Transcribed from Beth Moore's Sunday School Notes (lproof.org).


Live worthy of the calling you have received. Ephesians 1 Those who know Christ have a calling not just pastors and teachers . . . to ALL in Christ Jesus.

Not just hear, but respond. Do something with what you hear from God's Word. Applying the word of God becomes power and life.

Why do we think the calling always involves someone else. Have you realized that it's you, you have a calling, not just them.

"walk worthy of our calling" The word called is defined as a divine invitation to participate. We are to impact our immediate world, circle of influence, in this day, in this time, in this area of technology.

worthy means bringing up the other beam of the scales and hence it indicates equivalence. The balance between calling and character. There should not be a balance in your life He wants it all! The whole heart the whole life. Spiritual is practicle, many think it's not but it is.

Live in such a way that your lifestyle is balanced out with your calling liveing our authinticity. This is the stongest testimony we will ever have. We have a weighty callling and we should give it weightiness in our lives.

VS 2 how do we live out our calling
1. live the life
Would you characterize what your doing as really living? Is there satisfaction in your life, not saying it's not hard work or painful. If we're plugged in we're going to feel some of these things. Are you living? This is the only chance we have, what keeps us from living.

I don't get to interact with the people at the conferences anymore except for those getting saved.

What keeps us form living
fear, shame, guilt, insecurity, . . .

These things have been pulled off of us by the work of the cross. Dare to live as a forgiven man!
It doesn't matter if someone else thinks you have the right, God is the one that matters.

It's time to come to life, if we're too busy to live then we need to quit some stuff! It's time to stop just talking about it.

2. Understand the call of God is always for people. We have recieved a calling of God for people. Whatever your ministry is will always be for people. People are the part of the calling that drives us the craziest. The people is the church!

The very people who drive us the craziest have been assigned to us. We think we are to help them but really all these frustrating people are to help us. We learn and grow b/c of these frustrations.

We all have frustrations but if we are forced to live in a household with frustrating people we will either run away or be sandpaper for eachother. We can have sandpaper and never change, but God will use it if we allow Him, to change us. People are the entire point, our calling is people.
We need people skills, we have to learn to work with people. If we think everyone is difficult the common denominator is probably really us. More than skills, we need to learn how to use people gifts. people skills without God is deception. flattery, miniputlation, control thats not the people skills we're talking about. These things are sin as far as God is concerned.

Galatians 5:22-23 People oriented we're not meant to live in isolation. One way to know the enemy is up against you is when you are prone to isolation.

3. calling and character is balanced by a few things

a. humble-be completly humble any part that isn't will be slaughtered. We will be so much wiser to take on humility. We will be humbled by life and by God. If your taken down a peg, recieve it so He can teach you and use you. Humility is lowliness of mind. Humility is not thinking less of yourself it is thinking of yourself less! Thinking truely. Gettin a clue. Realizing we have problems.

As a prisionor of the Lord, then . . . (Ephesians ch3 vs 170) we can be humble because we're seated with christ. Sometimes we won't lower ourself with people is b/c we're afraid they won't know who we are. If we would know how loved we are by Christ, we would not need others to build us up. We can know who we are in Christ no matter what others think. b/c we've been reedemed, and noone can take that away from me. There is power in this. Do you know who you are in Christ?

b. gentleness-NOthing takes more strengh than what this word really means. The definition out of the complete word study is this, an inward grace of the soul calmness toward God in particular. the acceptance of God's dealings with us as the enhancement of relationships. the truth of circumstances. does critisism fit accept it if it doesn't understand where it came from and just recieve it. Just take it. considering things as good for the enhancement of relationship. It takes stregth to bow down when you want to be the one in power. This is real power. The power not to react!

"The greatness of a man's power is in the measure of his surrender" Oswald Chambers. That's power! Power is not how mad we can get or manipulating someone with our anger. That's weakness.

c. patience- the same as found in the fruit of the spirit. This is patient is in respect to persons. (Pulmina is found for things or circumstances. This in not Pulmina, it's greater) A supernatural ability to be patient with people. Self restraint. The ability to keep your mouth shut. To bear one another to put up with faults and indios. knowing that you too have your own.

James tells us to confess our faults to one another. Faults (weaknesses) is not the same word in the greek as sins. it can be synonomous. ex. insecurity, distrust, pride, selfishness, control, fear false These are false thoughts from our own nature if not given to the control of the Holy Spirit it will give way to sin.

Love is the key. It covers a whole multitude of sins. We should be crazier for that person than we are crazy. It's all about people. Sometimes we think people get in the way of our calling. Just remember that's not true. People are our calling!

We are undergoing construction; please bear with us as we are making changes.

Thank you,
Tracie

Beth Moore
Building New Walls #4
Passing Our Exams (Nehemiah 5:14 - 6:16)

Experiencing tests. Many times we think God has sent us to do a work, and if He's sent us to do a work, He's going to set up all the variables in our favor, but how often have you found that to be true?"

I wonder if you're experiencing a test right not, probably you are" We don't always recognize that what were going through is actually a test. Theres a war in the heavenlies and you've got the cheering section over here and you've got the jeering section over here, and all this is going on about how your going to respond to the test your going through. You may need to hear a the words from heaven, you might well not be confused, this is a test. There's something about finding out theres a competion going on that makes you want to pass the test. We have the angels and all of Heaven cheering for us, ultimatly for the favor of God.

Nehemiah has been sent to do a very important work. We too are called to a work and a walk of faith; we will begin to question ourselves. We may have to return to The Word and look back at our journals to remember, "No, this IS what God called me to do.

