I'm In - Hebrews Online Study

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I'm finding that all my mental creativity is getting poured out at work; trying to figure out ways to make the new software do what we need it to do while I simultaneously teach the procedures to folks who also need to know how to use it.

I really, really enjoy work like this; I just wish I had time to work through the processes before I had to go live with them.  Fortunately I figured out a way to give myself mulligans...i.e, that didn't work, so label it a false start and try again.

But, what all that means is that the blog is languishing for lack of creative energy.  The Siesta Scripture Memory Team has given me some blog material when I haven't had time to develop my own thoughts, and I've been working on memorizing the verses, even if I don't make it to the conference event.

Then, today I found another source for discussion.  I did all seven years of Bible Study Fellowship some time ago (there may be more than 7 now; I've heard rumors of new studies), and for six of those seven years my teaching leader was Suzanne Matthews.  Suzanne has a real desire to dig deep and a real gift of communication.

Not too long ago, I discovered Suzanne's Blog (Coffee, Tea & Thee, on the sidebar).  Now she has announced that she's going to do an online study of the book of Hebrews, and I decided to join in.

She put up the first post in the study today, listing six reasons to study Hebrews, then asked her readers 1) which of those six reasons tugs at the heart and 2) why would each individual personally need to study Hebrews.

And she assigned us to read Chapter 1.

So, true to the 'I really need to post something now and again' mode in which I seem to be operating for at least a little while more, I'm going to participate.  And you, my faithful friends and family (Hi, Mom and Aunt Linda!)  are invited to come along.  You can click through and leave comments on Suzanne's blog, or, if you've got your own bloggy space, write it up over there and leave a link.

Anyway, that's a lot of introduction.  I first decided to use my ESV edition, since I wanted to get the fresh perspective of unfamiliar wording, but I could. NOT. find. it.  And I had it just a couple of days ago; I've no clue where I put it.  Not in any of the usual places.

I sighed and pulled out the NIV.  But, since this Bible is less than a year old, it's not marked up yet.  So I will have a bit of a new perspective after all...

So.  Question One.

Of the six reasons Suzanne listed, the one that stood out the most to me was reason number 5:

5. It was written because Jesus is the answer to every. human. need. Hebrews is the clearest and most systematic presentation in the entire Bible of the Lord Jesus Christ. - See more at: http://ctandthee.com/blog/#sthash.cKikTVLr.dpuf

 It was written because Jesus is the answer to every. human. need.  Hebrews is clearest  and most systematic presentation in the entire Bible of  the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews has always intrigued me because the author so plainly links Jesus to the Old Testament.  Which would be necessary, of course, if he (she? ;-) ) were writing to a predominately Jewish audience.  So I will enjoy exploring that.

But I need to study Hebrews (Question 2) because I need to be reminded of everything Christ is, and therefore who I am in Christ.  The year the BSF class did  'Acts of the Apostles' (which included a look at a number of the epistles those apostles wrote, including Hebrews), my 'Wow!' revelation for the year came from Hebrews.

I'm sure I'll mention it when we get there. ;-)

Chapter one is an amazing logical argument for the superiority of Christ, based on Old Testament scripture.

It has really only been fairly recently that it struck me that every  OT verse cited in the NT was written from memory.   The only copies of those priceless scriptures were in the synagogues, not in the libraries of the common folks.  Not counting the ESV that I seem to have mislaid, I could grab about 6 different translations from various bookshelves about the house.  If I want to quote a verse, I can pull out the book itself and look it up by chapter and verse.

The NT authors had nothing more than their memory.  Which makes me want to work a little harder on those SSMT verses...

5. It was written because Jesus is the answer to every. human. need. Hebrews is the clearest and most systematic presentation in the entire Bible of the Lord Jesus Christ. - See more at: http://ctandthee.com/blog/#sthash.cKikTVLr.dpuf

5. It was written because Jesus is the answer to every. human. need. Hebrews is the clearest and most systematic presentation in the entire Bible of the Lord Jesus Christ. - See more at: http://ctandthee.com/blog/#sthash.cKikTVLr.dpuf

SSMT Week 16: Acts 3:19

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Wow.  Sundays are hard days to do blog posts.

So much going on...

