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Worship IX Day 10 Family Worship

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Leviticus 3:1-17
Leviticus 5:14-19
1 Chronicles 16
Hebrews 10:1-18
Hebrews 13:7-16

Worship IX, Day 10

When I first read the book of Leviticus and how Israel was to worship God I thought, “Good grief, the Israelites didn’t have time to do anything but make sacrifices.”

But then I realized . . . we were created for God’s glory (Isaiah 43:7) and are called to glorify Him through lives of worship. My heart is pricked when I think about how lightly I take worship. Has it become something we do out of habit? Or only on Sundays? Shouldn’t it be a lifestyle?

In her book, 7 Feasts – Finding Christ in the Sacred Celebrations of the Old Testament, Erin Davis speaks of spiritual amnesia. Oh! How easily we forget our sinfulness and God’s redemptive plan. But God had a plan from the instant He flung the stars into place to redeem His people and cure their spiritual amnesia. “By following God’s commands to stop, reflect, worship, and sacrifice, these memories become the very fabric of their faith. His invitation was for them to interrupt regular activities to rest and remember how He has met every desperate need they had.” (Whitney Capps, First 5)

In studying Leviticus and Hebrews together, I learned how the sacrificial system of worship laid out in Leviticus pointed to God’s wonderful plan of redemption through Jesus Christ.

Two frequent offerings made as part of the sacrificial system were the fellowship/peace offering and a burnt offering. The burnt offering, such as a lamb without blemish, would be offered up in completeness, as a fragrance to God for the forgiveness of sins. (Leviticus 1:10-13) The fellowship offering indicated communion with God, offered willingly from a heart of gratefulness and devotion. (Jay F. Guin, The Tabernacle, Worship, and the Christian)

Today, we know these sacrifices pointed to Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice for our sins! Hebrews 10:11-18 (The Message) explains, “It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, He did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process.”

King David offered these sacrifices when they brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. (1 Chronicles 16) The Ark, which represented the presence of God, had been captured by the Philistines years earlier. (biblestudytools.com) The Ark’s return must have been a glorious celebration!

After the sacrifices, David used familiar psalms to praise God and encourage the people to worship the Lord. David’s song gives us a great template for worship today! Maybe it would sound like this:

Mandy’s Song
Awake, my soul, to sing the glories of God and King!
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Worship His majesty, for He is worthy!
Testify to love and how I got saved, because His grace still amazes me.
We will remember the works of His hands!
Alleluia, alleluia, for the Almighty reigns.
Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear!
How one day, He’s coming, O glorious day!

After this joyful celebration, the people went home to bless their own households. Whitney Capps explains, the people weren’t “just to reflect on God’s faithfulness; they were to rehearse it and live it again and again by telling their children and grandchildren about these stories of real-life faith.” Worship was to be carried to their homes and families.

Theologian and pastor R.C. Sproul stated, “Specifically, God requires heads of households, like good shepherds, to lead their families into green pastures. God expected Abraham to ‘command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the LORD.’ (Genesis 18:19) Consider also the example of Cornelius, who was ‘a devout man and feared God along with his whole household.’ (Acts 10:2) It is no surprise that when [the apostle] Peter came to Caesarea to preach the gospel, Cornelius rallied his household to attendance. ‘We are all in the presence of God to hear everything you have been commanded by the Lord.’” (Acts 10:33) (Family Worship 101) 

This still applies to us today.
According to A Simple Guide to Family Worship, worship of God begins with family.
Our homes are a training ground for future generations. (Proverbs 22:6)
Scripture implores us to teach our children about God. (Psalm 78:4-7)
The Lord rebukes those who haven’t offered worship in their homes. (Jeremiah 10:25)
Israel’s great leader, Joshua, took responsibility for his whole family, declaring, “As for me and my family, we will worship the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)

In the New Testament, fathers are instructed to nurture their children spiritually. (Ephesians 6:4)
Timothy, a leader in the early Church, was living proof that our training leads to salvation. (2 Timothy 3:14-15)

The challenge before us is to engage our families in a lifestyle of worship. Whether we are raising children within our homes or are part of the larger family of Christ-followers, we can live out King David’s example of family worship!

We can share meals together,
those with plenty freely offering to share with those who have need. (1 Chronicles 16:2-3)

In thankfulness, we can recount and praise His faithfulness,
the testimony of one building the faith of another. (1 Chronicles 16:7-36)

Together, we can “minister regularly” (1 Chronicles 16:37) to the Lord in worship,
through lives built around and upon “[giving] thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love endures forever.” (1 Chronicles 16:41)

In doing so, we make our very own fellowship offerings.
Let’s follow Joshua’s lead, declaring, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

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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 Worship IX Week Two! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!
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The GT Weekend! ~ Captivating Week 2

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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!

