Running the Good Race

Monday-

Decided to do weights and a mile on the treadmill since I ran hard over the weekend.

Tomorrow will be my rest day and I sub on Wednesday....so I will have to run in the evening on the treadmill tomorrow night. It is supposed to be 111 tomorrow.....yuck.

The Living Water- Lesson Twelve

"Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,

And princes will rule with justice.

A man will be as a hiding place from the wind,

And a cover from the tempest,

As rivers of water in a dry place,

As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."

Isaiah 32:1-2

********************

Good day! Let's begin our time with prayer........

Heavenly Father, I praise Your holy name because You are that rock that we can stand on. You are the rivers of water in a dry place. You are that hiding place where we are safe from the winds. Thank You for being that King of Righteousness.

I come before You now to seek forgiveness of my sins. Forgive my selfishness and self righteousness. I pray that You will seek out the hidden sins within me and purge me of my iniquities. Please renew me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit this day.

I pray for each lady here reading this study. I pray for her heart to be softened by the reading of Your word. I pray You will speak new and wonderful things to her heart this day. Encourage her, bless her with every spiritual blessing, renew her, and give her wings like eagles.

In Jesus' name......amen."

***********************

The Messiah

The passage in Isaiah printed above is about the Messiah to be revealed. Here in our study, we are reading about how the Lord is preparing the Samaritan woman for His revelation.

By awakening her conscience to her sinfullness, Jesus is readying her soul to receive His wonderful grace as He prepared your soul as well.

Please read:

Rom 10:17

How does faith come?

Rom 10: 20-21

Did she seek the Lord or did He seek her out?

And why did He go to a Gentile woman?

Rom 10:19

John 10: 15-16

He is the Good Shepherd:

Ez 34: 11

****************

John 4:17-18

"The woman answered, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.''

Jesus' words must have cut her deeply. That is how the conviction of sin works: it awakens our conscience to our depraved state, then it prepares our hearts to receive the grace of the Lord...finally, the soul is made weary and heavy laden to receive the new yoke. The yoke of Christ is easy (Matthew Henry commentary, 1960).

Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, will then lead her to the rest of His yoke...of His pastures of tender grass....of His waters of rest.

"I have no husband....."

This admition of the woman was humiliating to her as women in the 1st century were to be married. If they had no husband, it was because they were too young to marry or widowed. For her to be of this age and without a husband could have caused her to draw water from the well at such an odd hour of the day. She would be perceived as a harlot.

Spiritually, she was without a husband as well.

Ez 16: 31-34

Like the Lord's people who lived before her, she was in adultery.

Ez 16:51

Yet the Lord is about to show her His grace.

"For you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband...."

Ouch!

Heb 4:12-13

The word of God cuts deeply.

2 Tim 3:16

But the words of Jesus are profitable to this woman. Her reproof is for her own good. Yet Jesus spoke to her mildly in His reproof.

Rev 3:19

He is calling her to repentance.

But he praises her for telling her the truth. She could have lied, but because her conscience is being prepared....she is drawn to tell the truth to this stranger who speaks of the Living Water.

Jesus came to her with the gift of Liberty that is in Him (Chambers, My Utmost for His Glory, 1935, May 6) because He knows that is the best thing for her: His Liberty.

Gal 5:1

************************

Life Application

Think back to the time when the Lord first spoke to you. What stage of life were you? Were you a child, as I was, or were you a young adult? With what sins did Jesus confront you?

How did He prepare you to receive His grace? Was it a pastor's sermon or a youth group activity that began to draw you to Him?

The Samaritan woman heard Jesus' words because they were written on her heart:

Please read:

Romans 2:12-16

She knew some things of the Hebrew God to the point of fearing Him, but not to the point of giving up her sinful ways. She knew enough about the Lord to venerate Jacob and what he did for God's people, yet she did not know enough to worship the God of Jacob.

She was being drawn to the Living Water for many years before she met Jesus at the well.

Is 65:1

Rom 9:30

When we witness to the lost, we must take all this into account. Our hearts must remember that their salvation has nothing to do with us or with the words we say.....but it has everything to do with the Lord and how He uses every opportunity to prepare sinners to receive His grace.

If you were "introduced" to Christ by someone or through a sermon, you must remember that it was many years before that moment that the Lord was seeking you out because you would never seek Him out. He knew that.

Ez 34:12

As we will soon read, Jesus reconciled the Samaritan woman to Himself just as He did to you:

Col 1:19-20

It pleased God to see His son suffer and die then conquer death once and for all so He would be reconciled to His sheep once again.

