Most recently I had the honor and privilege of helping with the teaching team at our church in the Ladies Bible Study. I had been approached just about a year ago to consider the opportunity of which I prayed over for a month. I did not take this request with a grain of salt. I knew that the importance of this role, and understood that it would be a task that would need careful consideration, needed to be seeped in prayer, and needed to be taken seriously.

Anyone who knows me, knows that my “enjoyment” of public speaking is not exactly enjoyment. I am not comfortable in that role, yet the Lord continues to bless me the opportunity to do so. Opening doors that I would not open myself. He challenges me to climb out of that comfort zone and dive into situations where He will be glorified.

The first time I spoke to a group was over 10 years ago. I was the Women’s Ministry Director at our church and I had been asked to speak at the Women’s Advent by Candlelight dinner. I prayed and prayed over this. As uncomfortable as it was, I knew the Lord had a plan. Little did I know that that opportunity would prep me to speak and be a part of sharing the gospel with others, not as I wanted to yet as He wanted me to.

I have never been a person who has been comfortable in my own skin. I feel very awkward, I lack self confidence, my fiends have played drinking games over my continuous usage of the word “sorry”, and I just never feel as though I fit into any situation. I have strong opinions of which I keep held tight to the breast unless approached to give, and I will only do so if I feel completely “safe”. Safe in that the person receiving the opinion will love me no matter what and I have confidence that we can discuss without harboring any ill will. That safe person is the person that can politely tell me they have a different opinion and we can discuss….not debate or argue. We share mutual respect for one another.

When I came to know the Lord, I was a new mom and I was learning what it meant to live a life that was Christ centered. I had grown up in the church, yet I did not have a Christ centered heart until I attended my first bible study after the birth of my son. Since that time, I have, for over 24 years, often wondered what the Lord would do with me. I have found myself challenged with the love to study God’s word and not knowing what to with what I knew or learn. So when I was asked to help with the teaching at the women’s bible study, I was asking God if this is really where I needed to be. I kept making up excuses as to reasons why and was literally getting ready to call and tell them I was unable when the Lord would close the “excuse out clause” that I had come up with. Finally, I had to resolve that the Lord had a plan and as usual His plan is always bigger than mine.

You may be asking yourself, where this is all going. Well, I spent 7 months in the depths of scripture, in commentaries, and books that ranged from the 1600’s to today. I taught 6 lessons in front of women, which were also recorded and now on zoom. Was I a nervous wreck? Of course, yet the Lord calmed my heart the minute I started to speak. He gave me peace and the strength I needed to continue on. It brought great joy to my heart to humble myself to His will and to His calling and follow His leading. I have no regrets and am humbly aware that I did not do any of those lessons on my own. It was as if He was sitting right there beside me holding my hand and giving me a gentle squeeze if I fumbled in my wording or got lost in my notes. It was not ME that delivered those messages. It was the Holy Spirit working through me to deliver what He had to say and what He wanted the ladies to learn.

As I look back on the year and the lessons I taught, I can personally see the growth in my prayer life, in my study time, in my trust of a Holy Creator and the blessings that are yet to come all because I followed His lead. There is no credit due to my own abilities, and no credit due to anyone other than the Lord. Who lead me to books I’ve read before, to books that I knew of yet did not yet know the purpose of the direction the Lord was taking me, until He took me there. I praise Him for the opportunity that He gave me to dive in and seek Him first, then to share what He was teaching me to others. I praise Him for giving me the opportunity this past year so that I would build up my study time from a measly 20 min. to several hours of in-depth study where I was unable to walk away. This brings such joy to my soul.

The convictions that I’ve had weighing on my heart since those lessons, has led me to want to build up this blog that has sat dormant for almost two years. Sharing what I am learning in my own studies and in what I also taught. Hence for this prequel of what is yet to come.

I am devoting my learning to sharing with you my followers. I am preparing lessons to share with you so that you too can learn what I have. So that together we can hopefully bring back the longing of the Word and of the Lord. I read a few weeks back that church memberships had dropped 50% in one year, 2020. My husband said it was due to the pandemic. I reread the headliner and was able to comprehend that it wasn’t “that churches had lost 50% of their worshippers in services”, it said “membership”. That’s a huge loss for the Kingdom of God. Perhaps, for Him and for His eternal glory to shine through, we need to stand together, learn together, study together and to be in prayer together. Will you join me? I hope you will. I look forward to it.

First conversation I want to have is on Matthew 7:1-5. You are likely asking yourself why I would start with such a difficult and yet important topic. Let me just say that this is one of the things I think holds us back from loving one another completely. In all of our encounters, this topic is very important to understand. So we will start there. Read it, pray over it, study it until we meet again next week. What is the Lord sharing with you when you read it?

Make sure you are following me and are getting the notices of my posts. Please make sure that if you have comments or additions, know that I would love and appreciate the leading of the Holy Spirit in your understanding of these topics, so please post them. Please do not however, think that this is an open debate forum. Do you own biblical research on the topic at hand and remember that we need to be respectful of one another. I will address each comment, concern or question the next post.

See you next Tuesday. To God be the Glory!