Who is Your Epaphras?

I was thinking about my blog series over Colossians 3 from a couple of years back. I am considering expanding this Bible Study to cover the entire book. So, today, I was carefully reading chapter one and thinking through various sections of the chapter. While doing so, a phrase in verse 7 stuck out. As Paul is introducing his letter to the church at Colosse, he refers to his faithful companion mentioned throughout his letters, his friend and co-laborer, Epaphras.

Paul reminds the believers at this church that is was Epaphras who shared the gospel message with them, and Paul acknowledges his labor of love for the Colossian believers.

Paul states, “You learned it from Epaphras….”

That got me thinking…From whom did I ‘learn’ it? Who faithfully shared the gospel message with me some 45 years ago?

I think back on my faithful parents, of course, who shared God’s Word to my brother and me at home and made sure we had the opportunity to hear it at church as well. Then, I remembered faithful Sunday School teachers and other Children’s Ministry workers at our little church in Homestead, Florida. It was a result of all their teaching, their example, and, of course, the wooing of the Holy Spirit that led me to the point of calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 10:13).  I thank God for those dear folks. Some I have lost contact with, some I may not even remember, others I know have gone on to Heaven, and some continue to be faithful to the Lord to this day!

So, take a minute, and think…Who is the Epaphras in YOUR life? Paul encouraged the Colossians to be thankful to God for Epaphras... so take a moment to thank God for the Epaphras in your life! (And, yes, there may be more than one, but I didn’t want to ‘fight’ with the proper way to make an ‘s’ ending word plural!   Epaphrases?).

And, when we flip the coin, consider this…Have YOU had the opportunity to be an Epaphras in someone else’s life? Maybe you haven’t directly had the opportunity to lead someone to the Lord, but according to 1 Corinthians 3:6, I trust you have had a part!

Thank you “Miss Carroll” and “Uncle Joe”!

Be an Epaphras!

Debbie

Keep your Lamp Burning!

I now have a new favorite verse! 

Usually when people ask me to share my favorite verse, I say I have too many…one for each situation that may arise!   But yesterday, I found THE one that should fit every situation that may pop up!

Before I share the verse, however, I want to share the thought that leads into that.

How often have you said to God, “Yes, I know I agreed to XYZ, but THIS isn’t exactly what I had in mind!”? 

Well, that is exactly what I have been saying for the last few days while scratching my head and trying to figure it all out. God has thrown me for a loop. He has thrown us a curve ball!

And, then, sure enough, in my Bible Study Monday morning “MY” new verse popped up!

Luke 12:35

Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning! (NIV)

   ….Because you never know.

 In other words~~ALWAYS BE READY FOR ANYTHING!

I shared the verse with my daughter who was aware of my ‘thrown loop’…and she replied, “Thaaat’s funny!” Sometimes I guess all we can do is laugh!

So, when life throws you a curve ball….Remember the familiar verses like Romans 8:28-29 and 1 Corinthians 10:13, but also remember Debbie’s now favorite verse... 

Luke 12:35

Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning! (NIV) ….Because you never know!

Next time you see me, remember to ask, “Debbie, what’s your favorite verse?”

Keep your lamp burning~~because you never know!

Debbie

Remember the Rain!

Well, if you were driving on West By-Pass when I was yesterday afternoon, and you wondered where the rain went….Let me tell you!

God demonstrated His greatness to defeat my forgetfulness!

In the Bible Study in which I am currently participating, a discussion question in one of the early lessons asked us to consider reasons why our culture (or ourselves) tend to ignore God. We were to discuss different options hinted at in Judges 2:10. One, either they just didn’t (don’t) know God, or two, they didn’t (don’t) know what all God has done. I offered a third possible reason… because I know me! Number three, we don’t stop to remember what God has done. We know Him. We know what He has done…but so often we forget what He has done!  Then, lo, and behold, I got a lesson in that thought yesterday!

My out of town infant granddaughter and her mom have been in town visiting, and I was taking the baby with me to pick up the local grandkids from school. As I was driving down to the school, it started pouring-I mean POURING down rain. Immediately I go into a panic attack~~ “What am I going to do when I get to the school?” “I can’t take her and the car seat out of the car in THIS!” “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to call the school and have them bring the kids to the car!” “What am I going to do!”

Then, immediately, the rain just stopped!~~~and I recognized the hand of God. I do believe I heard, “HELL-O?” And, right then I prayed (and, yes, you can pray while driving!), “Lord, please let the rain be stopped when I get to the school”.  Then, it started raining hard again!   But, it wasn’t raining when I got to the school. Baby, car seat, and grandma got out of the car and into the school—and all back in just as dry as could be!

I thought of Mark chapter 4~when Mark recorded the incident on the Sea of Galilee when the disciples had the same concerns I did!  In my case, verse 40 would read, “HELL-O!” and verse 41 would read, “Well, duh, Debbie….you didn’t even stop to consider praying~you just went straight to worrying”

I know God. I know is good and have seen Him to great things….I just tend to forget!  When I do, He tends to remind me!

As we were heading back to the car, one of my dear granddaughters said, “Grandma, good thing it’s not raining right now!”  My response?  “Yes, dear. Wasn’t it special that Jesus stopped it from raining on us?”

Dear Lord, thank you for stopping the rain~~~and for the lessons you teach us every day. Please help us to always remember!

Remember the rain!

