out the life we were always intended to live in real, physical bodies,
with significant purpose and meaning,
OR
we will forever be bound in Hell.

Hell, where real people live in real, physical, broken bodies experiencing eternal separation from the Creator. It’s a physical place of forever heartache, suffering, and pain.

Heaven and Hell.
Both are eternal.
Both are real.
Our destination is our choosing.

Rather than returning as a soul embodying a butterfly,
God designed our souls to be made perfect,
to indwell perfect bodies, free from sickness and pain.
He designed us for a full life!

For those left alive on earth, He brings us comfort.
Not from butterflies, feathers, or random coins,
but from the sure and certain, solid truth of His word.
Comfort much more satisfying than glossy butterfly wings.

The next time you stand amazed at a monarch, look past the creation, and see the Creator. Know He loves you.
Know He has a plan for life after death.
Know that in Him is found Hope.
Hope for those who admit their sin-filled hearts and accept the free gift of Righteous Life held out through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as He took the punishment for our sin on Himself.
Know that this Hope is solid and sure,
able to stand up under the heartache and joy of our everyday life
because Jesus Christ is our Hope!

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Creed Day 12 Into The Waters: Digging Deeper

July 25, 2017 by Dr. Leslie Umstattd Leave a Comment

Creed Day 12 Into The Waters: Digging Deeper

Dr. Leslie Umstattd

July 25, 2017

Believe,Bold,church,Digging Deeper,Excuses,Faith,Forgiven,Freedom,Fullness,God,Gospel,Grace,Hope,Jesus,Life,Love,Peace,Power,Praise,Purpose,Relationship,Remade,Transformation,Truth

Discover the original intent of Scripture. Make good application to our everyday lives.
Become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Read His Words Before Ours!

Luke 3:1-21

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.

21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened.

The Original Intent

1) Who is John in relation to Jesus?

John was the cousin of Jesus. When recalling the lineage of Jesus one must venture through the first chapter of Luke to see that Mary, Jesus’ mother, went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was also pregnant at the time.

The baby in her stomach was John. He leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary, carrying Jesus in her stomach, entered the room.

The Everyday Application

1) Who is John in relation to Jesus?

I think it is easy for us to read genealogy verses in the Bible and shut down because it seems boring or useless information. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In this case, we see John prophesied about, and when he comes on the scene, even in the womb, he recognizes and reacts to Jesus in ways no one else did.

The Original Intent

2) What is the intent of John’s message when he speaks of trees that do not bear fruit being cut down?

Jesus changed everything! John’s message was directed at those who claimed, “We have Abraham as our father” thinking they were “good enough” before the God.

The direct audience would have been the Israelite nation. They expected that following the religious law of the day would put them in right standing before a righteous and holy God.

John, in preparing the way for Jesus to come, began to preach a different message to the Jewish people as well as anyone who would listen outside of the Jewish realm. John’s message, inspired by the Holy Spirit, forced the Jewish nation to realize that God cared more about the spiritual condition of their heart than all of their laws.

The Everyday Application

2) What is the intent of John’s message when he speaks of trees that do not bear fruit being cut down?

It is an important message then and now. God desires those who wholeheartedly desire to be in His presence and out of complete dependence on Him live their life.

John’s message reminds us, compels us, to look beyond the everyday and seek God first so as to be right before Him. In the pruning of our life, God makes disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Original Intent

3) Why does Luke specifically mention tax col lectors and soldiers as part of the group that came to be baptized?

The Jewish people were governed by Roman rulers. The tax collectors, although Jewish, were paid by the Roman government so they were not seen in a favorable light. The reality for most tax collectors is they cheated the Jewish people out of money by taxing them beyond what they owed in order to pad their own pockets.

In the same vein, Roman soldiers were considered the same, employers of the Roman government. Jewish people didn’t want anything to do with them, but John wanted his audience to know that Jesus was for everyone.

The Everyday Application

3) Why does Luke specifically mention tax col lectors and soldiers as part of the group that came to be baptized?

