A Little Note from Sharon

Dear friend,  I hope you are enjoying and growing through this online Bible Study. I love digging into the Word with you, and I hope that this helps you to establish and/or maintain a lifelong habit of meeting with God each day. That's our goal and purpose here at Sweet Selah Ministries. It's our joy to offer these studies at absolutely no cost to whoever wishes to come and learn. However, it does take money to keep a ministry running. Our website costs, paying appropriately for each picture we use costs, and putting out materials and giving away gifts to encourage women to study the Word costs. It's a cost we gladly take on. It's what we are all about, after all. If you want […] Read more »

I Can’t Do It All … But What Can I Do?

“And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.” —Matthew 10:42 NLT I was sore and bone-weary after a simple surgery and not allowed to even walk much for two weeks. So I sat. I sat in the living room and then for a change of pace, shuffled to the bedroom and sat in the loveseat there. Then, I moved to the deck and sat. It was a quieting down time like no other. I always talk about taking a Sweet Selah Day once a month, and now I had been gifted with a huge chunk of selah time—if I chose to use it to focus on the Lord and His […] Read more »

Day Fifteen

Day Fifteen. January 24. Galatians 4:1-7 In this first part of Galatians 4, Paul continues to explain the role the law played in Israel’s life, before the coming of Jesus. The law, Paul says, was like a guardian, keeping us in check until the coming of Jesus, who would then write the law on our hearts by leaving us His Spirit. Ezekiel, centuries before Christ, points to this amazing day in Ezekiel 36:26: “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” Always, those under the Old Testament law, looked forward to Messiah. With the coming of Jesus, the new spirit in […] Read more »

Day Fourteen

Day Fourteen. January 23. Galatians 3:15-29 Remember as you read, that Paul is writing to people who did not grow up Jewish. He is trying to explain to them a culture not their own. He goes back to Abraham, when the promise was first made that there would be a child coming from Abraham who would bless the world. Here’s where this comes from in Genesis: “for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants (literally your seed) forever.” Genesis 13:15 NASB. If we go further back, the first mention of this “seed” is found in Genesis 3:15: “And I will make enemies of you and the woman, and of your offspring (literally your seed) and her Descendant […] Read more »

Day Thirteen

Day Thirteen. January 22. Galatians 3:1-14 Today we come to the heart of Paul’s message about our need to cling to grace and walk away from making up laws that have to be followed in order to be saved. He’s obviously frustrated with these dear ones for whom he almost laid down his life! Twice, he calls them “foolish” in my translation. This reminds me of an illustration the prophet Jeremiah used. Jeremiah said foolishness was seen when people ignored clean, clear water in a cistern – a clean vessel for holding water. Instead, they were making cracked vessels that could not even contain water because the cracked vessels leaked. God's foolish people were using broken jars, basically, as their source of drinking water. Who […] Read more »

Day Twelve

Day Twelve. January 21. Galatians 2:11-21 This passage of scripture has two points of particular interest to me. First, of course, is Peter’s people-pleasing temptation. I identify with this more than I wish I did. I like it when people like me. It’s very easy for me to get super quiet if I disagree with folks, and sometimes that leads them to believe I agree with them when I don’t. Now, it’s good to be a peacemaker. Stirring up trouble is not something God wants me to do. However, if I am quiet when something wrong is happening, I can do damage by my silence. Here is an example. What if a friend or neighbor starts mocking another friend of ours when she is not […] Read more »

Day Eleven

Day Eleven. January 20. Acts 11:1-18 Surprise! We are back in Acts for one brief day. We need some back story here, in order to understand our next section in Galatians. In this passage, Peter defends his decision to enter a Gentile home and tells the amazing tale of Cornelius, the God-fearing Gentile who “prayed regularly to God.” (See Acts 10:1-8 to learn more about this amazing man who yearned for God!) Well, God answered his prayers BIG time by sending Peter to share with Cornelius the news that Jesus came to save sinners. Even non-Jewish sinners! It’s a vibrant story, isn’t it? I find it interesting that Jesus and Peter often find themselves in situations with three repetitions. Peter denied Jesus three times, for […] Read more »

Day Ten

Day Ten. January 19. Galatians 2:1-10 After Paul establishes his unique taught-by-Christ-Himself credentials, he does also mention that Peter, James and John, the leaders of the church, also supported him fully. He evidently had a particularly wonderful meeting with them about fourteen years after his first brief meeting with them. By this time, Paul had preached a lot of sermons telling the Good News that Jesus Christ, Messiah had come and was coming again. As he met with the leaders of the church, they confirmed that his teaching was the same as theirs. They did not insist that Paul’s Gentile friend be circumcised in order to “belong” as a Christian. They received him on the basis of his faith in Christ alone. It must have […] Read more »