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The GT Weekend! ~ Sketched IV 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) With parents who divorced when she was only 6, but still raised in believing households, Cassidy was eventually faced with a difficult realization. She believed God had abandoned her when she needed Him most. Sure, she believed He loved her, but there was certainly no possible way He could have been with her during her most painful moments, she felt so deeply abandoned. Eventually, through studying God’s word for herself, seeking wise counsel, and learning to transparently live in biblical community, Cassidy traded in the heavy, hurtful lies she’d been believing for truth grounded in Scripture. Where have your own wounds left you holding onto lies that Scripture refutes? Have you held up your beliefs lately to the light of His Word and examined them against solid truth?

2) With vulnerable transparency, Danielle shared on Wednesday of her struggle to always perform and achieve perfect success, while also never missing out on an opportunity to party, drink, and smoke. Keeping up with two polar opposite lifestyles, however, found her wrapped in shame and guilty secrets. Surely, God despised her, she thought, and she pushed away from church and faith. God’s relentless pursuit of Danielle’s heart eventually caught up to her as she gave birth and she realized with sudden awareness how much she wanted her son to know Christ. God used the small life of her infant son to bring Danielle back to God’s heart. What small things can you see along your own journey that have arrested your attention for God’s purposes? Take time to write down a few of those pivotal markers, then write out a praise to the Lord for the ways He has lovingly pursued you!

3) Denise hit rock bottom with her marriage unraveling on all sides while welcoming the precious life of her daughter, and later her son. In her words, she “couldn’t do it (her) own anymore”. Where have you voiced a similar sentiment? Contrarily, where are you actively working to keep up the hard work and figure this out on your own strength? Whether you’ve crossed the line of faith or not, we are all tempted to do it on our own. It’s when we, like Denise, realize we just cannot do it, that we are in the sweetest place to benefit from the tenderness of Jesus as His love finally catches up to us and we surrender to His gracious forgiveness of every single time we walked away. Spend some time writing down where you’ve pushed hard to do it on your own in the past, and ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of where you might still be doing it now.

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 8:12 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Prayer Journal
Oh Lord, how m-a-n-y times am I convinced that I can survive on my own. I attempt to create my own “light” in my life, building my own kind of success. How quickly I am willing to trade the delicacies of your life-giving light for the foolishness of my own pride. Lord, I confess, that often, I’m too wrapped up in myself to even realize my broken appetite for Self and Sin. Please, Lord, un-blind my eyes. Help me to see the Treasure of Your Light and to pursue You above all else. Thank you for being my Rescuing Savior, always pursuing me with Love!

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

Open Day 7 The Unconventional Open: Digging Deeper

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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 Unconventional Open!

The Questions

1) Can my faith in Christ save someone else?

2) If it’s 100% true that we must each believe in order to be saved, why did Mark record that Jesus saw the faith of the paralytic’s friends and then said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”? (Mark 2:6)

3) Why did Jesus forgive the man’s sins first instead of healing his body?

Mark 2:1-12

When he entered Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and he was speaking the word to them. 3 They came to him bringing a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

6 But some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts: 7 “Why does he speak like this? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8 Right away Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were thinking like this within themselves and said to them, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?  Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat, and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he told the paralytic— 11 “I tell you: get up, take your mat, and go home.”

12 Immediately he got up, took the mat, and went out in front of everyone. As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Original Intent

1) Can my faith in Christ save someone else?
The mysteries we find within Scripture, that themselves whisper of the vast mysteries bound up in the heart of God, are many. But they are recorded on purpose for us to read and study and pray over. How prayer works, and how a believer’s faith impacts another person, whether lost or saint, is one of those mysteries. We can delve into the subject and consider it from all angles until we wear ourselves out thinking it through, but at its end, we can put it to rest knowing that our mighty God is completely sovereign and utterly beyond our ability to fully understand or comprehend. There is no box we can fathom that is able to contain God. Because Scripture is wholly true, it will never contradict itself. Where a verse seems to go against other Scriptures, it simply means we have a surface understanding of that passage and need to study and pray more thoroughly. Studying the Bible and rightly applying it does not mean simply reading it and taking what we want to hear from it! A strong, steady truth repeated often from Old Testament to New is that our faith is our own. No one can save us on our behalf. We must each make the choice whether to surrender ourselves to Christ or keep trusting ourselves to save us from our sin. Either we believe, and take God at His word, or we don’t. But that belief is individualistic, every single time. (Romans 3:22, Romans 10:9-10, Genesis 15:6)

