resources. august 2015 bible study.

Transcription

1 resources. august 2015 bible study.

2 Introduction The new two-year theme for Canadian Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec is based on 1 Corinthians 15:58, which says, Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. This study focuses on the phrase in bold letters. READ Luke 10:27 What does it mean to love the Lord your God with all...? Why is one s heart, soul, strength and mind specifically mentioned? READ the following verses. What do they tell you about the way that God loves you? Romans 8:32 Romans 5:8 John 3:16 1 John 4:9 2 Corinthians 9:15 All Scripture references are from the New International Version. 2

3 Give All Your Heart Do you ever look at passionate people, those who love or give of themselves without reservation and are willing to take risks, and think, I can t love like that. It s too risky. I may be asked to do something uncomfortable. I may get hurt. What is the end result of thinking this way? God designed and created us to love Him and others. When we don t take the risk to love as God designed us to, we often experience regret and emptiness. In The Artisan Soul, Erwin McManus writes: We cannot love deeply or risk greatly and never know failure or disappointment. Not even God was able to pull that one off. Love never comes without wounds; faith never comes without failure. Consider Job. When God took everything from him, how did Job s attitude toward God change? When his friends and family taunted him, what happened to Job s faith? Are you ever tempted to withhold your worship, your life, your time or your love from God when He doesn t bring you effortless success? It is important to remember that loving God with all your hearts in other words, worshipping Him is not something God asks you to do because of some egotistical need on His part to reinforce His status. No, you are called to worship so that you can experience intimacy with your Creator, with the Lover of your soul. There are at least 24 references in the NIV that use the phrase with all your heart. READ these three references. Reflect on them today. Colossians 3:23-24 Deuteronomy 11: Samuel 12:24 3

4 Give All Your Soul Our workplace is an arena where we train to transform our daily chores into spiritual causes, writes Bradley Nassif (Boring Work: Good for the Soul, Christianity Today, April 2015). What shapes our soul is the work we do, not because the type of activity we do defines us, but because of what the process of doing it helps us become. A powerful way to see purpose in our daily lives is to understand that our daily tasks are given to us by God in order to achieve Christ-likeness. Not because we can be saved through our actions, but because through them God can shape us. Nassif continues: Washing dishes, cleaning house and making meals are the hands of God that fashion a bouquet of godly virtues in the heart of a homemaker. Christ s life was also ordinary. So how much do the Gospels tell us of Jesus life before He entered ministry at about age 30? READ Mark 6:3 and Luke 4:16. What clues do these verses give us? How do you think the people around Him reacted when He finally revealed a different side of Himself? When God the Son embraced our humanity, he didn t just become a human. He took on our broken humanity and everything it entails, even the ordinary and mundane aspects of human life. He embraced work, family life, learning, growing, and monotony. Jesus lived an ordinary life for most of his years, and in so doing affirmed its goodness... Still, many of us feel we would be more pleasing to God if our lives were extraordinary, if we were involved in some spectacular ministry, whatever that means. (Kevin P. Emmert, You Need a More Ordinary Jesus, Christianity Today, October 2014) READ 1 Thessalonians 4: What kind of life does Paul encourage us to aspire to? How does this compare to the type of life society encourages us to strive for? Our faith is indeed radical when compared to the world around us, but radical is not synonymous with extraordinary. 4

5 Give All Your Strength C.S. Lewis said: You don t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. While our soul is the most important part of us, the reality is that, as long as we re alive here on earth, we have a body that constantly wages war against our spirit. We can t ignore it. And we can t exclude it in our devotion to and worship of God. READ 1 John 3:18 What does this verse tell us about how we give of ourselves fully to the work of the Lord in a physical sense? What are some examples of serving with our hands and feet in a practical way? Greg Simas, a pastor and writer in San Francisco writes: To love the Lord with all our strength means to love him exceedingly, richly, lavishly, with reckless abandon out of simple devotion. In more practical terms, it means we are to love Him 110%. To go all-out. To give it your best shot... To love Him with all our might. Loving Him with all our strength is to love with our resources, our abilities and our time. To fully love Him with what we find our hands to do, our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our feet to go and our mouths to speak. (How to Love God with All Your Strength, GregSimas.org) For each of the five body parts Simas mentions, think of examples of loving and serving God. Hands Eyes Ears Feet Mouth 5

6 It is possible that at this point in your life you are not in optimal strength or don t have much energy? If that is the case, how might you be tempted to let yourself off the hook in terms of serving God with all your strength? How can you avoid that trap? There are two things to consider: (a) how you expend the strength and energy you have (i.e. does God get the best of it or the leftovers?) and (b) how you treat your body, the vessel that contains your strength and energy. READ Romans 12:1 Does what you do with your body glorify God? Consider what you eat and drink, how much exercise you get, how much sleep you get, your sexual activities. How would your lifestyle change if you loved God instead of yourself with all your strength? 6

7 Give All Your Mind How do you view yourself as a Christian? What should be present in your mind? READ the following verses: Remember who owns you. What do these verses tell you about how you should view your relationship with God? 1 Peter 1: Peter 2:9 Acts 20:28 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Renew your oaths of obedience. What do these verses suggest about the result of our salvation? 1 Peter 1:1-3 John 14:15 Remain faithful to biblical convictions. What do these verses tell us regarding the role of God s Word in our lives? 1 Peter 1:13 1 Peter 2:1 1 Corinthians 16:13 Deuteronomy 31:6 2 Samuel 10:12 7

8 1 Kings 2:2 1 Chronicles 22:11 Joshua 1:6 Recognize all sin as a violation of a relationship. READ 1 Peter 1:14. Who is God in relation to you? In Psalms 51, David came to his mind and realized he had sinned against God. If time allows, read through this psalm. READ 1 Thessalonians 3:10-12 How does your perspective change when you see your sin as a fault against God? Loving God with all your mind means backing up your passion with knowledge. Begin by asking questions. God welcomes genuine curiosity and dialogue. Then seek His answers. Read the Bible and find out what the words mean. Listen to the experiences of others. Take a class. Ask God for guidance. Make an effort to find out who He is. Discover what He likes and dislikes. Reflect on what Philippians 4:8 says about loving God with your mind. 8

9 Give All Unconditionally Giving our all must be done unconditionally... not with the expectation that our obedience guarantees that God will give us everything we want. Here are two insightful perspectives: Life is hard; not every longing you have on earth will be fulfilled... It is quite dangerous to place your trust in things you falsely assume God has promised. Jesus said that He came that you might have life and have it abundantly. His promises are great and He is trustworthy in fulfilling each one. But His ways are not our ways, and He has not promised some of the things you may have assumed or hoped He has... We believe that if we have obeyed, He owes us our heart s desire. (Juli Slattery, Pulling Back the Shades) God wants to strip us of our illusions. God wants to deprive us of anything that is meaningless or counterfeit. He wants us to experience isolation when we need it, to be pushed to the point of discovering that we can t fulfill ourselves, to face the reality that life in this world will never be fully fulfilling: Emptiness and disappointment are chronic realities. We naturally (and wrongly) kick and scream when we are forced to face this reality. (Harry Schaumburg, Repentance for Sexual Addiction, PureIntimacy.org) Over the next couple of days, take time to identify specific things you are going to do to give it your all unconditionally with your heart, soul, strength and mind. Study prepared by Ann-Margret Hovsepian (with Fernanda Lafrance) Temple Baptist Church, Montreal 9