Debbie

Bible Study: Gideon by Priscilla Shirer (Lifeway)

That Inner Circle

I am currently participating in Lifeway’s 'Gideon' Bible Study by Priscilla Shirer. Today’s lesson smacked me between the eyes and allowed me to ‘see’ something to which I had previously been blinded.

How many of you are so busy trying to find ‘your ministry’ that you overlook the ‘ministry’ staring you right in the face? Maybe by the time you have finished reading this, you will recognize it!

In today’s lesson, Priscilla Shirer pointed us to Judges 6:27. Before Gideon could begin his ‘ministry’ as one of Israel’s Judges, he had to take care of some ‘ministry’ business at home! First things first! She then directed us to Genesis 18:19 where God stated that Abraham was to teach his children and household to keep the ways of the Lord~before he became the father of an entire nation!

So often we dream about having a huge impact on others, that we forget that we are impacting those closest to us right now! We are so busy LOOKING for a ‘ministry’, that we don’t SEE the one right in front of us!

We were encouraged in today’s study to complete a Circle of Influence~you know, comparing our lives to Acts 1:8…Too often we put so much of our emphasis (and don’t get me wrong, it must be emphasized!) on ‘what can I do to influence/reach the uttermost parts of the world?’, that we neglect our own personal ‘Jerusalem’!

In my second circle (the first one being impacting myself!), I wrote down those three local grandkids I have the privilege of impacting regularly! Yet, my concern has been, “what new ministry can I become involved with at my new church?”, (once again, not a bad thing!), rather than, “In what specific, planned out, and intentional ways can I impact my grandkids?” 

We tend to overlook the inner circles and jump to worrying about how we can impact the outer circles. Why is that? Maybe we are more intimidated by the inner circles? Maybe you are in a situation where you truly fear the inner circles? Many, like me, find it easier to speak to a room full of strangers than to the inner circle~~Who knows why….  Whatever the reason or excuse, I recognized very quickly that my responsibility right now is my inner circle!

I loved the thought I wrote down in my Bible Study book~ My greatest impact is right here, right now in the ordinary rhythms of daily living (based on Priscilla’s statement on page 63).

I posted that as my #LessonsFromGideon hashtag comment. I also knew it was a LightThought (although not so LIGHT!) that I had to share.

What about you?

      Who are you ‘wishing’ you could impact? 

Who ARE you impacting~right here and right now?

  

We can’t be used in the outer circles if we can’t be found faithful in the inner circles!

In the words of the Toby Mac song, “City on our Knees”~

If you gotta start somewhere, why not here...

If you gotta start sometime, why not now…..

Become a part of the inner circle!

Debbie

Life's Lesson Plans

I hate to admit it, but…I didn’t pay attention to our Bible Lesson Sunday morning as well as I should have. 

The reason? 

The passage jumped out at me in a new light, and a LightThoughts thought began to take shape.  I spent the remainder of the hour reading and rereading the passage and recognizing very quickly the educational layout of the passage. Was Paul responding to a lesson plan? Was he writing an anecdotal observation/reflection about himself?

Somehow I had never noticed the educational terminology in Philippians 4:10-13. 

Every good lesson plan begins with two basic parts. When the lesson is completed, what do I, as the teacher, want the students to KNOW, and what do I want them to be able to DO? From there the lesson plan develops between those two points…Now I include such things as: What do I want them to UNDERSTAND? What CONCLUSIONS do I want them to draw? By ANALYZING the information, what skills do I want them to perform? In other words, when it is all said and done, what do I want them to Do as a result of this lesson? 

How do students get from Point KNOW to Point DO?  It all depends on what they LEARN in the process.

It is here that Philippians 4:11-13 jumped out at me because all three of those words appear in those three verses!

Paul writes that he KNOWS (verse 12) how be abased and how to abound. He could make a list of what would be considered poverty and what would be considered riches. This is the KNOW part of the lesson plan~ basic facts about the topic the teacher wants his/her students to be able to reproduce. Being able to make a list is one of the categories included under the main objective of KNOWING. Now, that doesn’t always mean the student understands the deep rooted meaning of the lesson, nor that he/she can actually make comparisons between the two lists, or be able to analyze the two~~ but he/she can make a list.   

The lesson can’t stop there…

one must be able to DO something with that list!

In verse 13 Paul states that he can DO all things through Christ Who strengthens him. Paul now states what he can DO with that list.

What led him from KNOWING to DOING? Notice what he states in the second half of verse 12 (and also in verse 11). Paul states, “I have LEARNED...”. God had included learning steps into His lesson plan for Paul’s life. Paul didn’t just make a list, he lived it! He learned enough to be able to fully understand the concept, and he was able to draw some significant conclusions and analyze his options. He LEARNED that he could be content and satisfied with his circumstances. He LEARNED that God was right there with him through the trials (See 2 Corinthians 11:24ff for Paul's life-lessons!). 

My friend, you may have heard the head KNOWledge that teaches that God is faithful and that God provides. Now, once you have actually LEARNED it (experienced it), you can then DO something with it!

You can confidently proclaim that through any circumstance you can be content and satisfied with God’s plan for your life. You can now ENDURE, GO THROUGH, and MOVE FORWARD through any circumstance because now you KNOW (because you have LEARNED) that you will be guided by God’s All-mighty, loving hand!

Listen to your "Teacher"~~

Debbie