2) If it’s 100% true that we must each believe in order to be saved, why did Mark record that Jesus saw the faith of the paralytic’s friends and then said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”? (Mark 2:6)
I believe the answer is two-fold. First, God designed believers to live together in community, to love and act and move as one Body, with great unity. All throughout Scripture, we are commanded, not simply invited, to pray for one another, carrying each other’s everyday burdens (Galatians 6:2) as well as praying for opportunities for the Kingdom of God to advance and His gospel to be made known.  (Colossians 4:3) Prayer is an integral part of following Jesus in everyday life. He calls us to pray on behalf of those who have already believed in Him and those who have yet to trust Him at His Word. What these four men did by physically bringing their friend to Jesus’ house is a perfect picture of what every believer does when they pray for another. As we pray, we are carrying these people into the presence of God, directly into His throne room of grace and mercy where He hears and listens! (Hebrews 4:16) We do have influence on other’s engagement in the presence of God through our own faith, whether that person is a Christian or not. Second, Jesus did indeed see the faith of the four friends and so chose to call out this man and bring forgiveness to Him and eventually healing of His body. However, simply because Mark records Jesus’ noting the faith of the four, does not at all preclude that Jesus also saw the faith of the paralytic in his heart. A few verses later, Jesus makes it clear He has authority and power to know precisely what is in our hearts, whether good or evil. Naturally, Jesus saw the heart of the paralytic as well, and knew he was ready to accept Christ as His forgiver of sin and healing of His soul.  When it comes to matters of salvation, we must keep two things forefront. 1) Salvation is accessed through faith alone by grace alone and 2) God is sovereign, meaning we are not privy to all the inner workings of who is genuinely saved and who isn’t. That is for God to know and work out, not us.

3) Why did Jesus forgive the man’s sins first instead of healing his body?
First, the man’s most primary necessary healing, like each of us, was his soul. The mortal wound of his soul, caused by sin, was damning this man to an eternity separated from God. The paralytic’s restoration to God through Jesus was the most pressing healing. Second, Jesus did heal the man’s body, but for an incredibly focused purpose: glory to God and growth for the Kingdom. God does not heal for the sole happiness and health of the one being healed; His main purpose is always to draw others into Himself and we are drawn to Him by His revelation of glory.  The paralytic, though physically healed, one day died and his healed body ceased working. However, that same man, is right at this moment, dancing free in the very presence of the God whose glory was revealed on that day when his sins were forgiven! The temporary physical healing was a profound platform by which to demonstrate the pressing eminence of the eternal!

Everyday Application

1) Can my faith in Christ save someone else?
No, I cannot save anyone, no matter how much faith I have or how much it grieves me to watch them turn away from the Lord again and again. And neither can you. Paul grieved like this over his fellow Jews who, though they knew and studied every pen stroke of the Old Testament law and prophets, they missed the whole point of Jesus’ death and resurrection as the fulfillment of those very law and prophets. Paul wrote, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers…” (Romans 9:3) As much as we grieve for lost, our faith cannot save them. They must make that choice for themselves just as we had to.

2) If it’s 100% true that we must each believe in order to be saved, why did Mark record that Jesus saw the faith of the paralytic’s friends and then said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”? (Mark 2:6)
While we clearly cannot give someone else salvation, no matter how much we love them, we can and must have influence in their spiritual lives by faithfully praying for them. We are called to bring others before God’s throne, asking Him to reveal His glory to them that they too might “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.” (Romans 10:13) I hope you’re as convicted to read this as I am to write it, Sisters. Let’s be faithful Christ-followers and steadfastly bring our friends before the Lord just as these four men did for their paralyzed friend! Begin making a list of those in your sphere of influence, or even those on your street, who don’t know Jesus. Begin praying for them by name for their salvation! Ask for doors to be opened for you to share your own faith journey and what Jesus has meant to you. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you opportunities to invite these people you know and love to church, or even just over for a meal as you faithfully invest in their faith journey.

