Encouragement For Women

Day 4- Matt 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Define meekness. [Challenge yourself by looking up the Vine’s Expository Dictionary definition.] Is this a characteristic that is celebrated now?  What are some words that come to mind that are opposite of meekness? Read Psalm 37 and contrast the wicked to the righteous/meek Wicked Righteous Who else describes Himself as meek in Matt 11:28-30? What are ways that a Christian can model meekness in a power hungry world? How backwards is this concept of someone who is meek inheriting the earth?  Power and position are the focus of most people.  How does meekness transform our hearts? Have you been transformed by it?  

Day 3- Matt 5:4  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Define mourn:   What in life is most common to mourn over? What is Jesus saying we should be mourning over? What is your view of your sin?  Are you ever disgusted by it? Look up these verses and write what they say about how costly our sin is. Isaiah 59:1-2 Psalms 14:3 Psalms 130:3 Ecc 7:20 Romans 3:23 Jesus is speaking to His followers about their spiritually bankrupt state and their sin that has separated them from God.  He is showing them that their sin needs to be repented of and cast aside. He uses the word mourn, not saddened, because our sin is horrible and makes relationship with a holy God impossible.  With that in mind, is mourning over your sin a one-time thing that leads to repentance, never to be considered again?   Is there any sin over which you are currently mourning and fighting for victory? Ask God to reveal any sin in your life over which you should be mourning:

Day 2- Matt. 5:1-3 Imagine the scene, the excitement!  According to the end of chapter 4, Jesus has been healing and drawing crowds, and now they have come all the way out to a mountainside to hear Him and He opens with…what? Matt 5:3-Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What?  Here Jesus has done miracles, showed power and amassed a following and this is how He starts His teaching? Jesus goes for the deepest issue of every person to walk the earth-the spiritual. Define “blessed”. Look up the Greek word for “poor”. So what does it mean to be poor in spirit?  Is this a one-time realization, or a continuing one?   Is this how you would describe yourself in the past or now?  Why or why not? Let’s consider Luke 18:9-14.  Here Jesus describes 2 different people and their approach to God - one prideful and the other with an accurate view of himself.  Make a list of everything the Pharisee does/says and what the Publican does/says.   Is being

Thank you for willingly doing this study with me!  I mean that.  The Sermon on the Mount addresses many heart issues that are not easy to shine the light of the Word on.  Please know that this is not meant to be an exhaustive study in the Sermon on the Mount.  We really could spend the entire 9 weeks just in the Beatitudes!  But Jesus gave us more teaching and expanded on the Beatitudes, so we can glean from it all.  The first few weeks are the heaviest in homework and then it starts to thin out a bit, so don’t hate me for the first few weeks.  I’m excited to walk through this study with you and excited to revisit different questions as the Lord has His way in our hearts and lives during the next few months. -Madeleine God’s Backward Kingdom How do you view and approach God?  Stop there and consider this.  Really, stop.  The rest of this study doesn’t matter if you don’t stop and stare this in the face and consider, “How do I view and approach God?”  See, I think that if you try

The Encouragement for Women Group is still on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/groups/h313efw/ It is a closed group, please send a request (through facebook) to join.  The group is a support group for Christian women.  If you are not a woman, you cannot join.  If you are not a Christian the support you receive would be from a Christian perspective and if you do not agree with a Biblical perspective, you would not fully benefit from joining the group. Currently on Facebook: Some of us are going through the Sermon on the Mount Bible Study. We are finishing week three.  We are taking two weeks for each week of the study.  One to read and the second for discussion.  Please feel free to jump right in!  We will be starting week four Sunday (tomorrow 10/30/16).  All the weeks of the study are in the Files section of Facebook. Here on Blogger: I am in the process of updating the blog and getting the Sermon on the Mount Study up on the blog as well. Glad to be back!

The Sermon on the Mount “The Sermon on the Mount is a teaching that I personally return to every few years.  Each time my in-depth study seems to scrape away layers of my own sinfulness and selfishness-it’s painful but a needed pruning!  The Beattitudes are the foundation for the rest of Jesus’ teaching and need to be understood as the launching point for everything else.  When I have allowed these “blesseds” to search my heart and mind I am much better able to comprehend the rest of chapters 5-7, and do not see the difficult passages as so divisive.  When I was before the Lord in prayer on where to take the Women’s Ministry I help lead the Sermon on the Mount was impressed upon me, so this is the result of all the Lord crafted this summer.  We have greatly enjoyed the study, in that painful kind of way, in our two  Bible Study times with our church.  The discussion has been rich and application based, as we pursue the Lord and work out our salvation. "  A few things abo