Thoughts for the new week...

I am facilitating a new women's Bible study this week at our church. It all got started when a friend introduced me to the book "Having a Mary Spirit" by Joanna Weaver. We had use one of her other books as a Bible study in the past-"Having a Mary Heart in a Martha world". There was one paragraph that really captured our attention and lead to the development of this Bible study. I don't remember if I have shared it in a blog entry before, but I feel lead to share it again if so because the thought of this is so compelling and challenging:

“My deepest fear is waking up twenty years from now still the same women I am today. With the same annoying habits and petty attitudes; with the same besetting sins and false beliefs. I can’t imagine anything more terrible than getting to the end of my life only to discover that God had so much more for me—more freedom, more joy, more peace, more true effectiveness. And I missed it all simply because I refused to change.” ~Joanna Weaver

Change. It seems to be a struggle for most of us. It means approaching the unknown or it means reaching a new goal. This weekend my husband has been working on the basement. We purchase our home less than a year ago from an estate sale. It was a great deal for a 44 year old two story colonial. It is much smaller than our last home but we fell in love with this home and the potential it had. I don't think they had updated anything in and of this house since its creation. We are in the process of refining some of its old character and transforming its internal structure to meet our needs. We have done so much but there is so much to do. Kind of like our life isn't it?

God has done so much in and through me but there is so much yet to do. The internal structure of myself is far more beautiful then the external structure. It is only through God that has happened. It's called grace. It's called forgiveness. And it all started with brokenness. And though I am a new person eternally, my outward structure is not all that different. I hope that the joy of Christ in my life, being the structure of my life, is apparent to all but just like the repair work of the brick that was done on the front of our house, the new siding and windows that are coming hopefully next month, the outward beauty can hide the internal. When someone chooses to enter your home, to get to know you better, what do they see?

Surely you heard of him and were taught in him

in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life,

to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

and to put on the new self,

created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

~Ephesians 4: 21-24

I challenge each of us to enter this week looking at our internal structure. Your life...is it God's home? Find a special piece of scripture to meditate on-really meditate on it. "When God's truth is allowed to touch the deepest corner of your soul, the Holy Spirit will transform you into the image of Christ" (Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day). Mediate on God's word and ask Him to remodel any area's that have become old and unusable for Him.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers.

~Psalm 1:2&3

It a daily job, this remodeling process. It will never end. It shouldn't and it should be our hearts desire to be constantly seeking to be all God has called us to be. Just as we enter into the season of spring, may we blossom into the beauty of Christ-likeness!!

In His Graces~Pamela

Just for fun...here's the before and after pictures of our kitchen!!