Fruitful Day 10 The Goodness of God

September 3, 2021 by Christine Wood Leave a Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Romans 8:26–30
Psalm 31:9–24
Galatians 6:2–10
Genesis 50:15–21
Galatians 5:22-26

Fruitful, Day 10

God is good. He fills our lives with good things.
The sound of a child’s laugh.
The warmth of sunshine on our faces.
The feel of a cool sea breeze in our hair.
The strength of a loved one’s embrace.
The list is endless. We know God is good because we see the evidence of His goodness all around us. James reminds us every good thing we enjoy is a gift from God above. (James 1:17)

It’s easy to recognize God’s goodness when life is going well, but what about when tragedy strikes? When our children’s laughter is absent, our marriage falls apart, or our health deteriorates, it seems false to talk of the goodness of God.
Where is God when we don’t see goodness around us?

A few years ago, four families in our church tragically lost children, aged between 5 hours and 30 years. These four families walked the unimaginable journey of grief that only known by parents who’ve buried a child. I’ve attended many funerals as part of my job in pastoral care in our church, but I will never forget those four. I was astounded, not by the grief and pain—I expected that—but that each and every family stood up in their child’s funeral service and testified to the goodness of God.

How is this possible? I would have expected these parents to question God. Surely they would be doubting God’s goodness and struggling to find His comfort during their darkest time.

No. This was not their testimony. In their darkest days, God proved His goodness.

This is my testimony as well. I have never known the same grief as these families, but during the most difficult times of my life, I can honestly say only God’s presence gave me the strength to carry on.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s goodness shines brightest during the darkness of pain.

Joseph has always been one of my Bible favorites. He led a long and interesting life. Born with ten older brothers, he was the favorite of his father, Jacob. Sold into slavery as an arrogant youth by his jealous older brothers, Joseph eventually found himself imprisoned in Egypt after being falsely accused of rape. Then, through a miraculous chain of events, Joseph was appointed the Prime Minister of Egypt, second in power to Pharaoh, during a time of famine throughout Egypt and the surrounding countries. Talk about a turn-around!

After many years of hardship and injustice, Joseph saved the lives of his brothers and their families. Joseph stood before the very men who sold him into slavery years before and declared the goodness of God.

Joseph said, “You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.” (Genesis 50:20) Joseph recognized God at work during the difficult times of his life to orchestrate immense good in the end.

Like Joseph, God is at work in our lives to orchestrate something good. Many of us will never be sold into slavery or unjustly sent to prison, but each of us have our own story of struggle. God is at work in each of our stories; He is doing something good!

We are surrounded by hurt and pain in our world.
Many are lost and without hope, struggling to find purpose and meaning in their suffering. Like hollow words of comfort to a grieving parent, there is nothing we can do or say in our own strength to alleviate their suffering.

But God is good.
We may not be able to ease the pain of our suffering world, but God can.
And He has enlisted us to help.
God has created us to do good works that He has prepared in advance for us. (Ephesians 2:10) God works through us when we are filled with the Holy Spirit and share His goodness with others.

Is your life full of good things?
Recognize all good things are a gift from God and give Him the thanks He deserves.

Are you struggling in this season?
Seek after God’s goodness. Like the Psalmist, cry out to God with honesty, pour out your broken heart to Him, and welcome the healing and comfort He provides.

What are the good things God has prepared for you to do?
Who is He calling you to serve?

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Fruitful Day 2 Anchoring Love: Digging Deeper

August 24, 2021 by Lori Meeks Leave a Comment

Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Anchoring Love!

The Questions

1) According to this passage, what is love?

2) How does one “remain in love”? (verse 16)

3) What does fear have to do with love? (verse 18)

1 John 4:16-19

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. ¹⁷In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us.

Original Intent

1) According to this passage, what is love?
For us to understand what “love” means in these verses and the original intent, we need to look at the Greek words used. Take verse 16 for example, “And we have come to know and to believe the love (agapaō) that God has for us. God is love (agapē)”. Agape love is the same word used in John 3:16 as God describes His love for his Son as well as His people. “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” Agoapao comes from the word agape, but is the verb form of the word. This is kind of confusing for us today, but the original readers would’ve understand completely. It would be somewhat like a mother saying, “I love (agape) my son”, and “By reading my son’s favorite book, I am loving (agoapao) him.” In verse 16 we read “God is love”, not only is this a direct quote from 1 John 4:8 which says “The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love” but it’s an idea that John repeats in his letter several times which signifies the importance of the concept. He wants his readers to understand that love and God cannot be separated because, by His very nature, God is love to the full in both action and description. Every aspect of love is encompassed by God. It’s as much a part of Him as our body is to us; we are not “us” without our body. To know God is to know love.

