Preparing to Study the Word

Pre- 1 & 2nd Peter Study


I hope this Sunday in March finds you well. I'm planted near a window, sitting in the most Hipster coffee shop I could find to try to draw my creative juices for this post. Unfortunately, the tiniest flakes of snow just started to swirl around the window... floating down from the grey sky onto the windowsill (and slipping through the crack in the window onto my keyboard. Let's all hope it stops soon.

My dear friend and I are starting an online Bible study tomorrow! We're digging into 1 & 2nd Peter. It's an 8-week study that comes with it's very own packet to get you to the finish line (hyperlinked above). All you need to participate in this one is good wifi.

Here's a verse to segue into tomorrow's study:

Psalm 1:2-3 says: Blessed is the man whose “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.”

I will DELIGHT in the law of the Lord and MEDITATE on it day and night. By these things, I will yield the fruit that are attributes of a person more like God... in other words, how I will PROSPER.

Those are my goals for this study:

• I will DELIGHT in His word, and seeking God's goodness!
• I will MEDITATE and do so daily, finding balance in consistency with God.
• I will PROSPER by taking the Truth from this study to heart and growing more like God.

What are your goals for this #LoveGodGreatly study? Write them in the comments below... I'll talk to you soon :)

Much love,

Vanessa

I'm Burning Plows & Digging Ditches for Rain

Life is hard. I'd like to publicly make some goals:

I've started a Bible/book study with a very large group of amazing people. It's the Melissa Taylor study of the book, Greater, by Steven Furtick.

Funny chapter titles with deep meanings. I joined the study a little late, so over the past week I've read up on five chapters to catch up. They've hit me hard today, because today is my mom's birthday. I miss her so much. So what has the book taught me so far?

I have plows to burn and ditches to dig. Yes, the ditches are for rain, and NOT the Minnesota snow. These are analogies from the story of Elisha, who was approached by Elijah while he was in his routine of plowing with his oxen with a lack of a vision for what was "greater." When Elijah found him, he symbolically burned the plows as a sign of his radical faith in the greater plan for his life. Years later, he instructed a city in the midst of a drought to dig ditches for the massive amount of rain that God was about to provide.

My plows to burn:

• "what if" thoughts
• critical/skeptical spirit
• the grasp I have on my routine (work and personal)

The rain to come (after I dig some ditches):

• I have a hope and a future!
• I am blessed in the field, and blessed in the city
• He knows every hair on my head, and clothes the flower, He will take care of my needs and desires

Now it's time for me to remember this and put these thoughts into action.

Faith without works is dead.

It's good to be back,

V