Beyond Sunday Morning

Part two of our book would have to be my favorite. Reading through it for a second time has been such a treat. Lysa has so many pearls of wisdom on every page of these chapters. I will have to say that I love the way she writes. She gives practical advice and then goes the extra mile to follow up with examples. I love that about her.
Lysa opens this unit with a story from her childhood. For many years I went to a church that made me feel like Lysa did as a little girl sitting in church. How sad is that? But it’s true. I would sit through service after service bored and frustrated. Looking back on it I will have to admit it was as much my fault as it was the pastors. I wasn’t a self-feeder. I was relying on the church to feed me spiritually, but with all the problems our church was having it was difficult.

At that time I wasn’t reading and studying the word of God for myself. To be honest, other then reading it from time to time, I wouldn’t have known how to really “study” it. Since then, I’ve learned how to dig deeper into the Scriptures. It has been such a wonderful enlightenment.

Lysa's “formula” for studying the Bible is one I’ve heard many times. Pray, study the content and read the passage phrase by phrase is Lysa’s advice. (and she gives an example of how to do it! Love it!)

This morning I used the “formula” to study the temptation of Christ in Luke 4:1-13 in my KJV Life Application Study Bible and Spirit Filled Life Bible. The opening words are, “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost..” In both Bibles they gave the references of Isaiah 11:2 and 61:1 next to Jesus’ name. There is so much to discover about Jesus in the Old Testament!

Here’s what I learned. In Isaiah 11:2 is says, “And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;” So from this we learn that the spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus. He has the spirit of wisdom and understanding. The same thing Paul asked for in Ephesians 1:17! Jesus also has the spirit of counsel and might. So we can go to Him for counsel. And he has the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. What wonderful things we can ask for, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might and knowledge, all because Jesus has them.

Isaiah 61:1 tells us what Jesus’ mission was on earth. “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;” Praise the Lord! I love this verse. Jesus was sent to bind up my broken heart and set me free! Glory to His name! It’s time for hands to be raised girls! Thank you Lord!

Just in the first line of the passage from Luke I’ve learned so much. The Bible truly is amazing. I went on to finish studying the rest of the account of Jesus’ temptation and reveled in taking the verse apart and looking at them phrase by phrase.

I am looking forward to talking to each of you in our next group session about this chapter, but until then…. Blog on!