2) How does one “remain in love”? (verse 16)
Verse 16 in its entirety contains clues for helping us gain understanding on how to remain in God’s love. ^“And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.” The first clue is, “Come to know and to believe”. The author, the disciple John, assumes these words are being received by those who have already placed their full trust in Jesus. They have heard the message of Christ dying to take the punishment they deserved and have come to the point of belief for themselves. This is important because, at this time of writing, there were many Jews still living under Old Testament Law, meaning they were trying to earn God’s favor by keeping the rules. The second clue is “God is love”. We just discussed how one cannot separate God apart from love. Love is a Person, and the person is Jesus. To remain in Him is to maintain relationship with Him through studying His Word, prayer, and living in biblical community. The third clue is “remains in God and God remains in him”. In essence, John is saying to the believers, “You all know Jesus and what He did for you. Don’t go back to the old way. Stick with God and allow His grace to stick with you”. Remaining in love means not being swayed by false teachers, popular opinion, or old habits and thoughts, but sticking with the Truth and letting God’s Spirit renew us from the inside out. (Romans 12:1-2)

3) What does fear have to do with love? (verse 18)
It’s part of human nature to fear the unknown and those things we don’t fully understand. For the early believers, trusting God and His grace with their future and eternity was a new way of thinking, believing, and living. Before Jesus, everything about their everyday lives centered around keeping the commandments. Everyone was keenly aware of how they were doing, both good and bad. Not to mention they had rules for offering sacrifices when you messed up and broke the rules by sinning. But now, everything was different with Jesus. There was no longer fear of condemnation because Jesus had paid the penalty for every sin past, present, and future. (Romans 8:1) Their perspective had drastically shifted off themselves and onto a deeply personal relationship with the living God who held out their hope for Eternal Life with Him. John tells his readers they don’t need to be afraid of judgement because God is love and His love is perfect, lacking nothing. In the gospel of John, he also writes, “God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him”. (John 3:17) God came to save us, there is no reason to be afraid.

Everyday Application

1) According to this passage, what is love?
Love is commonly misused and misunderstood by us today. We say stuff like I love coffee, I love that song, and I love the KC Royals. Then we use the same word to describe God. It’s confusing to decipher “definitions” of love. We also struggle with believing that “love” requires us to feel mushy and gushy with the same “tender” feelings we have towards our spouse or children (when we feel close!). It’s no wonder we struggle with some pretty simple concepts in Scripture. Our language and society have made it so confusing that honestly, it’s just easier to move right past the hard-to-understand verses of the Bible and get to the easy parts that make us feel good. However, the more we study the Bible deeply, the more clearly we see the rich love of God! Love, in its truest form, is Jesus, who is the “exact expression of His (God’s) nature”. (Hebrews 1:3) When we look at Jesus’ love, we are seeing the Father! “The one who has seen Me (Jesus) has seen the Father. (…) Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?” (John 14:9-10) Divine Love is neither something we can manufacture nor fake. It’s not always easy to surrender to the Holy Spirit and let His love come alive in us. In fact, at times, it’s just plain hard in real life! We overlook the fact that love is a choice of total surrender to Christ. Unlike Jesus, who simply is love, we must choose to willingly give up our control and selfish desires to God when it comes to actions, attitudes, and motives. Because only HE is love, only HE can fill us with divine love and allow it to overflow in everyday life.

