Imagine doing your Bible study with your small group without ever having to leave the comfort of  your home, dorm room — or back deck (if you live in a warm clime!). If this sounds like your kind of study, we would love for you to join our eight-week online Bible study, Wounded Lives. Healed Hearts  by Sue Edwards, which begins February 19th.

This Bible study will:

• help you realize your incredible value and worth in Christ;
• challenge you to seek and receive the healing Jesus longs to give you for your wounded life and injured heart;
• empower you to spend face-to-face time with Jesus;
• inspire you to do the work  that God wants to accomplish through everyday people like you and me.

Order Your Materials and Register

In order to participate in the study you must 1) order the book at CBD or Amazon, or purchase it at the Grace Church counter at Mary’s church and 2) sign up through the registration link below (registration is only $5).

Once you have signed up, you will receive an email link to confirm your registration. You must click on the link to be enrolled in the Bible study. Each week, for the duration of the study,  you will receive an email that contains the weekly Bible study page password and Community Call information. Look for your email every Tuesday night.

Thanks so much for your participation. Feel free to invite your friends! Please click on the link below to register and pay. You will be given the option to pay either with Pay Pal or with your credit card. If you don’t have a PayPal account, simply click the option that says “Check Out.” Clicking on that will then open another screen and one of your options will say: “Don’t have a PayPal account?” Click on this option, which will bring up a screen that will let you either pay with a regular credit card or open a PayPal account.Questions or problems with registration? Click on this contact button to email Jane. God bless you and thank you!

Register for the Bible Study on this Buy Now link:

We’ve included a link below to the CBD online bookstore if your prefer to purchase your materials this way.

Luke: Discover Together Bible Study By Sue Edwards / Kregel PublicationsHave you ever felt undervalued, unappreciated, or just “little”? We all have. The Gospel of Luke was written especially for us to show that God does his great work through people like us. Join Sue Edwards on this inductive study of Luke. As she focuses on particular encounters Jesus had with first-century women, you will have your own encounter with Jesus and learn how truly valuable you are to him. The video lessons are on YouTube and can be accessed through the website www.discovertogetherseries.com or by using the QR codes found in the study guide. Free leader’s guide also available on website, www.discovertogetherseries.com.

Over the weekend, violent storms pummeled part of the Midwest, including my community. Although the morning started out sunshiny and beautiful, by the time the afternoon rolled around, I definitely had my eye to the sky as angry, black clouds played hide and seek with the sunshine and warning sirens echoed through our neighborhood.

The worst of the storms passed slightly to our north, but some friends of my son, Jesse, weren’t so lucky. Trinity’s family home was hit and partially destroyed by a tornado. The storm took out two rooms of their home and a salon that was also on their property that they used for a home business.

Jesse, Cameron, Trinity, and Heather headed north to see if they could help Trinity’s family, bringing along a pack of water bottles. The area was hit hard, and the four of them ended up joining a crowd of people helping a neighbor whose barn was destroyed. They ordered pizzas for the family and worked in the dark trying to bring some order to the chaos.

Even though Trinity’s family was hurting, they reached out to help others, becoming the hands and feet of Jesus. Bringing hope and healing into despair and destruction.

The message carved in the mud on Trinity’s house is a testament of faith, words of hope in the midst of a storm where The Sacred is intersecting the not so Everyday.

“Take two tablets and call me in the morning.” We’ve all heard that bit of wisdom from a doctor before. Medicine can heal the body, but will it heal our soul? To do the Bible study, Scripture Prescriptions: True Identity, please click on the link!

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Simple Truth

Sometimes you read something that just makes you stop and ponder. This happened to me last night. It’s such a simple truth, yet it’s so profound as to be life changing. I should already know this, be able to deduce it for myself, yet I’ve never thought of it in this way.

What is it?

I’m reading the book The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith. Chapter Three is entitled “God Is Trustworthy,” and as you might imagine, it’s all about why God is trustworthy. James makes the point that many people don’t trust God. Unfortunately, there’s nothing unusual about that. I know many people who don’t know and trust God, and I’m sure you do too.

What he said next really got my attention.

He said that many people can’t relate to God as Father because they had either mean, abusive fathers or absent fathers. Because of that they have a twisted version of the truth in their heads, and they want nothing to do with God. Many hate the idea of a father.

James said that this thinking pattern is entirely backwards.

Jesus Defines What Father Means

We should not be using the template of earthly fathers as the way to view our heavenly father. No; rather just the opposite should be true. “God’s fatherhood must define what human fatherhood ought to look like, and not the reverse,” he says. “The better solution is to encourage [us] to let Jesus define what Father means and thereby come to know the God Jesus knows. In so doing, [we] might find healing.”