Because of our sins, the Lord had to die:

Jer 2:13

Like the Samaritan woman, we had forsaken the fountains of Living Water to make for ourselves our own wells of water. But we are broken earthen vessels that hold no water.

So Jesus not only became the perfect earthen vessel, but He also became that fountain of Living Water springing up into everlasting life:

John 4:13-14

If you are a believer and have that fountain of Living Water flowing up and out of you unto everlasting life, then you have been led to those waters of rest:

Heb 4:1-3

Heb 3:8-10

Now our works are transferred to Christ who has completed every good work. He is finished.

Rev 14:13

Now that we have that rest, we must remain in it:

Heb 4:11

So we do not fall back into disobedience.

Praise God indeed, for He is good and His mercies endure forever...........

Lam 3:22-23

Lam 3:32

Ps 89:1

Amen!

********************

Until next time.........

"The Lord will not share His glory with anyone. When we seek to take the glory for ourselves- saying, in effect, "Look at what I have accomplished! Look at me! Look at who I am!"- we deny that anything we accomplish comes about because God both enables and empowers us to accomplish it. Any good in us is by His design and redemption. Anything noteworthy that we become, we become because He wills it so. We have no goodness apart from God's goodness imparted to us."

-Charles Stanley

(Advancing Through Adversity, 1996, p. 44)

Blessings,

Ruth

Running the Good Race

Sunday-

Woke up Saturday to cloudy skies and cool air. It was great! So I ran 5 miles in 50 minutes. Some knee pain at the start, but then I felt great. It was a pleasure to run in such cool air. The streets were quiet at that hour (8am) so it was a nice run.

Today I ran up Shaw Buite for hills and endurance. My cardio felt strong and so did my legs. I know that when I can run up Shaw Buite without any pain or if my lungs do not feel like they are about to explode, then I am ready to run a 10k (6.2 miles). So, I will increase my long runs to 5.5 miles this week and see how it goes.

Running the Good Race

Friday-

Ran 3 miles this morning in 30 minutes. A little knee pain at first, but then all was well. Found a place to run where there was shade for 1/2 mile. That helped!!! It was 91 degrees, but the humidity was high. It was hard to get a full deep breath the air was so thick.

Suppose to be rainy and cloudy tomorrow which means it will be rainy and cloudy on Sunday....but at least next week it is suppose to be in the low 100's. That should help me out a lot since I am stuck to running in the mornings after taking Nathan to school.

Will do my long run (5 miles) tomorrow morning since we are going out in the evening.

Fall is coming.........in North Carolina. It will be in the 80's in Charlotte at the end of next week.

Sigh.

Running the Good Race

Decided to make today my rest day since I had to work tonight and it was way too hot to run this morning. Yuck.

I have to sub a half day tomorrow, so I will either run in the morning or after sunset. Sigh...I am soooooooo sick of this heat. What a treat it will be to run in cool air again.

The Living Water: Lesson Eleven

"What is man, that he could be pure?

And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous?

If God puts no trust in His saints,

And the heavens are not pure in His sight,

How much less man, who is abominable and filthy,

Who drinks iniquity like water!"

-Job 15:14-16

******************

Good day, ladies...let's seek the Lord:

"Father, today we will study the conviction of sin and why it is there. Lord, I thank You for the conviction of my sins because I know that You are watching me and correcting my path.

I do seek Your forgiveness because I know You will not hear me with sin in my heart. I pray for Your cleansing this day that I may be able to obey You and hear from You. Wash me, purge me, cleanse me, restore me today, Lord, as only You can.

I pray for each lady reading this study today, Lord, as she will be convicted of her sins as well. Please go to her and help her to confess, repent, and obey Your word this day. I pray that You will comfort her and hear her prayers. Be an encouragement to her as she reads Your word today.

In Jesus' name..........amen."

********************

Laborers for the Harvest

"...who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water."

Many of us would love to serve the Lord in ministries of all sorts because we know that is part of what it means to be a Christian. To go to the prisons, the foreign lands, the hospitals, the churches to serve the Lord is a calling many of us have had or do have now.

But we all know that the Lord calls, we do not call Him. And the Lord's timing and calling is perfect. We must wait on Him and not run ahead and look around to see where He is while we wait for Him.

Last study, we looked at the example the Lord gave us:

Phil 2:5-11

I know that when I was involved in ministry at church, I became proud of the ministries I was involved with because it made me feel good. I needed that "good feeling" almost like a painkiller or opium. It helped me forget the troubles I was having in my marriage and with our financial situation.

