Words and Water

A Refreshing Glass

of Ice Water

What a difference our words can make, for good or for bad, and that led me to think about how water can be an analogy to words. Words can be, like water, either a blessing or a curse. When you are hot, tired and thirsty, a cool glass of water can truly be a blessing that cools and refreshes. It’s essential to life and it can be harnessed for work to provide power for operating grist mills and hydroelectric power plants.

Too much water, too fast, can be destructive and contaminated water, deadly. We are in the middle of this historically bad Atlantic hurricane season and have seen hurricanes named Harvey, Irma and Maria. They have brought death, sorrow, destruction, and despair to many people. The storm surge is often as dangerous as the wind and pressure canges.

Like water, our words can be harnessed for good or they can be a

destructive force. A friend recently told me how a meaningful friendship had been torn apart with words. That relationship looks to be permanently broken. I could hear the heartache in my friend’s voice as she shared her pain.

This week’s Bible study is titled, “Warning and Judgement.”* Scripture is a resource God provides to warn us of various spiritual dangers and avoid common pitfalls. Like a good parent, God tries to prepare us ahead of time for what we can expect in life.

A warning verse from James 1:26 (ESV) says,

“those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”

Later in James 3:10 (NIV) we’re warned,

“Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”

I expect that we have all said things we shouldn’t and been convicted to seek repentance and forgiveness.

Our words reveal our inner selves, even when we don’t mean for them to. Jesus speaks in Matthew 12:34b (NIV),

“For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

This is why we are encouraged to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, anything that is excellent or praiseworthy. When we choose to focus on growing closer to God and making his priorities our own, our attitudes and words will show it.

We have been talking about regular spoken words, regular language…but John1:1 (NIV) tells us, somewhat cryptically,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Here, he’s talking about Jesus. Jesus as the Word, who was also God, and who spoke creation into existence. Now that’s a powerful word! We can begin to see that as we are being transformed by scripture and the Holy Spirit at work in us, we can tap into that power. When we invite others to Bible study, or share words of the Gospel message, or we uplift and encourage others, when we speak words of confession and repentance, when we ask God to help us deal with our anger and selfishness in ways that are pleasing to Him, then we are using our words in ways that are a blessing to us and that bring glory to God.

May it be so in each of our lives this week.

Camille Wheeler

Originally presented to Leadership Council

9/27/17

CBS - Rutherfordton Day Class

* Return to Jerusalem, Lesson 3

Our Godly Character

Flight to Los Angeles

This summer, Mary Jane Downs and I, and three others, went on a mission trip to Los Angeles to do street evangelism, prayer walking and praying for the entertainment industry. We’d had a fruitful week and felt like we accomplished everything we understood we were supposed to, and more.

On Friday night we returned to the hotel after a long day and just as we were pulling into the parking lot, we received a text from the airline saying our flight for the next morning had been cancelled. We all went to our rooms to pack and get ready to leave the next day just as we had planned to do.

During the night, Sam our team leader, texted back and forth with the airline to no avail. The flight was back on, then off again, delayed 20 minutes, back on time, delayed 30 minutes. That was how it stood as we woke up that morning.

Woman Asleep

As I was spending some time in prayer before I got up to dress, the Lord told me, “This is your opportunity to show your Godly character.” I laid there and thought about that for a few minutes. What did I have within me that could be considered Godly character? Then He brought to mind, Gal. 5:22-23, the Fruit of the Spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

               gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

I shared this challenge with the other team members.

Waiting in the Airport

By the time we arrived at the airport the flight had changed again. It was back on regular time, then cancelled again and then on again, but without us. Sam talked to three different airline employees, going higher up the chain of command each time, while the rest of us sat across the lobby praying. The spiritual warfare was intense. He finally came away with two choices: leave on the same flight the next day (but they wouldn’t help us find a hotel to stay in or help get us there and back or pay for the extra meals we’d need. Option two was to stay in the airport and leave on a flight that night, changing in Chicago instead of Denver. Twelve hours in the airport is a long time but we got the distinct feeling that God was keeping us from harm.

Something like this doesn’t happen every day, but other things happen that might test our Godly character. Many times since then I have heard that wee small voice reminding me “this is an opportunity to show your Godly character.”

The Israelites had many opportunities to show their Godly character in our study this

The Temple Destroyed

week. They often failed. How about you?  Has He given you those opportunities, too? How are you doing with that challenge?

