Bible Study

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.  Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV

Recently I sat down and had a conversation with one of my dear friends about Men.  It was not one of those stereotypical sessions where you have two girlfriends talking about guys and dogging them out.  Trust me it was far from that scenario.  We spoke of how important it is for men to see God as their ultimate source for how to love others unconditionally, to forgive and forget, to trust, to be an example of integrity, knowledge, wisdom and how quite simply provide for themselves and their families.

You see, God is the ultimate provider and father; when he created Man he fashioned him after himself.  Man was created because God desired to have a family/people to commune, provide for and share his abundant kingdom with.   Just like God, Man has that very same desire ingrained in him; to provide for those he cares for his own family.

In order for Man to be the true provider which he was created to be he has to be whole heartily in relationship with God.  Without this relationship it will be near to impossible for him to be a true sustainer.  When Man begins to trust in only what he creates of his own hands and things of this earth like money he is trusting in what is temporal.  God is forever and will never lose value, dry up or spoil.

If there is no consistent communication between God and Man, the seeds of confusion can be planted and quickly take root and eventually bear fruit.  Fruit like fear, lack, despair, depression, anger, and desperation on the side of man.  God is confident in who he is.  Man on the other hand until he is rooted and ground in the knowledge of God and his love will always try to make things happen out of his own abilities which are limited.

Man should never get this reality twisted.  Man did not create God, God created Man. And when he did, he did so with a purpose in mind.  Man was to be fruitful and multiple on this earth.  He was to further God’s kingdom until it spread across all four corners of the globe; making a perfect copy of God’s kingdom in heaven on earth.  Man was created to be the steward of this planet.  Yet, when he disobeyed God’s commandment and did not take responsibility for his own actions, he created a communication break down.

First, he ate from the Tree of Life that God explicitly told him not to.  Then he hid from God and lastly he blamed Eve who had not been given the commandment in the first place from God to obey.  Man/Adam was the one that God ultimately held responsible for following the community / Garden of Eden, his rules.  Here is where fear came on the scene and Man began instead of looking up for guidance from God, he began to look down and around himself to see how he could make things happen…

Man, you need to look UP!

© 2011 Lela Jefferson – http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com

Psalm 45: 1 (Amplified) MY HEART overflows with a ^[a]goodly theme; I address my psalm to a King. My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.

“Spiritual Vomit”!?!? What the heck is that you may be asking…?  Does it sound gross to you? It should. The repercussions that come from not purging your soul, can cause you to have unexpected verbal accidents.

As I have been taught, man is a tri-part being he is a spirit that possesses a soul/heart (where his thinker, feeler, and chooser reside) and he has and lives in body.  When we die in the physical our spirit man is separated from our flesh (our earth suit) and the decisions we made while we were alive affect where we end up living out eternity.

My spirit man, when I became born again was made new. However my soul/heart needs to be renewed daily.  That means what I allow into its gates through my ears, my eyes, by what I touch and what comes out of my mouth must line up with the Word of God.  This way my spirit and soul/heart can become on one accord.  When they are not, the possibility for verbal accidents based in flesh to happen can seem unavoidable.  For example, I have been called snappy on more than number of occasions, as it relates to my responses… snappy means briskly cold. Am I proud of it? No, it’s an area where I need to continue develop in.  It’s an area where I can visualize my spirit man physically getting ill because it has to witness my soul/heart controlling how my body reacts to situations.  Its base is fear…

Going back to the topic of this article, “Spiritual Vomit”; if you noticed above I made mention that our soul/heart is where our thinker, feeler, and chooser reside.  So it is safe to say that if you think a certain way, and feel a certain way you will choose to do a certain action, right?  Again hypothetically speaking, if I think on doing something for a while (mediate on it), I will begin to have strong feelings and eventually will choose to do it or because I have been mediating on it for so long, I will begin to act out on my thoughts by instinct.  Think of a person that has learned to drive.  After awhile the fact that in order to keep the car moving forward requires them to press their foot on the accelerator and hold onto the steering wheel to keep the car steady will become almost as instinctual as breathing.

