I am so thankful to God for all he has been teaching me and reminding me of lately from his word. Friday's ladies Bible study was on the topic of our tongues. Wow! It pulled no punches. We are studying God's Priorities for Today's Woman by Lisa Hughes. This topic concentrated on not just our tongue and speech but out thought life as well. Because the words we say come from the overflow of our heart.
"The key to learning how to control our tongues is to spend less time in the flesh and more time walking in the Spirit." "So often we want to justify words we spoke carelessly or wrongly, and we end up living in denial about our sin." pg. 81 "Can you have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, bitterness, and goodness and still be walking in the Spirit?" pg 82
My prayer is that God would help me guard my mouth and my words, which I cannot do on my own, and that he would fill my thoughts with good, godly things so that I can live my life thinking the best things about God, about people and about my circumstances. Psalm 19:14 "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer."
The second thing is our new Sunday School material. We are studying How People Change
using the DVD at church and then I bought the book and the workbook How People Change Study Guide: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace. Wow! This study is going to be life changing. I plan to really dig in and do the work and gain all I can from this study. I got my book late and so I am behind. That will not stop me. This week I read the chapter on The Heat pt. 2. This morning that was the topic of our DVD. This week I read chapter 8. I could just about quote the whole thing but that would not be ethical. So I will strive to pick just a few phrases that really hit me...
using the DVD at church and then I bought the book and the workbook How People Change Study Guide: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace. Wow! This study is going to be life changing. I plan to really dig in and do the work and gain all I can from this study. I got my book late and so I am behind. That will not stop me. This week I read the chapter on The Heat pt. 2. This morning that was the topic of our DVD. This week I read chapter 8. I could just about quote the whole thing but that would not be ethical. So I will strive to pick just a few phrases that really hit me..."The Bible... always finds the person in the middle of the situation and focuses on what the person does." pg 110
"...our hardship has been made harder by our response to it." pg 112
"The Bible... confronts the self-righteousness and spiritual blindness that make us think that our greatest problems are outside us, not inside... our circumstances don't cause us to act as we do. They only expose the true condition of our hearts, revealed in our words and actions." pg. 113
"When you are in the middle of the Heat, you haven't somehow gotten yourself outside the circle of God's love and care. God is simply taking you where you do not want to go to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own." pg 115-116What do you think of that? Some of the things I have read in the last week I already knew but needed a reminder. Some are similar to other things I have learned but are put in a different way and some things are just plain new.
I am also thankful to God for the Ladies Bible Study and for our Pastors, Elders and Deacons who search for material that will continue to challenge, build up, and mature the body of Christ at our church.
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Following from Abundantly Blessed. It is the cry of my heart to guard my tongue and meditate on what is true and noble. I often say something negative or harsh and think, "Where did THAT come from??" I will look for this book! Ammy
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to control our tongues but if our heart is right & our thoughts are pure it is a lot easier.
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