There are some of God’s character traits that we cannot, as humans, show. His omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence and His position in the Trinity. Being sovereign, immutable and rendering judgement are reserved for Him. But He has allowed us to take on other character traits to make us better people and make the world a better place.

I am closing with Galatians 5:22-24 from The Message.

^22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

^23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

Cathy Biggerstaff

Originally Presented to the Leaders Council

CBS – Rutherfordton Day Class

10/4/17

Amazing God

Mt. Rainier

As many of you know, I was born and raised in the state of Washington. I grew up in the city of Port Orchard, across Puget Sound from Seattle. Even prettier than the Puget Sound, are the mountain ranges that surround the state. Mt. Baker, Mt. Adams, Mt Hood, (which is in Oregon but can be seen from Washington and is in the same Cascade Range), and Mt. Rainier, my favorite mountain. Many Washingtonians still call it, "Mr. Majestic."

Today, I would like to tell you about a mountain that changed all our lives: Mount St. Helen's, when she blew her top! There was lots of fear about the unknown future, and fifty-seven precious lives were lost. So powerful was the force of unwanted, sulfurous ash, that it circled the globe twice!  That experience is something our family will never forget. 

Mount St. Helens

 Life for our family was full of unexpected events as well, some positive and others negative. A positive experience for me, was accepting Jesus Christ as my personal Savior on April 30th,1 972.  In these 45 years, we have experienced marriages, divorces, loss of a son, wayward children and grandchildren, financial ups and downs and health issues.  Yet through it all, God has been faithful.  I can still say, "Amazing God, you're still amazing me."

Starting in Community Bible Study five years ago, I have learned many things:

1)    It is very easy to just drift along if you are not solidly anchored in God.

2)    Another year I learned you can fall into complacency, and not even realize it.

3)    Last year I adopted the word "balance" for I realized I didn’t have that in my life. 

I can't wait to see what God shows me as I study Return to Jerusalem this year.

This past summer, my husband Bill and I revisited Mt. Rainier and Mount St. Helen's. What a sight to behold!  The verses in Psalms 121: 1 & 2, are so fitting:

"I lift my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? 

My help comes from the Lord, the Creator of Heaven and Earth."

Take a minute to listen to the Triumphant Quartet's song, "Amazing God” on You Tube to round out this devotion.

Linda McDaniel

This devotion originally presented to Leaders Council

Community Bible Study – Rutherfordton Day Class

10/11/17

Facing the Facts

Tennis Player

My nearly 100-year-old mother-in-law and I have been watching the US Open. Mom played tennis until she was 80, and enjoys watching it on television. Friday night Rafa Nadal, our favorite, lost the first set. It looked as if there was little hope for him. After the match Nadal was asked how he turned things around. He answered that he saw that his plan to keep attacking del Potro’s backhand just wasn’t working, and knew he had to do something. In other words, he had to face the facts that if he continued as he was going he would lose. Nadal changed tactics and came out the winner.

What does one do though if you’re in a situation, and you face the facts that there’s nothing you can do? You’ve looked the problem square in the face, haven’t buried your head in the sand, but there is no plan that will work. For instance, you face a chronic illness

Chronic Illness

where the doctor says, “we’ve run out of options;” you have financial problems that are too great to overcome; your adult child is in trouble but you have no control over him? In other words, it’s hopeless, nothing will work, it’s just an impossible situation.

Let’s look for a minute at Romans 4:18-21 (NIV). Abraham was given a promise from God in Genesis 12. He promised Abraham a land, a people (nation) and to bless others through him. Abraham believed God.

“Without weakening in his faith, he faced the facts…” God had promised him a son so a nation could come from him. He checked his body and faced the fact that he couldn’t father a child. He was almost 100 years old! Then he looked across the table and saw

Abraham and Sarah

Sarah. She had been infertile for decades…no hope there.” Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but (instead) was strengthened in his faith, and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” 

I thought on that portion of the verse, ’did not waver through unbelief’, and questioned God. “But Lord,” I said, “he gave in to Sarah’s quick-fix idea to get a son through Hagar? Then later through fear Abraham told King Abimelech that Sarah was his sister which almost had a tragic result. Isn’t that wavering?” God said he didn’t waiver in his faith. He was human, and made mistakes. He fell prey to fear and to pride like we tend to in the heat of trials. But God says, “he didn’t waver through unbelief”!