Come all! Scripture does not say come some or come those who have it together. Come those who understand or come those who have it figured it out. It simply says come!

Tax collectors, soldiers, prostitutes, lepers…the outcast, unseen, and hated in the 1^st century…these are just a few of the people groups that Jesus kept company with during His three-year ministry. The people He extended the grace of the gospel to were all peoples.

Jesus tore down borders as He preached and reached with the gospel! I can come to Him, knowing full well that Jesus doesn’t need me, He wants me. He extends His gospel far and wide that all may believe and be baptized!

The Original Intent

4) Why was it important to John that people knew he was not the Messiah?

As far back as the prophets of the Old Testament, John was prophesied about as the one who would be the forerunner of Jesus. When the time came for that to happen, John was very clear in his message that he was not the Messiah. The Jewish people of the day were looking for the coming Messiah to save them.

When John began preaching and prophesying, the natural assumption would have been that he could be the Messiah. John states, “I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

John was always pointing towards Christ and His divinity.

The Everyday Application

4) Why was it important to John that people knew he was not the Messiah?

God uses us to proclaim His message. Just as He used John to be the forerunner for His son, there are times we need to keep perspective that we are not God, but rather His instrument. We are His people and He desires to use us to bring others to Himself.

Our role as believers is not to be another person’s Holy Spirit but rather to walk along side, encourage, and bear the burdens of those around on His behalf. Never for a moment do we take God’s place, but rather we show His love, His light, and His grace so that others see Him more clearly.

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Creed Day 11 Journey Study

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The GT Weekend – Creed Week 1

July 15, 2017 by Michelle Promise Leave a Comment

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

When it comes to teachings from the Bible, what questions do you walk away with? Have you voiced them? If not, find someone you trust and ask them or email us at prayer@gracefullytruthful.com . There is so much freedom waiting to be experienced after you release those fears by physically voicing them. What are you waiting for?!
If you’ve already decided to accept salvation, reflect on your encounter with Jesus. Linger in that moment and allow God to stir up your heart in revival! If you’ve not accepted salvation, reflect on what connotations that word has to you. Check out this journey Study again to see “salvation” and “justification” unpacked.
Discipline is not a fun word to hear; often it brings up negative emotion. However, there is great reward for digging in and doing the difficult work of growing in the disciplines of the faith. Remember to think of the disciplines of Scripture as being “training” instead of “punishment”! Which do you need to focus on cultivating today? Prayer, fasting, scripture reading, worship, or service?

Worship In Song

Music Video: Ryan Stevenson’s “The Gospel”

Pour Out Your Heart

Lord, Your amazing magnificence scares me sometimes. How can a God so big and all-knowing, know everything about me and still love me so personally? Your precious Word shows me how and the Holy Spirit living inside me points me back to Your hand at work in me. Thank You Lord Jesus for the many gifts you’ve given me. Of Your Word, of salvation and redemption back to You, of the Holy Spirit moving in my life. I’m blessed by Your outpouring of love!

Father I thank you for community. Thank You for my ladies that hold up my arms when they are weary, for the ladies lifting prayers and petitions to You on my behalf. Bless them for pushing me to keep growing and investing in my relationship with You. Reveal more of Yourself to us Jesus. Spur us to action and obedience in growing these disciplines in our lives; we are look longingly for the reward of spending eternity at Your feet!

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Creed Day 1 Salvation & Justification

July 10, 2017 by Kendra Kuntz 1 Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Romans 3:23-28
Romans 10:9-10
Acts 4:12
Ephesians 1:7
Romans 5:1

What does Salvation mean?
The very first thing I always think of when I hear “salvation”, is the scene from Guys and Dolls when the Salvation Army band marches through the streets to “convert” people. It’s probably the image “salvation” has for many people: high-nosed, goody-goodies parading around trying to get people to hop on the bandwagon. Sometimes they try scaring the hell into people, or by making life with Jesus sound like having a genie in a bottle with never-ending wishes.

“Just say The Sinner’s Prayer!”, they chant.

