Fruit of the Spirit Study - Week of 11/21 :: Faithfulness

Passage: Hebrews 10:19-25,35-39


¹⁹ And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. ²⁰ By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. ²¹ And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, ²² let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

 ²³ Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. ²⁴ Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. ²⁵ And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

 ³⁵ So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! ³⁶ Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.
 ³⁷ “For in just a little while,
      the Coming One will come and not delay.
 ³⁸ And my righteous ones will live by faith.
      But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”
 ³⁹ But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.


Prompt: Who is writing? Why? Initial thoughts/questions?


Thoughts: The author of Hebrews is unknown, but my dad always says it's clearly Paul that wrote it, not wanting to identify himself, since it was mainly written to the Jews as a plea to come away from the old system.  This particular passage was written as a reminder to keep putting out trust in the Lord and to patiently endure in the faith. He can be trusted because He, Jesus, is our great High Priest, whose death, once for all, paid the price for our sin.  Knowing this, we can boldly go before the throne of grace and seek His face, and He will not reject us.  It's also a reminder not to fall away from meeting together with other believers (the church), but continue to meet with other believers so that we can be an encouragement to one another, especially since the end is so near.

Fruit of the Spirit study - Day 2

[phone camera shot -- not the clearest thing ever]

Day 2
[Out of order --oops --: see below for Day 3 and here for Day 1 (which will explain this study).]

Passage: Galatians 5:16-26

⁶ So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. ¹⁷ The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. ¹⁸ But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

 ¹⁹ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

 ²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

 ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

Prompt: What does this passage teach about God? about the author? about who I am in Christ?

Thoughts: The passage teaches us about God in that He (Holy Spirit) is filled with the fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control), and He longs for us to be; He wants us to follow the Spirit's leading in EVERY PART of our lives, not just on Sunday or at Bible studies, but even when you're sitting your toddler in time-out or spanking your four-year-old for lying (with a little of His mercy and grace for her finally admitting the truth), even when your house is a wreck because your week's been filled with fun, but chaotic busyness, even when every T.V. or toy is blaring and you can't hear yourself think.  God wants us to remain in Him each tiny fraction of every second of every day.  Hide in the shadow of His wings, so to speak.  How hard is this?  It takes superhuman ability, truly -- something WE don't have, but only God can provide, but as we pray to abide in Him and He in us (John 15:5 -- my memory verse from my Experiencing God study this week), we will bear much fruit; apart from Him we can do N-O-T-H-I-N-G, nada.  I dare say, apart from Him, we wreak havoc on everything.  I know I do.  I say things and do things I didn't pray about or ask Him about, and BOOM, I find I've failed...because it was from me (what I thought God wanted me to say or do), not Him or maybe not the right timing.

About the author?  Paul?  He identifies with us.  He knew full well how easy it is to fall back on the sinful nature, or he wouldn't have been able to so clearly define each sin.  Not that he had to have committed every sin, but he wrestled with his own skeletons.  How do I know?  He told us in Romans 7:14-24.  On top of that, he was human, like the rest of us.  Yes, he was a great man of God, used mightily by the Holy Spirit, but he was human nonetheless.
 
In Christ, I am a NEW creation.  I am to be directed and guided, molded, by the Holy Spirit, each and every second of the day.  Pray and ask forgiveness for the moments I yield to my sinful nature (because I do!).  Seek Him first, His kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:32-34), trust Him with all of my heart, lean not on my own understanding (ouch, I do this too much), in all my ways acknowledge Him, ask Him to direct my paths (pray.every.second.because.I.need.to.), and He promises to make His path clear to me (Proverbs 3:5-6).


Lord, do it. Use me.  Fill me with you and remove the me that's still there.  Be glorified in my humble life.
  

Fruit of the Spirit study - Day 3

Day 3 
[Oops.  I accidentally jumped ahead.  Still have to do Day 2]

Passage:
Galatians 5:16-26
¹⁶ So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. ¹⁷ The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. ¹⁸ But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
 ¹⁹ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
 ²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
 ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.


Prompt: What are the promises? Are they conditional or unconditional? If conditional, what do they require? 


Thoughts: When I let the Spirit guide me, I won't be doing what my sinful nature craves; the Spirit will give me cravings that are opposite of my sinful nature, and I am not obligated to the law of Moses.  Wow.  Cool.  When I follow my sinful nature, I will be craving/fulfilling every sin known to man.  Ick.  And anyone living that sort of life will NOT inherit the kingdom of God.  Ouch.  But the Holy Spirit produces all kinds of amazing fruit in our lives.  Oh, how I long for them in every part of my life!  And there is "no law against these things!"  How wonderful, inspiring -- utterly AWESOME is that??!  So when I'm filled with the Spirit's fruit, I'm actually fulfilling the law, the law of Christ.  Sweet.


We who belong to Christ (that's me too!) have nailed our passions and desires of the flesh to the cross -- crucified, gone, toast, D-E-A-D.  And since we are living by the Spirit, we need to follow His leading in every part (every hour, every minute, every second) of our lives.  Wow, that's a tall order.  

