Months ago I had typed this out and promptly forgot to post it. J  That’s me for sure lol.  Our pastor preached on this chapter Resurrection Sunday and it reminded me I still had this and then 2 of my sweet sisters mentioned my sporadic blogging and reminded me again tonight.  All this has reminded me that I’m grateful for God showing me His love over and over during every day because obviously, I’m a “forgetter”.  Praying that anyone that reads this is encouraged.  Happy resurrection of our Savior every day!

On the Road to Emmaus

Luke 24:13-35

A couple sisters and I have been getting together diligently working through a discipleship book called Multiply by Francis Chan & David Platt.  It is an absolutely amazing tool to use with new and mature Christians.  God has used it greatly in our time together of fellowship to guide us in learning to study God’s word and God’s word has been ever so faithful to reveal parts of our hearts to us that we didn’t know were there or were too scared to see. 

My affections are so often set only on my own desires and dreams for right now.  I start to live as if there is no goal past the present and I do it knowing full well that “That Day” is coming.  The day I will stand before my Father facing eternity and give account of what I have and haven’t done with the knowledge, time, purpose, and people He has given me.  I start to live as if my days are my own knowing full well that my Jesus paid the highest price for the days I waste in laziness or with a bad attitude.

This week as I read and prepared for getting together with the girls (I ended up staying home having a sick day) I was reading Luke 24 and the verses 13-35 gripped my heart like never before.  I found myself completely identifying with Cleopas and his companion as they met Jesus. 

Here they were walking with the Son of God and they didn’t know it.  How often I live my day as if Jesus isn’t right there with me?  They were conversing with Him about Him and they didn’t know it.  How often do I read the word and fail to see Him in it, to know Him better?  They were questioning everything Jesus went through because it wasn’t what they expected.  Jesus was so compassionate of them that He walked them all through the scriptures from Moses on all the way through the prophets to show them that everything that happened was ordained by God and necessary for God’s glory and their good in verses 25-27.  Can you imagine!?  God resurrected, in flesh, walking you through the scriptures about the beginning of time, man’s corruption, God’s covenant, His birth, death and resurrection and the hope that comes from it!?

It was after they were reminded of the scriptures in their entirety (the Old Testament and the New Testament make ONE story of God’s redemption) that they sat down to eat with Jesus, to share in an everyday need that God opened their eyes to see Him and KNOW Him, verse 31.  Though He vanished from their sight, verse 32 made my heart jump and rejoice, “They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the scriptures?’” 

I struggle so much with getting up to pray.  Reading God’s word is a task that is much easier to accomplish, I can check it off my list and carry on with my day and even feel good about having done it.  Our time in working through this book has helped to see how bad this attitude toward God’s word is.  Here I have God’s living breath before me and I would treat it as if it was any old book that I could pick up or put down at my leisure.  Picking up it with the reverence its worthy of, remembering what it is has helped me to begin to learn to truly love it, to seek the treasure of God’s heart in it and to see His complete faithfulness throughout it all.  It is teaching me to converse with my Father in the quiet in the morning and all throughout my day (Luke 24:45).  It’s growing my faith!  When I stumble, when I fall (all day long), I know He is with me!  Its so beautiful what God’s word does and it leaves me humbled as I walk on this road with Him. 

Reading the scriptures, seeing Him and then seeking Him in prayer, simple & honest prayer, God is faithful to open our eyes.  In scripture we learn more and in prayer, in fellowship with Him through the day, at waking, at play, at chores, at everything God opens our eyes to KNOW Him, to be in relationship with Him that is real. 

Let me encourage you to be faithful in this, to read His word, to pray, and to seek fellowship in enjoying and discussing His word accurately with other sisters in Christ.  Be faithful to meet to be discipled and also to disciple others.  This is the work we are called to do, we can only do it well as we seek to KNOW Him and we know Him through His living word.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20 ESV

Seeking Wisdom

A year ago a few of us ladies from church decided to read a book together and have a sort of book club about it.  We did this so that we could encourage each other in further seeking to grow as wives and learn how to better disciple our children's hearts.  Three books later the group has since grown to 9 ladies from our church learning to grow in joy in the place the Lord is calling us to rise up and embrace our calling first to our family and ministries in the church.  Some of us home school, some of us plan to, some of our kids go to public school, some of us stay home, some of us work part/full time.  The love of Jesus is what binds our hearts with the same desire to serve our husbands well and encourage our children to love the Lord their God above anything else.  Its a beautiful thing, women who God has drawn together from different places of the country(ies), from all different backgrounds, who are all true sisters in the faith and just want to seek God and glorify him in obedience allowing truth to reveal to us where we are at times falling short and being encouraged by one another and held accountable.  Applying Titus 2:3-5. This is friendship.

This month we are going to begin a book entitled A Woman's Wisdom by Lydia Brownback.  We usually meet the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month and we read one chapter per week and our husbands, very sweetly, are committed to be done with work and to keep schedules clear so that they can give us the evening off.  I would encourage if you are part of a church family and you desire to grow closer to some of the women there to seek them out and set a challenge like this for yourselves.  I have always loved to read novels so beginning to read these kinds of books was a bit difficult for me and it is wonderful to know that the other ladies are reading with me and also encouraging each other to apply what we are learning. 

I will be posting about the book that we are beginning here and what I'm learning through it, if any of you ladies want to go through the book with me I would be happy to set up a discussion chat also if there is any interest.  Comment below and let me know and please leave an e-mail where I can contact you to give you further info.  You would need to order the book or get the kindle version, just personal preference :) 

If you have read this blog at all then you know that for a long while now the Proverbs 31 woman has been on my heart as a challenge to grow and excel in the calling God has before me.  I desire wisdom and the bible says in James 5:1 "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him."  I'm trusting God's faithfulness that He will continue the work He started with redemption until the return of Jesus Christ in my life.  May it all rest at His feet and may He renew us daily to love our hubbies and babies.