by Elizabeth | Dec 1, 2011 | Learning Story
This is from this week’s Colossians Bible study, which you can find on the Living Story Facebook page in Notes.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
What Paul is saying here often confuses modern readers because when we see “if,” we think “condition” – that is, “If I clean my room, my mom will give me allowance/be pleased with me…”
In this sentence, though, the Greek verb is in the “indicative” mood, which means that it is a statement of assurance. As the ESV Bible says, ‘Paul fully expects that the Colossians believers will continue in the faith; no doubt is expressed.”
Why is this good news? Because, contrary to what many people have been led to believe, the gospel is NOT UP TO US. Jesus died and reconciled us to God. That’s been done. Now we will assuredly grow in our faith. Listen to what Pastor Tullian Tchivdjian says:
“Paul…is actually assuring believers that because they’ve been reconciled through Christ’s work on their behalf, they’ll indeed continue in the faith, stable and steadfast. Spiritual steadfastness and stability will become a growing experience in their life. Paul isn’t saying that our performance leads to our rescue; he’s saying that genuine rescue leads to our performance. Our improvement comes from God’s approval; God’s approval doesn’t come from our improvement.
by Elizabeth | Nov 28, 2011 | Learning Story
I’ve blogged on it before — I’m really excited about the new Sarah Sisterhood “more-than-a-Bible-study” I’ll be leading at First Baptist Church Pensacola starting January 12. I’ve been writing the first chapter on the disastrous sisterhood of Sarah and Hagar and thought I’d share this part of the introduction with you to whet your appetite…
She was known as the wife of a strange man who had been blessed by God. Years ago, the story went, God told her husband, “I will make you a great nation.” And then later, he said, “You shall have a son.” They had left home and country as God commanded, always on the lookout for the promise, always expecting Sarah’s barrenness to be interrupted by a season of fruitfulness.
Sarah herself was really pretty weary of it all. The promise, the promise. “We just have to trust God,” Abraham told her (Where was that trust when he risked her life by telling Pharaoh she was his sister?). But that wasn’t what pained her most. It was just so obvious to everyone, except apparently God, that her body would not conceive a child. Not now, not ever.
The plan seemed logical enough. Lots of people did it. She trusted Hagar. Hagar had been with her for many of the years of their wandering. She knew Hagar. Why not give her maidservant to her husband to bring forth the promised child? The simple plan born out of Sarah’s impatience turns quickly into one of the more appalling stories of sisterhood the Bible recounts. Control, manipulation, pride, contempt, and abuse choke the womens’ relationship. If anything, this story may seem to offer justification for giving up on sisterhood altogether.
But we must look closely. Indeed, in the account, there are slender reasons for hope. And then, as we trace the lineage of the promise through to the Son born to save us from our self-sabotage, we learn the good news that deconstructs all of the bad news about women’s relationships. True, it’s hard to understand…but our hope comes in Christ the Son of God, who surrenders his power in order to become the savior of the proud, controlling, and manipulative. It is in gospel-cultivated humility that we find hope for true sisterhood. Read about Christ’s humility in Phil. 2:1-18, and reflect on this question… How could humbling yourself change a current problematic relationship?
by Elizabeth | Nov 23, 2011 | Learning Story
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10
It is a little strange and slightly awkward to me, but many people are awaiting our Thanksgiving documentary. I don’t even remember exactly how it began. Our youngest, the fourth child, highly creative, had learned to shoot and edit video. Somehow he and his sister-friends decided to create a highly irreverent docudrama of our day. They assigned roles and scripts, and for some reason, we all played along. It is a less than flattering story about our family, and when I watch it, I want to scream, “This is all made up!”
It is, in fact, part invention, part reality. And I am thankful for what it reveals. We are not anywhere close to the perfect family. My heart swells with gratitude to have three of our four children home, but I miss our daughter who is continents away in India. I love my husband’s grilled turkey, but I am weary of him having call on major holidays, and I wonder what will happen if some kid breaks his arm skateboarding at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning? I long for shalom, but the Thanksgiving documentary is our feast of hope – we are broken, but by the grace of God, we are restored. If the script were the only reality, I doubt we’d be recording it. So what I am most grateful for today and this week is the undeserved grace of God played out in our lives.