3) Why did Jesus forgive the man’s sins first instead of healing his body?
We can look around our world, our churches, and even our families and our hearts break with the heavy physical suffering being experienced by all of us on varying levels. Children sick with cancer, babies who never breath outside the womb, wives who bury husbands, parents who bury children, spouses who live with abuse, aunt and uncles who watch nieces and nephews ruin their lives, and grandparents who find themselves starting over as they parent their grandchildren. The ache is grievous, the load is heavy, and oh how our hearts break in agony wishing we could remove the pain, the wound, and the hurt. But we cannot. And so, we beg the God of all to do it for us. And often times, He does! But sometimes, though He certainly could, He does not. I’ll be straight up with you, we just cannot know all the reasons behind all of our whys and why nots on earth, but we can know for absolute certainty, that when the Lord God heals, and even when He doesn’t, there is a purpose. A good purpose. A purpose that He, and He alone, will use to expand the kingdom and grow our faith if we will allow Him. What we see is temporary. What is coming is eternal. What we live out today is just a vapor. What we invest in with faith will last forever. Pray, Sisters. Pray for the Lord to bring physical healing and make His Name great in the process, but please pray that far beyond the physical, that our hearts will lean into His good Father heart, and we will remember that His eternal healing is indeed coming!

What do YOU think?! Share Here!
Missing the connection to our other Journey Study?
Catch up with The Unconventional Open!

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

Share What You’ve Learned!
Pray Together!
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Our Current Study Theme!

This is Open Week Two!
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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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The GT Weekend! ~ Open 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) Sit still, Bible open, pen ready. This could be harder, and more convicting, than we’d like to admit. Open to Luke 19:6-7. Read these two verses over and over, slowly, quickly, again. Pray over them as you read, asking the Spirit to stir your heart. The rejected, hated, outcast man was downright giddy to be welcomed in. The ‘righteous’ crowds? The despised Jesus’ actions. Disgusted. Angry. Who sits at your table? Who is on your ‘to invite over’ list? Who do you spend time, talent, and treasure loving on? Write down those names, they are important and Jesus loves them and how you invest! But is anyone offended by your willingness to love the ugly, outcast, hated, rejected? Beg the Holy Spirit to bring to mind those faces, because maybe you don’t know their names, who you could invite in, but very intentionally haven’t. Write down those names, they are important and Jesus loves them; He’s calling you to invest!

2) Radical, generous hospitality finds its roots in obedience. But not blind obedience to a cosmic being dictating morally good acts. Rather, truly loving hospitality stems from obedience grown from the bedrock of deep, abiding faith. The knowing who God is and trusting His heart. Is your openness towards generosity feeling a little rusty or maybe even stingy? How’s your faith? Who do you say God is? Is He faithful and trustworthy enough to provide for you? How stingy do you view Him?

3)  Yesterday, Parker challenged us to ask the Lord a question when we begin to interact with someone we find challenging to love, let alone like. “Jesus, show me what you love about them.” Challenge yourself to take this question to the next level this weekend by journaling out the names of the people in your closest circle. Maybe your closest friends, your spouse and children, or parents and siblings. One by one, pray over these names and ask the Lord this question, writing down what the Spirit brings to mind. Remember these aren’t qualities you admire, rather you’re asking the Lord for His vantage point. Then, take the opportunity when presented to share these small treasures with each person you named!

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 Matthew 25:40 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Prayer Journal
Lord, in brokenness I come to You. My total inability to love like You is so evident as I live out this precious life You’ve given me. I mis-prioritize, I choose my comfort over going beyond myself, I choose my schedule over loving intentionally because it’s costly, it’s difficult, and mostly because I am selfish. Lord, make me new. Not once, but over and over and over. Remind me that You are always on the horizon, arms spread wide celebrating when I return and ask You to fill me again. I want to love like you, Abba. Remind me that only when I sit here with You, like father and child, can I love others well and, in so doing, show You love. May my life declare Your love, 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

Open Day 4 Pineapple Power: Digging Deeper

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Open Day 4 Pineapple Power: Digging Deeper

Rebecca Adams

August 1, 2019

Believe,Broken,Digging Deeper,Faith,Gospel,Jesus,Open,Redemption,Rescue,Salvation,Trust

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

This DD Connects With "Pineapple Power"
Why Dig Deeper?

