Embrace Grace...Embrace Truth

Welcome to our blog Bible study of Embrace Grace: Welcome to the forgiven life written by Liz Curtis Higgs (author of "Bad Girls of the Bible") and hosted by Lelia. Everything in orange is from the author.

I posted chapter twos comments here. Today I have set this chapter to post and hopefully it worked. I am at youth camp this week, no computer, just lots of teenagers and hormones and hopefully a magnitude of God. Pray that He will make Himself know to these kids, that He will capture their hearts this week, especially my girls. They are so distant from Him (I can be selfish like that, right?).

This chapter is full of such rich scripture. "We can fall in love with Him all over just by opening the scripture". Isn't that just the truth? I hold my Bible in my hand and there is assurance, comfort, strength, hope...most of all there is love and forgiveness. This year I have been blessed to have a most wonderful lady come into our church and to be brave enough to stand beside me in the women's ministry. Our hearts are in unison when it comes to our Lord. We can't get enough of Him, do enough for Him, love Him enough. We are doing a Bible study together from Jerry Bridges book "The Pursuit of Holiness and though we have only completed two chapters, it is tearing me apart and remolding my mind and heart to this one truth from I Peter 1:15-16 (HCS)

"but, as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. "

Me holy? Truthfully, to me it seems impossible but as we know all things are possible through Christ. So we have begun this journey towards holiness, a journey we feel necessitates our leadership role in His ministry. It's embracing truth, embracing scripture, embracing Christ. And this blog Bible study ties in so well with this journey.

What place does God's Word hold in your heart? in your home? in your day-to-day?

As Liz writes... "the Bible simply isn't a book. It is a love letter." Yes, it has become the oxygen my soul need to live. I crave it, want more of it, cannot dig deep enough into it. In being in the Word, it makes me want more of Jesus, to love Him deeper, to hear Him better, to serve Him more fully, to walk beside Him every moment, and to become holy as He is holy and He commands that of us.

Job 23:12 (HCSB)
I have not departed from the commands of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily food.

Read aloud a verse of Scripture from this chapter that has challenged you, changed you, or comforted you. Why are those words specially meaningful to you?

Romans 8:38-39 (HCSB)
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing
will have the power to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

I am typing this portion at the hospital where I work weekends as a night nurse. I have a few moments of down time which has been so rare lately. Tonight I was at the bedside of a patient that was assigned to someone else. Her IV pump kept going off while that nurse was off the floor and I was the one that kept going into her room (It was a God-thing as you will see). After my forth trip in (each for a different reason-really, God kept calling back to her) I asked the patient what I could do for her and then she unloaded her anxieties and there wasn't just one. She was scared to die and she was worried about her estranged children. Then I looked down at her bedside table and there encased in a red leather carrier was a book. I asked her if it was a Bible and she replied yes. I then asked her if she was a women of faith. She again replied yes. Though our whole conversation would be too long to share here, I did asked her what God would want her to do with her anxieties. She stated she knew but I made her verbalize it- "cast all your anxieties on Him". She implied she couldn't so I reminded her of Deut. 33:12 in that "the beloved of the Lord rest between His shoulder" and that was what she needed to do. No matter how distant she was feeling from Him-nothing, no anxiety, no illness, could keep her from Him. That same principle applies to you and me. It is sometimes hard to swallow as it was for this patient, but it is His promise, strait from His Word!

If it's time to take the next step in you spiritual journey, how might God's Word help you move forward?

Psalm 25:5 (HCSB)
Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; I wait for You all day long.

Psalm 119:169 (HCSB)
Let my cry reach You, LORD; give me understanding according to Your word.

And help me on this journey to holiness. As impossible as it seems to me, I have to EMBRACE THE TRUTH that is possible because His words states "you are to be holy in all your conduct". I'm afraid I've got my work cut out for me and for God!

Remember to pray for our youth camp!! Thanks!

His Maidservant~Pamela