Happy Wednesday, Ladies!

Today, we’re kicking off our new study…

…with a fun title pic contest!

It’s common these days to hear pastors say that they have a “vision” for the church. But how often do we stop and think about God’s vision for the church? In 1 & 2 Timothy, God’s instructions to a young pastor, we’ll see the beauty of God’s attribute of administration as He sets the practical aspects of the structure of the church in order, but we’ll also see His heart for the spirit of the church to be wholly oriented toward Him – for His glory and our good. This is church as it was meant to be – then and now.

But before we get started studying, how about a little fun?

You’ve probably noticed that I design a title picture for each Bible study I write. Here are a few past title pics:

(You can see the rest of them at the Bible Studies tab, if you like.)

Y’all have sent in some beautiful and creative entries in our past title pic contests, so, once again, I wanted to get some of you involved in the design process for our new study.

Do you enjoy and have a knack for photo editing? Know someone who does? If so, I’m accepting submissions for title pictures for the 1 & 2 Timothy study. If your submission is chosen it will be used each week of the study, and you’ll be credited (name or website) by watermark. I’d love to be able to offer a huge cash prize, but, hey, we’re small potatoes here. This is just for fun and maybe a little publicity for your site, if you have one.

Contest Guidelines

☙ You must use images that don’t require attribution. Pictures you’ve taken yourself are fine, as are images from sources such as Pixabay, Pexels, Freely, Unsplash, StockSnap, or other free stock photo web sites. Please include the image source web sites you use along with your submission. (You cannot just grab and use any old picture off the internet. Photographers own their images and usually require permission, attribution, and often a fee, for their use.)

☙ Title pics should be landscape (a horizontal rectangle) with a width of 640-1500 pixels and proportionate height. I prefer JPG images, but PNG is fine, too, if necessary.

☙ Your title pic must contain the full title of the study: 1 & 2 Timothy: The Structure and Spirit of the Church. (Be sure to double check your spelling).

☙ If your submission is selected, I’ll be glad to watermark it with your website address (please submit your picture without any watermarks) as long as your web site doesn’t conflict with my statement of faith or my beliefs outlined in the Welcome tab.

☙ Deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. Monday, April 15, 2019.

☙ E-mail your title pic submission along with your full name, web site address (if any), and the source(s) you used for your image(s) to MichelleLesley1@yahoo.com.

☙ Please don’t be offended if your submission isn’t selected. If I peruse all the submissions and I’m just not “feeling it,” I may still elect to design one of my own.

☙☙☙☙☙

Feel free to share this around with friends who have an interest in photo editing. If you want to take a whack at it for fun but don’t know where to start, play around with Be Funky, PicMonkey, or Canva and see which one works best for you. Think about God’s vision for His church and try to capture the theme of 1 & 2 Timothy in your image.

Happy designing!

Favorite Finds

Favorite Finds ~ April 9, 2019

April 9, 2019April 9, 2019 Michelle Lesley

Here are a few of my favorite recent online finds…

In February’s edition of Favorite Finds, I mentioned that I was hoping to have the opportunity to see the movie Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy, which was in theaters in mid-March. Well, life intervened and I wasn’t able to get to the theater when it was playing, so I guess I’ll have to wait for it to come out on Netflix or something. Did you see the movie? What did you think of it? I’d love to hear a little feedback…or maybe you’d like to write a review of the movie as a guest post?

“I’m not sad that I’m not and couldn’t be a church planter or lead pastor. I don’t feel restricted or resentful. Instead, I feel full.” I always appreciate the voices of sisters in Christ who are leading unashamedly under the banner of strong, biblical complementarianism. Complementarianism is a blessing, not a burden, so I really enjoyed Whitney Woollard’s* article Delighting in Authority: How to Create a Culture of Happy Complementarians over at Eternal Perspectives Ministry.

