In church recently, I felt God touch me in the sermon. It was about God's
hand being everywhere. I mean if you were down and you were encouraged
by someone, God worked thru them to get to you. Etcetera and so forth.
But we were in Ruth today and I felt this was really good for us:
So
the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived
in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women
exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told
them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.
I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me
Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune
upon me.” (Ruth 1:19-21)
I'm assuming you all know the story and what happened and what wil happen. Well Naomi means "pretty, lovely one" and Mara
means "bitter". Are you feeling like a Mara in your life? Do you want
to change your name to Naomi? (rhetorically) I certainly do! I feel that
in my relationship I've been a Mara, but I am trying to become a Naomi!
I
feel that we need to stop being bitter to God (and others). For
example, many, many, people have questioned God with this. "If You're so
loving, why do bad things happen? If you cared, you stop it!" I have
done this and I'm sure you guys have too. But think about it. God mad us
in His image and then we (not pointing fingers at anybody in
particular Adam & Eve) blew it. Now we are born with a sin nature. God hates bad
things as it says in Psalm 11:5-7
The Lord tests the
righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning
wind Shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He
loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.
That's
all I'm going to say in this matter for now as I'm actually going to be
doing my worldveiw class on Thursday and well be watching a video in
that matter, so I'll talk more about that then!
Jesus said, "This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3)
At
the heart of this study, we want you to KNOW GOD and KNOW JESUS CHRIST
whom He sent. Knowing God does not come through a program or method. It
is a relationship with a person. It is an intimate love relationship
with God. Through this amazing relationship, God reveals His will and
invites you to join Him in His work. When you obey God, He accomplished
through you what ONLY He can do.
Jesus said, "I have come so they may have life, and have it to the full."
(John 10:10) do you want to experience life to the full? You certainly
can if you are willing to respond to God's invitation to an intimate
love relationship with Him. We will help each other move into the kind
of relationship with God that will enable you to experience eternal life
to the fullest degree possible.
Since you are taking this
course, I am assuming that you have accepted Christ as your Lord and
Savior and you acknowledge Him to be Lord of your life. If you haven't
mad this very important decision, please PM me and I will coach you
through it. If you choose not to, this course wil have little meaning to
you. :-/
-----
Now that we got an intro....what next?
You
may be frustrated in your Christian experiences because you know Goe has
a more abundant life for you than you have experienced. Or you may
earnestly desire God's directions for your life and ministry. You may
have experienced tragedy in your life and don't know what to do.
Whatever your present circumstances, my earnest prayer is that somehow
in this time together you will be able to:
Hear when God is speaking to you
Clearly identify the activity of God in your life
Believe God to be and do everything He promises
Adjust your beliefs, character, and behavior to God and His ways
See what God wants to do in your life
Clearly know what you need to do in response to God's activity in your life
Experience God by doing through you what ONLY He can do!
So I think that is a suitable into and now well launch ourselves into
prayer and discussion! Any questions you may have are welcomed here!
After all, we're all sisters in Christ! And go ahead and answer the
Mara/Naomi questions too! Remember to prayerfully consider the questions
before answering them.
I have to agree with you. I've always been trying to Naomi, but inside, the real me is actually Mara. I have so much to learn, especially on how to forgive and forget the things that I tend to stow away--and I'm not talking about the good things! >.< I'm talking about memories of people that hurt me, and while I acted just fine on the outside, I knew that inwardly, I was becoming bitter, and that is not a good thing! That opens up a channel for the Evil One...yes, I am pitifully in need of prayer, my fellow warriors in Christ.
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