The same can be said about a person and their attitudes towards others. If you think a particular way about a person, you will begin to feel also a particular way about them and so either way good, bad or indifferent will begin to treat them based on those feelings.  When you see them your face may also read a different message to what you are actually saying.  This scenario can also cause you to seem phony, not truthful to people because you are attempting to mask your feelings.  I am not saying it’s ok either to go around telling people exactly how you truly feel, because it can be considered offensive.  Depending on the delivery, the timing and the words you use… Trust me, I know.  Choose your battles… However, I do recommend that you examine yourself before you react.

If you are not cautious with your words, you may even begin to make comments that reflect flesh based feelings.  These little comments may seem accidental but are really what you are feeling in the city of your soul.

Usually what makes you angry is what you are afraid of.  Or what annoys you, is what you have given power to trigger negative reactions from you.  When my Pastor taught these two points a number of years ago it really hit home.  What more than anything hit me is that I can choose how I react and what I react to.  I have the ability to stop verbal slip ups from escaping my lips.

Now what are some of the repercussions of NOT purging your soul?

1)      Lost relationships

2)      Doors of opportunity being shut

3)      Communication breakdown

Cheers to fewer clean ups in the aisle called you!

Reference Scriptures

John 6:63 (Amplified) It is the Spirit Who gives life [He is the Life-giver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it]. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life.

Romans 8:1-7 (Amplified) ¹THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.^(A)

²For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.

³For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [^[a]the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [^[b]subdued, overcame, ^[c]deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],^(B)

⁴So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].

⁵For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and ^[d]pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and ^[e]seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit.

⁶Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that ^[f]comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].

⁷[That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot.

⁸So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.

© 2011, Lela Jefferson. All rights reserved.

So… you missed the mark. You sinned. You were disobedient to God’s will / His word. Now what? FYI Its okay, God already knows what you did. Will there be consequences? Sure there will be. It’s okay to go to him and talk about it and get the instruction on how to get back on track. God is God, he created you and he has given you a purpose to fulfill. But first you need to get over yourself… (YOU-R-SELF)…  relax he is waiting for you; he has made an opening just for you in his busy schedule.

Psalm 32 (The Message)

A David Psalm

¹ Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be— you get a fresh start,
your slate’s wiped clean.

² Count yourself lucky—
God holds nothing against you
and you’re holding nothing back from him.

³ When I kept it all inside,
my bones turned to powder,
my words became daylong groans.

⁴ The pressure never let up;
all the juices of my life dried up.

⁵ Then I let it all out;
I said, “I’ll make a clean breast of my failures to God.”

Suddenly the pressure was gone—
my guilt dissolved,
my sin disappeared.

⁶ These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
we’ll be on high ground, untouched.

⁷ God’s my island hideaway,
keeps danger far from the shore,
throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.

⁸ Let me give you some good advice;
I’m looking you in the eye
and giving it to you straight:

⁹ “Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule
that needs bit and bridle
to stay on track.”

¹⁰ God-defiers are always in trouble;
God-affirmers find themselves loved
every time they turn around.

¹¹ Celebrate God.
Sing together—everyone!
All you honest hearts, raise the roof!

© 2011, Lela Jefferson. All rights reserved.

2 Corinthians 6:14 (The Message)

^14-18Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:
“I’ll live in them, move into them;
I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise;
leave it for good,” says God.
“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.
I want you all for myself.
I’ll be a Father to you;
you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”
The Word of the Master, God.