Read Chapter 5:14-19

• Test of position-The people were desperate for a leader. Nehemiah came into a place of position in the eyes of the people. Nehemiah could have come in passing the boundaries of his authority, but he did not. He didn't even use the things that could have come by him in his position as governor.promotion in the secular world means more privaledges, but this is not the case with a spiritual promotion. When God allows us to be promoted to a spiritual leader, it is a place of privaledge but it is only given by the sovereign hand of God. Promotion to us, who are in Christ, never means more privaledges it means tighter boundaries. We have to look things even more carefully because we have been given an even greater trust. Thomas Carlisle an essayist and historian who said, "adversity is hard on a man but for every one man who can stand prosperity there are a hundred that can stand adversity" This means it's a whole lot easier to pass the test of adversity than it is to pass the test of prosperity. The more God exalts you the tighter the boundaries must become. "high profile ministries demand low risk lives" The more high profile you become in any area; church, home, work, community . . . Your choices and actions matter! At the grocery store your living low risk, you've got to be above reproach. The more you have profile the more you have responsibility. Boundaries don't get bigger with privaledge they get tighter.

• Test of Compassion-Nehemiah also passed the test of compassion. (vs18) I'm not about to live like a king while the people are working like slaves. When position comes we have to be careful of the pitfalls of separating out the people of position from the "regular people" Often leaders can be so focused on an objective that they forget about the people. Nehemiah had an objective, he only had a certain amount of time to get the wall built, and they were running out of time. He told king artexerses exactly when he was going to be back and he's got to keep his word. The more oppresed the people were becoming he recognized the time elements but he remembered the needs of the people. (He ministered to them) When the leaders aren't sensitive to the needs of the people the leadership will exhaust the people doing the work under them. Leaders often have ingenuity and creativity but with that often lack sensitivity, which becomes the end result of all things. Chuck Swindoll quoted someone (not sure who to credit but it's a profound quote), "the man who is impatient with weakness will be defective in his leadership the evidence of our strength lies not in streaking ahead but in a willingness to adapt our stride to the solar pace of our weaker brethren while not forefitting our lead if we run to far ahead we loose our power to infuluence" Always look over your shoulder to see where everyone is and be sensitive to their needs.

• Test of Distraction- You've had it before when God has given you a task to do something and everything under the sun comes up. (ch6 vs3) Notice the enemy didn't give up; they were persistent. We must remain persistent in their persistance. Always expect the enemy to be persistent. He will stay after us. The more important the task is to the eternal program of God, the more persistent he will be. We often have no idea that what we're doing has any significance whatsoever. You may think what your doing isn't that big of a deal, it may be teaching preschoolers. No matter how small you think it is, if it has anything to do with Jesus, there is no greater work than that. You have no idea of the impact that what you've been called to do will have to do in eternal reguards. Satan has been around for so long that he can smell it, he will be after you. I'm telling you when Satan see's potential in a heart and passion in a heart, it takes nothing for him to already be on top of the situation. We will fall into his trap unless we realize that we are called to ministry only by God's soveriengn grace and mercy. (vs2 scheming hebrew word means to count/divise-denotes a weaver) Our enemy is a weaver. He has a plan of many actions that he's weaving together to keep you from doing what God wants you to do. Ephesians 6:11 the word scheme again in the greek this word is methodia which means method-an orderly an technical procedure in the handling of a subject) Can you see where the enemy began with a couple of strands to weave his evil plan against you. It always begins with something that seems innocent at first but it makes us weaker to the next. For everything God does, Satan has a counterit. God has a plan for our lives that is as individual as our thumbprint. He has a very technical and oderly procedure to get us from here to here. But, so does our enemy. Satan has a clear and precise plan. Our enemy is extremly intelligent, and he will be persistent in trying to stop us from God's plan. It's important to know this so we can win our battles against this invisible enemy. (more on discernment in Rebuilding the Walls #5)
  
  

Did You Know?

The number one reason people say they don't read their Bibles is because they don't have time. Well, how much time does it take? Our goal is to read through the Bible in three years. Let' do some math. The Old Testament has 39 books, and the New Testament has 27 books. In these 66 books, you will find a total of 1,189 chapters containing about 31,273 verses. Our goal is to read (& study) 10,425 of these verses per year. Sounds like a lot. Huh? But actually, this breaks down to only 200 verses per week, which is approximatly 35 verses per day. Did you know it only takes about 1 min. 45 sec. to read those 35 verses? Wow, this is less than 2 minutes a day! When you break it down like that it's not quiet as daunting a task as one might think, is it?

I'm looking forward to spending this time learning and growing with you. Each week I will provide a study sheet along with a memory verse to keep us on track. Remember, the goal is not to just quickly read through the Bible. Our goal is threefold; to know Him more, love Him more, and tell others more about Him. For this reason, I am asking you to Read your Bible, Study your Bible, Meditate on your Bible, Memorize your Bible, and Share with others what you learn from your Bible.

While the reading assignments may only take a couple of minutes a day, I'm asking you to spend a minmum of 15-20 minutes a day in these particular disciplines; I know each one will aid in our understanding and application of God's Word.

May God bless your journey,
Tracie

Girlfriends,

I'm so excited about our upcoming journey, as we . . . Walk in The Word together.

We will officially begin our study January 14, 2007. Please invite your friends, family members, and co-workers to join us via the internet.

In His Grace,

Tracie

A journal of my personal walk with Christ. A place to note all the things God is doing and putting into my life to help me grow in His marvelous grace.This is my journey with Jesus through ordinary life

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