This weekend was the annual women's conference.  I don't know that I have ever been in quite such a drained out, dried up place spiritually when the conference began.

But I expected something to change, something to give, something to break free.

And...maybe, just maybe, it did.

I know I feel like I have lain in a good gentle soaking rain.   The angst, the tension, the emotional knots are gone.

And I realized that the issues I carried into the conference...the things I wanted answers for...were all a matter of personal discipline and follow through.  When everything sifted down, it once more showed that my prayer life is simply not what it should be.

I mean, head smacking 'D'uh!  Again!  I have been here before!  Why can't I get this lesson through my head???'

So I have chosen for this week's verse one of the verses quoted in the conference:

Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord - Acts 3:19, NIV 84

So I repent of self-sufficiency, of thinking I can do it in my own strength and ability, of being too busy to pray, of attempting to do ministry without sufficient prayer, and of just being a doofus in general.

It is time for me to really put prayer to work.

 

SSMT - Verse 17: Col. 2:8

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I keep having problems remembering to make a note of verses that I find between 'post days' for consideration as the next choice.

However, sometime in the past two weeks I did remember to scribble a reference on the back of my spiral notecard book.

When I looked it up, I realized it was perfect, as we have been talking much about the deception that is so prevalent in our society today in both the classes I teach at church.

Col. 2:8, NIV 84:

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.


It's an interesting follow-on to Verse 16,  and the thoughts I had about people being deceived by leaders they trusted.  This verse puts the responsibility to avoid deception squarely with each individual. Oh, those false teachers will face the consequences of falsely representing God,  but ultimately each person is responsible to make sure that what they are accepting is really truly based on God's truth and not on some human-based notion.

That pretty well shoots any excuses right outta the water, doesn't it?  See to it... 

A Sunshower Kind of Day

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Laha Roi

Pouring rain and bright sunshine.

Appropriate for the return home from dropping The Actor off at his new home for the next 9 months.

When the older kids went to the church internship apartments, they were still in town.  Still working at church.

But this is a slightly different internship.  He'll be actually out of town, going to one of the other campuses for church.  And he's in a...different...sort of environment.  This is not the church program, but an internship with a prophetic evangelist friend.  The intern guys stay in what are pretty much bunk rooms at the ministry center.  Even if nothing else transforming takes place, learning to live in that kind of a space is going to have an impact.

Now, he's 20 years old and he's had two years at the internship at church, riding back and forth with me, so it's not like he's fresh out of high school.  And I know in my heart that this is the right next step for him.  And I know it's just for nine months, and then he'll be back for at least a season.

But tonight...after all is said and done, there are three of us in the house that less than two years ago held six. Suddenly that seems like a very abrupt change.  And I'm wanting to stop, to slow down, to hold everyone for just a wee bit longer.

So I'm indulging my maudlin mom emotions for just tonight, even while I'm very proud of the folks these kids of ours are turning out to be.

The sunshower was the perfect allegory...

Ya Can't Fill what's Already Full

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Thursday was just one of those days...

I have to take The Flute Player to school on Thursdays, so I usually just go on to work.  First order of the day is always making coffee; the coffee maker is across the hall in another office.

We got a new coffee maker last week; I'd only made coffee in it once before but it really wasn't too difficult.  It has a smaller capacity than the old one, so it doesn't require as much coffee in it, and it has a reservoir to fill instead of pouring a potful of water into the machine, but other than that...making coffee is making coffee.

I came in, pulled the reservoir out and filled it up, dumped the coffee grounds and added fresh,  punched 'Brew Now' and headed back to my office to wait for it to be ready.

Did anyone catch the crucial step that I omitted in my prep?

I didn't realize it till I walked back to the office and saw coffee pouring down the side of the small refrigerator that the coffee maker sits upon.

I'd forgotten to dump yesterday's leftover coffee from the insulated carafe. From the looks of the puddle on the floor, it must've been nearly full.

Because I filled a reservoir instead of using the pot to measure the water, I totally did not think about checking to see if there was any coffee in the pot.

So, yeah, we spent a bit of time cleaning up the mess, and I won't make that mistake again, but after I came home I began to wonder...could there possibly some kind of spiritual application (i.e., can I redeem my stupidity by getting a blog post out of it?)

