Sunday Scripture

 Time for another Sunday Scripture!  As I explained several weeks ago, I've made some changes in  my Sunday posts,  using the Daily Grace Co. book Fix Your Focus, which is really not a Bible study as such, but more of a guide to help you fix your focus on God, His Word, prayer, gratitude, and spiritual growth, every week for 52 weeks.  I encourage you to follow along with us as we journal, look at Scripture, pray, and face the challenges of our weeks with our focus on Him.  I truly hope that others are finding this as helpful as I am.

This week's lesson was actually done by me the week of August 11,  but I am working ahead of you readers.  So here goes!

🌿 WEEK-AT-A-GLANCE CHECKLIST is further on in each week's section. But since I am working on Fix Your Focus all week long, I find it works best for me to do this checklist first. This checklist offers us four points:  

* To make a plan for reading our Bibles and praying.

* To add any upcoming events to our calendars.

* To add any upcoming events to our calendars.

* To jot down a to-do list of tasks that must be completed this week.

* To make a note of our top three priorities for this week.

This last point is one that I need to pay special attention to every week.  I've been finding it so helpful.  (The other three points are things that I'm consistently doing.) 

For this week, my top three priorities are:

1) Hospitality -- having another couple over for lunch after church on Sunday.

2) Outreach --  spending time with a grieving young friend; attending a cookout at the home of Steve's flag wave friends.

3) Ministry --  Work on Sunday School and blog posts; serve at my volunteer job on Friday.

I also added Etsy as a fourth priority -- to prep and send any orders; to list at least 5 items.

[If you are following along with our study, this is the place to make a Week-at-a-Glance checklist and/or priority list for yourself!]

🌿 The first actual prompt for each week is JOURNAL.  We are encouraged to take a few minutes to journal about our fears, joys, worries, desires and stressors concerning the week ahead.  [If you are following along with us, take a moment in a journal or notebook to do just that.]. Here's what I wrote on Monday, breaking it down into the suggested categories:

Fears: No real fears going into this week.  

Joys: We're staying at our camp due to hot weather this week, and I plan to fit some crafting into every evening.  Working on Etsy is a joy when I have the time.  Teaching, studying, and blogging are joys.  Hospitality, especially at our camp, is a joy.  We plan a staycation day on Monday which will be a joy.

Worries: I try not to worry.  I do have concerns for my husband's health.  It's vastly improved, but there's one persistent problem area.  There are other situations I'm concerned about as well.

Desires: As always, that God would be glorified in the events of the week.  We desire to be a good testimony to those not-yet-believing friends we spend time with this week.  To be a blessing to family and church family this week.  To do some crafting every day, to work on Etsy each day.  To savor our staycation day and nights spent at our cottage.

Stressors: Always the limitations of aging, time, and energy.  The extreme heat.

🌿 The next prompt is PRAYER. It was suggested that we use several prayer prompts to have a conversation with God about the week ahead.  [You can do the same.  Use the very same prompts for your own prayer.]

* Lord, You are ... in full control of every aspect of this week.   You are aware of all that it will hold and also of my limitations and time constraints.  You are the great Physician and able to heal Steve's psoriasis and give us wisdom about it.  You are so good and kind to allow us to live in this beautiful state and to provide this cottage to retreat to.

* Lord, I feel ... as if the week is slipping away.  It's already Wednesday as I write this!  I feel somewhat concerned about Steve's psoriasis.  Most areas are smoothing out nicely, but his lower legs, where it all started, continue to be a problem.  I feel blessed, so blessed to have our cottage to get away to in such hot weather.  I feel thankful for the cool breeze coming through the window right now.  

* Lord, help me with ... using my time wisely this week.  Help me with my attitudes, which can so easily get out of hand.  Help me with my work at TWNE, church, and home, to accomplish all that's necessary.

* Lord, forgive me for ... times when my words, tone of voice, or attitudes are not pleasing to you.  Times when I tend to act in my own strength.

Make a note of four or five people you are praying for.  I listed an older widow; a couple coping with some large life changes;  a young couple seeking God's direction for housing.