I will be the first one to tell you, when it comes to matters of the heart and romance in general I am not an expert. I can only speak from my own experiences. I can count my relationships actually on one hand. One of which lasted way beyond its prescribed expiration date, it had just been bad and personal pride and a genuine desire for me to see it work had me hold on and be in pursuit of what turned out to be an unhappily ever after. Putting that all aside for it is in my past…

As I have written about before I am a big opponent to the term dating when it comes at least to describing my own current relationship. Dating by loose definition has an expiration it certainly must end. Courting on the other hand has a purpose in mind from its beginning and eventually will bring the two people in that courtship into covenant with each other through matrimony. As I see it my Intended has been courting me since we reconnected almost 3 years ago. We were blessed to have a shared history, yes. He and I went to high school together, but that was really it. When we graduated we parted ways and at the time were just acquaintances.

So, oddly enough when fate reconnected us and we began working on establishing a friendship based on our common interest of wanting to grow in closer relationship with God. The thought that we would slowly but surely grow in love with each never crossed my mind. It just happened because at first I saw him just as my friend. A person I had fond memories of from high school and was enjoying getting to know.

All of us have heard the term that when getting to know someone it is important to have “lengthy conversations”. To tell you the truth, the advice should really be given to have “lengthy quality conversations.” Relationships that are meant to last require substance God’s word is the best.

Whether you are “dating” or enjoying a courtship just remember to always check to whom you are pursuing and who is in pursuit of whom…

Matthew 6:33 (The Message)

^30-33“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

© 2011, Lela Jefferson. All rights reserved.

Do you remember the song…”Whip Appeal” by Babyface?   Yes, I am dating myself.  However, I was thinking about it tonight while I was mediating on my scriptures for the day Joshua 5:2, Romans 2:29 and Colossians 2:11 all in which talk about circumcision first of the body and then the subconscious mind otherwise known as our hearts.

If you can follow my train of thinking the Word of God has “Whip Appeal”.  Once you begin to really dig your heels into it, it whips everything that does not line up to it right out of you!  You begin to desire it more and after awhile don’t mind that it is whipping the fleshy things right on out.

In truth true freedom begins first in your mind.  Once your mind is renewed… the flesh has no other choice but to submit.

Did you know that God wants to court you?  During a period of not knowing, a wilderness experience; God touches our hearts before he asking for our hands.  As with Abram in Genesis 12:1-3 he tells us what his will for us is before the promise is fulfilled, it is up to us to believe him by faith and follow him.  When we got saved we entered into a courtship with God.  Unlike dating that has expiration deciding to go into courtship with God meant that you saw, with him there was a future beyond what you were experiencing while being unsaved.  In a courtship you build a foundation for a future together a covenant. God courts us.  Don’t get it twisted we do not court him.

God is always giving the advantage. He gave us Jesus, the Holy Spirit and his Word in the form of the Bible.  As we learn more through our personal walks with God; through our courtship we develop more deeply into a relationship.  As we experience more of him our confidence is strengthen.  Though we may have trials and tribulations, God past track record in our lives and what is shown in his word, tell us that he has our back.  All we have to is follow his lead.

To paraphrase God from Jeremiah 29:11 he said it very plainly that he has plans for us, plans to prosper us and not harm us, to give us hope and a future.  And what are the only things God asks us to do in return?  Trust him; obey him, to believe in him by faith and to develop in his love.  Just like when the vows are declared during a wedding ceremony.  His promises to bless us and make our names great prepare us to walk fully and boldly into our covenant with him.

I read having a Mary Heart in a Martha World – Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life by Joanna Weaver over the summer.  A book I now highly recommend for all women, young and old to read.  I have been actually sharing my findings as I journey through the accompanying Bible Study Mrs. Weaver placed at the end of the book on my blogs.  Here is the latest question I studied out and gave commentary on.

Questions for Discussion or Reflection – Day Fifteen

2) According to Dr. Edward Hallowell, over half of us are chronic worriers.  Which of the ten signs of a big worrier on page 33 do you struggle with?  How do worry and anxiety spill over into your daily life and affect your behavior? Your physical health?

Ten Signs of a Big Worrier

Is worrying a problem in your life? Dr. Hallowell says it might be if these worry signs are true about you:

1)      You find you spend much more time in useless non constructive worry than other people you know.

