Candles among gunpowder

I just read this quote on an email this morning sent out by Nancy Leigh DeMoss speaking about the importance of our modesty as women:

"Richard Baxter was a 17th century pastor who realized how a woman's clothing could snare a man's mind. He gave women this counsel: "You must walk among sinful persons as you would do with a candle among straw or gunpowder.""

Are we being that cautious in our lives in order to guard the hearts of men around us?

Sharathon 2010

AM-1030/WCTS is the radio station that produces and broadcasts our program "Women in the Word." We are asking those who listen to our program and WCTS to prayerfully consider making a financial donation to the radio station to help their operating costs in this coming year. We appreciate the ministry of WCTS and know that God is using it to encourage believers as well as reaching souls for Christ. The week of September 20-25 is the annual Sharathon during which the station seeks support. If you can help, you can do so by calling: 1-866-766-8556 (toll free) or 763-417-8270 (Metro). You can also donate online through www.wctsradio.com. Note that our program will not air the week of Sharathon. Please ask what the Lord would have you do to help this ministry. Thank you! Rebecca, Pam, Sarah, Crystal & Karen

Please give us some feedback!

We would love to hear from you! Please use this post to comment on our program. As a listener, do you have any suggestions for our program? Do we speak clearly? Give enough biblical references? Are the questions we pose on the program practical? Please let us know how we can improve and how we can encourage you better. Do you have suggestions for a future study? Thank you!

But why love?

Why should Christians love one another? Besides the clear fact that it is a command in Scripture, what other points can we make regarding the importance of love? We will spend September 16th talking about other "oughts" in Scripture. These can be found on our study notes for chapter 4. From then we'll seek to answer this question....what are your thoughts?

What is love?

The next 4 days we will be answering the question, "What is love?". We are going to take quite a bit of time giving as many examples from Scripture of what love looks like. Buckle up and join us as we talk about how to give flesh to the word love! Then share any additional thoughts that you may have here! The study notes also have a listing of verses we share. Check out the notes for chapter 4, question 4 on this section of Scripture.

God's Love

How did God show His love? From 1 John 4:9 we see that God showed His love because He sent His only Son to take the punishment for our sins. Because of this gift, we can "live through Him." What a blessing to know that God loved us this way! We see the Jesus Christ died that we might live "through Him" (1 Jn. 4:9), "for Him" (2 Cor. 5:15) and "with Him" (1 Thess. 5:9-10). We hope today and tomorrow will be an encouragement to you as you reflect on God's love for you. A challenge: take this love and share it with someone who needs to know God's love.

Worldly vs. Godly

Today we ask the question, "What are the differences between the world's idea of love and God's love?" We will spend a few sessions talking about these differences and want to help you think through some of the ways that people think about love. We also want to help you evaluate your own love life. Are you loving others with a godly love or with a false, worldly love? Think through the "why" of why you show love to others. Does it point others Christ? Is your motivation pure? Is it a godly love?

Loving and Knowing God

As we move into our study of 1 John 4:7-12, we find that we will be doing a lot of talking about love! Some of what we say will be a repeat of what we've shared before about love. But it's so important to grasp and understand, so we hope you will welcome the reminders! What is the relationship between loving and knowing God? We will discuss this question today and in the days to come. Please join us in our study and share any thoughts or questions that you may have.

Back to our study!

We took a break the last several sessions to talk with Heather Ormiston about her ministry. We hope you enjoyed and were encouraged through those sessions. Today we get back on track with our study and will continue on in 1 John 4:1-6. Over the next 4 days, we will talk about "false prophets" that are in our lives. What are they? How can I protect myself against them? We will share 3 principles to help you in this: 1) Choose your teachers carefully, 2) Listen with discernment, 3) Take responsibility for what you believe. How are you doing being "on guard"?

Conversations with Heather

Beginning today, we will be talking with Heather Ormiston, daughter-in-law of Pam. She will be with us for a few weeks and will share with us her ministry, how she is a woman of the Word and the blessings and challenges of being a pastor's wife. We hope you enjoy listening!

Overcoming the world

Overcoming the world....seems like such a difficult thing some days. Yet God has promised that we can overcome the world. We do not have to live under control of it's false philosophies. Rather, we can live a life that is glorifying to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. Today we will begin talking about what ways we have overcome the world. We'll give some personal examples as well as try to help you see the confidence you can have to overcome the devil through Christ.

Distinguishing Truth from Error

Today we ask the question, "How can we distinguish truth from error in spiritual matters?" from 1 John 4:2-3. As a Christian living in this world, we must be able to know what is truth and what is false in order to live a God-honoring life. How do I know what is right and wrong? Over the next 3 sessions, we will seek to answer this question and give practical ideas on how to know the truth. A few things we will mention: 1) Find out what God's Word says, 2) Seek wise counsel, 3) Ask God for wisdom. As you listen and study along with us, what are your thoughts? How do YOU find out what is truth and what is error? Please share!

