Are you ready? We start tomorrow, friend. Hope this video helps you prepare. Read more »
Introduction to Steadfast Love
Welcome, friend! So glad you have chosen to join this special look at God’s Steadfast Love for you and for me. I pray that it solidifies in your mind and heart that God loves you deeply – even when you feel the least deserving of that love. He calls us to be His, and once we have said “yes” to Him and asked for Him to save us, we stay His forever. We’ll unpack that together in the month ahead. We use a method of study that we’ve called the 4R Method. It’s Scripture-based rather than commentary-based. So, what we ask you to do as you follow along is to always do your Scripture reading first. That way, you’ve done the most important part of […] Read more »
Week One Reading List
Our 4 R Method of Study
We use a simple method of devotional Bible Study. Before you read Sharon's commentary, follow these steps to meeting with God yourself through His Word: Request. Start with prayer. Ask God to help you understand the passage and focus on what He has to say to you through it. Read. Read through the passage assigned once or twice. Read it and look for the one verse that stands out to you. Record. Literally write out that verse in your journal. The act of writing solidifies the verse in your mind and helps you remember it throughout the day. It also slows you down so that you focus on each word in that verse. Lastly, it gives you a record of what God taught you each […] Read more »
TQT—Triage for the Criticized and Misunderstood
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. —Proverbs 15:1 NIV I don’t like being criticized. I especially don’t like it when it seems to come out of left field and catches me by surprise when I was enjoying the ball game. Sadly, even if the criticism just might have some truth to it, my first response is often out of all proportion to the offense. I am a sinful human being, who quite selfishly wishes the world would always agree that I am right. [Sigh.] This is not a helpful way to think when receiving a critique. So, lately, I’ve come up with a three-part system for dealing with unexpected zingers. Just as our local emergency room starts us […] Read more »
In Christ Alone
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. —Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV) Arriving at the car rental queue at the Baltimore airport, we frowned at the long line, but patiently waited the forty-five minutes it took to get to the counter. (I should rightly say my husband, Marty, waited patiently, while I sat in a comfy seat watching the luggage.) Understandably tired and prickly, the agent checked us in, and ten minutes later we were on the freeway driving to our hotel, excited for the fun few days ahead. However, after just a few miles, the rental car rumbled and lost power. Surprised by the strange noise and loss […] Read more »
Too Hard To Believe?
Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. So she went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen […] Read more »
Remember
And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. —Luke 22:19-20 NKJV (emphasis mine) It’s Wednesday morning, so I am sitting at my parents’ dining room table eating freshly made apple cake—salt free, of course. It’s what I do almost every Wednesday morning, and I love it. We catch up on the news, and my father and I swap stories about having to maintain low-sodium diets. It’s rainy, so we don’t take our usual walk. Instead, we sit on the couch, […] Read more »