I felt as though I was being a "good Christian" because I was serving in children's ministry as a teacher, women's ministry as a helper, and prison ministry as a Bible teacher. Wasn't God pleased with me??

No, because He is more pleased with our obedience than with our sacrifice:

1 Sam 15:22-23

So, He must deal with our sin first before He can use us. He is holy above all and cannot use us with sin in our lives not because He is not capable....but because He is holy and perfect and cannot look upon sin.

After Scott was laid off from Fox, he had trouble finding another good paying full time job. Our financial situation was terrible. We fought all the time and put pressure on each other. The stress began to take its toll on our marriage.

I had sin in my life while I was serving the Lord. I was thinking about divorcing my husband, I had fear and anxiety about our financial situation, I was in sin. I was drinking iniquity "like water." I thought I needed it.

As a married couple, we both were sinning because we were in debt up to our eyeballs and not trusting in the Lord. We were misusing the money that belonged to Him. We were in sin.

So, I had to come to the point of confession before the Lord. But He knew I wouldn't willingly do this on my own......so He had to prepare me and work on me. Sort of like a sculptor who has to remove some of the clay with tools that slice away and carve away the unwanted pieces in order to reveal the work of art, the Lord had to slice away and carve away my unwanted pieces.

To begin with, the Lord removed me from the ministries at church for the church's protection (any one living in habitual sin should not be serving in church ministry....) and for my protection because some of the ministries I was involved in were not properly handled and eventually were dissolved because of wrong doing on the church's part.

It was hard to walk away from those ministries that had been such a significant part of my life, but it was necessary. Then, He led us to get counseling. During those counseling sessions, I had to confess my sins to my husband and to the Lord because thinking about divorce and actually desiring it is a sin. Finally, our financial debt had to be dealt with as well and that meant giving up our home and living in an apartment in order to pay off the debt and learn to save and live without debt again.

All this cleansing and purging was not easy. It was extremely painful. My earthen vessel needed to be struck down. But it was necessary if I ever wanted to be used by the Lord again.....and I did.

The hope of the Lord does not disappoint. I know that now:

Rom 5:1-5

I know now that when the Lord is finished peeling away and carving away those unwanted pieces, He does reveal His wonderful work of art. Now I am serving our church once again, but not for my glory or for that "good feeling" that I had once needed in order to fill my empty life.....now I serve because it is for the Lord's glory. And the feeling is more joyful than merely good.

Please read:

Is 6:1-4

Isaiah was a man of God who had very little sin up to this point. He was serving the Lord as a prophet, but the Lord had greater works in store for him. First, the unwanted pieces had to be dealt with:

Is 6:5-7- "Woe is me for I am undone....." This is translated as "destroyed; cut off." When Isaiah is in the presence of a holy God....he is destroyed.

The purging of his sin was painful, no doubt. But it was a necessary pain. Notice that the seraphim flew to Isaiah, not the other way around. We would never come to the Lord for the purging of sin on our own.....but it is the Lord who comes to us.

Is 6: 8-9

But after the purging, the Lord speaks to Isaiah and calls him to service.

It is comforting to see that the same God who worked in Isaiah's life is the same God who worked in my life and works in yours.

Malachi 3:6

He is the same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

*******************

John 4:16

"Jesus said to her, 'Go, call your husband, and come here.'"

Jesus spoke to her.

How wonderful that we have such a personal God who speaks to us. But more important is the fact that we should hear His words:

Please read:

Mark 9:7

God knows how important it is for us to hear His words. We must be quiet to hear Him.

1 Thess 4:11

1 Tim 2:1-2

1Pet 3:4

"...Go, call your husband, and come here."

Ouch. That must have hurt.

Of course, these words of Christ must have convicted the Samaritan woman of sin because she knew the truth. She was drinking that iniquity "like water". Like me, she was convinced that she needed it to live. But we know that Jesus is preparing her for His service....for His Living Water.

Just as He dealt with Isaiah's sin, so must He deal with this woman's sin. As Isaiah was destroyed when he came into the presence of the Lord....so must her earthen vessel be "destroyed; cut off" as well.

1 John 1:9

But we serve a faithful and righteous God.

**********************

Life Application

Like the seraphim who flew to Isaiah, the Lord comes to the woman at the well to deal with her sinful life. She had probably thought her life was ok.....as I did for a time.....but the Lord was about to show her the Greatest life was still ahead for her.

Please read 1 John 1:9 again.

The word, "confess" is from the Greek word "homologeo" which means to assent; agree; promise.

