Category: Women’s Ministry

Read Through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 6; Proverbs 1:17-18; John 7

Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. - John 7:2 ESV

The Feast of Booths was a festival celebrated each fall to memorialize when the Lord delivered the Israelites out of Egypt and preserved them for their years in the desert. If you want to learn more about the significance of the Feast of Booths, I suggest this article. The more you understand the Old Testament, the more you’ll understand the New. Not only is it incredibly interesting, but it grows your faith as you better understand the fulfillment of Yeshua, Jesus, the One who Saves, in the foreshadowing and prophecies of the Old Testament.

For not even his brothers believed in him. - John 7:5 ESV 

How painful it must have been for Jesus’s own brothers to not believe in Him. It makes me so grateful that my sister, too, came to faith in Christ just a few years after I did. I thank God for saving my sister and opening her eyes. How different my life would be today if she were still an opponent of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. - John 7:7 ESV

We should expect the world to hate us. We should be prepared for the battle that we are in. We need to put on the full armor of God, remembering that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the evil forces of darkness. (Ephesians 6)

In light of this kingdom battle, we need to speak the truth, and we need to believe that the truth is good. We must not be false witnesses, saying “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 8:11). We must not be people pleasers, giving lip-service and eye-service to people who want their itching ears to be scratched. (See Ephesians 6:6, 2 Timothy 4:3) We must not pretend that God won’t judge sin, because this is in fact unloving and untrue.

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. - John 7:18 ESV

Sometimes it’s easier to speak for yourself, to say what you think, what seems right to you, rather than to speak God’s words. But the truth is that there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25)

Let’s pray together,

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for giving us brothers and sisters in our faith, in our own cities and our own nation, as well as around the world. We pray for those brothers and sisters who are being persecuted and attacked for their faith. Help them to stand firm. Help them to shine brightly and to forgive their enemies.

We pray that we would be people of the truth, believing the truth, obeying the truth, speaking the truth. Make us truth-treasurers and truth-preservers. Protect us from loving our own comfort so much that we would lie and deceive and wander from the truth in how we live or what we speak. Father, help us to speak for Your glory and not ours. Give us strength to hold fast to the truth and to speak the truth with authority and love.

We pray that we would come to You when we are thirsty, rather than forsaking You and digging our own cisterns. We want Your rivers of living water to pour out of us, that You would be glorified in us.

In the Good and Glorious Name of Jesus,

Amen

Read through the Bible in Two Years: Psalm 5; Proverbs 1:11-16; John 6:1-71

I have always been one who wanted to achieve, to work hard and succeed. When I got to high school, I quit taking the classes that I enjoyed like choir and art and woodworking, and chose instead to take classes I could get an A in, classes that would look good on my resume like A.P. Biology, A.P. Chemistry, and A.P. Calculus 1 and 2.

So, the words of John 6:28 resonated loud with me.

Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" - John 6:28 ESV

Jesus had just told them not to work for food that perishes, but instead to work for the food that endures to eternal life. So, this is a logical question, right? I can just hear them saying, “Ok, got it, Jesus. So, what should we do?”

And here is His answer:

"Believe in Him whom He has sent."

In fact Jesus said, “This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He has sent,” (John 6:29) which seems to mean that even believing in Jesus is a work of God, not of self-will (look back at John 1:12-13 for more on this) … which Jesus states even more explicitly in verse 44 later in John 6, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

In pondering this idea, I was reminded of Ephesians 2:1-10

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. " - Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV

Dead men can’t make themselves alive, and sinners will never turn to God by their own will. We need God to pour out His grace on us and draw us to believe and cause us to be born again to eternal life.

Which brings me to the next thing that Jesus said, “I am the bread of life…. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” (John 6:48, 51)

The bread of LIFE. So much better than manna which spoiled day after day. The LIVING bread. Eternal life-giving bread. So much better than that manna which sustained the Israelites for their 40 years in the wilderness, but could never give them eternal life.

Jesus is the eternal one, the Alpha and Omega, who was and is and is to come, the living One – so He is the only one who can give eternity to us as children of God. So, we must come to Him and eat of His flesh and drink of His blood, abiding in Him by faith, that we, too, might have eternal life.

We will talk about this more when we get to Romans and Galatians, but what a gift it is to begin our new year remembering the bread of eternal life, Jesus.

Let’s pray together –

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to live among sinful dead men, to give up His own life, that we could receive eternal life by faith in Him. Help us to receive Him with humility and to offer this gift to others. Help us to remember that we are just beggers telling others where they, too, can find bread. Make us like the Samaritan woman who was eager to share this good news with others. Make us like Abraham who believed God and came to You by faith. Thank You for giving us our daily bread. Thank you for reminding us and forcing us to come to You day after day, not eating old, stale, molded bread, but new fresh, life-giving daily bread of Your Word which helps strengthen us to do those works which You have prepared in advance for us to do.

In the lifegiving Name of Jesus we pray.

Amen.