But Salvation is SO. MUCH. MORE.

To summarize the entire Bible:
God created the earth and everything in it, declaring it perfect until sin. The horrible cancer of sin kept multiplying, infecting everything once it entered the world.
What is sin exactly?
The Ten Commandments are God’s standard of righteousness; anything deviating from that standard of perfection, is sin.

Ever lied? That makes you a sinner.
Ever lusted? Sinner.
Ever stolen? Even a pen from work? Not a “mistaker”…a ”sinner”.
Though there are ten, you only have to break one of them to be a complete sinner.

But, here’s the amazing news!
Jesus!
Being fully God and fully human (more about that in another Journey!), Jesus was the only 100% sinless person to ever walk this earth.
Ever.
He lived out the perfect life for us because we can’t!

Along with the Ten Commandments, we can look at Jesus’ life and see just how dirty we are.
(Kinda’ like when you think your teeth are white, but then you hold up a piece of actual white paper next to them and you realize they are actually a lovely shade of brown.)

We can never actually be with God because of our disease.
His holiness cannot be stained with a drop of our sin.

So here we are, looking nasty and sinful – like a face covered in oozing zits. In order to be with God, we need more than a facelift and some spa treatments, we need a transplant.
Jesus gives us His own flawless face!
We are still us underneath, but His righteousness is now ours and Sin is no longer our master. His righteousness cleans us from the inside out, so we, on the inside, actually start to look more and more like the face of Christ – perfect, and smooth and completely whitehead-free (we call that sanctification).

Now, that’s a pretty interesting way to look at salvation. But it’s true!
Salvation is Jesus, taking our nasty sins and saying, “Trade me your sins for my perfection so you can be with God.” That trade was made possible when Jesus – the perfect God-man – died on the cross (a sinner’s death).

Salvation becomes our own when we recognize that we are indeed horrible, brown-teethed, acne-faced sinners who need Jesus.
When we say yes to His exchange, we are given Salvation!

Salvation is a one-and-done deliverance from sin and its eternal consequences, granting us access to a relationship with our Creator. Salvation happens at a single point, when we surrender our hearts to Christ, but its benefits reach into all eternity!

What exactly is Justification?

Justification is “the act of making someone right with God”.

Remember how we are yucky, sin-filled people so full of gunk that we can’t actually be with God? That makes it literally, physically impossible for us to be with God unless we are made completely clean, which is impossible!
No matter how many times you volunteer at the homeless shelter,
how often you travel overseas on a mission trip,
how many Bibles you hand out, how many church services you attend,
how emotion-filled prayers you say,
how passionately you raise your hands,
how many children you adopt,
how modest you dress,
or even how many sermons you preach,
you cannot be “justified” on your own before a Holy God!
WE NEED JESUS.
We need Jesus to make us “right with God.”

Is there any other way to achieve Salvation and Justification?

All of this leads to one very hard question.

Is there any other way to be with God besides Jesus?
Can we be justified by any other means?
Don’t all “religious roads” lead to eternity with God?

The Bible says no.

The world is filled with many good people. I’ve watched just as many videos of humans saving puppies and helping little ladies cross the street as the next guy.

But for all of the good humanity does, there will always be sin.
We are infected with this disease and we simply do not have the ability to heal ourselves.
We can never ever DO enough good to earn our way to heaven.

“But how can a loving God send so many people to hell?”

Guys, He isn’t sending anyone anywhere.
We deserve to go to hell.

Here’s the truth….
When we choose to sin, we choose separation from God.

We Choose Hell.
It’s God who chose to save us!

He offers to rescue us!
A loving God is SAVING His precious children from hell!

But we can only be saved if we choose to be saved; if we accept the free gift of salvation and allow Jesus to justify us before the righteous God.

Yes, hallelujah, Jesus is the ONLY WAY to be saved!

Friends, some of you have already experienced redemption and claimed salvation and some of you haven’t. Some of you believe that Jesus is God’s Son, and you’ll tell people you go to church or are part of a small group. BUT you have never actually claimed the salvation that God is giving you. You have never admitted that you are a terrible sinner who NEEDS Jesus.