Here we are told that if we "agree" with God that we are in sin and have sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.

It is not an easy thing to come before a holy God and confess or agree with Him that we are sinners. We are destroyed; cut off; struck down. I know, it hurts.

Psalm 51

Notice all those verbs and commands: Have mercy.....blot out.....wash me......cleanse me.....purge me....make me....create in me.....restore me......uphold me.....deliver me......

This is an amazing psalm of repentance. You can read the mournful emotions of David as he confesses. He is destroyed before his God. When you have trouble confessing, read this psalm to the Lord. It will change your prayer life forever.

There is alot to praise the Lord for today:

John 3:36

We have been saved from the wrath of God.

Ro 1:18

Take time today to thank the Lord for His conviction of your sins. Praise Him that He is preparing you to be used in His ministries. Praise Him for carving away those unwanted pieces daily. Praise Him for His holiness and for breaking your earthen vessel. Thank Him for the forgiveness of your sins.....and the atonement or price that was paid for your sins: His death on the cross.

Finally, praise Him for conquering death once and for all that you may live.

Come into His presence today.....and be struck down.

2 Cor 4:7-11

Let your earthen vessel be struck down, but not destroyed.

Praise Him indeed.

**********************

Until next time............

"When I get into the presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sense; I realize the concentration of sin in a particular feature of my life. A man will say easily- 'Oh yes, I know I am a sinner'; but when he gets into the presence of God he cannot get off with that statement. The conviction is concentrated on- I am this, or that, ot the others. This is always the sign that a man or woman is in the presence of God. There is never any vague sense of sin, but the concentration of sin in some personal particular. God begins by convicting us of the one thing fixed on in the mind that is prompted bu His Spirit; if we will yield to His conviction on that point, He will lead us down to the great disposition of sin underneath. That is the way God always deals with us when we are consciously in His presence."

-Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest, 1935, July 3)

Blessings,

Ruth

The Living Water: Lesson Ten

"The LORD is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters."

Psalm 23:1-2

***************

Good day! Let's seek the Lord......

"Father, today I thank You for Your rest. I thank You for conquering death once and for all so that I many not have that fear of the unknown. I praise You for being the Good Shepherd and knowing what Your sheep need.

Forgive me of my sins, Lord. I pray that You will cleanse me with Your blood and with Your word. Sanctify me and keep me in Your fold.

I pray for the ladies joining me here today. I pray that You will give them Your rest. I lift them up to You today Lord and pray for their walk with You. Speak to them through Your word, convict them of sin, and I pray that You will restore them with Your Spirit.

In Jesus' name.......amen."

*********************

Waters of Rest

The translation of Psalm 23:1-2 is:

"The LORD is my shepherd;

I shall not lack.

He makes me lie down in pastures of tender grass;

He leads me beside the waters of rest."

So many times we get bogged down with work around the house, changing diapers, chasing the kids, preparing meals, cleaning the bathroom, folding laundry, helping with homework, etc. etc. that we tend to forget to rest.

When I was in school, my father would scowl whenever I mentioned how hard the school work was and how tired I was when I got home. To him, school was NOT work! He graduated high school and that was enough school for him. My father has worked very hard all his life. He drove a truck 5 days a week from 2 in the morning until about 2 in the afternoon. THEN he went to work as a janitor at night. My mother worked fulltime as well as helped with the janitor business at night in addition to cooking and cleaning the house.

My parents know hard work! But one thing they do not know is that school work can also be hard in a different way than physical labor. Work is hard and it is tiring.

The Jews in the Lord's days on earth were very tired. They knew work, too. Not only were they working hard, but they were also tired from trying to obey all the laws of the Pharisees and Sadducees. These "men of God" were adding to God's laws in order to keep the people oppressed and themselves exalted.

Please read:

Matt 3:7-10

Matt 16:1-4

Matt 19:3-10

Matt 23:1-36

Jesus saw what these scribes, and teachers of the Law were doing to His people.

Matt 11:25-30

His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Praise God. What wonderful words these must have been to His people. They had the bondage of the Romans and the bondage of the Law to live under daily. No wonder many were giving up on both and turning to their own ways.

Gal 5:1

Acts 15:8-10

Praise God for His waters of rest!

*********************

John 4:15

"The woman said to Him, 'Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.'"

Some commentaries suggest that she is responding sarcastically, but others say she was sincere.

I feel she was sincere because she was tired. Tired of searching for the "right" man who would love her. Tired of having to draw water day in and day out. Tired of having to come to the well in the heat of the day instead of when evening fell in order to avoid the eyes of the other women.