Worship Through Journaling

Worship Through Journaling

1)  We’ve been discussing and studying in this Journey Theme how beautiful it is for Christ’s fragrance to extend to a dying world through US as believers as we are His ambassadors. Incredible! But we must turn the question on ourselves. How captivated are WE with the presence of Jesus? How mission critical is it for us to regularly and consistently sit with the Savior? How high does cultivating our own spiritual growth in deep ways actually rank when it’s on the same scale as diaper changes, difficult relationships, the DMV, and bills to pay? What would it look like for you to increase your captivation with Jesus this week? Regardless of where you are in your faith journey today, what if the Lord wanted to take you deeper tomorrow? Are you willing to be captivated by the sweetest love of Christ?

2)  Who do you know that’s longing to be loved? Pause and carefully consider the groups of people you feel are beyond your love, or your ability to love? The elderly or those with disabilities? The under-privileged or the exceptionally wealthy? Maybe it’s the diseased or the emotionally unstable? Perhaps they wear tattoos, drink more than you would, stand at the corner of your familiar intersection, or maybe they sit behind you at church and let their kids play and be loud during service. Take the challenge this week and Choose To Love Intentionally. Pray out loud, pray with honesty, pray with confession on your lips and ask God to help you understand how to love those you see as unlovely.

3) Audra shared the visual of believers being like refreshing water bringing life and encouragement in the middle of dry, desert-like experiences to others. Identify a desert season you’ve had in your life, or maybe you feel like you’re in the midst of one now. Who were the people that were like that cool water to you? Take time this weekend to send them a text, write a note, or call them to say thank you for being Jesus to you. Sit silent for a few minutes, thinking through the visual of a desert and living water as you think of your sphere of friendships and acquaintances. Who is the Lord prompting you to bring refreshment for? Make an action plan and step into it!

Praying Scripture back to the One who wrote it in the first place is a great way to jump start our prayer-life! Pray this passage from John 7:37-38 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”

Prayer Journal
There are so many Scripture stories that paint You as quiet, unobtrusive, and silently loving or serving. Often, I keep this image of You in my mind, Lord, viewing You as always gentle, calm, and soothing. But then the Spirit reminds me of just as many recorded instances of You stepping, standing up, and crying out. Bold ways. Brave words. Fiercely following in obedience to the Father. This too is a picture of my Savior, and I’m so grateful, Lord! Get my attention, stand up in the middle of my self-supposed importance, remind I am Yours, remind me I’m called into a mission of living out love for others. Cry out, Abba, shake my shoulders and put my feet back on solid ground. Jesu, I love Thee!

Worship Through Community

Can we pray for you? Reach Out! We’d love to pray for and with you!
Send us an email at prayer@gracefullytruthful.com

Build community, be transparent, and encourage others:
Share how God spoke to you today!
Comment Here or in our Facebook Community Group!

Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

The GT Weekend! ~ Captivating Week 1

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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!

Worship Through Journaling

Worship Through Journaling

1)  Fragrance. Just pause for a moment, close your eyes, count to ten, and breathe deeply as you think about that word. Smells often carry emotional attachment or strong memories along with them. Just catching a scent can instantly transport you to a different time and place. Share with someone close to you a few smells that are connected to something or someone significant for you. Draw those memories in and walk through them slowly. With this very physical sensation of smell, now consider how your life might “smell” to others who watch you from inside your home. Which specific everyday habits, phrases, or body language positions consistently drift a fragrance of the gospel to those you love most? Which ones send them reeling away? Consider asking each person in your home how they experience love through you, listening carefully to their answers.

2)  In what ways do you find yourself pushing away from engaging in friendships? What are the obstacles you commonly encounter to nurturing community that would feed and encourage your faith? As you write these out, consider which ones are blockades you have power to move, but don’t for whatever reason and circle those. As we were reminded of the critically important nature of living in biblical community, pray through your obstacles and ask the Lord to move ahead of you, preparing the way for you to engage well. Decide why or why not you will obediently take intentional steps to cultivating biblical friendships.

3) If your church had a fragrance of the gospel, would you be able to detect it when you walked in? If you carried the same sweet scent of the gospel, would others at your local church be able to stand up and testify that based on how you interact and serve at church, they could clearly detect Christ’s fragrance on you? Does it walk with you when you’re inside the church building only or does it linger as you run your errands, chat with your neighbor, comment on social media, and speak with your children, spouse, or friends? If I were to ask your friends if you love Jesus, what would they say? What evidence would they provide? Be encouraged! Christ is on display through every believer who genuinely loves Him and chooses to follow Him closely!

