Daily Bible Verse

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Ruth: Love, Loss & Legacy - Session 1&2 (Second Gathering)

From Beth:  "Hey, my Dear Siestas! It’s time for our second gathering of SSBS3! As promised, below are your written instructions in case you have trouble with the video greeting. REMEMBER, your comments to this post are meant to come AFTER your small group gathering or your solo experience to tell us how your time went. We hope all of you participating will check back in with a comment at some point over the next several days. (One leader checks in per group and each solo participant checks in.) This is part of the accountability process and will immensely help you stay with it through the very last page. As always, please put your city at the beginning of your comment. Thanks so much for joining in!



Summer Siesta Bible Study - Week 2 from LPV on Vimeo.

Your discussions in this gathering will revolve around different points in your homework. Two from Week One. Two from Week Two:

1. Look back at the middle of page 12 where Kelly had us look up Deuteronomy 23 and Judges 3 to get some background on the Moabites. Read Deuteronomy 23:3-5 together if you’re not watching this as a small group. In your small group, I want you to talk about a few things that have happened in your lives that Satan would love to use to curse you. You can think of it conceptually more than literally if that helps. At the end of class today, I want you to claim that fifth verse together in prayer and believe God to turn those curses into blessings!
2. Turn to the middle of Week One, to the bottom of p.21 and the top of p.22. I loved Kelly’s discussion about her friend “weeping forward.” What do you think that means? Several of you share a season in your life when you feel like you wept forward and several others might consider sharing a season in your life when you wept backward. Most of us have done both at some point in our lives.

The next two are from Week Two:
3. OK, Day Two has a portion that is vintage Kelly Minter and one reason why I love her writing so much. Look at the second paragraph on p.42 where she tells about her sister, Megan. If you were writing a novel that was secretly about yourself right now and right in this season and you had to name it in the form of a question, what would it be?
4. Turn to p.45 and review the part of your homework concerning Psalm 126. Please read the psalm together then discuss your answers to the “Personal Response” question: Practically speaking, how can you sow in your weeping? Don’t miss how much this section has to do with your second discussion question today.
In closing, one of you read the Elizabeth Barrett Browning quote at the end. Let it lead you into prayer and don’t forget to claim those blessings from our first discussion question today!
For all of you participating in the fellowship meal, consider the recipes on pages 62-63 and either do them or some Italian equivalent.
I am so happy to study with you! Stay in the Word and I’ll see you in two more weeks!

12 comments:

  1. 1. My sin as a teenager
    2. I have wept backward sometimes, but I have wept forward, moving forward with my life,
    getting involved in church each time that we have moved. . .
    3. "What is the job that you have for me next, Lord?"
    4. trusting God, serving Him, ministering to and encouraging others, getting involved in ministry to women; youth; children; using my wrong decisions to help others go in the right direction
    Hope to hear from you all soon!

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  2. I just posted my response on Beth's site, but don't mind sharing again...
    1. 26 years ago walked thru a very sad divorce, leaving behind a career I had worked toward my entire life & loved desperately, my name, all my friends, my social status and entire estate and all my personal posessions, barely escaping alive with the that which was most dear to me - my two precious children and then watching how GOD redeemed our lives in amazing ways! Now we have a thriving family full of love!

    2. Weeping forward is something I am most intimately familiar with as I have sat amazed and humbled by GOD's redemption and how He takes us from one season of what we might consider greatness to an astounding fireworks display over & over & over!...as we poured into the kids's lives they have become wonderful people engaged in the art of helping and speaking out for others, they are all active humanitarians and very missions minded...very cool!

