God has blessed us with the ability to move in a variety of ways: running, walking, skipping, dancing, soaring. When following Jesus our main mode of travel is walking. Walking allows us to progress without exhaustion, enjoy our experience and  talk with our Savior as we journey with Him through life. To learn how to Walk Like an Ephesian, please click on the link:  The Walk
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Jane and I welcome you to Week Three of Wounded Lives. Healed Hearts. We are very excited to join you during this journey into encouragement and healing. Jane and I  pray you will focus on God’s forgiveness rather than sin of the past and thank God for His redemption.

Weekly Homework Each week we will add your assignments to a password-protected post. Look for the password every Tuesday evening in your email. Below you will find homework for each level of study. Feel free to change from Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3  as your schedule allows! Remember, there is no pressure to complete every activity. These are just options for your growth. They can be accessed at any time, even after the study ends.

Level 1, Study: Weekly Goals 

• For Week 3, watch the video posted below: Corrie’s Story
• Complete pages 41-56 in Luke: Discovering Healing in Jesus’ Words to Women.
• Feel free to do any of the other activities from Levels 2 and 3 as your time allows.

Level 2, Community: Weekly Goals 

• For Week 3, watch the video posted below: Corrie’s Story
• Complete pages 41-56 in Luke: Discovering Healing in Jesus’ Words to Women.
• Answer the question on the Speak Your Mind comment section at the bottom of this post.
• Don’t forget to check out our private Facebook page. Leave your comments about this week’s study, post your prayer requests, or share any insights/questions you may have. Only members of our Bible study group will see these posts.
• Join the Community Call, Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. EST on Talk Shoe (Information on TalkShoe is in your weekly email.)

 Level 3, Opportunity: Weekly Goals 

• For Week 3, watch the video posted below: Corrie’s Story
• Complete pages 41-56 in Luke: Discovering Healing in Jesus’ Words to Women.
• Answer the question on the Speak Your Mind comment section at the bottom of this post, and join the Community Call on Wednesday night on TalkShoe.
• Complete the Digging Deeper questions in the margins of each lesson.
• Don’t forget to check out our private Facebook page. Leave your comments about this week’s study, post your prayer requests, or share any insights/questions you may have. Only members of our Bible study group will see these posts.
• Take advantage of the Help for Healing resources by clicking on the links below:

 Grumbling to Gratitude Devotional

 Prescription for Thankfulness Scriptures

 Joyce Meyer Thankful Attitude

Week Three Video

Please take a few moments to worship and express your gratitude to God through music for His many blessing and gifts.

Questions of the Week (Please respond in the Speak Your Mind section at the very bottom of this page).

Think of a hard situation you are facing. Find 5 things that you can thank God for concerning this situation and record them in the space below.

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Dear Readers:

During this Christmas season, please select from the following resources to enjoy the true present of Christmas … His Presence. God bless you and Merry Christmas. Jane VanOsdol and Mary Kane

Podcasts:

Join Jane and Mary as they discuss the people God used in the miraculous story of Jesus’ birth. What’s so interesting is that God uses everyday people to bring about His plans in the world–and He wants to use us too! Please click on the link: God Uses Every Day People podcast

Happy Advent! Mary and I would love to have you join us as we discuss Advent and how you can get ready for Christmas during this time of preparation. We’ll be discussing the background of Advent, ways you can celebrate it with your family, and the meaning of Isaiah 7:14. Don’t let the busyness of the season prevent you from truly celebrating Christ’s birth.

To listen to the podcast, scroll down to the bottom of the post and look for the sideways triangle under the print button. Also, here’s a link to last year’s Christmas podcast on Christmas Story: God Uses Everyday People

Bible Studies:

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the expectation and the preparation of the season as we ready our hearts and minds for the coming of the Savior. God wants you to know that whatever you are facing this Christmas season you have reason to hope and rejoice because He is with you. To do the Bible study please click on the link: God With Us

Did you re-gift a gift this year? Did you know that re-gifting is a Biblical concept? God is the author and creator of everything–even re-gifting! To do the study please click on the link: Re-gifting

Articles:

Join Jane as she poignantly relates the birth of her third child to the Christmas story of long ago. Please click on the link: Mary and Joseph

In Something to Celebrate, Jane writes about adjusting her vision and focus at Christmas time. Please clik on the link: Something to Celebrate

Music:

Please be blessed by Josh Groban’s beautiful rendition of O Holy Night:

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Piles of books. Stacks of magazines. Untried recipes. Unfinished projects. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Truth be told, I have way more plans I want to accomplish and things I want to do then time to finish them all in. I often feel frustrated when I see around me the evidence of my yet-to-be completed projects.

Lately, well actually over the last year, I’ve felt the pull from God to get this under control, to learn how to hone my ability to truly focus on a task from start to finish. It’s not that I never complete anything. I’ve even hit a milestone this past year with one of my finished projects. It’s more that I’m not the best at planning and prioritizing. So, before I look at ways to improve this area of my life, I need to understand what throws me off track. Maybe this honest look will help you too.

Ways to Derail Your Projects

1. Not having a long-term plan. It seems to me that the people who get the most done are the ones who plan  ahead of time. They sit down with a calendar and plot out what each of their major projects will be for the entire year and roughly when they will work on each one. They then further break them down into monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
2. Not allowing enough time. I’m learning that most projects–whether they be writing books or reorganizing closets–take  longer than I think they will.
3. Not planning for the urgent. Emergencies and last-minute changes to my schedule happen more often than I realize. So that means I need to add even more time to point #2.
4. Procrastination. Perhaps a beautiful day is beckoning me outside, or someone calls with an invitation that’s hard to resist, and I put off my priority for the new thing that’s come along.
5. Being overwhelmed by the size of the project. Sometimes I just don’t know where to start, so I don’t.
6. Not having God’s perspective on a project. On the other hand, I also have a tendency to jump right in with an exciting idea before I’ve really hashed it out with God to see if this is something I should be pursuing.
7. Being overcommitted. Impulsively saying yes to too many things. This follows closely on the heels of #6.
8. Not taking my goals seriously. So often, I will stop what I’m doing to help someone else. This can actually be a good thing, but not when it becomes a regular occurrence. As my husband says, “Sometimes you have to learn how to say ‘no.'”

Does God Want Me to Be Productive?

You don’t have to read too far in the Bible to see the importance God placed on doing things in order. God created our world in an orderly fashion, and the universe functions in an orderly manner. Consider the following facts: *We know that every year we cyclically move through four seasons. *We can see an order to how animals live. *God gave Moses detailed directions on how to build the ark and finish the mammoth project of rounding up all the animals.*Look at all the precise detail that went into building the tabernacle. *In the book of 1 Corinthians, God makes it very clear that He wants our worship services to have a sense of order to them when He says in verse 40 “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” *The human body is a masterpiece of design.

It just makes sense that God wants us to have a semblance of order, balance, and thought in our daily lives too.

In the next blog post, I’m going to address ways to overcome some of the obstacles of finishing what we start. In the meantime, I’d like to hear your thoughts on what keeps you from being productive in your days. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks and pray on!

Its a new year and everyone is trying to lose a little weight. Even the Bible advises us to lose a little spiritual weight. To do the Take 5! study,  Lose the Weight , please click on the link!

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No more shame, no more guilt. Jesus heals the sick, casts out demons, and conquers death, but His greatest act is the forgiveness of sin. To do the study, “The Parable of Two Loves,” please click on the link.

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