1 John 1:2

Good morning!

I just finished reading Verse 2 of our study, and at first struggled to see how it was much different from Verse 1 from yesterday! Sometimes going slowwllyy through Scripture is tantalizing and each little "bite" is quite enough. Other days and "bites" though, can seem bland or we can be unsure as to what God wants us to know about Him in such seemingly repetitive or simple words.

However, after I read the footnote on Verse 2, something popped right out at me! It says "he is also the source of life and sovereign over life". He gives us our life in baptism when beforehand we were actually the walking dead - in sin! In those short, grace-filled moments when the Word of God is spoken and the water is poured, a still lifeless soul is awakened and breathing full abundant, eternal life!!

This reminded me of course of the baptism of my nephew this weekend. :) It just bring tears of joy to see a baptism. How God promises to give eternal life and faith to a soul in baptism - it is the ultimate witness of grace working! How undeserving we are but his desire and love for us is magnificent! He wants us home with him someday to spend all of eternity with him! The way he values us, that he came from living with the Father in heaven to live with us on earth and not just live - but die a death unspeakable in order to have us with him forever.

And just a note in regards to starting a new study: I don't know if any of you have read this post on the other GMG site, but I want to share it because it has some great ideas for studying the Bible and encouragement for the commitment! I know without this tool, I am much slower to read my Bible daily and use it for the life power and resource it is! When I really think about it, it's so obvious why at any point I feel the way I do in anger or frustration or worry (the list could go on!)...my filter isn't clean and my faith and heart aren't recharged! I confess that there's been too many stretches of time without God's Word, and after those times, I can only thank God for his patience and forgiveness towards me. I want a relationship with him that is strong and fruitful - but why do I act sometimes like I'm just a distant acquaintance?!

So, I am thankful for each of you that take the time for this accountability and encouragement group. I know God is using each of you as well as many other women all over the world going through this study with me, to do amazing things and to stretch our faith so we don't grow stagnant! According to the enrollment over at the  GMG site, 

"We have women in Guam, Singapore, Italy, South Africa, Ukraine, the Caribbean,  Israel, Germany, Austria, Costa Rica, Japan, Switzerland, Palestine and more!  Nearly ever state is covered from the west coast with a group in Orange County, California, to Oregon, Washington and two groups in Hawaii to Las Vegas, Chicago, North and South Dakota, Montana, Iowa down to Florida, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, and over to New York, Maryland and Ohio!"

...cool, right? Needless to say, there's lots of alarm clocks going off and coffee pots brewing each morning as we all study God's word together in the mornings! (Or in the evenings or whenever you know is your best time...) :)

Praying you all have a day full of blessings! When you notice them or experience them - please share your joy! 

Love,

Cait

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