Good morning friends! I wanted to take a moment this morning to tell you how overwhelmingly humbled and blessed I am to be a part of this ministry. We are doing it! We are changing lives and taking ground for the Kingdom together!
Here we are in the middle of the Winter/Spring semester and it's easy to get bogged down a bit with life. Kids get sick, schedules get hectic and sometimes it's just easy to say to yourself, "It's not really a big deal if I miss The Grove just this once." Before you know it you miss one more and since you've missed two already you're already behind so you decide to start fresh "next semester". I know how this goes. I've been there in the past.
But girls, this is exactly what Satan wants to do. He wants to get you out there on your own. To separate you from the flock, and it's there that he can work his dirty work in your life. Even if you've missed a few weeks, or even if you don't have a clue where your book is (don't ask me how I know about that one) come back, make a little wiggle room for the rest of us and we will do this thing together.
Here is an email that I got this morning from Molly Lawson. I'm sharing it with her permission. It is a testament to what being in community with others and doing the "work" of diving into the study you're in this semester can do in your life. Thanks, Molly for being transparent with us.
"Yesterday I was on the phone with a friend talking about our Bible study and hers. Do any of you process stuff by talking it out loud? Well, I certainly do. And during this conversation I had one of those "ah ha" moments where I felt my sin so deeply! I was sharing (a) verse that I shared at our table, Psalms 37 in the NLT that says "He delights in EVERY DETAIL of their lives." Learning that God cares even about what I put in my mouth has been eye opening, to say the least, but thinking on the "EVERY" in this verse opened my eyes even more. As I thought about those little details of my life, God brought to light all those "little" sins in my life as well. He reminded me that sin is sin. The so-called big sins of others are the same as my self-righteous little hidden sins. OUCH.
And, wonder of wonders, (NOT) the verse "Do not judge, or you too will be judged" (Matthew 7:1) popped into my head. The truth is all believers will be judged on the last day. All my sins will be brought to light. Those little ones that I had hidden so well behind my "normalcy." OUCH again.
A big wash of guilt came over me. I was a wee bit overwhelmed at the magnitude of my sin. But God gives grace. Think on this: "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' " (Lamentations 3:22-24) How cool is that? There's that word "portion" again, that Lysa talked about in (our) video Tuesday. He is what I need to overcome these sins. Pretty cool indeed."
Blessings friends,
Mandy Sherwood
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