Bible Study

Our computer died.  Sad.  I have been out of cyber land for awhile now.  But today I re-enter and am happy to be typing again.  God is good (of course you know this).  We have had two big blessings come to us this week.  One of them is the computer that I am using to type these words.  Someone in our church heard we did not have a computer and gave us a really nice lab top that they had but where not using.  This compute is way nicer then our old one.  I am blessed and thankful for God’s provision.  The other blessing was just as unexpected.  I was going over the good ole finances and praying after I did the budget.  I want to be a women a faith.  I want to be faithful with what I am given and I want to have the righteous faith of Abraham and believe God in all circumstances. Right after I wrapped up the finances and laid them aside, I felt a lot of peace.  I now had the courage to open a medical bill that had been a burden.   I opened it and to my great astonishment found that more then ¾ of the bill had been taken care of!  I was shocked, happy shocked of course.  Who or how this came to be, I still do not know.  But I am thankful, grateful, and reminded of God’s caring hand in all of our matters, whether they be small or great. 

In the midst of daily living I have been involved in several studies.  Two I am co-leading and one I am the head honcho.  I love the young ladies in our community (2 of them are mine!).  I started a bible study after school for these young ladies.  We have met twice and I am so blessed by our time together.  We just finished studying the fruits of the spirit.  Next we will enter the Lenten season with meditations on the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior.  I am putting my notes up here.  Enjoy:

Session 2
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:22-24.

The fruit of the spirit is a work of God. You cannot do these things on your own. People who love Jesus produce fruit. People who do not know Jesus produce fruit. There is good fruit and there is bad fruit. People who live for Jesus produce the fruit of the spirit. People who do not know and love Jesus produce the works of the flesh. Works of the flesh come natural to us. We are told to put off the works of the flesh and put on the fruit of the spirit. This is done in faith and is something that we must learn. The fruit of the spirit is a work of grace and at the same time is something that we do. This fruit is a work of the Spirit within us. God does a mighty work in our hearts, changing it and making it like His. One of the things to remember is to pray to see the fruit of the Spirit in your heart and life. How do we pray? Jesus taught us to pray. He starts with, "Our Father, in heaven." We should copy Him and start this way too. God hears our prayers because of Jesus. Jesus gives power to our prayers. We end "in the name of Jesus." An example of a prayer goes like this - Father in heaven, please be with me and change my heart. Make me to know and love you more and more. I want to see the fruit of the spirit in my life. Help me in Jesus name. Let us now look at the fruit if the Spirit. 

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law.  And those that belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 

Love: 1 Corinthians 13: 4 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.   John 15:13, 14  ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. How does God know we are his friends?

Joy: 1 Chronicles 16, Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. 1 Happiness is an emotion that is easily shaken. Joy comes from knowing The Lord. Joy comes from knowing what God has done for you. This means that joy is not something you conjure up. It does not come from you or others. This why we can have joy when things are hard. This is why we can have joy when others are unkind to us. Joy is remembering what God has done!!! Start thinking on this as much as you can.
Name some of the things God has done for you –

Peace: Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”  Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we^[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 14:9, ^“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace.”  We were born at war with God. Jesus made peace for us. Jesus died and rose again so that we could have peace with God.
How can we be peacemakers at home?

Patience: 1 Thessalonians 5:14,15,  “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. ¹⁵ See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.”  Adam and Eve where not patience.  They wanted to be like God right now, so they took the fruit they were told not. They should have waited!!  God was going to give them the fruit when they were ready.  Another interpretation is long suffering. Bearing with others sins for a long time. This means that when someone sins against you, you react like God and do not retaliate but let it go and cover it with love. God is very patience with us. We learn slowly and mess up all the time. But this is not a problem for God. He helps us and has patience with us as we learn. He picks us up when we stumble. This how we are to treat one another. God is patient with you so you should be patient with one another.
Name some ways God shows patience with His people in His Word. How can you show patience to your mom?  To your brother, sister or friend?

Kindness: Ephesians 4:32, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Kindness is going out of your way to bless others. Jesus went out of His way to make us his friends. Remember that we were at war with God but Jesus' work on the cross made us friends. Jesus became man just so he could die for you!' Be Jesus to someone in your family.
Name some things that you can do to show kindness-

Goodness: Daniel 3:4  “Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do:⁵ As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ⁶ Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”    “There are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”  ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to delive us from it, and he will deliver us^[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  Loving and doing what is right. Goodness is upright and pleasing behavior before the Lord like Daniel and his friends.
What are some ways you can guard your heart from doing wrong?

Faithfulness: ² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Genesis 22:1, Hebrews 11:17,  ^“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son.”  Faithfulness is trusting and obeying God.  Faith believes God will do all He says He will.  Faithfulness stays on the right path when it is easy and when it is hard. Faithfulness believes God and obeys him. Faithfulness asks, what does God want me to do right now.
How did faith make Abraham strong? 

Gentleness: Matthew 8.  Gentleness is the opposite of bitterness.  It is a quite spirit.  A cup full of dirty water will spill out dirty water when shaken.  A cup that is full of sweet water when shaken will spill out sweet water.  What comes out when you are shaken?  Jesus was gentle to the women who bled for 12 years.   She sneaks up on him and touches his garment and is healed. Gentleness is tender to others . Jesus had compassion on others and spent time with them, feeding their weary souls.
What does bitterness do to your bones?

Self-control-  Proverbs has a lot to say about self control.  Proverbs 25:28 Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.  Proverbs 16:32, Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. Rule yourself, do not be ruled by yourself.  Talk to yourself, do not listen to yourself.  Self control makes you strong. What does lack of self control do for you?

Memory verses:

Proverbs 25:28 Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control. 

Proverbs 16:32, Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.

 Jesus lives and moves and has his being in the spirit.  We are to be the same way.  Jesus embodied all of the fruits of the spirit.  He calls us to follow him.  We are to follow him and when we do this, we will have the same fruit that he had.  The difference is, we will mess up and Jesus never did.  But this is ok.  When we stumble we get back up again.  You want to get up as quick as you can.  We do this by confessing our sin.  We tell God how we messed up and ask him to forgive us.  We have confidence because of Jesus that we are made clean.  A confession prayer looks like this: “Father in Heaven I got angry at my brother.  It was wrong, please forgive me and make me kind and give me self-control.  In Jesus Name, Amen.”