BIBLE STUDY FOR THIS WEEK

(Luke 4:20 “He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at Him intently. Then He began to speak to them.

Jesus’ breath is over this reading; He gives it back to you, sits down next to you waiting to speak powerful words. Be quiet and feel His touch as He speaks to you and you alone. Look at Him intently, expecting to be in God’s holy presence.)

 

Bible Study  (The red writing is taken directly from the Holy Bible New Living Translation.)

Thursday 29 January 2015

 

LUKE 4:16-30 (Read all of verse 16 to 30 before answering the questions.)

 

¹⁶When He came to the village of Nazareth, His boyhood home, He went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scripture. ¹⁷The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

 

1. What do we learn about Jesus in the above paragraph?

2. Did Jesus know exactly what He was going to read?

 

¹⁸”The Spirit of the LORD

          is upon me,

     for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the

          poor.

     He has sent me to proclaim

     that captives will be

         released,

     that the oppressed will be set

     free,

¹⁹and that the time of the

     LORD’S favour has come.”

 

3. Who is being written about here?

4. When was this written (more or less)?

     Read Isaiah 46:10, what does this tell you about God?

5. What do you understand under Good News, poor, captives, oppressed, and the LORD’s   

    Favour?

6. According to 1 Timothy 2:6, what is the LORD’S favour?

7. How does verse 18 and 19 impact your life? 

    Is it possible that these two verses could apply to you, as if you are the anointed one who

    comes to bring Good News? Read John 14:12

Please remember this:

TRUE  FAITH

Do not say to your neighbour,

“Come back later;

I’ll give it tomorrow” –

when you now have it with you.

Proverbs 3:28

True faith demands that you see the

Needs of people that surround you

and that you do something about it.

 

 

²⁰He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at Him intently.

²¹Then He began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!

 

8. Sit in silence for 2 minutes and imagine the silence as if you are present in verse 20.  And

    experience the impact verse 21 has on the people in the synagogue? You are one of them,

    what are you feeling?

 

²²Everyone spoke well of Him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from His lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

 

9. Do you think the people sensed that there was something supernatural happening here? What barrier prevented them from accepting Jesus’ statement? Read 2 Corinthians 4:18.

 

²³Then He said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’- meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ ²⁴But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.

 

10. Have you experienced this in your own life? Have you had answered prayers and experiences that have not happened in your own family.  Have you been rejected?

 

Jesus then gives 2 examples from the past:

²⁵Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land.

 

11. As a matter of interest, who is responsible for these devastating times in our lives? Isaiah 45:7

 

²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner – a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon.

²⁷And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”

 

12. What about us? Who were we and who are we now? Read Galatians 3:26

       Read John 1:11-12

 

²⁸When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. ²⁹Jumping up, they mobbed Him and forced Him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push Him over the cliff, ³⁰but He passed right through the crowd and went on His way.

 

13. Compare verse 22 to verse 28. Why this change in attitude from His own people?

 

14. How come they did not push him over the cliff? After all, it was a crowd against one. See John 7:30 “… because His time had not yet come.”

 

 

PRAYER: Father, thank You for Your word.  When I get up from here, let this not be the end of my quiet time. As I go through the day and have to wait somewhere, let me remember what I had read today. If I forget, let me go and check up on the facts. And tonight when I wait to fall asleep, let me recall all I had read in your word and what you had said. Let me be hungry to hear you speak. Hungry for every situation that brings me nearer to you. Renew my mind that I will not dwell or speak on the negative, not even in prayer. Be glorified in all I do or say. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Cor. 4:18 So we don't look at the troubles

we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on

things that cannot be seen. For the things

we see now will soon be gone, but the

things we cannot see will last forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Did You See the Monster with Black Hose Eyes?

Easter shivered like a car bombarded with big sounds blasting through its speakers; inconsolable  fear vibrating through the seat.

What does she see? A monster with black hose eyes that turn into hands. Hands that are coming to suck her out of the car and swallow her with its foul petroleum fuelled breath.

What do I see? Three fuel pumps in a row with rolled up pipes of which one unrolls and enters my petrol tank to give us fuel for our beloved destination, the beach.

The difference between her and me?  One is a dog brain and one is a God-breathed human brain.

How often do you ‘shiver’ uncontrollably when circumstances like monsters, enter your world; when that which the human eye sees threatens to invade your sanctity. Do you call out, “Lord, hear my prayer! Listen to my plea! Don’t turn away from me in my time of distress” (Psalm 102:1-2).

