Lies We Believe About Sin

Another installment of Mentiras que las Mujeres Creen will happen here at the house tonight. We decided to change the meeting night because we've had a few ladies missing because they have to work on Thursday's. I don't know that we'll keep the study on Friday nights but I'm interested to see if we will have more ladies.

The chapter we will be discussing deals with the lies we believe about sin.

• "I can sin and get away with it."
• "My sin isn't really that bad."
• "God can't forgive what I have done."
• "I am not fully responsible for my actions and reactions."
• "I cannot walk in consistent victory over sin."

As I read down this list I can see how I personally have believed these lies. When God desired to save me from my sin, his enemy, Satan, had me believing that the first three lies were true. First I believed that I was not accountable to anyone, let alone a Holy God. I also was confident that my sin wasn't really that bad. But then when I saw that Christ died for me, the pain and suffereing that He willingly endured for me, I became convinced that there was no way God could forgive the sins of my past. When I realized the truth, that there is no sin too great for God to forgive, that the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to cover all sin and that God's grace is greater than any sin, I willingly repented of my many sins and trusted in Christ to save me.

As far as I know, all of the ladies that come to our study are saved. And so, tonight I plan to focus mainly on the last two lies. Of vital importance is bringing to remembrance that God dwells in those whom He has saved. It often times, is the presence of a specific person that will cause us to think twice about commiting sin. For instance, how many times have I been short and harsh with my kids yet when the phone rings I answer with a sweet voice? If we would not commit a sin before a friend why would we do the same thing before a Holy God? Because we dismiss His presence. We choose to do what we want even though the Holy Spirit is whispering for us to stop. We excuse our sin as not being sin. Or we yield to the desires of our flesh.

As you can see, I'll be hitting on some tough things tonight. Please be in prayer for our ladies, that their hearts would be tender and submissive to the leading of God. I would greatly appreciate your prayers for clarity in thought and speech. I have taught the last couple studies in Spanish, and I find it very mentally taxing to get such deep thoughts across in a language still foreign to me.

Are You Leaning?

"Recently my husband did .... and from your study I realized that I needed to pray for him and encourage him."

In response to a former catholic lady's testimony of Baptist teachings being very different from what she is used to, one lady said this, "I was a catholic my whole life too, but when you immerse yourself in the Bible it gets into your heart and you see that what our church teaches is truth."

Each of the ladies wrote out prayer requests to exchange with eachother. This is the testimony of the lady who got my prayer requests, "These past couple weeks I have prayed for Debbie, Pastor and for their family. She asked prayer for Spanish and I've noticed an improvement. I've prayed for the spiritual growth of their children. And for Pastor as he prepares and preaches his messages."

To begin this weeks study, on Proverbs 3:5,6, I asked the ladies to share testimonies of how they were able to apply the last study's lesson to their lives. Last week I taught on the negative aspect of this verse: Leaning - We are not to trust in our own understanding or our reasoning (our reasoning is our intelligence, our thoughts, and our desires) over God's.

Following this week's study on the beginning of Trusting - We are to trust in Almighty God. Our examples from Scripture are Isaiah, Job, and Habbakuk, Daniel, Joshua and Caleb, Shadrac, Meshac and Abednego, Ruth, and the many examples in Hebrews 11- I shared practical application of my study: When you struggle to do as God asks or to believe God will do as He promised ask yourself, "Who is my God?", read Job 42; keep a remembrance journal of all the ways God has answered specific prayers - when He has provided for your needs, when He has brought a loved one to the Lord, or when He has helped you through a trial, etc; keep a promise journal in your Bible underlining verses the Lord gives you and date them so you can look back and see how God has helped you through.

I was able to share specifics of how I have applied these things to my life, during Bible college and deputation and now here on the field. From that I hope and trust that the ladies will see that God is real in my life. Please keep praying for these ladies as we continue to study this passage of Scripture.

I'm hoping to complete this study at our next meeting, February 21st, and begin the study in Mentiras Que Las Mujeres Creen (Lies Women Believe). The books have been ordered and should be here from the states in a couple weeks.