Answer:  Of course.  There's a spiritual application to about anything, if you're willing to just think about it a moment or two.

Maybe even more than one. ;-)

So...here's what I saw illustrated by my coffee mess:

- You can't fill something that's already full.  Yesterday's coffee...or yesterday's dreams, yesterday's visions, yesterday's successes can block the inflow of fresh coffee...or new dreams, visions or goals to achieve.

-Old methods don't always translate to new levels.  Sometimes you just gotta stop and think about where you are before you run and do what you always did.

- Something hidden and overlooked WILL make itself known eventually...and there will be a mess...

I'm really glad His mercies are new every morning... ;-)

The LAST "Last First Day"

Posted to Beer Lahai Roi by Lisa Laree

Somebody asked me at work today if I was having a hard time dealing with the baby of the family starting her senior year today.

I replied that it only bothered me when I thought about it, and I've got so much going on that I haven't had time to think about it so...no, not much.  Yet, anyway.

This year is going to be so different in many ways.  The Actor will be going off to a residential internship program...it's just about 20 minutes down the road with a ministry that is run by a long time friend, so it's not like he was going, to say, Mexico or something, but he will be GONE and he will be busy and when he is at church he will be at one of the satellite campuses.  So we three will be rattling around the house somewhat isolated from the rest of the crew.

We raised our kids to be independent; sometimes I think I did a little too good of a job of that.

But the senior year is going to be the last of so many things.  It will be the last time I chaperone the state drama competition (assuming, of course, that nothing comes up to prevent me going this year).  Out of the 10 state competitions in which my kids were participants, I've only missed two...because there was no need for another chaperone.

It will be the last high school musical for which I am obligated to be part of the costume team.  I am not ruling out the possibility that, if asked, I might take my machine down and sew for an evening here or there, but the days of hauling home massive amounts of work will be done.

To be honest, I am somewhat sad that the years that seemed so tedious day by day have flown by so quickly.  Those cute kids...the unstructured days when I did not have to go out and clock in my hours...in hindsight, it was a blur.  I have a few moments that are in sharp focus, but mostly it seems rather like a dream.

But.

I've been doing the kids-in-school thing since The Princess headed off to 3-day-a-week Preschool in 1990.  24 years is a long time to be on repeat...even if each verse is slightly different than the last.  And, not having a self-motivating child, I am Tired Of Pushing.

As poignant as the moment is, I think we almost have the last boulder up to the top of the hill...

I may not know exactly what to do next, but I will at least have something of freedom to choose.

Off she goes on her last 'first day'.

Class of 2014.

SSMT - Verse 16

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Sometime ago, I found myself reading in Jeremiah, and came across a passage in chapter 14 in which God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the well-being of the people of Judah, for God was going to send judgment on them.  Jeremiah protested, saying in effect, 'But God, all the TV preachers and the preachers who write columns in the paper...our religious leaders...are all telling the people not to be afraid, that destruction isn't coming to them.'

God told Jeremiah that it didn't matter what all the church leaders were saying...because He did not speak to them at all; they were lying.  Furthermore, those folks who were telling the people not to fear destruction were going to fall victim to the very things they were denying.

As I read that passage, I'll confess I identified a bit with Jeremiah, wondering how fair it was, really, for God to punish the people when they had been deceived by the very ones who had the responsibility to tell them the truth.

And I felt God's response, 'They had My word themselves and neglected to keep it.  Had they kept it, they would have known the difference between a true proclamation and a false one.'

And He sent me to Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 6 and 7 (NIV 84):

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them upon your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  

Back in the day, I was a youth leader in a small denominational church.  And I remember several families who did not strongly encourage their kids to follow after God, telling me that the kids 'needed to make up their own minds' or some such thing.

I don't know where those families are today, and I wonder what happened to those kids.  Did they grow up to follow God?   If a prominent and respected church leader or, say, a TV celebrity, spoke something that was purported to be the word of God...and wasn't...would those folks who were raised in that way even know?

Is that not what has happened in our society?

It seems to me that the plain instruction of Deuteronomy 6 is that we should do everything in our power to pass our faith along to our kids, even if it means wearying them of it at times.

Because a generation that does not know the word of God will believe either anything or nothing.