REMEMBER:  “…you are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from Gods …” (Matthew 16:23).  “Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7). “… Jesus the Son of God, … This High priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

DO NOT FORGET:  “The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that He has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions” Deuteronomy 29:29        

 NOW LISTEN TO THIS!  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8).

“… no one can measure the depths of His understanding” (Isaiah 40:28).

YOU BETTER BELIEVE: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, …” (Hebrews 4:13).

“…I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself” (Jeremiah 31:3).

“Truly, O God of Israel, our Saviour, You work in mysterious ways” (Isaiah 45:15).

NOW THIS IS LOVE! “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

 

 

 

Easter dog and me (Glenda)

 

 

 

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"Is that Easter?"

“Is that Easter?” I was surprised by the young man’s question as my dog named Easter jumped into the car after our beach walk. There was something in the young man that lit up, and it was more than his smile.  Anyone who knows my dog’s name is Easter would also have been told the Easter story of salvation.  Unbeknown to the young man and his 2 friends, with their loud music, they had been my prayer petition during my walk this morning. Unbeknown to me, one of them had already been introduced to Jesus at a previous beach walk. More smiles and pamphlets and Bibles were handed out and I drove off with an overflow of Jesus love.  “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

 

(And this takes me back to what happened on 30 November 2014 … but let me make that a post on its own.  “I was going to commit suicide, but you gave me one of those little Bibles. I read it and then I saw that there is still love!” Watch my new post for this moving touch of Jesus on a homeless life.)

 

By the way … TODAY WAS DIFFERENT

My morning today, started yesterday with my current reading; Isaiah.

God activated Isaiah 45:6 “So all the world from east to west will know there is no other God.” This made me think of other gods. Being in a relationship with Jesus means fingers always point to yourself before pointing to any other. I thought of my phone and my computer. When I wake up in the early morning hours I pick up my phone to see what the time is. Then I also see messages and other temptations and before I know it I had stolen God’s time for me. It is He who wakes me up to come in to His throne room so we can talk together. Then it is He who sends me out to go and talk with others. "Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will" (Isaiah 50:4).

Psalm 119:37 is written and stuck on my wall. “Turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life through Your word.”

I know a promise to God is not to be taken lightly. When I wake up in the morning I will not look at my phone before I have had at least half an hour in the word of god. You try and spend half an hour in the word of God without making it an hour and even then you keep running back because then the verses you find on fb suddenly have vibrant meanings because they say  what God had just said to you in your morning reading. Before I know it my beds are not made and my dishes are not washed but my spirit is squeaky clean and on fire.

And this is how I come to share this message with all my Christian friends:

YOU ARE NOT TO GO ONTO THE COMPUTER WITHOUT HAVING SPENT AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR IN GOD’S WORD. VERSES GIVEN ON THE INTERNET IS NOT QUIET TIME!!!! IT IS JUST A BONUS AFTER COMING OUT OF THE THRONE ROOM, HAND IN HAND WITH JESUS, AFTER AN UNDILUTED WORD MEAL.

 

“Your word was found and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).

THE UGLY 66 YEAR OLD BEAUTY

THE UGLY 66 YEAR OLD BEAUTY

Yesterday I played close up selfie-selfie on my cell phone. Click-and-delete!

 

I look as if I died 3 days ago! My skin is like the surface of unmoving water at a soap factory; like sneaky frog eggs blanketed by my very own skin.

Well if beauty is only skin deep, then so is ugliness.

 

My dog is ugly too. No one desires to give her a look or a pat. But… to me? When she invades my bed space and snuggles her ugly face into my neck, she gives off enough love to change a frog into a prince. So then the two of us lay there- two princes, with hearts that would win any beauty competition

 

The moral of the story? Be kind and loving. Beauty is in the eye of those who love who you are.

 

And as for Jesus? Let God speak for himself: “… your are precious to me. You are honoured and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4).

And all of Psalm 139, to name but verse14 and 17: “Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! … How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!”

The list of who we are in Christ just goes on and on and on…

 

NOW, WHY DO I FEEL SO BEAUTIFUL TODAY?

 

P.S.

My diaries overflow with a living God. I run to Him with that which is seen,  and He shows me the unseen (as in 2 Cor.4:18) Like Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19:14, I also spread the letter of doom out before God in the throne room and He takes my ashes and gives me back beauty. Like David in Psalm 102 God turns my “… sound of groaning…” into endless praise. This is One place where I can totally be who I am and get changed from glory to glory. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Notice the end of my sharing … I feel so beautiful.

 

 

 

 

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