Read His Words Before Ours!

1 Kings 17:8-16

Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Get up, go to Zarephath that belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.” 10 So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup and let me drink.” 11 As she went to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”

12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I don’t have anything baked—only a handful of flour in the jar and a bit of oil in the jug. Just now, I am gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.”

13 Then Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid; go and do as you have said. But first make me a small loaf from it and bring it out to me. Afterward, you may make some for yourself and your son, 14 for this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘The flour jar will not become empty and the oil jug will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the surface of the land.’”

15 So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah. Then the woman, Elijah, and her household ate for many days. 16 The flour jar did not become empty, and the oil jug did not run dry, according to the word of the Lord he had spoken through Elijah.
Read More Of His Words

The Original Intent

1) Where is Zarephath and why is this significant?

The town of Zarephath was nestled in the country of Sidon beyond the borders of Israel. Why does this matter? Because Elijah was Jewish and the location of Zarephath made this widow a Gentile. 

Jews didn’t associate with Gentiles. Jews were the chosen people of God, Gentiles were ‘everyone else’.

But God told Elijah to go to this widow, this Gentile, this ‘heathen’, yet she was the one who displayed enough faith in Elijah’s God of Israel (verse 12) that the Lord God displayed His great faithfulness to her. (verse 14) She feared the God of Israel. She took the prophet at his word spoken on behalf of his God, and she trusted.

The Everyday Application

1) Where is Zarephath and why is this significant?

This seemingly random story of an arbitrary widow from Zarephath was deeply intentional by the Lord God. Here in the Old Testament, God was showing Elijah, and all Jews who would later read the recorded encounter or tell it as it was passed down generation to generation, that God was for the nations.

Jew and Gentile.
All peoples.

Yes, God used the Jews as His chosen people to setup history as the backdrop for the coming Messiah who would rescue and reconcile all who would come to Him, but His heart has always been for all. Surely, Elijah raised an eyebrow at minimum when God directed Him outside of Israel for sustenance.

To the Gentiles? Yes, to the Gentiles God sent His prophet, that the Name of the Lord God would continue to be declared to all people. I wonder, how often do we do the same with such careful intentions?

Do we invite the ‘comfortable Christian people’ over for dinner, or are we making space to bring God’s Name to all? How are we using our “pineapple moments” for His glory?

The Original Intent

2) Why would Elijah insist on the widow making some bread for himself first before herself and her son? (verse 13)

It feels self-focused and outlandish doesn’t it? “I see you and your son are about to die, so please make your last loaf of bread for me first.” If we don’t slow down, the request comes across cold-hearted and selfish. But that isn’t Elijah’s intent or God’s heart in the slightest.

The widow had heard of Elijah’s God, she knew He was powerful. (verse 12 “as the Lord your God lives”) It’s one thing to hear stories, but quite another to trust in the God of those stories when your life and the life of your son are at stake. Add to the fact this woman was Gentile and not Jewish.

According to religious culture, there was no reason for the God of Israel to bless a Gentile’s faith. Which is precisely why there is a line drawn in the sand by the Lord through the prophet’s words. Make the bread for Elijah first, and trust the God of Israel will provide for you and your son despite your logical calculations.

This is the challenge of faith. The widow had to choose, either trust herself and die or trust the word of the Lord and live.

The Everyday Application

2) Why would Elijah insist on the widow making some bread for himself first before herself and her son? (verse 13)

This “line in the sand” is exactly how it is for every single person living past, present, or future. At some point, we must each decide if we will trust ourselves and die or trust the word of the Lord and live. If we seek to save our soul by being good enough, doing more good than bad, going to church, giving money, praying hard, or even punishing ourselves, we are damned for eternity.

Our sin is too deep, too marring, too impossible to outweigh compared to the flawless righteousness required by a righteous God. If we trust ourselves to save ourselves, we are condemned to death.

