536

Psalm 119: 114, 116-117

"You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.... Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live.... Hold me up, and I shall be safe...."

Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself, Week 8 "Faith is not an action; it is a response" (156).

Faithfulness "carries the idea of giving someone credit. An English synonym... is reality."

"...beyond believing in [Christ] and on Him, do we simply believe Him?... Do we believe Who He is and what He says?" (157)

"Enoch so enraptured God that God raptured him!"

"... wake up every morning saying, 'Yes, Lord,' then live through the day to discover His questions" (162).

"Genuine faith walks steadfastly with God for the pleasure of His company, not for His results" (164).

based upon Acts 27:1-28:10

1. Feelings or perceptions cannot be the basis of faith even in the most Spirit-filled life.
2. Faith comes from listening! The most certain way to know God is to know His word!
3. God's deliverance came through the ship['s] running aground!
4. God always has a destination in mind when He delivers.... If only we would release God from our preconceived notions of what a miracle should be! (166-167)

"Fear cripples faith,... but faith cripples fear" (170).

God "always can...! If He chooses not to, He has greater glory in mind" (171).

Through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, I have "the faith of the very Son of God [to be] released in [me] through the fruit of the Spirit! (172)

"The closest length of time between the major prophecies and their fulfillment was 200 years" (173).

Week 9
gentleness= submission, humility, and teachability; meekness, mildness, forbearance.... grace of the soul, calmness toward God.... stands between uncontrollable, unjustified anger and passivity (178); describes the complete surrender to God's will and way in your life.... means to "stop fighting God"... power and strength created from submitting to God's will...."allow Him to comb out the tangles until you're free" (181).

humility = "the correct estimation of ourselves which results from a correct estimation of our God" (182).

When I am "proud, rebellious, and insist on [my] own way, the chances are good [God] will use a donkey" to instruct me.

gentleness = "'Strength of character revealed in meekness of manner"

"The Sword of the Spirit is to injure Satan, not the body of Christ" (194).

exhort does not equal injure.

"God's Word is best served with a pitcher and a towel" (197).

535

Psalms 119: 107-108, 112

"Revive me [Amp: renew and quicken me (give me life)], O LORD, according to Your word...And teach me Your judgments....I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes...."

Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself: "...we will never be successful as parents to our children until we are successful at being children to our Heavenly Father" (142-143).

Goodness as a quality of the fruit of the Spirit "means 'benevolent' and 'active goodness.'" It "does not spare sharpness and rebuke to cause good in others" (148).

"...we have not been saved by our works--we have been saved for His works!" (149)

"...our works were assigned in advance...we are not extra baggage. God did not save us so that we could look attractive on Sundays.... If we miss our ministry, we will miss our entire purpose in remaining here" (150).

"... that which is good, profitable, or beneficial is not always fun, easy, or pleasant. The purpose of [goodness] is to do or bring that which is most beneficial, whether or not it is that which is most popular" (152).

Our objective is "the good of the kingdom,... 'kingdom profit" (153).

"We cannot excuse sharp tongues and self-righteous attitudes in the name of good works.... [God] wants us to have a disposition of 'tenderheartedness' and a Spirit eager to nurture" (153-154).

533

2 Timothy 2:21

"... If [I cleanse myself in Christ's blood, I] will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work."

John MacArthur, Daily Study Bible: "...went out of God's protection into His judgment, as all who are disobedient to His word do" (1088).

Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself: "Without kindness, goodness becomes harsh and self-righteous" (134).

kindness = "a tender heart and a nurturing spirit."

The qualities of the fruit of the Spirit are "manifestations of the Father Himself through the yielded or Spirit-filled child of God..."

"El Shaddai, the Father of sufficiency, our God, the nurturing Parent" (136)

"God-sized problems don't fit women-sized hands" (137).

Isaiah 12:6: "...great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel."

Beth Moore, viewing guide for Chapter 6, "A Composite of Peculiar Patience, " Living Beyond Yourself: deals with hope, patience in circumstances, the judgmental/critical spirit, mercy, and Biblical forgiveness.

Patience in circumstances is inspired by hope.
Patience with people is inspired by mercy (Amp.: even-tempered, forbearing). God's priority is always going to be people.