2) How does one “remain in love”? (verse 16)
I love the explanation in The Tony Evans Bible Commentary, which says “to remain means to hang out with”. Don’t you love that? It’s so simple and easy for me to understand! Keeping in mind that God is love, this simply means “hang out with Jesus and let Him rub off on you”. So the question becomes, how do I hang out with Jesus? The application for us today is much the same as it was for the original readers, don’t be pulled in by popular opinion and deception. Instead, focus on knowing Truth in Jesus more and more through His Word and prayer. When we know Him, we will more easily be able to detect lies. (1 John 4:1-2) The devotional I read this morning as I prepared to write pointed me toward Revelation 2. Check out what it says in chapter 2, “But I have this against you: you have let go of the love you had at first. So remember the high point from which you have fallen. Change your hearts and lives and do the things you did at first.”. (Revelation 2:4-5) These verses convicted me personally because since I’ve been a Christ follower for a long time. I know how easy it is to get distracted and forget how much God has done for me, how much I have been forgiven, and how I much I need Him every single day. It’s easy to get caught in doing work for Jesus that we forget to spend time with Jesus. We must ask ourselves, am I spending as much time with Jesus as scrolling social media, binge-watching Netflix, working, exercising, or volunteering at church? We “hang out” (remain) with Jesus much the same way we would with family and friends. We make intentional time, schedule coffee or lunch dates, we go for walks, or simply sit and talk. Why not try doing those things with Jesus?

3) What does fear have to do with love? (verse 18)
When we speak of God’s love, fear (the kind that’s terrified of punishment) should have absolutely nothing to do with our description of Him. As children, we perhaps learned to be afraid of punishment either for actual wrongdoing, or because a parent wasn’t equipped with the tools to love us well. The enemy can use fear to twist our perception of God and His true character. We forget that God is love and there is no reason to be afraid of God once we have entrusted ourselves entirely to Him and His enormous, never-ending love. His love is bigger and better than our human love. It forgives sin completely, holds no shame over us, and will absolutely never abandon us. It is pure and undefiled by human emotion and reasoning; His love is perfect. In many ways, especially for us type A people, living under the law seems easier at first blush. We know the rules and what to do if we break one. Easy peasy. Just add the consequence (sacrifice) to your “to do list” and check it off once you’ve completed it. This is also utterly devoid of relationship or the understanding of love. And what happens when the rule-breaking overwhelms our ability to make restitution? Trusting and believing that Jesus paid the price for all of our sin feels much harder! ALL, every single last one of your sins and my sins have been paid off by the God who perfectly loves us and wants a vibrant relationship with us. Even those sins we keep trying to work off are paid in full! Notice the end of verse 18,“the one who fears is not complete in love”. Just like John’s original audience, it takes faith and trust on our part to lean into Love (Jesus), let Him complete us, and walk shame-free!

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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
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!

Digging Deeper Community

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Why Dig Deeper?

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.

Study Tools

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.

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. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want more background? 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 :-))

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Enough Day 15 Promised Land Restored

April 16, 2021 by Marietta Taylor 1 Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

1 Corinthians 13
Isaiah 65:17-25
Philippians 2:5-11
Revelation 21:1-8
Revelation 22

Enough, Day 15

A friend made a sign for me reading, “You are enough.” She meant to encourage me not to feel burdened to live up to anyone else’s expectations. It sounds great, but not one of us is enough on our own, least of all me.

“You are enough” sounds easy and available for our immediate gratification.
But let’s not settle for the immediacy of what we can muster up
when what God has promised is glorious.

You see, God is love. He is worthy. He is Lord.
God is enough.

Any hope we have should be placed in Him, not ourselves. He alone can satisfy our every desire, heal every broken place, give us victory, and gather us to live with Him forever. Only He can fulfill every promise.

I know I’ve made some lofty statements here. But friends, they aren’t mine. They are God’s, breathed into the hearts and minds of men, and penned on the pages of the Bible. (2 Timothy 3:16) Shall we explore a little?

God is love.
1 Corinthians 13 gives us a picture of biblical love, explaining love is patient. Furthermore, 2 Peter 3: 9 tells us God is patiently waiting to fulfill His remaining promises, so more people may repent and join Him in heaven. Y’all, it’s been over 2000 years since Jesus came. Patient? Check.

We also see love is kind and not self-seeking. During Jesus’ ministry on earth, He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, taught thousands, raised the dead, forgave sins and most importantly, died on the cross to conquer sin and death! Yet, He didn’t go around announcing His miracles and acts of kindness. In fact, He usually instructed people not to speak of their interactions. (Luke 8:56 and Matthew 8:4)

1 Corinthians 13:6 says love rejoices in truth. In the New Testament, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth” over 70 times!