    3. This made me laugh out loud because the season of my life right now is developing "focus"...and throughout the study, as He always does, GOD has been speaking to me about that in wonderful ways! I have an amazing list of responses from Him about what exactly focus is and how to maintain it!
    My novel:
    How Many Times Can You Stub Your Toe Before It Just Falls Off?....
    subtitle: Living in the Kingdom of Spasicity with Purpose

    4. Interesting story: our son was seriously injured last month - broke his neck...now he is physically healing well, but the emotional trauma is going to take some time; he is a soldier in the Army & had just been hand-picked for a special attachment with a General to re-deploy to Afghanistan - the opportunity of a lifetime, literally! Many of us believe that this "accident" occurred as a life-saving event, but he still has to work thru the grief of his loss (it was a VERY big deal), and in the meantime, the love of his life & he have broken up (mostly because he was an idiot - long story), so he has that grief to work thru and he has discovered who his true friends are; the morning we got into the "weeping forward" piece, the LORD gave me some very powerful words of love and life to share with him...it will be so healing for him and full of life. Isn't GOD so good to us and for us?

    Blessings ladies! I look forward to all you have to share!
    Sharoni :)

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  3. Thank you for sharing these amazing stories, Sharoni! I am praying for you son.

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  4. 1. Pride. I need to get rid of it or it can consume.

    2. Our last adoption process was a time of spiritual growth. We had several "disrupted" adoptions. The first was the worst--knowing a little girl needed a home, getting a play-by-play of what was going on and feeling helpless. Eventually, I realized it was doing no good to live next to the phone, waiting for the call that wasn't coming and I gave it up to the Lord. He then required me to also give Him our daughter we already had--a trip to the ER reminded me that she belongs to the Lord, not to me. Then, a few months later, after being selected by a birthmother, meeting with her and things proceeding "normally", she chose to parent her daughter. "Weeping forward" certainly occurred. Because of what we had already been through, it was easier to rest in the knowledge of the Lord's plan, yet there was still weeping as I completed the baby girl's blanket and mailed it to her mother. Praise the Lord! In His timing, our son came to us--a handful of a 2 1/2 year old now, I need to keep in mind that he is such a GIFT FROM GOD!

    3. What Time Is It? (When the Waiting Gets Long)

    4. Sowing in weeping--learning to trust even when it doesn't make sense to me and doing what I know to be right. There are many questions, but I must rely on God and move forward even if it is with tears.

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  5. Sandy, I can SO identify with your answers. I like your positive attitude!

    Sharoni - that's so great that you could share with your son about weeping forward. How is he doing? God is going to turn this curse around for him and will turn it into a blessing!

    Jacqueline - what a difficult season that must have been, to be waiting for a little one and having your hopes dashed. I'm so glad you trusted God to bring your son to you in HIS time!!!

    1. I believe that I'm experiencing something right now that Satan would love to use as a curse on me, but God means for it to be a blessing....... at the Christian Conference centre where I spend my summers, I am leading a group of about 35 women in Beth's Revelation study. There have been a few obstacles along the way, and I realize now that I've been blaming other people and haven't had a very Christ-like attitude towards them, but God wants me to trust Him. What the enemy would like to use to make me want to throw in the towel, God wants to use to bring glory to HIM! Thank you Lord for helping me to take my eyes off of the circumstances and put them back on YOU where they belong!

    2. My tendency is to weep backward, crying and lamenting over what could have been. But there have been times when I've wept forward. One time in particular, as I prayed for my eldest son to be restored in his relationship with the LORD. I wept and prayed over the mess he was making of his life, but I believed that God had a plan to turn his life around, so I prayed that He would do it, and told Him I'd trust Him, even if it didn't happen in my lifetime. Well, a short time later, "as it happened", on a beach in a remote town of Mexico, my son met a pastor from our hometown 2,000 miles away (unbeknownst to us), who got in his face, challenged him, and led him back to the LORD!!

    3. "If I'm so Dead Tired, Why Can't I Sleep at Night?"