But if we, just like the widow from Zarephath, see the line in the sand, and choose to take God at His word that He literally took our death on Himself, died in our place, and gave us His own perfect righteous standing before the Holy God Himself to us, WE LIVE! Through His death for us, we are made alive! But not by hearing this story, not by going to church, not by ‘knowing about God’, but through faith. 

Faith that says, “I believe You, God, are exactly who You say You are. And on that claim, I stake my life.” That’s exactly what the widow did, and it’s precisely what God is asking each of us.

The Original Intent

3) How is this widow’s faith important in the story of Scripture?

God used the faith of this widow to paint a vivid picture of true faith that is always welcomed by God. Centuries later when that widow and her son had long been buried and turned to dust, Jesus picked up her story in Luke 4:25-26 as He spoke to His own townspeople in Nazareth.

They were His own neighbors, Jews waiting expectantly for the Messiah, but like all the widows who lived in Israel in Elijah’s time, they didn’t believe Jesus at His word. They scoffed. This can’t be the Messiah, we saw Him grow up. This is Joseph’s boy, we’ve seen him run the streets his whole life. They were too familiar with Jesus to be able to accept Him at His word that He was the fulfillment of all the ancient prophecies which they had studied for so long.

In fact, Jesus’ claims of being God in the flesh, of being this promised Messiah come to rescue and set free and redeem, was so impossible to the Nazarites they became furious with Jesus. They literally mobbed Jesus, throwing Him out of the temple where He’d been teaching with every intention of throwing Him over the cliff to His death.

But Jesus, being exactly the God He claimed to be, walked right through the angry crowd, leaving Nazareth and His faithless neighbors behind. They had Messiah in their midst, but they wanted only to be rid of Him.

The Everyday Application

3) How is this widow’s faith important in the story of Scripture?

The widow’s story in 1 Kings, reiterated by Jesus in Luke, hits home for us in our churches, our neighborhoods, and cities. America is still known as the ‘Christian country’, the place where you’re ‘Christian’ simply because of birthplace, or because you ‘believe in God’. Let this widow’s story hit our hearts in the most tender places. Sisters, even the demons ‘believe in God’. (James 2:19)

Belief in God does not save. Birthplace or home address or family tree does not save any more for us than it did for the many Jewish widows who lived in Elijah’s time or the many Jews who lived in Nazareth. Only true faith, true heart trust in the faithfulness of God to be and do exactly as He says He will be and do.

Only this kind of faith saves. This is the faith of the widow from Zarephath. This is the faith of a true believer who will be rescued from the consequences of our sin, which is death and eternal separation from God. So we beg the question, “of what is our faith made of”?

Have we had ‘just enough’ Jesus to make us angry at Him when His call interferes with our want? Or do we take Him at His word that He is the Divine Rescuer, come to save, redeem, and make us new?!

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digging deeper,grace,Old Testament,open,salvation,widow
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What would have happened if the widow had declined her role in this story?

Hospitality may not always be convenient or comfortable, but, my dear sister, I pray that when you sense the nudge of the Lord to open your arms, your table, and your heart, you count the cost and obey with all you’ve got.

The Lord rewards such faith, and that is sweeter than any pineapple!
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The GT Weekend ~ Worship V 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) On Monday, Lesley reminded us of the precious, renewing sweetness of telling the story of Jesus while challenging us to keep on telling it. Sit and really settle into this passage from Romans 10, re-reading over and over slowly. Pray specifically, by name if possible, for those you’ve intentionally engaged with for the gospel recently. Ask the Spirit to bring to mind who He is already preparing for you to keep on sharing that wonderful story!

2)  What would it look like to celebrate the day you were made new in Jesus? What kind of song would you sing to your Savior in gratefulness and praise? Would such a celebration cause you to pause and reflect on all the ways the Lord has transformed you into the image of His Son as He gave you real life? Set aside a few minutes this weekend to consider that transformation. How are you new? What sins no longer have the same hold on you? What heart attitudes have shifted? Where have you become more bold for Him? To close out your time, prayerfully ponder where you can go deeper this year!