Clearly, God is love.

God is worthy.
There are many verses I could point to, but I’ve settled on two. First is John 1:1-5, where we learn:

God is eternal
Father God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit created everything.
Jesus is the light of men and cannot be overcome by darkness

Then, there’s Revelation 5. Verse 12 gives us a glimpse of the throne room of heaven when the Lamb (Jesus) takes the scroll, thousands upon thousands of angels, the living creatures, and the elders will loudly say, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

In verse 13, we see “every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth on the
sea, and everything in them say,
Blessing and honor and glory and power
be to the one seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

I can’t add anything to this. Quite simply and wonderfully, He is worthy!

Jesus is Lord.
God could have saved us from our sin and from death any way He wanted; He chose to send His Son, Jesus, to die for us on the cross.

Because Jesus was obedient to do the Father’s will,
“God highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name
that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth —
and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

And when we reach the end times, written on the robe and thigh of Jesus will be His name “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” (Revelation 19:16)

Speaking of the end times, did you realize they bring fulfillment of an early promise God made to Abraham? God promised Abraham would be the father of many nations, but He also promised actual land. However, because God’s perspective is eternal, there is an even greater land we’ve been promised! Revelation 21:1-8 tells us of the “land” where God will dwell for the rest of eternity with “those written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27).

In this New Heaven and New Earth, we find:

Past things will be forgotten (Isaiah 65:17)
There will be delight and rejoicing (Isaiah 65:18)
God will be glad in us (Isaiah 65:19)
There will be no weeping or crying (Isaiah 65:19)
We will enjoy our lives (Isaiah 65:22)

Gather us to live with Him forever? Check.
Abraham never saw the extent of the land he was promised, but his offspring did. Now we can wait expectantly with the hope of God’s eternal Promised Land.

Friends, I hope you feel the same longing as Abraham. While we wait on the God who is enough, let’s get to know Him better. Let’s share Him with others, so they, too, will be in the Lamb’s book of life.

This world we live in is hard, but it’s not our real home. Can we agree to live in anticipation of the glorious day when everything is restored and we are eternally and blamelessly in the presence of our holy God? Let it be so.

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The GT Weekend! ~ Worship VIII Week 3

March 27, 2021 by Rebecca Adams 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!

Worship Through Journaling

1) Grab a pen and prepare for interaction! Scroll the word “worship” across your page and then write down every word that comes to mind. No judgement and no filtering! You might be surprised at what shows up from under your pen. I know I was! When you’ve given space and allowed pause for freedom, look back through your list and ask the Lord to stir your heart. Ask Him to show you more of Himself and more of you as you think about worship. Which words raise their hand and stick out to you? Sit with those. Why do they prod you for attention? What might the Lord want you to understand about these words? Look through your list again and note which ones make your soul press back a bit. Where is your discomfort? Ask the Lord to show you truth and uncover any misconceptions you might have about worship. Close out your time by meditating on Tuesday’s study passage from Revelation 21:5-6. Read it over slowly and consider the insights the Holy Spirit brought to you as you read and pray!

2) Paula wrote on Wednesday of how easy it is to simply recite truths, but forget to allow the Holy Spirit to radically transform our everyday moments with those powerful realities. Let’s keep the interactive reflection going by writing down as many truths you know for sure are actually a real reflection of God according to the Bible. (For example… God is “love”) 30 seconds…..and GO! Now pause and before you critique your word choices, pray and be still. Ask the Spirit to take you deeper into truth and to tear down lies you believe. Now read through your list and circle a few you feel most drawn to and even a couple you feel uncomfortable with. Looking at these words specifically, ask yourself how your everyday moments and interactions might be different if you really truly genuinely believed that about God and His character. Remember you’re only picking words that are actually biblical and true…. So that means “God being angry with me” doesn’t count. J If you’re feeling stuck, try reading Psalm 36:5-12 for some good descriptions. Ask the Lord to remind you throughout the weekend of His good character and allow them to shape your real life!