    4. I love this Psalm! It has notes in my Bible scribbled all through it from when I studied it during "Stepping Up" 2 summers ago.
    I love the idea that even though there is weeping, there is still seed to sow, and if we are faithful to sow, we will see a harvest.
    I guess my answer would be that even in our weeping, if we keep on being obedient, and keep our eyes on the LORD, we will sow in our weeping.

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  6. Deut. 23:5 "The LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you."

    "Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God;
    But only he who sees, takes off his shoes;
    The rest sit round it an pluck blackberries, and daub their natural faces unaware." (E.B.Browning)

    Lord, I pray for my sisters, that they would know and be convinced of Your love for them, and that any scheme that the enemy intends as a curse would be turned around by You into a blessing.
    Cause us to see You at work in everything around us, and to fall in worship at Your feet, as we are aware of Your presence in our lives.

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  7. Richmond VA
    7 including myself

    Being that my group nobody had ever met before and we are all getting to know each other this question really helped us get to know each other on a different level. Most of my group responded to this question with the answers being family, divorce, and abuse. It was so silent as each lady went around the table and shared. I was so proud of them for opening up and letting us peak into their lives. After the study was over we prayed and lifted everyones situations up to God.

    In question number two we found that we all have had situations of weeping forward and weeping backwards. I talked about how I’m going through this healing journey after being diagnosed with a blood disease. I know that I should be weeping backwards but I feel like I’m weeping forwards and God will use this as an amazing testimony one day. During this season I’ve been finding ways to serve my friends and church community. Not focusing on my circumstances. Another lady in my group shared about how her and her husband were weeping forward during a season in their life when he got a job transfer. They had to leave their church and their home and move far far away. She said that during this season of her life it was really hard but that it was like a spiritual renewal for both her and her husband. Relying on their faith for everything. We had a few scenarios of weeping backwards. One lady talked about the loss of her mother a few years ago. She said that she had lost a lot of family around the same time but when her mother died all the grief hit her all at once.

    A main them when talking about our weeping forwards and backwards was that regardless of the scenario God was right there the whole time providing for us each step of the way. Even though we couldn’t see it at the time we can all look back and see God’s hand at work in our lives.

    I assigned the question about our novel question for them to really think over and answer next time they come. I wanted us to really think about this one and not just answer with whatever we could think of right off the top of our head.

    I really enjoyed these questions. I feel like I know all my ladies so much better and know more about how to pray for them as we continue on this study together.

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  9. Sharoni, I would love to hear more about your list of what FOCUS means and how/what God has pointed out to you, if it's not too personal. I am intrigued!
    Barb

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  10. sorry my comment posted twice and blogger for some reason won't let me delete it-goofy blogger!

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  11. This is a very nice blog here ladies! I kinda disappeared after last week, but in my defense, my class in school started and it demands so much of my time....I promise to be more engaged from here on...I really enjoy the interaction.
    Thank ya'll soooo much for kind comments and prayers for Michael, our son. I was a little concerned about his mental state and emotional turmoil...the head injury part of his trauma. However, after visiting with him this past weekend, I heard my son back and he is in a good place, mentally and emotionally. He hurts, but he will live and he is grateful for the growth opportunity he has been given! Thank-You, Jesus!

    Hoo-rah!
    Sharoni :)

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  12. Miss Barb....focus....ah, where to begin? I don't mind sharing at all!!
    I get snippets of thought...mostly they take me into times of meditation (I almost typo'd "medication"...that cracks me up!)....I hear songs related to them....I see wonderful pictures or inevitably I watch a movie with a "moral" to it that relates. Or, as in the most recent experience this past week, I receive a truly soul-jolting bit of news!
    In any case, the main thing I have been receiving from the LORD is related to strengthening my core....
    that requires some training, dedication, time, commitment, direction (GOD's), my heart, and being purposeful in my pursuit. I plan to blog about it on my blog in more depth later today. Stop by and check it out if you like! I am always happy to share just about anything!

    Blessings!
    Sharoni
    http://sharoni-thebudblooms.blogspot.com

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