Thinking Girls Bible Study

I once had a Bible teacher who said, spiritually, every choice we make is a life or death decision. He referred to the passage in Deuteronomy 30:19-20, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Now of course, the context for this verse was instructions for the Israelites. But we can benefit by gleaning the truth from it. What this teacher was trying to convey is that with every decision we face, our choice will either lead to further life, or will lead us to a dead end. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to...

Recent events in our world have reminded me of the time in which I grew up. A week ago I was preparing my next lesson to teach the fourth and fifth graders at my church. The designated lesson is about Paul’s third missionary journey. I knew this would be a great lesson to tie in what we had just witnessed with the assassination of Charlie Kirk and his testimony and witness. Initially, I was going to start out by saying how much harder it is for kids today to be witnessing all this violence and hatred and how the world was different for them than it was for me and even my co-teacher who happens to be my daughter-in-law from the Millennial generation. But then I remembered the day when I was nine years old and had stayed home from school because I was sick. I was watching TV when they broke into the regularly scheduled program to announce that President Kennedy had been shot. We had already witnessed the Cuban Missile Crises. Over the course of the next few years, we would live through m...

My mother’s favorite Psalm was Psalm 139. She especially loved the last two verses, 23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” She also loved the hymn we sang with these words put to an old tune. As I grew, I came to love this Psalm and make it my own and it became my favorite Psalm, too. It’s interesting that the New King James Version uses the word anxieties where the KJV uses thoughts. The Hebrew word is saraph and means “disquieting thoughts, thoughts.” This word is found also, in Psalm 94:19: “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” The root word for saraph is caiph and means “ambivalence, division, divided opinion.” Strong’s Definition says “divided (in mind), i.e. (abstractly) a sentiment: —opinion. In other words, these are thoughts that divide and distract, thoughts that cause us to be anxious because they bring doubt and ...

There comes a time in our lives, if we are going to have a more intimate relationship with our Savior, that He must teach us about the hidden life. It’s a time to teach us to trust not in His gifts and what He can do for us, but to teach us who He is and to trust in Him. It’s a time to rid us of ourselves, our self life, so that we can come to know Him better and learn to fully depend on Him. It’s a time of shaking and cutting away all the unnecessary, so that what is left can’t be shaken, and so we can be the most fruitful. There came a time in Elijah’s life for this. Let’s study. 1 Kings 17: 1- 9: “And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.’ Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the broo...

In the previous two studies we saw both Abigail and David in their wilderness journeys.  We saw that David had been engaged in battles with Saul and other enemies leading up to the time he met Abigail.  We saw that Abigail was engaged in her own battle.  Many of us know very well what a wilderness experience is. Many of us have been engaged in our own spiritual battles for what may seem like an eternity.  That's why I find comfort in reading Psalm 18, a song of deliverance. David gives us the description of this Psalm in the first verse: "To the Chief Musician.  A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD who spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.  And he said;  I will love You, O LORD, my strength."  The occasion for David writing this was the day the Lord delivered David from the hand of his enemies and Saul.  What comfort to ...

This next study is a very personal one for me.  Let me elaborate.  I didn't know until about fourth or fifth grade that I walked "funny." I was made fun of and became very self-conscious as a young girl.  At a time in our lives where we just want to blend into our surroundings, I felt like all eyes were on me with every step I took. My walk would come to define who I was. I wouldn't find out why I walked the way I do until I was in my forties.  And the details don't matter.  What does matter is that God taught me so many things that I wouldn't have known otherwise, simply because of the way I walk.  It began to have a parallel meaning of my walk with the Lord. Also, I don't have pretty feet. It's all related.  So when I was studying Jael, I made a discovery that really spoke to my heart.  You'll see in the lesson when we see that Jael's name means "mountain goat."  These mountain goats are surefooted climbers.  Their feet are designed...

Many of us find ourselves embattled in intense, serious spiritual warfare.  Some of us find ourselves in the awful position of having the enemy in that war using our loved ones, sometimes our spouses as his instruments.  One of the devil's greatest tools is to get us to agree with him about our loved ones, or to get our loved ones to agree with him about us.  He is the accuser of the brethren and one of the ways he loves to accuse is through the mouths of people who are suppose to love us.  It was in one of these fierce battles of spiritual warfare that this lesson was born. One of the great things about the Bible is that we can study and study and still not exhaust what there is to learn from it.  Such is the case of the story of Deborah and Barak and Jael.  Deborah, of course, is one of the more well known women of the Bible.  Perhaps we can learn even more from another woman in the same passage named Jael.  So let's look at Judges chapte...