Relief from labor is a good thing. Perhaps she is speaking as a woman who wants relief from the labor of searching for something to quench her thirst.

How many of you have ever watched the small sparrows outside during the summer? These little birds are constantly searching for food and water almost 24 hours a day. Yet the Lord takes care of them.

Matt 10:31

Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman of relief from Spiritual bondage.

Matt. 11:25-- He speaks to the weary, not the rich and wise of the land.

11:28-- He speaks to those around Him because He sees them and what they are going through.

11:29-- Jesus' words assure us that He is here to give and not take from those around him. What a blessing that is to those who work: ease, light burden.

We are not completely "free" to do as we want. Before we have redemption, we are in debt. We have a debt we cannot possibly pay!

I know what it is like to be in debt. It is a horrible feeling knowing that you cannot possibly pay off the debt. We had to sell our house in order to finally be debt free. It was humiliating to be at the service of the credit card company. We were one payment away from losing everything.

Before we have forgiveness of sins, we are in debt to God. This debt we cannot pay and it keeps us in bondage to Satan, the world, and our flesh.

Rom 6:16

We are slaves to somebody: "either sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness."

Rom 6:18- become a slave of righteousness and live!

*****************

Life Application

"...that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."

Yes, the Samaritan woman was tired of thirsting and drawing water. Wouldn't you be? We take modern conveniences for granted, don't we? Imagine having to draw water daily for drinking and bathing. We complain when we turn the knob and the water doesn't come out HOT enough for us!

Jesus knows that the yoke of Satan is hard and burdensome. These burdens we have here in the world take away from us.

But the yoke of Jesus is easy and gives us rest. His commandments are not burdensome:

1 John 5:3

The example Jesus gives us in scripture is one we should follow:

Phil 2:5-11

Psalm 37:7-11

Watching the weary and heavy burdened people around Him, we know Jesus had mercy and a sorrow filled heart. He was God in the flesh, afterall. The last time He walked on the earth He was in the Garden of Eden when all was perfection. He had seen Adam and Eve in all their beauy and glory. Their bodies knew no sin! Creation knew no sin.

Now He was walking in the desert lands and seeing what the sins of the people had done to His creation.

In Matthew chapter nine, we see Jesus come face to face with the people affected most by the sins of the world:

Matt 9:1-8 He heals the paralytic

Matt 9: 9-13 He forgives the tax collector and likens Himself to a physician

Matt 9: 18-26 - He heals the bleeding woman and raises a little girl from the dead

Matt 9: 27-31 He gives sight to the blind

Matt 9:32- 34- And rescues a mute from the demons

Matt 9: 35- 37 And many more came to Him......

Imagine Jesus standing there....looking out over the dry desrt lands as the multitudes came to Him: some limping from wounds, others groping the air because they are blind, some bound from head to toe because they were lepers......all coming toward Him. They were being harrassed by people near them. Imagine the sight.

His disciples were with Him. Imagine what they thought! They were humble fishermen who had probably never seen so many people in their lives....and now all these people were coming to Jesus and them for help. I am sure there was a bit of panic on their faces!

Yet, we have the words of Jesus:

"But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved to compassion for them, because they were weary (harrassed) and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'"

He is the Good Shepherd. He cares for His sheep. Having known what sin had done to His creation, Jesus is moved to compassion for them. Moved to the point of willingly laying down His life as the atonement for their sins to set them free.....free from that bondage, free from death.

And now, the Samaritan woman was about to be called as one of the laborers to help Jesus with the harvest.

Ask Jesus today to make you one of those laborers....so you can know His rest.

Jer 6:16

****************

Until next time........

"Never choose to be a worker; but when once God has put His call on you, woe to you if you turn to the right hand or to the left. We are not here to work for God because we have chosen to do so, but because God has apprehended us. There is never any thought of -'Oh, well, I am not fitted for this.' What you are to preach is determined buy God, not by your own natural inclinations. Keep your soul steadfastly related to God, and remember that you are called not to bear testimony only, but to preach the gospel. Every Christian must tesify, but when it comes to the call to preach, there must be the agonizing grip of God's hand on you, your life is in the grip of God for that one thing. How many of us are held like that?

Never water down the word of God, preach it in its undiluted sternness; there must be unflinching loyalty to the word of God; but when you come to personal dealing with your fellow men, remember who you are- not a special being made up in heaven, but a sinner saved by grace."

-Oswald Chambers

(My Utmost for His Highest, 1935)

Blessings,

Ruth