Do it in me, Holy Spirit.  Fill me with You daily, moment by moment, minute by minute, second by second.  Help me not to quench Your sweet, convicting presence in my life with my sinful actions.  Remove the me that still resides inside.  Thank You for all that You have done in my heart already; please continue Your huge overhaul of all things dark in my life.  I love You, Lord.  In Your precious name, amen.  

Fruit of the Spirit study - Day 1

I'm doing a study with a Christian mom's group that I'm in, called [Lift], and we're studying Galatians 5:16-25 on the fruit of the Spirit.  The leader of the group, Katie Bodell, linked us to it, via another mom's blog, and through Katie's example, I was encouraged to write my journal entries on my blog, instead of my usual pen-and-paper journal approach.

So here is Day 1, which was actually yesterday:

Passage: 


Galatians 5:16-25
¹⁶ So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. ¹⁷ The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. ¹⁸ But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
 ¹⁹ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
 ²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
 ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

Prompt: Who is writing? Why? Initial thoughts/questions?


My thoughts:

Eric taught a class on Galatians a few years back, so I am excited to study this part of Galatians again.

Paul is writing to the church of Galatia, comprised mostly of Jewish Christians who were struggling with grace.  They were used to the old ways, the Old Testament law, specifically circumcision; they weren't very comfortable with throwing out the old way.  Paul is talking to them about living by the Holy Spirit's guidance, and in doing so, they fulfill the new law Christ spoke of in John 13:34-35, "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." This new law is centered around loving one another as Christ loved us.  With this new "law," there is no need for the old law, the dead way of Moses and his two stone tablets, not to mention the over 600 commandments of the Old Testament.  When we are filled with the fruit of the Spirit, we are filled with Him and His love, and this is all He wants of us.  Ultimately, we can't earn our way by following the old law, anyway.  Jesus wants us to be focused on love, the greatest of the "three things" that will last forever (I Corinthians 13:13).

What hit me most in this passage is the outbursts of anger.  I still have my outbursts.  They aren't pretty.  They turn everyone around into the corners of my life; they shut people out, make them want to run and hide, and I am ashamed to admit it.  I am still following the desires of my sinful nature, especially in this.

Lord, help me to be led by the Spirit and filled with His fruit.

Snapshot of Motherhood

Being held hostage by your seat belt while your two-year-old is madly wailing from the confines of his car seat, with your other kids safely belted into their car seats and shielding their ears for protection, you will do almost anything as a mother to just make it stop. Almost anything. It is like Chinese fingernail torture, only worse because you often can't give in to the demands of your tormentor. It's often because he's dropped some beloved toy out of reach, like between his car seat and door and he can't reach it. And no amount of explanation will help.

"Buddy, I can't reach it right now; you'll just have to wait until I stop the car."

Blank stare, total disbelief, a look that says, You're Supermommy. You can do anything. You've saved my toy from the floor before; why can't you save it now?

And maybe you are on the freeway, and pulling over is just not possible at this exact second. This is where you either make a crazy, reckless decision while driving, carrying the life of your three precious hearts behind you, or you just let him scream.

I have heard a lot of screaming in the last six and a half years.

Lately, I have been convinced that all a girl needs to do to prepare for motherhood [before you have even one child] is to find a youtube recording of a baby, infant, toddler, preschooler, and school-age kid howling his head off and then listen to it for up to 70 percent of your waking day, learn to not let it phase whatever task you're doing or rattle your emotional cage, and you're pretty much prepared to handle the stress of the job. I say pretty much because it won't be your child you are listening to on youtube, and that will make just that extra bit of difference you can't plan for.

There have been times when I have been able to accomplish whatever trick was needed to make the agony stop. I always consider myself to be "safe" in these maneuvers, but sometimes I have to admit they can be on the fringe. Last night, for example, my four-year-old was thirsty and wanted some water. I was on a curve, but I was able to keep my eyes on the road, left hand on the steering wheel, feel for the water bottle beside me, and pass it back to her, all without even a flinch. And this was a nonemergency. My husband would've told her to wait, but I understand the desperate-need-for-it-now-ness of situations, especially thirst, and so I try to oblige whenever I can, as cautiously as needed. I have my limits. When the item is unreachable or I have to contort my body in such a way that I can't keep my eyes on what I'm doing, then I just say no.

But just saying no is not as easy as it sounds.

Pull your heart out of your chest, strap onto it chubby little arms and legs, along with a frustratingly unthwartable will of its own, and you know what it means to have a child.

True Weapons

I've been dealing with depression on and off for probably the last 18 years. It was set off when I was taking a huge load in college at APU, enrolled in their strenuous 4-year nursing program, plus working part-time, and then driving to and from campus 2.5 hours each way. In a matter of a month and a half, sleep-deprived and stressed out to the max, I lost it. I became unrecognizable to even myself. I stopped eating. I stopped sleeping, and...I went crazy. There's no delicate way to say it. I lost my mental capacities, and my parents had to help me get through even the basics of day-to-day living. They took me to a psychiatrist, who wanted to check me into the loony bin. I'm glad they didn't; I would've been terrified. The psychiatrist put me on horse-sized Xanax pills that knocked me out, and I basically slept through the next month. When I finally woke up, I was me again. I guess they call it sleep therapy.

