"No Other God's" Week Five

Hello my fellow summer Bible Study women!!

You are not going to believe where I am as I write this. It is Tuesday morning at about 10:30 and I am sitting in the foyer of our very own Monmouth Worship Center.  Now you are all with your groups meeting and going over weeks three and four of the homework. I am hearing quite a bit of riotous laughing so you must be having fun.  Just love having a good time around the word of God.

Firstly, I just have to comment on how proud I am of you. The turnout is still going strong so that means you must be tracking with the homework. Go BSW’s (that’s my abbreviation for you women, just in case I need to text anyone about you).  I am also very pleased to see that three new people came out today.  What a joy to have more ladies join us.  Remember since you are doing the work at home, you can come out whenever you can.  If you miss a week it shouldn't matter because you will be keeping pace on your own through the homework.  If your struggling to keep up, come anyway and listen to the discussion.  From what I can tell they have been lively and encouraging.  I am not exaggerating when I say this, we have a great bunch of women who are grounded in God's word who know have to have a thought provoking discussion on the deeper things of God yet wouldn't miss commenting on the lovely shade of polish of your pedicure.  They are something else.  Just love them. 

Today we spent a little time talking about how to easily identify if a good thing has turned into an ultimate thing. We played “name that idol”. As I lifted up various items we put a name to what could be the things that might have the capacity to crowd out God in our lives. Some were:

Money – our home – shopping – hobbies – electronics – lovers of self (2 Timothy 3:1) – ministry – and whatever we hold on to for love and acceptance.

Now all of these things are good things but how do we know if they are out of balance. As I held on to one of these items, I had someone try to take it from me. As she did, I held on with a white knuckle death grip. If you can’t let something go and you find the compulsion to hold on to it with all of your strength, I propose to you that thing could be an idol.

Now this is the important part. God wants us to have good things but His desire is for us to hold onto them loosely. God entrusts us with blessings but we in turn need to entrust those blessings back to Him. If He feels the need to remove them from our lives for a time we need to be able to give it freely to Him. If you are able to do that, then your item is not an idol.

Ok, so where are we with the study? We are half way through the homework and today we start on week five. Boy is that hard to grasp. The time has just flown. You will begin by reading session 05, “Good Goodbyes” on page 98 and then proceed to Day One homework on page 102.

I need to go now, it is 11:30 and you still haven’t ended your groups. That could mean only one thing….lively and edifying discussions. That is what I love about sojourning with you. You love the Lord and especially talking about Him.

May God bless you abundantly as your pursue Him through His word.