Tuesday's Truths

I am starting a new thing. A Series, so to speak. It is called Tuesday's Truths. Why Tuesday's Truths, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. I am in a wonderful Bible study on Monday nights. We have been meeting for at least 5 years, maybe more. My good friend and I thought it'd be fun to get our friends together for a Bible study that was no pressure. We saw a real need for it. A Bible study where you could do it every day of the week and get a lot out of it, or if you had a busy week, you could just show up and still get a lot out of in and no one would make you feel guilty for not doing your "homework".

That is how it was born. We have ladies with college kids, and ladies with babies, older ladies, young ladies, all moms, one single mother, several missionaries, some homeschoolers, some working moms, some with kids in private school, some with kids in public school. We have at least 4 denominational backgrounds represented, and several ethnicities. I LOVE this Bible study. We are real, we are who we are, we don't put on airs to impress. I wish everyone had a group of ladies like this to be friends with. There are about 14 or 15 of us at any given time. We have people come in and out. Mostly the missionaries. We pray for them while they're gone and rejoice and welcome them back when they come home.

I learn so much from these ladies. That is why I have decided to have Tuesday's Truths. I glean so many Truths from these wonderful ladies about my precious God, that I thought I'd pass it on to you all! I hope you enjoy these installments of Tuesday's Truths.

So here's the first...

We read an article by Stanley Voke. I have included it here. It is truly one of the best articles I have read in a very long time.
http://www.greentreewebster.org/Articles/The%20End%20of%20the%20Struggle.pdf
WE also read Romans 1 and Col 2:6

We talked about the ways we justify ourselves instead of relying Christ's Justification of us. There were 4 main ways we self justify; they are the struggle for righteousness, the struggle for attainment, the struggle for our reputation and the struggle for appearance.
Here is how I defined each one...

The Struggle for Righteousness is to try to "be right" on our own, to attempt to live a sinless life, to try to keep the Law.

The Struggle for Attainment is to try on our own, to be what we think we, others, or God wants us to be.

The Struggle for Reputation is to keep the Glory for who I am or what I do. It belongs to God

The Struggle for Appearance is to try to have people perceive me as better than I really am, to look like a good mom, wife, homeschooler, etc. To not appear to have weaknesses.

How is Christ the end of these four struggles?
Righteousness - Jesus made me right, I don't have to "be right" I already am made right by His work on the cross.
Attainment - Jesus already attained perfection for me, what else is there?
Reputation - It is what Jesus thinks of me that matters, not what the world thinks.
Appearance - It is Jesus in me that I want people to see.

These are my nuggets from last night, I hope you are blessed by them.