Praying Scripture back to the One who wrote it in the first place is a great way to jump start our prayer-life! Pray this passage from 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

Prayer Journal
Lord God, the gospel story leaves me breathless every time! Radical love, unfathomable grace, such costly sacrifice, all to rescue us, your very enemies. Un-believable! Your forgiveness knows no boundaries, no sin or shame or secret is beyond Your ability, more so, Your desire to forgive! How can You love like this, Lord?! Then, Father, then You save us for a purpose, calling us into a lifetime of mission and intentionality as you actually give is the ministry of reconciliation. You call us to forgive as we have been forgiven, to love as we have been loved, and to declare this glorious, hope-filled gospel to all. Utterly Beautiful. Lord, I am continually amazed by You and Your plan. If all I ever knew was this small piece of Your love, I could be satisfied forever to look into its beauty. I praise you, God, for freedom, for purpose, for a mission, and a ministry within your Kingdom! I love You, Lord!

Worship Through Community

Can we pray for you? Reach Out! We’d love to pray for and with you!
Send us an email at prayer@gracefullytruthful.com

Build community, be transparent, and encourage others:
Share how God spoke to you today!
Comment Here or in our Facebook Community Group!

Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

Captivating Day 3 Community Calling

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Ruth 1:15-18
2 Corinthians 2:4-17
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Galatians 5:7-15

Captivating, Day 3

Sadly, we in the church today oftentimes have a wrong view of friendship. I hear sentiments like the following all the time (and perhaps they will sound familiar to you as well):

I’m too busy to cultivate friendship.

Did you hear what she did? Did you hear what he said to her?

That person hurt me, and I have had enough. I’m cutting my friendship ties with her.

I’ll pursue friendship when I’m in a less busy season.

Spending time with mom friends is too hard and impractical in this season of raising littles.

Friend, may I gently remind all of us, myself included, that the Lord has never once viewed friendship as optional or as something we can safely let go of, refuse to pursue, or not take seriously?
“Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts.
For if either falls, his companion can lift him up;
but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up.
Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him.
A cord of three strands is not easily broken.”
(Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

Biblical friendship was intended by God to fortify, sustain, encourage, sharpen, grow, and equip us in our daily walk with Christ. We see a beautiful example of this in the story of Naomi and Ruth, a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law who were also dear friends. Following the death of their husbands, widows Naomi and Ruth faced seemingly impossible challenges and yet, through their friendship and commitment to each other and their mutual faith in God, were able to overcome them.
Ruth gives us a beautiful picture of their friendship in Ruth 1:16-17 when she says to Naomi, “Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live;
your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the Lord punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

This is what the winsome institution of friendship is designed to be, a captivating fragrance and picture of Christ and His love for His people. Our friendships are to be the kind of relationships wherein we present the watching world with an example of what it looks like to love each other with the unconditional love of Christ. In these friendships, we are to create a place of safety where others can share thoughts and feelings without fear of harsh or critical judgement. We were designed to walk alongside, carrying one another’s burdens, rejoice with one another’s victories, and intentionally investing in one another, and pointing each other to Christ all along the way.

We are not too busy for friendship.
Rather, the responsibilities on our shoulders are too cumbersome to not have friends to walk along the journey with us. Frankly, the stakes are too high for us to live outside biblical community, only feigning at true friendship.

This type of solid, Christian friendship is not easy to cultivate.
I have learned this myself in deeply personal ways over the past year as I experienced a friendship be nearly destroyed as a result of gossip, judgment, and legalistic expectations. Another friendship has become challenging as narcissism has been brought into the mix.
It’s been a rough year for my friendships.

Yet, far from throwing in the towel, I am inspired by the passages above to pursue the ministry of reconciliation and extend the love and grace that covers a multitude of sins. While boundaries are important in relationships, and sometimes friendships with unsafe people must come to an end, these instances are oftentimes fewer and further between than we think in this age of un-forgiveness and criticism.

I don’t know what your friendship experiences have looked like thus far, dear reader, but I do know this: the Lord desires for you to enjoy friendships throughout life that will inspire and encourage you in your relationship with Him.
He wants to see your faith strengthened, your heart sustained,
and your mind invigorated through these friendships,
and He wants the watching world to be pointed to Him when it sees you and your friends.

Yes, it’s a high challenge to intentionally cultivate friendships like these, and they sometimes take years to deepen to this level, but it is worth the work and investment!

I can honestly say I would not be the woman I am today,
with my faith in Christ matured to the point that it is,
or my heart encouraged and invigorated to joyfully follow Him as I am,
if it weren’t for the dear friends in my life who are more like family to me now.
After years of intentionally and regularly pouring into them (and vice versa!),
it is resoundingly worth it!

You may have been burned in the past.
You may find yourself with a seemingly lack of time in the present.
Your future may be uncertain.
All the more reason to invest in friendships and begin building biblical community!
Pray and ask the Lord to send godly Christian friends your way.
That is a prayer He delights in answering!

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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 Captivating Week One! 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 Captivating!