WOW! What Bold Love!

SCRIPTURE

And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

~Luke 7:50, NLT

QUOTE

God keeps all our tears in a bottle; so precious is the water that is distilled from penitent eyes. More precious to Christ than the perfume from the vial were the tears from her eyes.

~Abraham Wendell Wright

Some people believe the woman in Luke 7 was Mary Magdalene. I am not a bible scholar and don’t know enough to argue. Some believed Mary had a demon problem whereas the woman of the text was a prostitute. The Pharisee who hosted the event made the remark, “If this man [Jesus] was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him.” The NLT says she was immoral, NIV says sinful, AV and others read ‘sinner’ and Peterson says harlot. The Greek word means a person devoted to sin. I don’t know what lay in her past but her love for Jesus was bold and extravagant. She had to know that her presence and her expression of love would be criticized and even mocked. It is a fact that she was rewarded by Jesus: He gave her forgiveness and peace.

I think the woman was so deep in her love for Jesus that she was entranced: I don’t think she saw anyone in the room other than HIM. This is the WOW of the story. This is real worship!

• Sunday is cow girl boot Sunday for ladies and $20 Day for the men. I want all men who can afford it to bring a $20 and I’ll tell you what to do when we get together. The $20 deal is for men only.
• Today we pray for STUDENTS.
• GOLDEN GIRLS at Cracker Barrel…9:00 a.m. this morning.
• Veteran’s Day November 11
• November 16…Special recognition of DHS Volleyball Team followed by lunch for Team members and parents.
• November 16 during the PM service, we are going to dedicate the Ramp in the FORTE.
• Luke 14 Feast November 23, 5:30 PM
• Two more Chick-Fil-A Wednesday night suppers before Thanksgiving…Nov.12 and 19.
• You can sign up to get your family photo for new church directory this Sunday.

EXTRA/EXTRA

Amazing Grace…Amazing God!

How Great is our God! His name is Yahweh, the eternal self-existent one who is, was and will always be. He is our Creator  and Redeemer. He is deserving of PRAISE! God’s  accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.     

For example:

• The eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7  days
• Those of the canary  in 14 days
• Those of the barnyard  hen in 21 days
• The eggs of ducks and  geese hatch in 28 days
• Those of the mallard  in 35 days
• The eggs of the  parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
   (Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week!) 

God’s wisdom is seen  in the making of an elephant. The four legs of this great  beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground  easily. The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.   How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation! God’s wisdom  is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains. 

• Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the  rind.
• Each orange has an even number of segments.
• Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
• Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
• Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number. 
• The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather. 
• All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold  all even numbers.  God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the  day. Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had  a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture  and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by  the flowers that were open and those that were closed! 

The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only the One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a profitable end.

 [Generally, I check out all internet and email documents but I did not have time to check this one out. I was raised on a farm but for the life of me, I don’t remember how the cow gets up or the horse but I think the above is correct. Check it out! I know one thing: not even the internet can over exaggerate God’s amazing power]

EXTRA: LIFE CHANGING BIBLE STUDY LESSON PREVIEW [November 9]

OVERCOME HARD TIMES

Jesus said in Luke 6:24-25…But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made. What you have is all you’ll ever get. And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself. Your self will not satisfy you for long. And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games. There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. Are you prepared for trouble?
2. Is it wrong, a lack of faith, to prepare for trouble?
3. We live in Tornado Alley: what have you done to prepare for extreme weather such as a tornado, power outage, etc.?
4. What are some things that every family needs in the case of a disaster?
5. Job told his ungrateful wife: “When God sends us something good, we welcome it. How can we complain when He sends us trouble? [Job 2:10] What do you think about Job’s theology: is life a mixture of good and bad?

SCRIPTURE

²⁸ “This will happen just as I have described it, for God has revealed to Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. ²⁹ The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout the land of Egypt. ³⁰ But afterward there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten in Egypt. Famine will destroy the land. ³¹ This famine will be so severe that even the memory of the good years will be erased. ³² As for having two similar dreams, it means that these events have been decreed by God, and he will soon make them happen.

³³ “Therefore, Pharaoh should find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt. ³⁴ Then Pharaoh should appoint supervisors over the land and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. ³⁵ Have them gather all the food produced in the good years that are just ahead and bring it to Pharaoh’s storehouses. Store it away, and guard it so there will be food in the cities. ³⁶ That way there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come to the land of Egypt. Otherwise this famine will destroy the land.”

…….

⁴⁶ He was thirty years old when he began serving in the court of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And when Joseph left Pharaoh’s presence, he inspected the entire land of Egypt. ⁴⁷ As predicted, for seven years the land produced bumper crops. ⁴⁸ During those years, Joseph gathered all the crops grown in Egypt and stored the grain from the surrounding fields in the cities. ⁴⁹ He piled up huge amounts of grain like sand on the seashore. Finally, he stopped keeping records because there was too much to measure.

FOCAL QUESTION: Is there anything wrong with being prepared?

Discussion Questions

1. Joseph, a gifted administrator, mapped out a 14 year plan: do you see anything wrong with his plan?
2. Can you explain Joseph’s extraordinary insight into the future?
3. Jesus said in Mark 2…“Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” What is Jesus saying? Is there a proper time to celebrate and a proper time to mourn?
4. DBC has 700 members: at any given time, some of the body will be hurting while others may be celebrating a milestone. As members and ministers, how are we to respond? [look up Romans 12:15 and see if you find the answer]
5. What are some things in your future that you should prepare for? [Examples: Retirement, children’s college tuition, burial plot, tombstone, life insurance, long term care, etc.]
6. Not many of us have Joseph’s supernatural gift of seeing the future but is that an excuse not to plan? Plan the work and work the plan. People who plan nothing do ___________!
7. Bottom line: Our not knowing the details of our future is not an acceptable excuse to not plan, agree or disagree?
8. Looking at our world as objectively as possible: what do you see coming that we need to prepare for?
9. Jesus taught us in the Sermon On The Mount that life is about storms. It has been said, “Either you are in a storm, moving out of a storm or there is a storm ahead.” Do you agree with this statement?

INSIGHTS

1. There is wisdom in being prepared; especially for the inevitable like death and judgment.
2. I agree with Job and Jesus: life is a mixture of good times and difficult times. Celebrate the blue skies. Do not spoil the good times by worrying about the bad. Celebrate the moment.
3. We live in a world of trouble: most of us have friends who are hurting at this moment. When the skies over us are blue, we must remember those who are caught in a storm.
4. Think, look around, who do you know that is in a storm? What can you do to help?
5. God has been at work in your life preparing you for this moment. Take a few minutes to retrace the milestones in your life. You might want to make a list and then give thanks. [when you mark your milestones, do not leave out the difficult times, death of friend or parent, divorce, heartbreak, etc. God uses our suffering to makes us ministers to those who are suffering around us]
6. God’s anointing on Joseph gave him success.
7. Jesus said in John 15:5…“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. [Mediate on this truth]