PART 1: THE COMPLICATION OF PATIENCE

James 5:7-9, 22, 2 Peter 3:9, 15: We are called to wait patiently for the LORD as He waits patiently for the lost. He will keep me in a situation until I learn to react differently--His way.

Patience waits; waiting does NOT = idleness; waiting = WORK.

PART 2: THE CALL TO PATIENCE

A. Colossians 3:12-13: patience which is TIRELESS (Amp.)
Ephesians 4:1-2: making allowances
Both verses couple our word patience with "bearing one another" (to put up with, or forbear).

B. Restraint is part of forbearance: "holding up" others to God and "holding back" all that my flesh wants to do or say.

"Patience waits when it wants to WHACK!

PART 3: THE COMPLETION OF PATIENCE

The practice of patience helps complete something lacking IN ME (sandpaper).

This truth is proven in forbearance with people in that

• They bring out the worst in me
• They keep me from thinking too highly of myself.
• They keep my pretenses from working. (They're supposed to do so!)

2 Corinthians 4:10-12 (bringing everything to death that is not of Him) God could be working death in one person and life in the other. Trust Him.

God is committed to bringing OUT the worst in me. (He brings it up so that He can bring it out.) I must pray that God bring out the worst in me--then rid me of it!

A great harvest requires "a good killing."

CONFLICT = COMMITMENT PROMPTS CHANGE. (I have not understood this concept. In it lies much of the reason I have not "grown up": I have believed that conflict is an indication of being out of God's will, have removed myself from the conflict because "God hates strife.")

SIDENOTES

If God called us by our Starbucks orders, what would we be called?

My difficulties= all that it takes for God to kill self-righteousness in me.

God cannot use my arrogance.

Peace comes with a sword in relationships that are not Godly for us: Is God present in the relationship? Is the enemy present? (oppression)

God's will cannot be measured by ease versus difficulty. Hard does not always = bad.

Convenience never produces character.

Let patience have its perfect work.

Don't minimize God's finishing work.

533

2 Timothy 1:7

God has given me a Spirit "of power and of love and of a sound mind." Amplified: "calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control"

532

Ps. 119:73-80

"Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments. Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, Because I have hoped in Your word. I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me [allowing me to suffer the consequences of my poor choices]. Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, According to Your word....Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live.... I will meditate on Your precepts.... Let my heart be blameless regarding Your statutes, That I may not be ashamed."

vv. 81-88

"... I hope in Your word.... All Your commandments are faithful....Help me!... Revive me according to Your lovingkindness, So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth."

I Timothy 6:6

"...godliness with contentment is great gain."

v. 11: "... pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness."

531

Ps. 119:66-71

"Teach me good judgment and knowledge, For I believe Your commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, But now I [long to] keep Your word. You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes."

I Timothy 4:8

"...godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

530

Ps. 119:41-56

"Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD--Your salvation according to Your word.... I trust in Your word. And take not the truth utterly out of my mouth, For I have hoped in Your ordinances....I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.... I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love..., and I will meditate on Your statutes."

vv. 57-64

"You are my portion, O LORD; I have said that I would keep Your words. I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; Be merciful to me according to Your word. I thought about my ways and turned my feet to Your testimonies, [though I did not make haste to do so; I delayed to keep Your commandments. I allowed cords of wickedness to bind me.] But I have not forgotten Your law....Teach me Your statutes."

529

Ps. 119:34

"Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law....Make me walk in the path of Your commandments.... Incline my heart to Your testimonies,...Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way. Establish Your word to Your servant....Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your judgments are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness."

528

Ps. 119: 25-32: "...Revive me according to Your word.... Teach me Your statutes. Make me understand the way of Your precepts; So shall I meditate on Your wonderful works. My soul melts from heaviness; Strengthen me according to Your word. Remove from me the way of lying, And grant me Your law graciously. I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me. I cling to Your testimonies; O LORD, do not put me to shame. I will run the course of Your commandments, For You shall enlarge my heart."

527

Ps. 119:17-22

"...That I may live and keep Your word Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law....Do not hide Your commandments from me....Remove from me reproach and contempt."

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12: "...we... pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of [His] calling and ffulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our LORD Jesus Christ may be glorified...."

Ps. 27:4: "One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple."

