Our Next Bible
Study
Philippians
Chapter 3:1-3
Joshua Chapters
10, 11, & 12
Prayer Requests:
Geraldine, Lil, Brian, Aiden, Dave, Elroy, Winslow,
Pauline, Shelia, Brad, Mike, Frosteen, Phil and Kathy, Marsha, Grace, Adrian,
Hans and Erin, Matt and Julie, military personnel, unemployed, Chris, children
with cancer, unsaved, Melinda & Barry and family, Ryan, Nick and Rachel, Tammy,
children with birth defects and their families, our Bible Study, special
unspoken needs, and remember me, Brenda Hendricks.
Praise Report:
February was
packed with inclement weather. Praise God for the shelter He has provided.
God is sending workers to the field. Through faithful servants, many are
learning more about Christ and in turn, are telling others.
A testimony of God's faithfulness as we step out in
obedience to honor Him by bringing His Hope, Joy , Peace, Protection, Provision
and Comfort to our troops through His Holy Word so that they may be saved. May
they know Him and make Him known in Jesus Blessed Holy Name I pray...Amen!
Hallelujah!
When fretting because my prayers
seemed to go no further than the ceiling, I received this answer from my
Father:
"There's no need for your prayers to go any further than your tearstained
pillow. I am here with you. I don't expect you to ascend to me any more than a
father expects his infant to jump into his arms. I have loved you with an
everlasting love and with loving kindness I have drawn you.”
(Jeremiah 33:3 paraphrased by me)
WOO HOO!!
God is so good—always, all ways.
We are looking forward
to your praise reports. Please keep us informed so we can share the wonderful
grace of Jesus.
For previous lessons on Joy
or
previous Bible studies,
please visit our
archives
May God grant you safety, reassurance of
His love, and the revelation of Jesus Christ,
Brenda Hendricks.
Although creativity abounds in
many areas of my life, it has eluded me in the kitchen other than the
humming bird and morning glory stenciling on the walls and the lighthouse on
the door. When I hold cooking utensils in my hands rather than a paintbrush,
the room craves creativity.
The first several times we
invited guests for dinner, I burst into tears from the stress of trying to
achieve the seemingly unachievable. Howbeit, I had a redeemer.
With pots, pans, and gas grills
at his disposal, my husband’s creativity excels. Early in our marriage, I
had to ask for his assistance. However, he truly has a servant’s heart and
finds great satisfaction in creating “masterpiece” meals for friends and
family. Now, I tease him about allowing him to do all the cooking because I
don’t want to interfere with his ministry.
The best part, I no longer have
to stress over hungry company. I have confidence not in my own cooking, but
in the resident chef, I happen to call my husband.
Confidence in our own skills
propels us to achieve. Well-grounded confidence in someone else’s ability to
take control of situations in which we lack competence allows us to relax
and enjoy our surroundings. Robust confidence in God eliminates anxiety,
fear, and bitterness despite our circumstances.
The Gibeonites in Joshua chapter
9 lacked confidence in their own army, knowing that the Israelites had
massacred every city that stood in their way. (Don’t think the Gibeon army
was weak. Joshua 10 reports that ADONI-ZEDEK king of Jerusalem feared
greatly when he heard that Gibeon made peace with Joshua
because Gibeon was a great city, like
one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men
were mighty [verse 2]). Instead of preparing
for battle, the Gibeon leaders dressed in rags, packed moldy bread, and
journeyed three days to the Hebrew camp, where they claimed to be
ambassadors from a far country seeking a peace treaty. Without consulting
God, Joshua agreed to let them live, and
the assembly’s leaders swore to them (Joshua
9:14 AMP).
Three days later, the Israelites
heard that the strangers were their neighbors and traveled to Gibeon to
confront them. Although the Gibeonites deceived Joshua, they received mercy
from him even after he discovered the truth. Rather than destroying them,
Joshua then made them hewers of wood and drawers of
water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in
the place which He should choose
(Joshua 9:27 AMP).
As the Gibeonites came to Joshua,
we come to Jesus in filthy rags, fearful of our inevitable destruction if we
do not make peace with Him. For we have all
become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our
righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags
or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the
wind, take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us toward destruction]
(Isaiah 64:6 AMP). Nevertheless, it is
impossible to fool God as the Gibeonites had fooled Joshua. God knows all
about us before we come to Him. Yet, He offers mercy to all who will ask.
Not only that, He fashions a ministry for us to serve His people.
For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship),
recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which
God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared
ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He
prearranged and made ready for us to live]
(Ephesians 2:10 AMP).
Early in his life,
self-confidence dominated Paul. He relied on his education and prestige,
wrote his own agenda, and followed a self-imposed path. He persecuted
Christians everywhere he went thinking he was doing God a service. However,
he learned that all his accomplishments were as filthy rags to God. Blinded
on the road to Damascus, Paul had no choice but to surrender to the Father’s
will and live according to God’s plan for him.
Many Christians today are as
zealous in their service to God as Paul had been before his Damascus
experience. And like Paul, God’s true will for their service blinds their
vision. When we attempt to alter the gospel to make it more appealing or
eliminate the need for repentance, we express human-confidence rather than
God-confidence. When we strive to earn salvation through good works, we rely
on self-confidence rather than God’s plan. When we seek vengeance through
our own merit, we break the trust we are to place in God. All these
endeavors indicate that we are full of our own righteousness and not the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is the only righteousness God
recognizes.
Admitting that we lack the
potential to save ourselves, to make our own way to heaven may be tthe most
difficult task we’ll ever face. Many of us are so self-assured that we
cannot imagine that we lack God’s favor. Like Paul, we make our own goals,
then wonder why we stumble. Unfortunately, we back ourselves into an
undesirable dark hole from which only God can retrieve us. Not all trials or
illnesses are results from disobedience as Paul’s blindness was, but God
uses such devices to get our attention and to turn our focus on Jesus
Christ.
After his conversion, Paul
experienced many the same calamities the early Christians faced, as well as
many of today’s Christians in foreign countries. Yet, he remained sure of
one thing–God is faithful (reliable,
trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended
on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His
Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:9 AMP). This confidence in
God gave Paul the joy and strength he needed to endure all the hardships the
enemy could hurtle at him.
Through Jesus Christ, we,
too, can cultivate an attitude of joy and retain our strength in spite of
our present circumstances. Looking back at the beginning of Philippians
chapter two, we discover a key that unlocks the hidden treasure of the joy
we find in God-confidence: if we have been encourage through our unity with
Christ, if His love is comforting to us, if we find satisfaction,
tenderness, and compassion in our fellowship with the Holy Spirit, then our
oneness in spirit and purpose with other believers should prove our love for
Jesus and for each other. We will shed our self-righteousness and cloak
ourselves in Jesus’ righteousness, which puts other people's needs ahead of our own.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You for
being the One I can rely on. Knowing that Your promises are true and just, I
can rest assured that everything in life will work out for my good, and in
turn, You enable me to work for the good of others. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
Amen.