Wanta watch? Here’s the link to last year’s…you can also find the first one at this channel.
by Elizabeth | Nov 21, 2011 | Learning Story
Yes, it’s the week of Thanksgiving, and no, it’s not too early to be thinking about Christmas shopping (THINKING,not actually doing it!). Many years ago, I began a tradition of giving our children a book on Christmas Eve – one thing they could unwrap that I felt held some lasting value (yes, that’s what you get when you have a former English teacher for a mom!). This tradition has continued, and sometimes it sends me scrambling on Christmas Eve to find that right book for four now-young-adults. But this year (spoiler alert for my family – but few of them read this blog☺) – I have the perfect book for all of them…Everyday Prayers by Scotty Smith. Here are four reasons this is the perfect Christmas present for lots of people on your list:
1—Prayer. Obviously. We all need help with prayer, and Scotty shows us how to pray Scripture in supplication, thanksgiving, confession, and adoration, (yes, that was ACTS spelled backwards for you 80’s Christians☺!). Praying these prayers helps us pray everyday prayers all day long.
2 – Scripture. Every prayer begins with and is based on a Bible verse. In the prayer, the Scripture unfolds and not only do we pray, but we come away with a deeper understanding and desire for the living, breathing Word of God.
3—Real Life. The real life situations Scotty integrates into the prayers never fail to nail me at some point. People often say, “Man, did you read Scotty’s prayer today? I thought it was written just for me!”
4 – The Real Deal. The book is a steal at 10.87 for 365 prayers! But the “real deal” is Pastor Scotty Smith, as anyone knows who knows him personally or has followed him through social media. Scotty’s core belief permeates his everyday prayers and his everyday life. He is vulnerable and authentic because the gospel has freed him to be so. He invites us to live in the freedom Jesus has bought for us, and that is the real deal!
by Elizabeth | Nov 17, 2011 | Learning Story
Booklet for Sarah Sisterhood
I don’t. Have a biological sister, that is. And I’ve always been a little suspicious of the idea of Christian sisterhood. I’ve been gossip-burned and back-bitten enough times by women to make me question whether “true sisterhood” is really possible. Then again, I’ve been the chief sinner in spurning sisterhood, whether through my independence (“I don’t need anyone else”), elitism (“I don’t do crafts”), or my own tongue run amuck (“I can’t believe she called that ball ‘out’!”).
So what’s a nice girl like me doing writing a study of Gospel-Centered Sisterhood? The same thing every person who’s had their dragon skin peeled off by Aslan is doing when they recognize their need for the very thing that they most avoided. I’m way too old for isolation. I need friends who remind me that I’m wonderfully created, compulsively sinful, and marvelously redeemed. I have tasted sweet sisterhood, healthy relationships based on one shared core commitment — the belief that Christ has made us new. We want to live this radical lifestyle of a female disciple, and that means leaving the safe and familiar world of friends who comfort us in our habitual tendency to head down the path of least resistance. We want to be women who mature in Christ and come around younger sisters to water and nurture them.
Okay, I got carried away. I was going to tell you the outline I wrote this morning (after a year of thinking about this topic), but you’ll have to wait till tomorrow for that. Meanwhile, I’d love to hear from you — what do you think of when you think of true sisterhood?
by Elizabeth | Nov 15, 2011 | Learning Story
With two children very involved in Auburn University, I could not resist grabbing the biography of the coach, Gene Chizik, when I saw it ripe for the picking at the library last week. Last night I read something I was so excited to share I could hardly wait until I got to write this blog:
“I believed it would benefit us as a coaching staff to learn more about our players. It’s said that everyone has a story, but too often we don’t know the stories of the people closest to us. I wanted to be intentional about setting aside time for us to sit down and listen and really get to know each other.
“It’s amazing what we learn when players share their stories. You might think that these big, tough guys would stand up and not really want to say much about their personal lives. But I’m telling you, once most of them start talking, you can’t stop them. It’s as though they have just been waiting for someone to ask what they have to say.
“Gradually everyone on our team developed a good sense of what everyone else was dealing with, and they started taking a personal interest in each other’s lives. We didn’t create this type of environment to win football games. We did it because God placed within each of us the deep need for relationships. But I will tell you that …players and coaches will do far more on a practice field and a game field for people who care about them and are investing in them than they will for teammates and coaches they barely know.”
1. One of the greatest gifts we can give people is to listen to their story. Whose story will you ask about today? How will you be intentional about setting aside time to listen to others?
2. Chizik says that storytelling was an important part of team-building. I might call that community. How do you think storytelling helps to build a team? Have you ever tried it in your community? (If you need ideas, just contact me – I’ve got about a zillion!)
