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intended

Pause 3 Day 2 Intended For Rest

October 22, 2019 by Rebecca Adams Leave a Comment

Pause 3, Day 2

Rest.
We all need it, but most of us push back from it, not wanting to be found lazy, weak, or ineffective. We stay awake until the wee hours working, press ourselves to exhaustion during the day, or move from one activity to the next without a breath.
Yet, we were designed for resting.

Resting.
Pausing.
Breathing.
Being.

As often is the case, the physical realm mirrors the spiritual in order to accentuate it. Just as our physical bodies were made to literally live off of rest, so were our souls. This is the emphasis of chapter three in Hebrews. The only safe haven of rest for our souls is found in Christ Jesus, the author of our hearts.

Grab your Bible, a journal and pen,
and open your heart to bask in the presence of the Almighty!

Today's Challenge

1) Pull out your Bible and read Hebrews 3 fully through 3 times.

2) Each time, write down everything that pops out at you, makes you curious, or wonder “why?”. When you’re finished, go back through and you’ll be amazed at the new things the Spirit is leading you into knowing about Him!

3) 
Pay special attention to the kind of rest we are made for. Who is able to ensure we will be given the inheritance of rest? What kind of rest is the author wanting us to make sure we enter? How do we enter it? What keeps us from this specific rest?

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Hebrews 3

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God’s household. 3 For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. 4 Now every house is built by someone, but the one who built everything is God. 5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ was faithful as a Son over his household. And we are that household if we hold on to our confidence and the hope in which we boast.

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers tested me, tried me,
and saw my works 10 for forty years.
Therefore I was provoked to anger with that generation
and said, “They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.”
11 So I swore in my anger,
“They will not enter my rest.”

12 Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. 14 For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. 15 As it is said:
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

16 For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses? 17 With whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

How Does “Pause” Work?
1. Each day, Monday through Friday, for 2 weeks, we will provide you with a simple challenge. Each challenge is designed for you to engage with the Almighty in a deeper way and perhaps in a new way than you have been recently.

2. Having a journal is a must! You’ll want to take notes as you walk this special Journey of Pause.

3. Each week focuses on one or two passage of Scripture and we walk with you as you study and flesh these out for yourself. As you write your thoughts, read His Word, and pray, questions might come up. That’s Perfect! Ask a trusted fellow believer, a pastor, or send us an email as you work through them!

4. Jumping in at the middle? No problem! Here is the entire Journey Theme.

5. Connect with others on Facebook by visiting our GT Community Group!

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 Pause 3 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 Pause 3!

Posted in: Christ, Holy Spirit, Inheritance, Jesus, Pause, Rest Tagged: author, being, breathing, For, hearts, intended, rest, safe haven, soul

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!

Share your thoughts from today’s Journey Study!
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Join the GT Community and share your thoughts!

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

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

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

Posted in: Broken, Creation, God, Heaven, Hope, Life, Loss, Love, Mercy, Misunderstood, Pain, Sin, Truth Tagged: ache, belief, butterflies, design, Heaven, hope, intended, long, loss, misunderstood

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And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14