If you are ready to admit that you need salvation, then tell Him! Tell God right now! If you still have some questions, please feel free to email us! We want to pray with you!

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Borders Day 4
Outrageous, Radical Faith: Digging Deeper

June 1, 2017 by Dr. Leslie Umstattd Leave a Comment

Digging Deeper Days...are a pretty big deal at GT!

We search God's Word together, ask questions as we read, dig around to find the original intentions at the time of writing, and then make some applications to our everyday lives.
Along the way, we hope you'll pick up some new tools to study Scripture and you'll see truth in a new and accessible way!
Dig In!

The Passage

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Journey Study?
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Matthew 9:2-8 English Standard Version (ESV)

And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” ³And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” ⁴But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? ⁵For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? ⁶But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” ⁷And he rose and went home. ⁸When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

The Questions

1) What was going on when this encounter with Jesus took place?

2) What was Jesus doing when the paralytic man was brought to him?

3) Why was their opposition to Jesus healing this man?

4) Why were the crowds afraid?

The Findings for Intention

1) What was going on when this encounter with Jesus took place?
Jesus had just crossed over the water and had entered the land. He had been teaching and performing miracles. (Matt 5-8).

2) What was Jesus doing when the paralytic man was brought to Him?
Scripture does not tell us what exactly Jesus was doing but it says that this man was brought to him. As in previous chapters, people would bring the sick, feeble, and hurt to Jesus in hopes of Him performing a miracle. He was a very popular man and was known for His abilities all throughout the region. Sometimes so much so that they missed His message because they were blinded by the miracle.

3) Why was their opposition to Jesus healing this man?
The opposition was not with the healing, although that terrified the leaders because of the power of the miracle. The opposition came when Jesus professed the man’s sins were forgiven ,which is an act that only God can perform. With His statement of forgiving this man’s sins, the Jewish leaders/teachers would have equated that statement with Him professing to be God, having God-like characteristics and powers. This is the reason why they accused Him of blaspheming, which ultimately led to His crucifixion.

4) Why were the crowds afraid?
The word “afraid” is not intended to evoke the idea of fear as if “scared” of something. The better translation of that word is awestruck, amazement, reverence, or even startled by a strange sight. Sometimes it is good to seek out a better understanding of a word using resources like www.studylight.org.

The Everyday Application

1) What was going on when this encounter with Jesus took place?
Jesus was doing what Jesus did during his three years of ministry. This encounter is like many others; this man’s friends and maybe even the man himself knew that reaching Jesus would mean being healed. There were those who simply touched Christ’s cloak and were healed; He didn’t even have to touch them. The faith that Jesus could heal was all that was needed. Jesus recognized that faith in those who came to Him and followed Him. That is the same faith He desires and requires of us….believe, trust, and obey!

2) What was Jesus doing when the paralytic man was brought to Him?
Jesus was always looking for opportunities to teach, to heal, and to proclaim His Father’s name. Jesus used moments like this to show the truth behind the miracles. Even today He desires for us to be His gospel on display, ready in and out season. (2 Timothy 4:2)

3) Why was their opposition to Jesus healing this man?
Jesus faced opposition because He was doing His Father’s will. There will be moments in all of our lives that opposition is inevitable if we choose to follow Christ. The faith we say we have will be tested. Just like with Jesus’ ministry, when we stay true to the gospel and stand firm in our faith, there will be those who question and even oppose what we are doing.

4) Why were the crowds afraid?
Fear, awe, respect…whatever word we use, this crowd knew there was something different about Jesus. The very next sentence says, “they glorified God”. They recognized that Jesus was not simply a man but also fully God. They glorified God because of the miracle that Jesus performed. As it should be with us, our faith on display pointing others to God. Our outrageous, radical faith showing the world the salvation we have and the God we serve!

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I Can Do That!

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!

The Community!

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

The Tools!

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources. 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 Why!

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

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