🌿 The next section in this helpful guide is SCRIPTURE MEDITATION.  I chose to first meditate on this week's Scripture, Ecclesiastes 12:13, using the SOAP method, and then answered several suggested questions.   [You can use your own preferred method to meditate on this verse, and answer the questions below for yourself.]

S= "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man."  (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

O= The ESV reads "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

Cross-references for "fear God" "That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged."  (Deuteronomy 6:2)

 "And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and serve the LorD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul."  (Deuteronomy 10:12)

Note concerning "fear God" -- "The 'fear of the LORD is an Old Testament expression meaning reverential trust, including the hatred of evil." -- C.I. Scofield

Henrietta Mears wrote, "To'fear the Lord' means to recognize His holiness and to realize how great He is and how unworthy we are to have His love."

A= To help with my application of this verse, I answered the three questions from Fix your Focus:

* Reflect on what this verse tells you about who God is.

He is to be feared -- that is, we are to be in reverential awe of Him.  His commands are to be kept.

* Think about what this verse tells you about who you are.

As a part of mankind, my "whole duty" is to fear God, and keep His commandments.

* Throughout the week, consider how this verse should affect the way you live.

 I should live my life in reverential trust of God, loving the things that He loves and hating the things that He hates.  I should live life in obedience to His Word.

One writer has said, "The bottom line is this: We are to fear God and obey him, knowing that he will evaluate everything in our lives. God sovereignly disposes our lives here below, 'under the sun' and he sovereignly judges our lives when we stand before him."

"Fearing God and obeying Him is not option #2, but is requirement #1, and is to be the very end for every man. This is why we were made.." -- Warren Wiersbe

“The remarkable thing about fearing God is that, when you fear God, you fear nothing else; whereas, if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.” -- Oswald Chambers

David McCasland noted in Our Daily Bread, "The multiple times Solomon used the word vanity (or meaningless) in Ecclesiastes may indicate his disillusionment about life. This once-wise king who had it all, lost it all, and pondered it all, ended the book with this final conclusion: 'Fear God and keep His commandments' (12:13). Those are six words worth heeding."

William Barrick wrote, "You were not made to chase success, to accumulate knowledge, to indulge pleasures or to escape death. You were made to fear your Creator, to walk with Him in His truth and to glorify and enjoy Him forever. Solomon, at the end of his life, cuts through the fog of everything else and says: 'This is the purpose of your existence'.."

P= "Lord, how I praise You for the clarity of Your Word .  In this verse we see so clearly, distilled into six words, the duty of man -- to fear and obey You, to walk in Your truth and to glorify You.  We see that it is not an option, but a requirement.

    "I pray that You will help me to live each day of my life in reverential trust of You and in obedience to Your Word.  Help me to love the things that You love and to hate the things that You hate. I thank You for the strength that You will give!   In Jesus' name, Amen."

🌿 GRATITUDE is the next prompt.  We were to reflect on the way God has shown His faithfulness to you over the past week and list five things we are thankful for.  [If you are following along with us, be sure to make your own list of five things!]. Here is my list:

1) Getting out for a walk several days last week.

2) A lovely staycation day on the Monday, with all that we hoped for.

3) Time and energy to clean the church.

4) The blessing of hosting a cottage prayer meeting at our camp.

5) Seeing God work in the lives of friends to move them to another state.  Giving us the emotional strength to say goodbye to people who have become so dear to us.

🌿 SPIRITUAL GROWTH is the next prompt, and this week there's an emphasis on FELLOWSHIP. We were to plan a time to fellowship with friends this week.  [And again, if you are following along, please think about this for yourself.]

We did just that, inviting friends over for lunch after church on Sunday.

🌿 Lastly is a GOSPEL-CENTERED AFFIRMATION: 

The purpose of my life is to glorify God and live in the ways He instructs.

We can take this challenging thought into the coming week as we seek to glorify God and walk in His ways every day.

And there's the Sunday Scripture for this week!