1 John 1:1

Hello ladies :)

I just wanted to start out and say that I am so thankful for all of you and this wonderful opportunity to come together everyday to share and discuss our faith and God's word in our lives. I know that for me personally it is a great way to start out (or end, like today's case) my day!

Today's reading reminded me of how much I take God's blessings for granted. I look around at everything He has put in my life, and I realize how easy it is to not even acknowledge Him for it. It's humbling to reflect on God's power, because from the very beginning, He knew His plan for our lives. I love to think of that when I am having a tough day, or am stressed out from school. When you really take time to meditate on Him and the fact that He is almighty and has always and will always take care of us, it's sometimes almost impossible to feel negatively about whatever is going on in your life afterwards.

I hope you all have a wonderful night!
Jessica

blog sin #1

Hello! I just wanted to apologize and say that I fixed something utterly heretical in my post. If you didn't catch it, great, but I said that there was something more significant than Jesus living for us, when I meant there is something more significant than even nonbelievers recognizing thatJesus lived--the account of people who actually lived with him....anyway, sorry if I scared you. :) But better yet, we have God's word that his Word is his. And like Liz and Caitlin says, we know he's real--working even through the micro-miracles that we all too often fail to notice, through his Spirit working in us...

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

As I sit here tonight to reflect on this passage, I think of all the things I hear, see, look at and touch every day. I think about how they just pass through me and over me. Sometimes it is easy to forget that He places all of these sensory reminders that He loves us and the sacrifices that have been made for us, how they have been strategically placed in our lives. I hope to think about these more often and how day in and day out, every sensory detail I take in, is because of Him.

1 John 1:1 ~ Life and 1,000 Things

Hello girls!

Pete and I just got back from a long weekend away to be at my nephew's baptism and it was a long day in the car! (But such a beautiful new baby boy and a miracle to witness God calling him in faith! Tear-jerker..) I'm sorry it's taken me all day to get to our study - Day 1 here we are already! :) It's very exciting! And even more so to do my study tomorrow in the morning -God's Word is refreshing and cultivates amazing things any time of any day, but I love a morning Bible study - something about it!

Anyway, to address our short little introductory verse today I took away one major lovely reminder:

All of life stems from Him.

He has always been life, he is my life now, and he guarantees my life in the future and after death! And the quality and content of my life all depends on Him! He is the only way to a purposeful life. I see and enjoy miracles, blessings and heartfelt joys regularly, but the reality is that they are all marred - and interrupted - by the sin of this place, and by the grave truth that this is not all that we're made for. It reminds me to not put a lot of stock in anything here, but to praise him for what he gives and what he takes away, and rest content in His promise that real life lies in relationship to Him here, but also, excitedly in heaven one day! It is incomprehensible how deep and wide his love is for us that he envelops us in such meaningful, really, eternal life through faith in Jesus!

This brings calm and comfort to me tonight. He is in control here and after, and life is always good (here and later!) knowing this!!

Thank you God, for being our life, down to the minute joys and sorrows.

Listen to this song tonight 1,000 Things and praise Him that he is always working in our lives and that His life gives ours meaning beyond our understanding! It's based on the words of John Piper, who said God is doing a thousand things in every thing He does in our lives.


Have a restful night and see you again in the morning!

Welcome to our study!! :)

Love you,
Cait

1 John 1:1

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

The first part that stood out to me about this opening to the letter is the phrase, "which we have looked at and our hands have touched." It is awesome to think that this disciple, Jesus' cousin, actually saw Jesus. I think of Jesus appearing to Thomas and inviting him and the disciples to look and see his hands and side, to touch and know that he is alive! In Suprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis's story of coming to faith, he describes an encounter with a close friend toward the end of his book, shortly before his conversion, in which this brilliant, atheist scholar friend of his informally comes upstairs to chat, and he makes a comment to the effect of, "You know, Lewis, it's a rum thing--the historicity of the gospels." Even many of the brilliant atheist/agnostic scholars of this world recognize that Christ lived. More significantly than their recognition are the living accounts of these disciples who saw him with their own eyes lived to record his words and actions. I like to think about that.

Secondly, I hear an echo in this opening of the book of the gospel of John. This "Word of life," "that which was from the beginning." Rings a bell with "In the beginning was the Word..." And this Word became flesh, flesh that John and the others saw with their own eyes. Our God came down in humility for us. It is beyond my comprehending, but I'm excited to learn what I can through this study with you all. I'm so thankful for this love letter from God to us and for our eagerness to read it! Unlike any other book, this one is "living and active," food for our souls.

1 John Study Printable!

Hello beautiful ladies!
As promised, here is a link to the printable study guide for our next 3 months in 1 John!

1 John Printables

You can just print off the pages you need as you go - or like I'm doing, just print off the whole baby at once so you're prepared! :)

I am greatly looking forward to Monday the 15th and praying now for God to help me diligently keep the commitment and be strengthened from being in His Word! It is our greatest blessing and resource!

What are your thoughts on beginning this kind of commitment?? 

Love you all!
In Christ,
Cait

New Look - New Study - New Season

Good morning ladies!
I am so thrilled that we are starting up again! I hope you all had a marvelous and fun summer and are enjoying the change of pace and season! It is definitely fall here now as the temperature is COLD! haha

Anyway, we have some newcomers to the group so I ask that we all welcome them with love and open hearts! So thankful that we're inviting others to this group where we all will no doubt grow!

As most of you probably already know, we'll be studying I John and in order to prepare for our SEPTEMBER 19th Start Date, I thought it timely to set you all up with the reading plan, etc.! As we've done in the past, we follow the Original Good Morning Girls worldwide group and their plans for the most part - it really helps us feel like we're in a bigger community! I strongly encourage you gals to check out their website (their page address is in our sidebar under "What We Like") - there's so many extra goodies and wisdom to be found from the women there, and going there will also lead you to other Christian blogs for women. It's encouraging like crazy to find all these other ladies out there all around us struggling for the same holy things, praying for bigger faith, and living hopeful lives in our hopeless and dark world! Anyway, just a thought :)

OK, you can download and print the study plan here.

And, as stated on the GMG Website:

SOAP Print-out sheets coming soon...  You can use our SOAP printables and place them in a 3 ring binder OR use your own notebook/journal to record your study in the book of I John.  Here’s how the SOAP plan works!

Get your Bible and a fresh journal. Read the passage of scripture for the day and apply the SOAP method. Here is what SOAP stands for:

1. S- Write out the scripture passage for the day.

2. O- Write down 1 or 2 observations from the passage.

3. A- Write down 1-2 applications from the passage.

4. P- Pray over what you learned from today’s passage.

By the end of the 12 weeks, you will have written out the entire book of I John in your journal. You will have meditated on every single verse in I John as you have written it out and pondered each verse bit by bit.

So there you have it!  If any of you have questions or comments, please share now, as we have about 2 weeks till we officially start :) Thoughtful opinions and ideas are oh-so-welcome here.

Love in Christ to you all!
Cait