So, if you click the PDF/Ebook download button below you can view the transcript beneath the Ebook below.

First read the e-book “An Easy Guide To Christianity/The Daily Walk With Christ”…

Don’t Forget–>Then…click the PDF link below to view the chat session we held at Christian Ladies Connect about the book.

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Click on the PDF link below (where it says  Ebook PDF/ Ebook Download) to read the document.

You know, up until the beginning of His ministry, Jesus was pretty much in the background. Until now.
I mean, the world did not know Him. No one knew who He was. With the exception of a few,no one recognized Him for His worth.
And they, in fact, scoffed at His background (Nazareth).

1.) How must it have felt to be the Master of the Universe, and very much UNKNOWN on little, itty, bitty Earth?

What a sacrifice to create all the people on the earth by His very word, and then have His own creation ignore Him, question His motives, scrutinize HIm, criticize Him, doubt Him.

2.) How must it have felt to stay on the back burner for 30 years, even after a virgin birth and His proven significant wisdom as a 12 year old teaching in the synagogues– to go back home as the son of a carpenter and reside on the “bad side of town” (Nazareth)- where there was-- no glory. Think about it.

3.) He must have witnessed much sin and evil- crime, violence, and more in Nazareth. We can only speculate, but Jesus must have endured some childhood mockery and rejection.

To be the Son of God with all wisdom and all power-- and to contain that power within a growing, slowly maturing, human, earthly body, in order that He may die a gruelsome death to save us all-- baffles me beyond belief.

V. 6-9. John gave witness to Jesus, the true light. Even when others thought it was John, he made sure to give proper reference to the true light.
I also noticed that the word light is mentioned four times in reference to Jesus here (NKJV).

v. 10- Even though Jesus/God made them, the people in the world did not recognize or know Him. He was like a stranger to them.

v. 11-12. Although His own wouldn’t receive Him, He gave the right to be His children to those who WOULD receive Him. Those born of God (born again).

v. 15-16. “For He was before me…” Although John was born first, he realized Jesus existed before he did. Powerful.

v. 16- I am still trying to figure this one out – “grace for grace”. I kind of see it like this at the moment:

LAW–> came through Moses
GRACE–> came through Jesus Christ.

Jesus gives us new grace for (or in place of) the old grace, to make “grace for grace”? Is this is a correct translation for those of you studying detail on greek/hebrews or root meanings? I have not looked for a translation of this yet.

v. 29- John presents Jesus as the lamb of God. THe main purpose of John the Baptist to come baptizing with water was so that Jesus Christ would be revealed to Israel. This is beautiful.

Join our group discussion on John here.

As a beginner or what I like to refer to as intermediate student of the bible, we sometimes just need that extra push into studying God’s word.
It is that extra shove, that little word of advice and a few handy tools that can help push us over into the advanced student of God’s Word.
Though many of us are not setting out to be scholars it is still VERY important to study the Word of God for ourselves. One of the best ways I know how to do this is through the inductive bible study method.

Check out Kay Arthur’s wonderful resources on studying through the Bible and a wonderful explanation of the inductive method:

What is the Inductive Bible Study Method?

One of her books I love to use:

What makes a woman beautiful?

In this podcast episode I recorded in 2006, I discussed the following subtopics:

• God’s beauty isn’t measured by the world’s standards
• The world’s beauty is a sickening distortion of God’s perfect will…not about sex appeal or prosperity or vanity of any kind
• True Beauty is measured by the spirit of a woman

What would you say to those who don’t feel they are special in God’s eyes?

• Scripture says you are uniquely and wonderfully made

How can a woman continue the legacy of beauty God meant for her?

• Read God’s word and study what He has to say about her
• Get close to the Lord and develop a thirst for Him
• Don’t let the fire and passion for time with your savior be quenched
• Be around other beautiful Godly women (all women pursuing holiness are beautiful in God’s standards).  Seek to be around such people

We do have trials and temptations that we go through.  These circumstances oftentimes cannot be prevented, but as Christians the one thing that should set us apart is the Fruit of Joy that we bear, no matter the circumstance.

When Gods Joy is evident in our lives, we tend to smile more and frown less.

When we have Joy, we find the other Fruits of the Spirit seeping out, such as peace and love.  We find ourselves more at peace with what is going on around us and more loving toward those who may be difficult to deal with.

Having the joy of the Lord gives us strength to go through these negative circumstances unlike we would had we been deplete of joy and full of misery.

Nehemiah 8:10 “Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is
holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength.”

What are your thoughts on joy?

How has God’s special Fruit called “Joy” taken you through the rough times in life?

What does biblical submission actually mean?
Is this fair to women in marriage?  What did God really mean?

Certainly, God’s ideas on marriage were never meant to demean women.  Jesus showed clearly that He loves women and desires us to be leaders within the Kingdom.  He shows no partiality with us.

It is culture and tradition that has placed women in a subservient position.

Women deserve to be treated respectfully (in and outside of a marriage).

In this podcast, I share some ideas about how we as women can help strengthen our marriage by doing OUR part –not our husband’s part.  We can pray for our husbands, but cannot force them to do any thing.  We are, however, responsible for our own actions in our marriage.