3) We can’t stop being interactive with our journals and pens now! What is an image that comes to mind when you think of being relationally “close” to someone? Do your best to doodle that image on your page (don’t worry, you don’t have to show everyone later J). Now think of an image representing “distant” relationally; draw this farther down your paper. Settle in to your seat and think of scenes from your life where you felt close or distant from God and write down a few words to describe each of these under the appropriate image. Before you start digging into these, close your eyes, and ask the Lord to show you new insights about your heart and His, ask Him to draw you into worship. Pen in hand, write down some feelings you associate with each scene. What strikes you as interesting? What do you feel yourself putting up walls against? What emotions are stirring? What differences you do you see in your perspective of God and yourself and others in each scene? Look up Psalm 34:18 and read it out loud as you consider each distant scene. Hold onto truth! Look up Psalm 96:10-12 and be reminded of this truth about our celebratory God as you read these verses aloud for each close scene. Christ is present, every moment, every breath, every sadness, every joy. Lean in to Him!

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 Psalm 116:17-19 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

I will offer you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the Lord’s house—
within you, Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!

Prayer Journal
Father God, thank You for being a creative God! Thank You for showing me more of Who You are and revealing new insights to me by the power of Your Spirit. I praise You for Your Words which come alive as the Spirit leads me in understanding them! How kind and gracious You are to hear my cry, to listen to me, to love me. Lord, remind me of these truths I’ve learned today. Wrap them around my shoulders as if they are Your very arms embracing me. Spirit, keep the words of Scripture close to me this weekend. Slow down my mind and my hands so I can make space for true worship. I love You, Lord God, may my heart and lips and hands pour out praise to You!

Worship Through Community

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Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

Questions Day 1 In The Presence Of Sin

February 17, 2020 by Tawnya Smith Leave a Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Isaiah 43:14-15
I John 1:5-10
Romans 3:9-18
I Corinthians 15:1-4
Hebrews 4:14-16

Questions, Day 1

The more we learn about God and walk with Him,
the more questions seem to enter our minds.
Questions are a good thing.

Questions and tension in the Christian walk mean we’re engaging and processing,
instead of glibly taking in information. One tension manifests as we wonder:
if God cannot be in the presence of sin, how can He live in our hearts?

In evaluating this query, we can make two assumptions about the heart with which it’s asked. The first is a recognition of God’s character, His unmatched holiness, perfection, beauty, truth, justice, and might (Isaiah 43:14-15, Exodus 15:11, I Samuel 2:2). The second, implied by the question itself, is the reality of our indwelling sin nature, even as redeemed saints (Romans 7:14-25). We wrestle with, “how can these two realities coexist?”

As we address this question, I also want to address the statement, “God cannot be in the presence of sin.” Scripture shows us repeatedly God can, has, and does manifest His presence among sin, namely, mankind. When we are faced with the holiness of who God is, it’s good to be also struck with the deeper realities of our sin and unworthiness.

Yet, Scripture clearly states the believer’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). God dwells in us!

Let’s allow Scripture to guide our thinking about who God is, and how a holy, sinless God is able to draw near to sinful man.

The Holiness of God
In Isaiah 43:15 we read,
“I am the Lord, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.”

Exodus 15:11 proclaims,
“Who is like You among the gods, O Lord?
Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?”

God is holy, which means He is completely separate from sin. He cannot tolerate it, nor is any darkness found within Him. (1 John 1:5)

The Wickedness of Man
From the moment Adam and Eve chose to trust themselves instead of their gracious, holy God, sin has infiltrated every human heart, landscape and system on this earth (Genesis 3).

Our sin is not passive.
We are, by nature, enemies of God,
hostile toward all He is,
and alienated from His presence. (Colossians 1:21, Romans 3:10-18)

Because of the reality of our sin, we are separated from Him. We have nothing to offer God to induce Him to pardon our sin.

God Draws Near
Ashamed at the reality of their sin, the first couple tried to hide. (Genesis 3:8-10)
But God?
He pursued and drew near.
He sought them and found them.

At the same time, He did not overlook their sin.
His standard of holiness remained unchanged, and a flood of consequences ensued. (Genesis 3:16-24)

From this moment of first sin, the Biblical narrative is one of God continuing to wrestle with mankind, longing to re-establishing His presence with them. The Old Testament shows us how God made a way to dwell among His people through the Tabernacle and requirements of the Law.