The hope for healing for those who have experienced abusive parents lies in not letting those parents define God, but in letting Jesus define God. Jesus said in John 10:30 that “I and the Father are one.” In John 14:7 Jesus talks about how if we know Him, then we know and have seen the Father.

Recently, I was praying with a person who has suffered for years from the effects of an abusive parent. This person was ready to let go of her idea of God as someone to be afraid of and to see God as He really is. She was desperate to let go of her skewed idea of God and step onto the path of healing and truth.

Grasping the Truth

How do you see God? If you had cold or abusive parents, you don’t have to live in fear of a mean, distant God. Read the stories about Jesus in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you’ll have a clear picture of the true nature of God. He’s waiting for you to allow Him to love you as He wants to.

The question is, will you let Him?

Pray on!

The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus KnowsBy James Bryan Smith / IVP BooksWhat does being Christlike really mean? Smith believes we need a pattern for transformation. He encourages us to re-examine what we think about God (our narratives), how we practice (the spiritual disciplines), and whom we interact with (our social context) to discover the life Jesus lived and grow in the knowledge of a good God. 232 pages, hardcover from InterVarsity.

“Take two tablets and call me in the morning.” We’ve all heard that bit of wisdom from a doctor before. Medicine can heal the body, but will it heal our soul? To do the Bible study, Scripture Prescriptions, please click on the link!

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to Him, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.'” Matthew 8:16-17 (Original verse in Isaiah 53:4.)

For our fourth devotion of Holy Week, we are studying the following stanza of the True Lenten Discipline Poem:

FAST from thoughts of illness; FEAST on the healing power of God.

(Here is the full poem of True Lenten Discipline. Here are the devotions for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.)

What strikes me about this verse in Matthew is that every kind of infirmity is addressed by Jesus: spiritual, emotional, and physical diseases. We see just as many illnesses and problems in our times as were present in the Bible times–maybe even more. Jesus also wants us to be whole in mind, body, and spirit. That should always be our goal and desire too.

Physical Healing

I think many of us don’t have any doubts about our minds and spirits being whole, but when it comes to our bodies, we struggle with that because so many people are not healed of diseases. It’s difficult for us to fully understand why. But, I do feel that God wants us to pray for physical health and to control what we can in our lives so that we are healthy. The Bible tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), and as such we need to care for our temple. This means watching what we eat, making sure we get enough rest, maintaining proper hygiene, exercising so that we are fit, living moral lives, and caring for ourselves if we get sick. Many physical problems can be avoided if we do these things–but not all of them.

I do believe that God wants us to seek healing for diseases like cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and the like. We are to pray continually for healing, and to use the resources of doctors, a healthy lifestyle, food supplements, and other treatments as God leads; we then leave the results up to Him. Whether we are healed to earth or healed to heaven, God loves us and desires the best for us.

Spiritual and Emotional Healing

We may think that physical healing is the most important type of healing, when in reality our spiritual state trumps everything else. Salvation–confessing our sins, accepting Jesus’ death on the cross in atonement for our sins, and giving Him control of our lives– is only the first step in our walk with God. If we just stop there, we will miss the richness of a life on earth lived in the power of the Holy Spirit to God’s glory. God wants us to grow, to be healed of any spiritual or emotional weaknesses and illnesses. Jesus tells us in John 10:10 that He has come so that we can have an abundant, full life.

Much of our emotional and spiritual state hinges on the things that we allow ourselves to “take in.” Philippians 4:8 tells us that our focus needs to be on the true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy things. By doing this, we renew our minds (Romans 12:2). What we think and reflect on is what we become (Proverbs 23:7). Philippians 4:9 then goes on to tell us that whatever things we have learned or received or heard from Jesus, we are to “put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you,” (emphasis mine).

It’s also a good idea to be in the habit of protecting our spirits by praying through Ephesians 6:10-20. Jesus realized that His followers would have spiritual battles, and the Bible tells us how to protect ourselves by putting on the full armor of God. Several years ago, I read these verses aloud daily as I prayed for my family each morning. To my surprise, after a few months I found that I had memorized the entire section without even trying! So, if there’s a long section of scripture you want to memorize, get in the habit of reading it aloud every day.

Today, on this Maundy Thursday when Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with His apostles, let’s put our focus and our prayers on the Great Physician and his ability to heal the things in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones that need to be healed.

Application: What in your life needs to experience the healing power of God? Are there any changes that you can make that will speed up your healing? What resources has God given you that you can take advantage of?

Prayer: Dear Jesus, We thank You that ALL things are under your feet, are subject to you. We ask for Your healing power to be unleashed for these specific things: _______________ (you fill in the blank). Lead us to the people, resources, and lifestyle changes that will help us. We thank you for your mighty power that is at work in each of us. Amen.

You may find these other resources helpful: Are Your Walls Up?;            Praise the Lord!