St. Augustine as quoted in Piper, Desiring God: "Thou madest us for Thyself,/ and our heart is restless,/ Until it rest in Thee" (291).

George Herbert, "The Pulley," as quoted in Piper, Desiring God:

When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by,
Let us (said he) pour on him all we can:
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;
Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone of all his treasure,
Rest in the bottom lay.

For if I should (said he)
Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness;
Let him be rich and weary, that at least
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.

Piper, Desiring God: Compare "...boasting with self-pity. Both are manifestations of pride. Boasting is the response of pride to success. Self-pity is the response of pride to suffering. Boasting says, 'I deserve admiration because I have achieved so much.' Self-pity says, 'I deserve admiration because I have sacrificed so much.' Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong. Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak. Boasting sounds self-sufficient. Self-pity sounds self-sacrificing. The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be needy. But the need arises from a wounded ego, and the desire of the self-pitying is not really for others to see them as helpless, but as heroes. The need self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness, but from a sense of unrecognized owrthiness. It is the response of unapplauded pride" (302).

526

I Thessalonians 3:13: "...that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before...God...."

John Piper, Desiring God: Bless those who do not have the means to repay (194).

"God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves...what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized, uneducated, unmedicated, and unfed millions.... God increases our yield so that by giving we can prove that our yield is not our God..." (198).

"wartime lifestyle....a life unencumbered with nonessentials--... not primitive 'simplicity,' but wartime effectiveness....A wartime lifestyle implies that there is a great and worthy cause for which to spend and be spent....work to get in order to give" (199-202).

525

I Thess. 2:13"...the word of God... effectively works ["...exercising its super-human power," Amp.]

John MacArthur, Daily Study Bible:The work of God's Word includes
1. saving
2. teaching/training
3. guiding
4. counseling
5. reviving
6. restoring
7. warning and rewarding
8. nourishing
9. judging
10. sanctifying
11. freeing
12. enriching
13. protecting/strengthening
14. making wise
15. rejoicing the heart
16. prospering

Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself:

1. "Biblical forgiveness means to cut someone loose, to set someone free.
2. We must forgive everyone and everything.
3. We must forgive because

• The burden of unforgiveness is too heavy to carry.
• God wants to continue to forgive us.
• God does not want us to be tortured by unforgiveness.
• Satan takes tremendous advantage of unforgiveness.
• God can be released to work the situation to our good" (130).

524

Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself: "Patience is the vessel through which God pours His mercy Mercy is fueled by forgiveness.... Unforgiveness is the means by which we securely bind ourselves to that which we hate most....The Greek meaning of forgiveness is 'cutting loose the person roped to your back'.... It's difficult to live an effective Christian life with a body roped to your back" (127-128).

523

Prayer from Colossians 4:12: "...that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God" ("...stand firm and mature [in spiritual growth], convinced and fully assured in everything willed by God, Amp).

Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself: "...the essence of the Biblical word for 'patience' is the delaying of judgment." I cannot both judge others and be patient toward them (122-123.

Six Reasons We Must Not Judge Others

(Romans 2:1-5)
1. When I judge others, I invite the discipline of my Heavenly Father.
2. Judgment bears [births] hypocrisy; much of what I condemn in others, I myself have done.
3. I do not know the whole truth.
4. I am a mere human. I cannot assume God's job.
5. When I judge others, I am judging God. "'Time is not nearly as important to God as timing.'" Dr. Adrian Rogers as quoted in Beth Moore.
6. God's judgment is always righteous. Mine is always tainted by the flesh.

Matt. 7:1-5
7. I risk application of the same type of judgment to me.
8. I have a plank (telephone pole) in my eye. My sight is hindered by my own sin.

James 4:11-12
9. God alone is lawgiver and judge.
10. Only God has noble purpose in His judgment. I judge to make myself feel righteous in comparison.

John 8:14-18
11. My judgment would have to be completely consistent with God's. I possess little heavenly perspective (123-125).

I pass judgment more frequently than I restore.

Father, grant me an extremem awareness of judgment--an immediate sense of conviction over the sin of judgment and my tendency to condemn.

522

John MacArthur Daily Study Bible: circumcision of the heart = "taking away fleshly things that keep the heart from being spiritually devoted to Him and from true faith in Him and His will" (1015).