Though it was only a shadow of things to come (Hebrews 10:1-4),
the Law held men to His holiness
while He held Himself out
to be in relationship with them.

God ultimately drew near by sending Himself to earth. Immanuel, which was the special name given to Jesus (Matthew 1:23), literally means God with us. He remained fully God, became fully man, and humbly came to serve. (Philippians 2:5-8)

But for what ultimate purpose?

God Overcomes Sin
When God draws near, He is not passive. He’s always in control, and always stands in authority, even over the presence of sin.

John 1:3-4 tells us Jesus is the “light of men,”
and “that light shines in the darkness,
and yet the darkness did not overcome it.”

In fact, God overcame the darkness of sin and death when He laid upon Jesus the wickedness of man. God poured out His wrath onto His own Son, instead of humanity. Then, in His power, God raised Christ back to life. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

God’s act of victory was the final word on sin, death, and Satan’s power in this world.

If we have placed our trust in the atoning work of Jesus Christ as the payment for our sin, then we’ve been justified, declared righteous before God!

However, this is an already-but-not-yet reality.

The question we’re grappling with reveals our keen awareness of the war waging within us between our sinful, natural desires and our redeemed spirits. And yet, this tension is why Jesus sent His Spirit in the first place: to be a helper! (John 14:15-17)
The Holy Spirit dwelling within us empowers us to say no to sin! (Titus 2:11-13)

Our holy God doesn’t shrink back from sinful man in a castle made of clouds, refusing to stoop into the muck of our neediness and unworthiness. Instead, He became one of us, overcoming sin, so His deepest desire, to dwell within His people once again, might be fulfilled.

Because He first drew near,
and overcame the darkness,
we can boldly draw near to Him! (Hebrews 4:16, 1 John 4:19)

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Treasure Day 5 Live Like You’re Loved

January 10, 2020 by Sara Cissell 1 Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Jeremiah 17:7-8
Isaiah 43:1-3
I John 4:7-19

Treasure, Day 5

Have you ever been driving down the road listening to the radio and suddenly the song not only fills your car but also your heart? This reality captured me recently as I drove to work. The early morning sun greeted me and the commuter traffic kept me moving along at a steady, slow pace. I was a captive audience, and in that moment the Lord presented me with both an invitation and challenge through the beautiful lyrics of a Hawk Nelson song, “Live Like You’re Loved.”

The song’s catchy tune quickly seeped into my mind but the words pierced my heart.

“So go ahead and live like you’re loved
It’s okay to act like you’ve been set free
His love has made you more than enough
So go ahead and be who He made you to be…and live like you know you’re valuable
Like you know the One that holds your soul
‘Cause mercy has called you by your name
Don’t be afraid to live in that grace.”

Live like you’re loved.

Live. Like. You. Are. Loved.

Do you find a challenge or an invitation in this lyric? Or is it some strange combination of the two, interweaving to create an enticing yet overwhelming experience?

I can succeed at the living part. In order to stay this side of heaven, living is required. However, living like I’m loved sometimes proves to be a challenge.

Why?

There are days I truly don’t know why. Other days, I can quickly point to frustrating circumstances, doubts and unbelief filtering through my mind, or actions I take which scream uncertainty on my part.

So as I crept along with the morning commute that day, Jesus began to sing over me through the words of that song, a Zephaniah 3:17 experience. I sensed Him reminding me that I am loved by Him, regardless of any other love I have encountered in this lifetime.

Some of us may not have a positive relationship with our families and lack a solid understanding of a love dynamic.
Maybe previous friendships have ended with a proverbial knife through the heart.
Maybe we’ve never experienced the healthy love of a spouse.
Maybe we feel unworthy of love, shamed by the weight of our sins.
In a fallen world, among hurting people and broken relationships, living like we are loved is hard.

However, God is love.

In the midst of my car encounter with Him, this truth resonated the loudest.

God is love and I am loved by Him.