 In Abraham’s response to this terrible testing of his faith there is something that spoke to me most. It was that Abraham faced the facts. He didn’t gloss over them and he didn’t ignore the facts. NO! Father Abraham faced the hopelessness of his body and Sarah’s body, and instead of stopping there and giving up, he looked at his

Abraham and Issac

God, my God, your God. He remembered who had called him out of Ur to a new land and how God cared for him. He relived in his mind that awe-filled evening when God passed between the heifer, goat, ram and birds a smoking firepot and blazing torch, and spoke his promise again to him.  And through Abraham’s belief God strengthened his faith, and persuaded him that He is a promise keeping God… and He is.

Ladies, take courage today, and face the facts of your hopeless situations. Call them just what they are. Don’t side step the problem, or try to put a good face on them. Face the fact that your situation is hopeless-- impossible. Don’t waver in your faith—tears are fine, getting angry with God is fine, having a donut when you’re so tired of carrying the heavy load is fine. Face the facts that you aren’t enough, and let God have the whole mess. God will strengthen your faith.  He will get the glory when he steps in and changes things, and fulfills every single word of his good promise to you. The fact is God wants and will get the glory when we believe him, and we will forever be singing his praises.  Amen

Susan Hamlin

Originally Presented to the Leaders Council

9-13-17

Return to Me

Karen Long-Moore

Core Group Leader

Return to me. 

God calls to us just as he called the Israelites home to Him from Babylon. We, like them, have turned to idols of our own making. We have let other things get in the way of our relationship with God. We have misplaced priorities and have lapsed into sin. 

God has given us so much, and we have loved it all so much, that we have let it come first. Good gifts that have good purposes have

 James 4:8

been elevated to idols in our lives. Left to ourselves, we can easily become consumed with selfishness and forget to put Him first. We spin in circles, going nowhere.

God knows us and knows we need His guidance and help. We need Him! He pursues us. He never forgets us even when we forget Him. He is always faithful to forgive. He calls us to come to Him. When we take that first step toward Him, He runs to meet us. 

How sweet it is to be back in our familiar routine at CBS; to open the scriptures next to our workbook and dig in to the Word of God. As we draw near to Him, He draws near to us. We were made for Him. 

We are home.

Originally presented to Leadership Counsel

Rutherfordton CBS – Day Class  9/20/17

Changes

Cheryl Waddingham

Core Leader

          With life comes change.  With change comes fear, insecurity, sorrow, stress.  So what do you do? Hibernate?  Take no risks for fear of failing? Change will happen in your life.  It is not a matter of “if,” but “when.”  Let me share a little about the changes that have taken place in my life.

          In 1988, my husband, an administrator for a community college in Iowa, lost his job unexpectedly.  It was a time when jobs were hard to find, especially in the dead of winter in this small rural community. It became frustrating but, after months of applications and interviews, he got a job! Little did we know it would take us all the way to NC! 

          The move was a difficult one for my family.  Not only did we have to sell our dream house, we had to get rid of things we wanted. I was losing a job that I dearly loved. We had an exchange student living with us who had to return to Spain following his graduation and a former exchange student wanting to return to the area for one more visit before we left the community she called “home”.  We also had to find a place for our daughter to live while she waited to leave for college that fall. Our son was about to become a freshman in high school. Making the move even more difficult was knowing that my father-in-law only had months to live. Through many tears, much prayer and lots of adjustments, we made the move, and life was good again, thanks to our faith and assurance that God would see us through.

          In 2015, my faith was tested more than it ever had been.  A son’s divorce, the loss of my husband of 50 years, the loss of two very close friends (one on the day of my husband’s funeral), the loss of a niece to suicide, and one of the hardest to understand was the betrayal of a very close friend that I had trusted for many years.  My heart was broken and, on many days, I found myself sitting and starring into space, allowing time to pass by on its own.  I began reading self-help books and journaling daily, pouring out all my thoughts and hurts, and anger onto its blank pages.  Most of all, I prayed A LOT, waiting for the “new norm” in my life to take place. I began asking God to show me the direction I needed to go, to help me make wise choices and to use me to glorify His name.  As I searched through scripture, I was reminded in Romans 5:3 that we are to rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

Romans 5:3

          It was at this time that I received a call about being a facilitator for CBS. Even though I felt God telling me to say “yes,” I wondered if it was still too soon to take on such a heavy responsibility. I questioned God’s motives. Why, then, was God telling me to say yes? Why was He moving me in a direction that not only made me accountable to CBS but also to the fifteen women He entrusted in my care?