The "mystery" = the indwelling of Christ in each believer (1022).

Beth Moor, Living Beyond Yourself: Patience as a quality of the fruit of the Spirit is inspried by mercy (119).

521

Ps. 116:7: "Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you."

Philippians 3:12: "...I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me....forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal...."

Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself: Trials result in my refinement in God and God's reflection in me (116).

"...being made conformable is rarely comfortable" (117).

"Without hope, no patience; without patience, no maturity; without maturity, no reflection; and without reflection, no glory" (118).

520

Is. 64:4-5 (Amp.): "...no one has heard... nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who works and shows Himself active on behalf of him who [earnestly] waits for Him. You meet and spare him who joyfully works righteousness (uprightness and justice0, [earnestly] remembering You in Your ways."

Is. 64:8: "But now, O LORD, You are [my] Father; [I] am the clay, and You [my] potter;...{I am] the work of Your hand."

A prayer to pray: Ps. 115:14-15: "May the LORD give you increase more and more, you and your children. May you be blessed by the LORD...."

Prayer from Philippians 1:6, 9-11: "...that He who has begun a good work in you [Amp.: "...developing (that good work) and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you."] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.... that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment [Amp.: "...that your love may... extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight (that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment)], that you may approve the things that are excellent [Amp.: "So that you may surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value (recognizing the highest and the best, and distinguishing the moral differences")], that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ [Amp.: "and that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless (so that with hearts sincere [genuine] and certain and unsullied, you may approach) the day of Christ (not stumbling nor causing other to stumble], being filled with the fruits of righteousness [Amp.: of right standing with God and right doing] which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." [Amp.: that His glory may be both manifested and recognized].

Prayer from Philippians 1:27: "that you are standing firm in united spirit and purpose, striving side by side and contending with a single mind for rthe faith of the glad tidings (the Gospel)."

John MacArthur Daily Study Bible: Discernment = moral perception, insight, and the practical application of knowledge. Love is not blind, but perceptive..." (1004).

on Philippians 1:10: "Believers need the ability to distinguish those things that are truly important so they can establish the right priorities" (1004).

Beth Moore, speaking of Jesus' walking on the water: "Christ didn't change His circumstances to make them bearable. He mastered them at the peak of their impossibility" (105).

"[P]eace means the absence of fear and turmoil, not the absence of pain and grief" (107).

519

Ephesians 4:12-16: "equipping...the saints for work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, til we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,... to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; speaking the truth in love[see v. 15 in Amp.], [we will] grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."

John MacArthur Daily Study Bible: "Scripture is the key to this process (2 Tim. 3:16-17, John 15:3)" (990).

"the work of ministry": "The spiritual service required of every Christian, not just of church leaders (I Cor. 15:58)" (990).

"the edifying of the body of Christ": "The spiritual edification, nurturing, and development of the church (Acts 20:32)" (990).

"...Satan seeks to drive God's children as far away as possible from His image and will..." (994).

"...live continuallyh under the influence of the Spirit by letting the Word control [us], pursuing pure lives, confessing all known sin, dying to self, surrendering to God's will, and depending on His power in all things" (997).

"Being filled with the Spirit is living in the conscious presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, letting His mind, through the Word, dominate everything that is thought and done. Being filled with the Spirit is the same as walking in the Spirit" (997).

"Failure to love is just as often the source of marital trouble as failure to submit" (998).

Is. 61:3: "...beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness"

Is. 63:10: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me witht he robe of righteousness...."

Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself: Peace with God = Peace of God (100).

In Christ's feeding of the 5,000, "He placed them in a posture to rest in His provision. He commanded them to 'sit down' and fed only those who were 'seated' (John 6:10-11)" (103).

518

Is. 53:4-5: "Surely He has born [my] griefs And carried [my] sorrows;...He was wounded for [my] transgressions, He was bruised for [my] iniquities; The chastisement for [my] peace was upon Him, And by His stripes [I] am healed."

Ephesians 3:14-21 [prayer]

Ephesians 3:19, John MacArthur Daily Study Bible: "filled with all the fullness of God": To be so strong spiritually, so compelled by divine love, that one is totally dominated by the Lord with nothing left of self....total devotion to Him."