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| Publication Information |
Design: April Harrison
Editors: Zane Creamer
April Harrison
Monthly Contributors:
Becky Smith
Martha Hedge
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Issue: # 8
| November/December 2010 | |
Greetings!
We are combining the November and December newsletters because of the holidays. Time has just run away from me! Strange time of year isn't? I hurry and worry in order to  make the holiday exactly what I want it to be, all the while taking away from it at the same time. I saw a friend in Wal-Mart today. We chuckled as we recognized the frantic how can I be nice but get on with my errands? look in one another's eyes. Then we pondered together: "What if we broke out in a hallelujah chorus to help combat our endless checklists?" I was seriously tempted to do so. Perhaps that's why she made a quick get away!
This newsletter points us back to the purpose of Christmas - a heavenly hallelujah time: A future no longer pressed by time,compressed by age, depressed by sin - a time of perfection in Christ. I am breaking out in song as I finish this note to you safely tucked in my home office.MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOURS FROM ALL OF US AT WAY OF LIFE COACHING, LLC
A reminder of the simple structure follows: WOL Community - Quick Snips: Review of the Promised Land Living Curriculum for graduates, but applicable to anyone Image Bearers - Inductive Exercises: 12 month study of 1 Corinthians 15 - Fifteen minutes to build that faith muscle! Free To Good Home - No Strings! Free resources & tips for families Food for Thought - Bible Enrichment: Steak-sized thoughts for hearty appetites! Take Note - Up & Coming: Resources, materials, products, services, events Remember - A quick opt out at the bottom of the screen ensures you will not receive future editions if you decide this is no longer a helpful tool to you.
Cheryl Scanlan for the Way of Life Coaching, LLC Team We are cheering you on towards your finish line! |
| Way of Life Community | |
**There is an opportunity to participate in this message at the end of this article!**
Dear Community of Believers,
Where are you living in the resurrected power of Christ? Take a moment - maybe more than a moment - allow the Spirit of God in you to talk to your soul.
Not sure where? Perhaps....
- In a soft reply given in response to someone's anger
- In a message of hope to someone who is depressed
- In forgiveness offered
- Instead of judging, asking a question to clarify
- In giving the benefit of the doubt when in doubt
- By extending a helping hand at your own inconvenience
- By walking in integrity when no one is looking or caring
- By caring when you don't benefit in anyway from doing so
- By being thoughtful - something as simple as remembering a name, making eye contact..
- By being quiet
- By choosing to surrender in trust a situation you have no control
- Stepping out in obedience with you have work to do, immediately
- Stopping the whining
- Starting the praising
Would you like an opportunity to share? In fifteen words or less, feel free to email me your responses. I will post anonymously in the next newsletter. Don't hesitate please! It's a way to give testimony to the work God is doing in you, pass
on encouragement to your brothers and sisters and learn from one another's walks. Maybe consider it as a Christmas present from you to strangers in the flesh, but brothers and sisters in the Spirit. Click HERE to send.
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| Image Bearers | | A STUDY OF 1 CORINTHIANS 15
Step 1: Pray that God would open your eyes to what He wants you to know and understand.
Step 2: Read 1 Corinthians 15:35-44
35But someone will say, "How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?" 36You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; 37and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. 39All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. 40There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
Step 3: Put it into context
Recall from earlier passages (1 Corin 15:12-19) that some people in Corinth were saying there was no resurrection of the dead. Paul systematically refutes this lie & lays out the facts. He first challenges them that if there was no resurrection, then even Christ was not raised and his preaching and their faith
was in vain. He then reveals the order of the resurrection (1 Corin. 15:20-23) and in today's section, he answers the question, "how are they raised and with what kind of body?"
Step 4: Answer these questions based on the text
- What must happen first before life is produced? (vs 36)
- Does the body end up resembling the seed that was sown? (vs 37)
- Who decides what the resurrected body will look like and do these bodies resemble each other, or appear uniquely different? (vs 38)
- Is the flesh of beasts, birds & fish the same as man's? (vs 39)
- What kind of body is sown & what kind of body is raised? (vs 42 & 44)
- What is the body sown in and what is it raised in? (vs 43)
- Compare and contrast the "before & after" body: {talk about an extreme makeover!}
Before:
Perishable - corrupt, moral decay
Natural - subject to appetite, passion
Dishonor - disgrace, shame, reproach
Weakness - lack strength, infirmity
After:
Imperishable - incorruptible, immortal
Spiritual - filled with & governed by God's spirit
Glory - praise, honor, magnificence
Power - might, strength, power in action
Step 5: Ask yourself these questions:
- What did I learn that I didn't know before?
- Has this passage helped with understanding death and life better? How?
- How does this new knowledge help me?
- What do I want to reap? What do I need to sow for that to happen?
- What adjustments need to be made based on my responses above?
Galatians 6:7-8 7Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap 8For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
2 Corinthians 9:6 6Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Step 6: Take it a step further:
- Read Romans 6 - What needs to die in order to be more alive to God?
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12
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| Free To Good Home | |
The holidays are approaching and what better time to teach your child about finances? After all, we are but stewards with what God has entrusted to us. Teach them to use His resources wisely. See more about the value of teaching children about money HERE. More dollar str-e-e-e-etching tips:
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| Food For Thought | |
Go Where You Look
We often admonish our children to look where they are going, especially since their speed is usually greater than their ability to aim. Maybe if we think about it a little more, our concern is
that they will go where they are looking. We do.
Take for example, driving at night. When I meet blinding headlights, I focus on the edge of the road in front of me. If I look toward the lights I will steer in that direction; if I follow the edge, I stay in my lane. It's focus.
When I think of the Resurrection of Jesus and the promise that we too will be resurrected with new bodies that will live forever, I get excited! But something that generates even more excitement (if that is possible) is that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to me today, while I yet live in my perishable body.
So what do we mean by resurrection power? Literally it means to overpower death with life. That's what brought Jesus out of the grave. We will have that too, in the future. What about
where we live now? Maybe a practical definition of resurrection power would be the enabling to do what is right.
I think of a committed Believer I will call John. After much searching he found a job that looked perfect. Following weeks of orientation and preparation without pay, he recently
started working. On the second day, he was told that to comply with company policy, he would be required to lie and misrepresent the product. If he didn't, he would be fired.
To leave meant no job, no income for his family. To stay meant violating his integrity, becoming (in his words) a shell of a man. He was nauseous. After an hour of soul-wrenching analysis, he turned in his resignation and walked out. How could he do that? Because his focus was beyond the temporary, disappointing situation, and because God enabled him to do what was right. He chose to go where he was looking.
Paul taught that resurrection power is for us now. "[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him...And that I may ...come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers]....That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body.]" (Phil 3:10-11AMP)
This is a mystery God is doing, overcoming death in us as we live. This is what makes us sing for joy in the dark nights of life. As a good Father, He admonishes us to focus on Him and to remember that we are already eternal beings who have His Resurrection power within us.
Martha Hedge © 2010
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| Take Note |
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The next Promised Land Living group starts in less than a month! Registration has begun. Seating is limited!! Visit the website to hear testimonies of how God is working in the lives of men and women just like you. Click on "New Come and See Tea" and follow instructions to receive a passcode.
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Sincerely,
Cheryl Scanlan, Founder
Way of Life Coaching, LLC
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