          I did accept the call.  I must confess, as a new Core Leader this year, I found myself overwhelmed with all there is to know.  God began to open my eyes and I quickly learned that CBS was actually uplifting me in a spiritual renewal of myself!  It is through facilitating others that God has truly worked through me allowing time to heal in ways that I didn’t even know I needed healing.  Studying I and II Corinthians has been a wakeup call.  God has shown me through scripture and our sharing together the things that I needed to hear and learn and to do.  And in doing so, I have been able to shepherd my sheep through my life’s experiences because I have been where many women in CBS are right now.  I truly can relate to their pain and suffering as they share their stories with me. Their love and trust in me has been such a blessing.

Women Studying the Bible Together

          When we stay focused on Christ, nothing else really matters because he will meet our every need as 2 Samuel 22:7 reminds us - “I called to the Lord in my distress.  I called to my God. From His temple, He heard my voice.”

          I am sharing these life experiences with you today as a testimony that no matter how difficult life becomes, God will be there to see you through, if you just put your trust and faith in Him. I look forward to seeing what He has in store for me in the days ahead – a journey of changes to be embraced.  I thank God for the lessons learned through these “opportunities of faith,” knowing that he is in total control.  I don’t always understand why God calls me to do the things he does but I am reminded in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

          Prayer: “Gracious heavenly Father, You are so awesome.  When changes come into our lives, you are always there to comfort us and to pick us up; you listen when there are no words to say; you whisper sweet I love yous in our ears when we need them.  Help us to handle the changes that life gives us by leading us in what is good, true and right so that we can be of help to others, giving you all the honor and glory.  Amen.”  

J O Y

As I look at the Almond Joy mini candy bar I handed out, I think of an acronym using the letters J…. O…. Y.  “Jesus, Our Yahweh.” Since Yahweh, a noun, is a form of the Hebrew name of God, the acronym means: “Jesus, our God.” As Christian believers, we claim this to be true.

In our family, we are eagerly anticipating the safe, healthy birth of two grandchildren in the next year. The anticipation reminds me of Jesus’ mother, Mary, and a bit of what she may have been feeling before the birth of her son.  No doubt she was excited, but also apprehensive and unsure about how God was using her in his holy plan.

I was reminded these last two weeks of how much work it is to care for a helpless little one.  In my case, it’s been our little dog who needed unexpected spinal surgery.  He’s needed many resources: our time, attention, medicines, personal care, love, and reassurance since the surgery.  For the first week, it included care in the middle of the night, similar to a baby. Fortunately, he’s gotten on his feet though he still has weeks ahead for further healing.

A baby is a wonderful, wonderful miracle, but also needs lots of support.  They can bring us much joy, but it’s not purely joy. It’s mixed with work and worry.

Mary and Baby Jesus

Joy is usually mixed with other emotions. It is rarely just joy.  Even the joy of Christmas is often mingled with other less welcome emotions. I’ve certainly had years marred by illness, stress related to school, jobs, family issues, finances, and various kinds of losses. All take a toll on our joy at Christmas and at other times throughout the year, and yet, I am encouraged by what the Bible says about joy:

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Psalm 98:4 NIV

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9 NIV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. James 1: 2-3  ESV

In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 2 Corinthians 8:2 NIV

And my favorite, especially during the Christmas season:

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke 2:10 KJV

These verses say to me, and I hope to you, that joy is not only possible when times are good and things are going our way, but even when we have seasons of sadness, of turmoil, of feeling like we are in the wilderness.  As believers, we have these verses to hold onto, to claim, to stand on as reminders. Reminders that we have a God who loves us and sends us joy in the form of his son, Jesus, who was born to bring us the way to salvation and forever-and-ever, eternal joy.

The Almond Joy candy bar on your seat is a reminder of God’s desire for us to experience the eternal joy he offers us.  My prayer for you is that you are reminded, during this season, of God’s constant love and that you feel much joy as a precious child of God.

Camille Wheeler, Core Leader

Originally presented to the CBS Leadership 12-14-16