“…since loving Christ entails loving the Church; it’s time for you now to heed the summons of God’s Word and go back into a local church, a local expression of the Body of Christ.” I really appreciate Jennifer Brogdon’s* gentle and compassionate approach to encouraging wounded saints to go back to church (especially compared to my usual “bull in a china shop” treatment of the same topic) in her article Go Back to the Local Church.

Image result for life in four stages

Who’s in the mood for a free book? Here’s a PDF copy of Al Mohler’s Life in Four Stages: A Biblical Celebration of Childhood, Youth, Adulthood and Age.

Want to study the Ten Commandments? Here’s a free devotional excerpted from Kevin DeYoung’s book, The Ten Commandments: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them.

If you’re looking for great listening and reading material, you cannot go wrong with Steve Lawson. I highly recommend him. Here’s an excerpt from his sermon It Will Cost You Everything. (Subtitles in various languages available.)

I’m not very familiar with these writers or all the content at these blogs. I do not endorse anything you might find at these sites that conflicts with my theology as outlined at the Welcome* and Statement of Faith tabs at the top of this page.

Uncategorized

The Word on Wednesdays

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 Michelle Lesley

I’m baaaaaack! :0) Lord willing and the creek don’t rise (and all the laundry gets done), this will be our last “re-run” Bible study for a while. Next week, I’ll announce our new regular weekly study and title pic contest. So if you were wanting to get finished up with anything you’re working on, you’ve still got a couple of weeks before lesson 1 of the new study.

Also, for those who have messaged me to let me know about all the broken links on previous Bible studies, thank you for reminding me! The Bible studies are the first things I’m going to fix links on. (Until I’m able to get to all of them, if you click on a broken link, just go up to your browser bar and delete the word “books” from the site address (so that it says MichelleLesley.com instead of MichelleLesleyBooks.com) it’ll take you right where you need to go.) So far, I’ve fixed The Women of Genesis, and everything in Imperishable Beauty looks like it’s working. I’ll get the others taken care of as soon as I can.

Here’s today’s “re-run”:

Wednesday’s Word

Wednesday is Bible study day here on the blog. In my Wednesday’s Word study, you’ll find miscellaneous, one lesson Bible studies from each book of the Bible. One chapter of Scripture followed by study questions. This sampler series demonstrates that there’s nothing to be afraid of when approaching those “lesser known” books and that every book of the Bible is valuable and worth studying.

Wednesday’s Word ~ 2 John

2 john 10 11

The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, ²because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

³Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love. Keep reading…

Uncategorized

The Word on Wednesdays

March 27, 2019March 22, 2019 Michelle Lesley

As you read this, I’m winging my way across the country to speak at a conference, so our next regular weekly Bible study won’t start until after I return home and get my household back in order (I’m thinking probably mid-April-ish, but don’t quote me on that.). :0) I have a study in mind, but will keep thinking and praying about it for a few more weeks.

So anyway, for the next few Wednesdays, you’ve got some options:

📖 You can finish up Imperishable Beauty or any of my other studies you’re currently working on.

📖 You can choose a book(s) of the Bible to work through on your own.

📖 You can choose one of my studies to work through at the Bible Studies tab at the top of this page. (I would choose one of the shorter ones, like Colossians or Ruth rather than one of the longer ones if you’re only trying to fill the space between now and the beginning of our next study.)

📖 You can follow along with the sampling of “re-run” lessons I’ll be posting here on the blog each week.

Here’s today’s “re-run”:

sunday school

Sunday School: Chronological Study Lessons

During 2014, I led my ladies’ Sunday School class in a chronological read-through of the entire Bible. Each week I taught a lesson from that week’s reading and posted it here on the blog.

If you’re using the chronological one year Bible reading plan this year, here’s the lesson that roughly corresponds with this week’s reading. (And even if you’re not, I hope you’ll enjoy this lesson anyway.)

Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 13 ~ Mar. 23-29
Joshua 1-24
Rahab: From Floozy to Faithful

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient,
because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
Hebrews 11:31

Background- Joshua 1
Joshua 1 sets the stage for the story of Rahab and the spies. Moses had recently died, and God “promoted” Joshua to take his place. It was finally time for the Israelites to enter and take possession of the Promised Land. As God “installed” Joshua into his new position, He reminded him… Continue reading.