He has called me by name. (Isaiah 43:1-3)

He gives me strength and power. (Psalm 68:35)

Much like Gideon, He speaks to me about who I am and deals with my doubts. (Judges 6:1-40)

He has good works prepared for me. (Ephesians 2:10)

He is intimately acquainted with the details of my life. (Psalm 139:1-24)

He sees past the blackness of my sins, through the bloodied beams of a wooden cross, to the heart of His beloved child. (Romans 5:8)

He will never leave me nor forsake me. (Deuteronomy 31:8)

The Bible is filled with promises the Lord has made to us. In essence, the Bible is a long love letter to each of us, declaring His love, power, faithfulness, and goodness. Over and over, the Israelites walked away from the Lord, forsaking their first love. Yet His Word is filled with example after example of the Lord’s compassion being poured out upon His people.

I am who the Lord says I am.

You are who the Lord says you are.
And armed with that knowledge, He is inviting us to live like we are loved.

There will be days when we may not feel His love, but we must believe He loves us still. Like the tree in Jeremiah, may we pull the truth of the Lord’s love from His Word. We must choose to live like we are loved, regardless of how we may feel.

Remember, my friend, you are loved. Live to the fullest of this truth.

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The GT Weekend! ~ Esther Week 2

November 16, 2019 by Rebecca Adams Leave a Comment

The GT Weekend!

Worship Through Journaling

1) Authentic transparency is one of our core values at Gracefully Truthful because none is more authentic and vulnerable than God Himself. In our culture, we don’t glorify messy, hard things that bring great personal cost. But following Jesus, involves cost, every single time. From the moment we say yes to Jesus, we are called to surrender everything, giving up control of our entire lives. This isn’t a popular, feel-good Christian slogan, but it is the truth. We cannot afford to gloss over the cost of following Jesus, but neither can we ignore the unsurpassable great reward that comes from giving up everything for Him. Where have you seen great reward from saying yes to Jesus? Where is He calling you to surrender?

2) In your life, where have you seen the intersection of painful brokenness and genuine praise play out? When troubles hit the ship of our life, the reality of where we truly anchor our heart is made evident. When life is going well, it’s easy to say, “God is my hope and my strength!”, but when suffering, fear, and brokenness storm our sails, we either cling to the Lord, choosing to praise Him for Who He is, or we fight to swim on our own strength. If you’re in a time of smooth sailing, make intentional decisions to cultivate your relationship with God. If storms are slamming you, surround yourself with solid friends who love Jesus and love you, and will keep pointing you towards the truth of God’s character!

3) At key points all along her epic journey, Esther had the ultimatum of either choosing wisdom or walking in the wisdom of her own eyes, motivated by her fear. She beautifully chose wisdom each time, even though she clearly struggled to surrender her fear at some points. Wisdom adorned her like a beautiful crown and arrested the attention of people around her while opening the way for her people to be rescued. Who do you admire and respect because of their consistent decision to live wisely. Take the time this weekend and write them a note, giving specific reasons why you are grateful for their wisdom. Then set out to ask the Lord to make you wise and gracious while surrendering your own fears!

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 Proverbs 1:8-9 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.

Prayer Journal
How good and kind You are to hold out wisdom to us, Lord, while also helping us slowly understand how foolish we are without You! Teach our hearts to be humble, to elevate you, and see our own wisdom apart from You as being foolishness. Make our hearts hungry for You alone! It’s so easy for me to think about my outer self, whether in appearance or in mannerisms, and how I will be received by others. Teach me to seek after the true, lasting beauty of Your wisdom and grace, and use it to point others to You and Your glory!

Worship Through Community

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Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

Esther Day 7 The Price Of Obedience: Digging Deeper

November 12, 2019 by Michelle Promise Leave a Comment

Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out The Price Of Obedience!

The Questions

1) Did Jesus really mean we need to hate those we love most?

2) How can we count the cost in our decision to follow if we don’t yet know the happenings of our life?

3) What does salt have to do with anything?

Luke 14:25-35

25 Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

28 “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31 “Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

34 “Now, salt is good, but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty? 35 It isn’t fit for the soil or for the manure pile; they throw it out. Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”

Original Intent

1) Did Jesus really mean we need to hate those we love most?
John said of God, “God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). The overarching story of the Bible is God’s great love for mankind and His plan of redemption. Hating those dearest to oneself would go against the very nature of God. In the ten commandments, God’s very first one is “to have no other gods before Him” (Exodus 20:3). From the beginning of the law, God made it clear to His children that following Him required complete love and devotion. Jesus wanted these listeners to remember this old-time truth from their Jewish heritage as part of God’s covenant and recognize that nothing, not even their families, could limit their commitment to following Him.

