Thursday, July 15, 2010

Treasures

Do you ever do the homework for a Bible Study/Sunday School Lesson/meeting and forget what you studied when the time actually came to meet?  Last year I gave up trying to go over my Sunday School lesson ahead of time because I always forgot what I had read.  So I was super worried about the fact that I got my homework done ahead of time for the No Other Gods study.  Tuesday and Wednesday I retook my notes and read over the discussion questions and scanned the chapter on idols from the Peace Making Women book to make sure I was prepared. I also took the PMW book with me as a reference and I was so glad I did.  It really brought some great discussion to identify our idols, specifically
  • I would be completely content or happy in my life if only.....
  • I just want to avoid....
  • Don't ask me to give up my...
One friend said that it seemed everything either was or could be an idol.  If you were bent on legalism I'm sure this could get out of control but it reminded me something I had read in the PMW book:

"As Christians we fully realize that even as God's grace enables us to knock one idol over and banish it from the altar of our hearts, another idol is waiting to take its place. That is why we must pray by faith each day to be continually turning away from the idols and to the Lord.  We pray that he will change our very desires so that we desire, crafe long for--worship--God alone."
from Peace Making Women by Tara Klena Barthel & Judy Dabler
2 Cor 1:9 This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

 Most of this weeks study either mirrored or echoed what I was learning in A Women's Heart and for that matter have been learning since Josh and I taught the kindergarten SS 7 years ago...the grumbling of the Isrealites, God's pursuit of us in-spite of it, His display of wonder after wonder and our continued unbelief, redemption, salvation....
Deuteronomy 7:6
The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the people on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

2 comments:

Gloria said...

Yup that happens to me too. I do my homework, get so much out of it. Then the discussion comes up and I have to look back at the book as if I have never even seen the material before. I think it has gotten worse as I have gotten older because I'm sure that in my 20's it wasn't an issue.

I love when you are doing a study and the various other resources in your life all match up for the same message.

Denise said...

hmmm, thank you for this post, and for the heads up to be mindful of another idol waiting to take the place of the idol (church) that is currently being destroyed.

seems God knows what he is talking about with the first commandment, "you shall have no other God's before me." he knew it would be a struggle.

chosen me (doesn't amount to anything me)to be his treasured possession. i needed to know that.

thank you for your encouragement.