Listen in on my thoughts on this topic via our Christian Ladies Connect Marriage Telechat held in January 2008. Click the play button to listen in.

Click the play button to hear my bible study on this topic.

We hear this in church, and as Christians we tend to either say this to one another or think about this phrase all of the time.

How many of us realize that practicing what we preach is a whole different dilemma altogether.

Love.

We think we know what it is.  But do we really?

1 Corinthians 13:4 gives a pretty thorough explanation of love.

In my attempt to study the Fruit of The Spirit in detail, I have to start with the very first Fruit mentioned in this passage of scripture. I want to know what love is and how I can truly apply it to my life.

Don’t give me frills and thrills. “Tell me if I’m wrong, because I want to be right.” That is how I feel. I like my spiritual info cut and dry.

Here we go:

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (1 Corinthians 13:4, New King James Version)

Okay. So now I know love is patient.  Or at least that’s what “suffers long” tends to mean.  Patience.

God, help me to be more like you in the area of patience.

I also know that the word “love” or “charity” (same thing in this passage, just depends on the translation you’re using) is derived from the Greek word “agape”, which means the following:

1. brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence
2. love feasts

Hmmm.  Do I feel this way about people in my life?  Do I feel brotherly love, affectionate, or benevolant toward my brothers/sisters?

And where do I draw the line between showing love, and allowing myself to be taken advantage of?  That’s a classic principle among Christians – we give, give, give and until we can’t give any more…and many times it becomes a state of bondage.  Could that be what true love is about?

It couldn’t be…and yet, what did Christ do?  He gave all on the cross, at the expense of losing His life and his momentary earthly integrity and dignity.

But look what He gained.

He gained His kingship, the keys to death and hell, victory over death, a place seated beside God the father at His right hand, eternal glory with His heavenly Father and all that God has which belongs to Him, and which He can now impart to us!

So, here I can see that His benevolance gained HIm an eternal reward, though His earthly sacrifice was huge.

And, in turn, (if I am to be like Christ), then I should expect my earthly sacrifice of love and servitude toward my brother/sister/fellow man to be sacrificial (meaning I may or may not receive a nice pat on the back, but instead a vast dose of criticism), but I should also expect that my eternal reward will be great.

So, it is not becoming a doormat.  Jesus was wise.  If you’ve read any of His interactions and conversations with the Pharisees and Sadduccees throughout the Gospels, you’ll see…He didn’t fall prey to their tricks.  He knew what was up.

But He also knew which sacrifices He had to make.  He knew for whom He came.  He knew who would accept HIm and who would not.  He made Himself readily available for all who thirst and hungered after Him and His words.  He loved on them.

Sacrificial.  Brotherly.  Good will.  Benevolance.

That was my Christ.

That is how I am to be. That is how we should be.

What else?

Love is kind. Not rude, not mean, not loud and boisterous.  Not yelling and screaming.  Not rough.  KIND. Jesus was kind.  He was human just like us, and yet he placed His emotions under control and strove for kindness, when in fact, He had every reason to have been unkind.  But He chose kindness instead.

Love does not envy. That means we don’t have room for jealousy. The Pharisees were jealous of Jesus.  Even as a baby, the birth of Jesus evoked the spirit of jealousy in King Herod.  As Christians, we are not to wish to be like any one else.  We have to accept and love who we are.

Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Wow.  This is a good one to reflect on in our society where thoughts like this are rampant: “I am better than you, deserve more than you, etc.”  Arrogance has no part with love.

Jesus knew who He was.  He was not arrogant, but knowledgeable about His identity.  He claimed to be who He was.  Exactly.  No frills.  But the Pharisees misunderstood and called Him pompous and arrogant.

As Christians, we have to know who we are. We cannot allow the art of humility keep us from stepping up and standing strong in our identity. And yet, there is no room for being puffed up.  We don’t brag.  We don’t allow our gifts to become or define who we are.  We don’t compare our gifts with the next person’s.  We let another person praise us, rather than ourselves.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a resume.  That’s not to say that you have to HIDE your identity in the cloak of humility.  If you have abilities, USE them.  Use them for the glory of God, and don’t be ashamed.

We just need to balance humility and identity so that God is being glorified and not we ourselves.

Since there are so many great methods and bible teachers out there who recommend great ways to learn the bible, I won’t reinvent the wheel…

Kay Arthur is a wonderful, nationally known bible teacher, who takes the novice or “expert” where they are and teaches you basic bible study skills.

She has written an excellent book that you should definitely check out if you want an easy and yet very meaningful introduction to thorough bible study:

I have personally read this book — it is sitting on my shelf right now, highlighted and underlined. I have used this book over and over again and have referred to it for extra background understanding on some of the books of the bible.

It takes a little patience to have a real bible study. Unlike daily bible reading, the discipline of actually studying the Word of God- thought for thought, line for line, takes a bit more effort. We have to be willing to tune out the stuff that is happening around us, and focus on HIs call, His will, His whisper. It’s worth it.

Find out more about some great bible study tools and software to use…

Also, join us in conversation about bible study tools at our Christian women’s discussion forum and Small Groups.