2) How can we count the cost in our decision to follow if we don’t yet know the happenings of our life?
Jesus used the whole of chapter 14 to explain that many people would be invited into the kingdom of heaven, but many would also reject Him. Beginning in verse 15, Jesus gave a parable of a rich ruler throwing a royal banquet, but no one was able to attend. The ruler sent out for the “least of these” to be invited, and, finally, those guests agreed and attended the lavish banquet. Jesus wanted non-believers to realize they were dearly loved and desired, while also sending a message to the Jews, especially the religious elite, that while they had been invited, they were rejecting the invitation because they were missing who Jesus was as the Promised Messiah. Later in Luke 14:27, He also wanted his audience to know that He expected them to follow His example in complete, sold out dedication to God the Father regardless of personal cost. Implicit in surrendering to Jesus, is the reality of trusting Him with your whole life, both now and for eternity. Surrendering and following are not optional exercises for the believer.

3) What does salt have to do with anything?
The Israelites lived near the Dead Sea for many years. The Sea was a plentiful storehouse of salt for the Israelites to use. It was helpful to preserve foods and to enhance their flavor. As Jesus spoke to the Jewish people, He used the idea of salt as a metaphor to remind Believers what their purpose was in the lives of non-believers. They were called to enhance the lives of others by flavoring it with the extravagant love of Christ. If the first believers forgot their charge of sharing Christ’s love in a manner the world would notice, there was a very real consequence to be faced. The repercussions to choosing not to share Jesus’ love and message are strong, being thrown out as ineffective! While Jesus did not mean the believer would lose their salvation, He did mean those believers had self-selected to be removed from effective Kingdom work. They would be missing out on the rich delight of living for Christ, having traded in “bare existence” for the unspeakable, full joy of following Jesus!

Everyday Application

1) Did Jesus really mean we need to hate those we love most?
Following Jesus always means 100%; it’s everything we know of ourselves surrendered fully to everything we know of the Savior. Of course, we are called to love our family, our spouse and the friends God has given us as we demonstrate Christ’s love for them! In the doing so, however, we must always be vigilantly on guard for when our love for them might be superseding our love for, and willingness to obey, Christ above all else. A wise leader once told me, “Our desire for relationship with someone can never be more important than the Truth of the Gospel.” Spend some time this week thinking about when you might have been silent for the sake of keeping the peace, but you knew you should’ve spoken Truth in love. Repent, and ask forgiveness from our Gracious Loving Father. Ask the Holy Spirit to attune your heart to His that you might know when to speak and when to be silent this coming week.

2) How can we count the cost in our decision to follow if we don’t yet know the happenings of our life?
Talking about these life and death decisions is nothing to take lightly and the weight of these choices can feel overwhelming. However, we can trust that the God of the Universe wants to have relationship with you. He is asking for 100% of your affections; He can accept nothing less. He asks us to be ready to give up everything; our comforts, our possessions, our wants, and potentially our lives. For those sitting in safe countries, lean in when He asks you to sacrifice your comfort by inviting a young single mother for Thanksgiving this year (or whatever the case may be!). For those sitting in dangerous places to be a believer, know that He who can do immeasurably more than you ask or imagine is fighting for you! He is worth whatever cost you may need to bear in the future and will carry you through to glory in whatever trial you will face!

3) What does salt have to do with anything?
A sprinkle of salt can take plain Jane scrambled eggs from blah to BAM! Too much salt though leads everyone to scrape those eggs to the trash! We, as believers, have the same charge as the people listening to Jesus in the first century. We have the gift of showing the world how Jesus loved! There will often be sacrifice involved in loving with open arms, often the first of which is our own comfort. We may be taken advantage of, ignored, laughed at, or mistreated in our efforts to sprinkle salt in someone’s life. That’s ok, Sister! Breath that in! This is a sign of your obedience as you live out Jesus’ great commission. Remember that “success” is simply being obedient; it’s all the Father asks of you. Listen to the Holy Spirit’s whisper and act when He leads. Your reward will be waiting in heaven and the joy you experience while being obedient will knock your socks off!

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Why Dig Deeper?

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.

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