Bible Study, Mailbag

Throwback Thursday ~ The Mailbag: I love the Bible, but I have to force myself to read it

March 14, 2019March 12, 2019 Michelle Lesley

Originally published October 9, 2017

I am struggling with reading the Word. I find myself having to drag myself to it to dedicate time to read it, struggling against doing other things instead. I love the Lord with all my heart. I love His Word, LOVE everything about the Bible. I know that love for God’s word and hunger for it is one of the marks of salvation. I want to hunger for reading it like a baby hungers for milk. I want that passion for His word.

Please don’t tell me to check my salvation as I daily obsess about this to the point where my sister in Christ said I have OCD about this. I hear about false converts and it scares me. An elder told me that you can do the unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit and I thought that once I was saved I could not do that, that was the sin of unbelief. Now, I am sometimes scared to even think about the Holy Spirit, because what if I do that! Please take me Lord, before I would do that! Please help me.

This question from a friend of my Facebook page just reached through the screen and clutched at my heart. I’ve been right where this sister is now, and I know many of you have been there as well. If you would, take a moment to pray for her and any other Christian you know who’s struggling with this kind of anxiety in her walk.

The Unpardonable Sin
You cannot commit the unpardonable sin. No one living today can commit that sin. I don’t mean to sound harsh, as we all make mistakes, but I am appalled at your elder’s ignorance on this issue and what he said to you. It’s a very common question, and he should at least know a simple answer to it. I’ve covered it here: What is the unpardonable sin?

Check your salvation?
There is no reason for me to tell you to check your salvation, and it never entered my mind to do so. Lost people don’t ask God to take their lives lest they commit the unpardonable sin or worry about whether or not they hunger enough for God’s Word. Only saved people think like that, because saved people are new creations in Christ, with the mind of Christ, who desire to please Christ. Lost people can’t even understand the things of God because these things are revealed by the Holy Spirit, which they don’t have.

I would really encourage you to work through the book of 1 John (I’ve written a study on it if you’d find that helpful). John wrote this epistle to reassure believers. As he says in 5:13: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Getting over the “hump” of reticence.
What you describe about dragging yourself to do your Bible study but then loving the Word once you get over that hump of reticence is absolutely, without a doubt, one hundred per cent normal. Pastors feel that way. Elders feel that way. Bible teachers feel that way. Every Christian, including me, feels that way at least sometimes. Usually several times a week for me.

That feeling does not mean you’re not hungering for the Word or that you don’t have a passion for it. Indeed, if you weren’t hungering for the Word with such a passion, you wouldn’t be so up in arms about feeling tempted to do something besides reading your Bible.

That feeling is not something lacking in your desire for the Word. That feeling is Satan tempting you to do anything rather than study your Bible. And the way you combat that temptation? You pray through it, pick up your Bible, and start reading – regardless of how you feel about it. Obedience is hard sometimes. But when you grit your teeth against that temptation and obey God anyway, that is a precious offering to the Lord. He doesn’t require that you feel all hearts and flower-y while you’re doing it. That’s you putting that pressure on yourself. This is battle. Fight. You obey and let God worry about your feelings.

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Matthew 21:28-31a

Peace be unto you.
God did not save you in order for you to spend your life in a state of fear and anxiety. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” Forever starts the moment you’re saved. God wants you to enjoy spending time with Him in this life just as much as He wants you to in the next.

Christ is the Prince of Peace and His desire is for you to be at peace with Him. He knows you inside and out and He still delights in you. It is safe to let go, relax, and rest in His love and delight. He is not going to let go of you. Here are a few Scriptures that may bring you some comfort and reassurance. Believe them. Trust Him. He loves you. Let that sink in and simply love Him back.

For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with salvation.
Let the godly exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
Psalm 149:4-5

If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.