3) Brianna’s raw, transparent sharing in yesterday’s Journey Study hits on a reality we all wrestle with in some fashion. Do we allow our emotions to dictate our worship? It’s an incredible thing to be swept up in worship, hands held high, and victory washing over us because circumstances are pretty great. It’s quite another to raise a hallelujah when the storm rages fiercely on all sides. But this is the worship that truly matters. It’s what we actually believe about God in the good times that will dictate how we worship in the difficult moments and life feels oppressive. If you want a faith that absolutely will not be shaken when your world crashes, in you must dig in and know this God you claim to trust. Here’s the amazing news, no matter how long you’ve walked with God, there is always more to know about Him! How will you alter the course of your everyday to intentionally lean in to knowing Him better?

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 Ephesians 1:18-20 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead…

Prayer Journal
Oh Lord, keep me from settling in my view of You. Challenge me. Keep me from feeling I have just the right amount of You. Plunge me deeper. Whether storm or calm, use what You will to give me eyes to see you more clearly and a heart to know You in deeper ways.

Teach me to worship You for who You are, not who I see You as from my limited, human, often self-focused, perspective. I praise You for making me new, again and again, every single day from the moment You first rescued me from an eternity apart from You. Spirit, give me the courage to keep telling Your story of freedom!

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Sketched Day 9
Abram: Digging Deeper

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Sketched Day 9
Abram: Digging Deeper

Brie Brown

October 27, 2016

Believe,Excuses,Faith,Fear,Generous,God,Legacy,Made New,Meaning,Sketched,Transformation,Trust

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

This DD Connects With "Abram"
Why Dig Deeper?

Read His Words Before Ours!

Genesis 12:1-5

Now the Lord said to Abram,
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.
Read More Of His Words

The Original Intent

1) What was the country Abram left? Where was the land of Canaan?

If you look back just two verses to 11:31, we see that Abram, with his father Terah, had settled in the city of Haran. Haran was in northern Mesopotamia (modern-day Turkey).

Verse 5 says they were going to the land of Caanan, which is on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea (modern-day Lebanon, Israel, and parts of Jordan and Syria).

The distance from one land to the other was great without modern-day transportation, we can assume that Abram’s move was to be permanent.

The Everyday Application

1) What was the country Abram left? Where was the land of Canaan?

God called Abram out of the land he was in, promising to make him a great nation. It took faith for Abram to leave his land and his family, which were usually the means that a person found blessing.

God’s call on Abram required faith, and Abram responded in faith. Praise God for this huge example of faith! Our modern day “land” we are in can look like many comfortable things like our neighborhood, a job, or even our churches.

What we often miss is that God hasn’t called us to be comfortable, but to follow Him wherever He’s calling. Has He been whispering to you to step out of your “homeland”?

The Original Intent

2) What was the purpose to God making Abram a great nation?

In verse 2, God says that he will bless Abram so that “he will be a blessing.” There was a divine purpose behind God choosing Abram—it was not simply for Abram’s own benefit.

God had chosen Abram to be a blessing from God, not just for Abram to use his “blessing” on himself.

The Everyday Application

2) What was the purpose to God making Abram a great nation?

God’s promise to Abram had the purpose of blessing others. Am I using the blessing of Christ in order to bless others? Or am I keeping it to myself?

Living with open-handed generosity is something that God Himself set the precedence for and calls us to live likewise. It’s not about one area of life, but everything. 

Our time, our talent, and our treasure. How has God blessed you and in what ways is He calling you to live generously?

The Original Intent

3) How would all the families of the earth be blessed through Abram?

God goes on to promise in verse 3 that all the families of the earth would be blessed through Abram. This is the beginning of God’s story of redemption that the whole Bible tells.

Check out Galatians 3:8, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’”

God justified the Gentiles (who, not being Jewish, were not Abram’s physical offspring) through faith, and this was the fulfillment of the blessing promised to Abram.

Who is the object of this faith? Jesus Christ, the descendant of Abram who brought redemption to all nations on earth.

The Everyday Application

3) How would all the families of the earth be blessed through Abram?

Lord, I praise you for the big story of the Bible, for the plan you had to redeem your people from sin and for how you sent your Son to pay for our sins.

I praise you for having it all figured out from the beginning, and for continuing to work out Your story in my life!

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comfortable,generous,made new,open,purpose,redemption,transformed
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