2)      People around you comment on how much of a worrier you are.

3)      You feel that it is bad luck or tempting fate not to worry.

4)      Worry interferes with your work – you miss opportunities, fail to make decisions, perform at lower than optimal level.

5)      Worry interferes with your close relationships – your spouse and/or friends sometimes complain that your worrying is a drain on their energy and patience.

6)      You know that many of your worries are unrealistic or exaggerated, yet you cannot seem to control them.

7)      Sometimes you feel overwhelmed by worry and even experience physical symptoms such as rapid breathing, shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness, or trembling.

8)      You feel a chronic need for reassurance even when everything is fine.

9)      You feel an exaggerated fear of certain situations that other people seem to handle with little difficulty.

10)   Your parents or grandparents were known as great worriers, or they suffered from an anxiety disorder.

Search me O God and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting – Psalm 139:23 – 24

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Personally I believe all of us have some areas and have had times in our lives where we have worried over people, places or things that we should had turned over to God.   I know for me, I have a tendency to either over analyze a thing or want something to be so prefect that I fail to even start on a project I know. I should be doing.  Praise God, he is helping me in that area by bringing the right people and influences across my path and I am willing enough to accept their counsel vs. being offend by it.

2009’s I speak by faith and see by my actions strongholds are not being carried over into this New Year.  Missed blessings or opportunities are not an option.  I have cleaned out my inner ear to hear more clearly from God.  In turn, I have begun the process of removing the waxes sort of speak of distractions, either externally or internally created.

To be continued… I welcome your comments!

The previous article can be found here.

Lela Jefferson – http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com

I read having a Mary Heart in a Martha World – Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life by Joanna Weaver over the summer.  A book I now highly recommend for all women, young and old to read.  I have been actually sharing my findings as I journey through the accompanying Bible Study Mrs. Weaver placed at the end of the book on my blogs.  Here is the latest question I studied out and gave commentary on.

Questions for Discussion or Reflection – Day Fourteen

1) Martha wanted Jesus to tell Mary to help out in the kitchen, but instead of giving her what she wanted, Dr. Jesus made a diagnosis:  “Martha, Martha… you are worried and upset about many things.”  If you had been Martha, how would Jesus’ words have made you feel?

I have been Martha, in the past and sometimes do even have relapses.  However, to answer the above question directly and honestly, I would have felt at first taken aback and quite possibly a bit offended by Jesus’ comment.  The reason since that this man would have been undressing my mind, with his response to my request of help, from Mary my sister.  Culturally yes the women were to ready the house for guests.   However, nowhere in this encounter with Jesus do we see Martha being asked to do anything by Jesus or anyone else for that matter.  She made the conscious decision to busy herself.  I can imagine being Martha saying to myself while being very aggravated “I wish I could sit at the Master’s feet and act as if I have no cares in the world like my sister Mary!  However, I must do what duty dictates.”

Duty at times can be a blessing.  It leads to the maintaining of order.  However, it cannot be our excuse for not making positive changes in our lives.  Mary outside of the two sisters was the most bold in this story.  She went against traditions to sit herself in a room filled with men, at the feet of a man that was not her husband.  In this she showed Jesus that she valued what he had to offer, his presence.

Instead of trying to show him through works begat from busyness, she [Mary] showed him in her immediate corresponding action of faith by sitting at his feet.  Martha on the other hand, showed her busyness to be more important than to hear a word from Jesus.

To be continued… I welcome your comments!

The previous article can be found here.

Lela Jefferson – http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com

I will pass the test of walking in love even in the midst of hurt feelings.  I know that I am accepted by my Abba Father and am the righteousness of God.

If I must boldly stand apart and embark on things unknown, I know my faith in the covenant promises will be more than enough to sustain me.

I will see God’s will done through my life of bond servitude and my inheritance.  Know this…I regret nothing, nor do I desire to go back through doors that have been clearly shut.

Lela Jefferson

- http://www.memoirsofablackgirl.com