Want to come along to the Bible Study with me? Oh, by the way, there won't be much studying tonight; we're having a cookout! Haven't put any poems on lately; I wanted to work on the "book," but my days have been too busy.
"Women of Hope" Bible Study was here Monday; "summertime, and the living is easy"--we had a cookout. It rained and we had an eat-in, in our basement. It's not fancy, but big enough for 3 old tables and some old chairs, and our recently-acquired sofa beds, bought at a friend's moving sale for $50 each. Now that we have them, we're wondering if anyone will ever want to sleep down there.
Of course, the spiders and the ladybugs think it's a grand place! We always have to clean them up before we can use the basement. That's where we have family holiday meals, and our Christmas get-togethers. More on that later.
Back to the cookout, eat-in with the ladies. Since I lead the Bible studies, I also come up with ideas for fun-times. We've met every 2 or 3 weeks during the summer, and have done some neat things.
Once we had a video by Christian Comedienne Chonda Pierce. Chonda is such a cut-up, but then she gets serious and touches her audience so deeply. We laughed a lot, sang with her and prayed with her. Every one of us was moved by the experiences she shared, perhaps most of all Joanie, a new convert to Jesus.
This week, we took time to enjoy the picnic food (and several deserts, including blueberry pie and peach cobbler). We sang a lot of hymns, praise songs and choruses and played a Bible-verse game, where each one had to think of a verse associated with the object she picked. It was hard and there were no real "stars" but we had fun.
The funniest thing was when Irene picked a pkg of note cards and envelopes. The key word on the front was LETTER.
The verse was about Paul, telling some church people, "you are our letter, written on our hearts," etc.
What Irene said with a big smile, was: "If any woman wants to be a preacher, LETTER!" We cracked up over that one. And as a matter of fact, our ladies (and our whole church) probably all believe it is unscriptural for women to be preachers.
Our most-fun-singing song that says "It was on a Sunday, Somebody touched me." The last line says, "and I know it was the hand of the Lord." But when we sang it, we took turns making it personal. For instance, little Sarah sang with a tremor in her voice, "It was at my Grammy's bedside, Somebody touched me, and I'll love Him for all of my life!" Each one took a turn, expressing what happened when she put her faith in Jesus Christ and received Him as her Savior. For my turn, I sang simply, "It was in the Autumn, Somebody touched me, and I'll never be the same again!"
There are currently 11 of us who meet together Monday nights. As we've learned from the Bible, prayed, and shared our fears and our triumphs, we've grown to love each other. After all, we're one family--sisters in the Lord.
Monday after Labor Day, we'll get our study books out again, and bring our Bibles. Back to the Prayer of Jabez study by Bruce Wilkinson. We'll be on the last chapter, which is on sin. I haven't touched it yet, so I need to get busy and do my lesson, or I won't know what it's about when we get back together.
As Jabez prayed, I pray, "Please bless me a lot, and enlarge my territory (for You, Lord) and put Your Hand upon me, and keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain." "And the Lord answered his prayer."
May He answer mine -- and yours, too.