The psychiatrist basically said what I had was post traumatic stress disorder, which is something that Vets went through when they came home from the horrible nightmare of Vietnam. I let myself get so exhausted and stressed that I gave myself incredible anxiety, which led to sleeplessness and then ultimately to insanity. Scary. I was at a place where I never want to be again. Never. I'd rather die than go through that again. I don't remember much from that time except that I thought everyone had been raptured, and I had been left behind and the only way I could get out of the hell-hole I was in was to look up. Literally. So that's what I would do, look up all day. Yeah. Crazyiness.

But ever since '93, when I lost it, I have struggled with depression in one form or another. I took medication for four years, but the doctor I saw was treating me with medication for manic depression, which is in our family, and I'm not completely convinced it was the correct diagnosis. I was manic after the episode, but I think my body's hormones were out of wack, and they overcompensated for the severe low, which swung me into a severe high. I've never had mania since. Of course, the Lord may have healed me from manic depression (at a random church I went to once with a friend in '96, somebody actually prophesied over me that He would cut me off from the curse in my bloodline), but I haven't been on medicine at all since November 1997.

There are times, though, when I really have felt like I could use anti-depressant medication. I've never taken anything for it, I don't think. I might have been given Prozac, but I think that was during that crazy phase and never since. I'm not against medication. My grandpa was a doctor, and he, of course, was big on medicine, and so we always medicated everything when I was growing up; it was like our default, shoot-from-the-hip reaction to every disorder. My grandpa himself (manic depressive) actually took Prozac and called it his happy pill. I'm just hoping to not have to take medication; I don't want to if I don't have to.

Recently I came across Psalm 143, and it hit me between the eyes. It's a psalm of David, and it's uncanny how the enemy resembles depression in these verses -- "The enemy has chased me; he has knocked me to the ground and forces me to live in darkness, like those who live in the grave....come quickly, Lord, and answer me, for my depression deepens; do not turn away from me, or I will die....rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I run to You to hide me....because of Your faithfulness, bring me out of this distress." All the parallels hit home for me, so I've started to memorize it.

Then the Lord began reminding me that we "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12) and that the "weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for bringing down strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4). And also Ephesians 6:17 calls the Word of God the sword of the Spirit. Our battles are not in the flesh, but in the unseen world that wars above us, and the true weapon is His mighty Word.

Today I read Hosea 1:7, "But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies -- not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God." If we rely on His strength, memorize His Word, and quote it when we are fighting those wicked powers in the heavenlies, for whatever "battle" we are facing, then He will help fight the battle for us.

These are the true weapons against the true enemy.

And I have been quoting Psalm 143 when I rise each morning, saying it to Him as my prayer, asking Him to fight the battle for me, and I have been noticing a difference; I am fighting less. In fact, for the past week, when I started this, I haven't been depressed once. I know; it's only been a week, but before that I had been struggling with it day in and day out for the last few months.

I am not advocating that someone walk away from their medication, not without the support of family and medical personnel. But it doesn't hurt to try memorizing scripture even while medicated; let Him help fight the battle for you.

It's now occurred to me that this applies in every area of our lives, and that we are shortsighted when it comes to the power of His Word to fight every battle in our lives. It's truly put a new perspective on scripture for me. And it's not like I haven't heard about the power of memorizing scripture before, but I guess this is where His Word finally pierced to the joints and marrow of my being.

Mirrors

I was preparing our worship set this week, and while doing so, I read some great quotes by John Piper. I'm so moved by his words; they are always convicting and compelling. Whenever I read him, he makes me want to stop whatever I am doing, sell all of my possessions, and become a missionary to some far-off tribe in Africa or China. He moves me to action, and he makes me want to do something for the glory of the Lord and the advancement of His kingdom. So I love to incorporate his thoughts, along with Scripture, into our worship on Sunday mornings.

Here is the John Piper link I've been reading from:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/25423.John_Piper

This quote stood up off the page:

"God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes Him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that He really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God."

It struck me that being created in the image of God means that we are like mirrors. We can be turned in toward ourselves, magnifying whatever it is that we are going through or whatever desire we have -- our pain, our depression, our greed, our glory, our hopelessness, our struggles, our *you fill in the blank* -- or we can be turned out and up to reflect Him in all of His splendor and majesty and goodness and power and mercy and compassion and graciousness and faithfulness and holiness and all that He is. Whenever we are tempted to complain or grumble or wallow in self-pity/self-reflection or to magnify our own importance, we are turning the mirror in toward ourselves. We -- and I say this especially to myself -- need to turn that mirror up toward Him and reflect and magnify Him in ALL circumstances, regardless. As Philippians 4:4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!" The more we magnify and reflect Him, especially in the middle of our trials, the more He is glorified, and that is that chief end of man, our chief purpose in life: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

As John Piper also wrote, "The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness. Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and contemplating your own greatness is pathological. At such moments we are made for a magnificient joy that comes from outside ourselves."

What comes to mind is the verse after which my blog was named -- "more of You" -- 2 Corinthians 3:18 -- "And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him and reflect His glory even more."

I want to reflect Him more.