1 John 4 - An overview

As we begin our study now in chapter 4 of 1 John, we give a brief overview of the first section of verses 1-6. As we study this section of Scripture, keep in mind that the word "spirit" refers to ideas and philosophies of the false prophets that we in the midst of this church. The believers in this church we being bombarded by these false teachings. Therefore, John gave instruction to test the spirits to know whether the teaching was from God or not. So we also ask, how we are to test the spirits. The primary means of knowing whether a teaching comes from God depends on whether or not one believes in the diety of Christ. Many religions today believe that Christ was a real person, but deny His deity. We ought to recognize this teaching as false and hold fast to what we know is true.

Do others know Jesus because of me?

We're asking ourselves the question today, How do other people know that God lives in you? We will talk about a few simple things as we wrap up chapter 3. As you evaluate your life - are you a testimony to Christ? Do others know Jesus because of you?

Prayer, cont...

Verse 23 of 1 John 3 gives us two commands - things we KNOW God wants from us. These commands are to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and love others just as we've be instructed before. So the question we are asking about this verse is this: How should the truth affect your prayer life? We will be sharing our thoughts on this over the next couple of days. Please share yours!

Prayer

1 John 3:20-21 lay the foundation for verse 22, " and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him." In the context of this passage, we are talking about loving others in deed. John lays the negative example of Cain and then gives us the positive example of love - Christ! As we fulfill this command to love as Christ loves, it leads us into the discussion of prayer and asking things of God. We can have confidence that we are obeying God's commands and are in a right relationship with God and others that God will hear our requests and answer them! We are seeking the Will of God, so whether the answered prayer returns in our favor or not, we know that God is in control and have peace in that. It's such a blessing to have peace and it's possible, when we are walking according to God's will. We will be spending several days on verse 22, join in the discussion by sharing your thoughts here. Thanks for listening!

God knows the Heart

God knows our heart and there are many verses that prove these. We shared two examples of this from Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) and Peter (John 21:17). What a comfort to know that even though our hearts can be deceived, God knows our heart fully. Here are some verses we read today....look them up and read the truth that God knows all things. Let this truth be an encouragement to you. Over the next several days, we will be talking about this truth. 1)1 Chronicles 28:9, 2) Jeremiah 17:10, 3) Luke 16:14-15, 4) Acts 1:24, 5) Romans 8:26-27, 6) 1 Corinthians 4:3-4.

A Condemning Heart

1 John 3:20 is a tough one to wrap our minds around! We hope that we can help make this verse clear and we pray that through our discussion on this that we can help you understand more of what the Scriptures say regarding "guilty" feelings. This verse says, "for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything." What does John mean when he talks about this condemning heart? This condemning heart is is NOT a conviction of the Holy Spirit. It is rather a "feeling" that our sinful self gives to us when we might feel guilty about a situation in which we need not feel guilt. It might be that you feel guilty about something that God does not condemn - say missing a morning of devotions for example. The point is that our hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9) and this verse tells us that God is greater than our hearts. I need not feel guilty if I know in Scripture that God does not condemn me. So in our example of missing devotions, is it a sin that I didn't get up to have my quiet time with God in the morning - No! Rather, I need to understand the importance of having quiet time. I should then seek to have quiet time with God at another point in the day. This is especially an important principle for new moms. I can relate - I have a baby in the home and I know how hard it is to just sit and read God's Word and pray at times. So what we need to do is take advantage of the time we have and spend time with God when there is opportunity and making sure you are using your time wisely. Meditate on His Word through the day, singing songs of praise to Him as you are even washing dishes! Do not condemn yourself that you can't study for 30 minutes a day - that is not what matters to God. There are many other life circumstances where this can apply, this is just one example. What do you think? Have you found yourself condemning yourself in a situation? Please share your thoughts:)

What do we know?

As we move on in our study of 1 John, we come to the section of chapter 3 verses 19-24. In the book of John there are many instances where John says "we know" or "you know." We list for you today the 4 instances from 3:15-24. They are 1) vs. 15 - we know that no one who hates has eternal life, 2) vs. 16 - we know what love is, 3) vs. 19 - we know we are of the truth, 4) vs. 24 - we know that He abides in us by the proof of the Holy Spirit. These truths that we are to "know" ought to reassure us as vs. 19 tells us. When doubts arise, we can go back to the things we know to be true and have peace and confidence because of God's truth. When in doubt to you go to the Truth or do you seek advice and counsel from someone that doesn't know the Truth?

Fleshing out Love

1 John 3:18 tells believers that love is not just in word or talk but it is proven in deed and in truth. We are talking about this verse and trying to understand what this means. How do we love in deed and in truth? Love is more than just talk - it's love in action. Be genuine in your actions too...don't just go through the motions because God knows your heart! When was there a time where you might have loved in "word" and have missed out on God's blessing of loving in "action"? Evaluate your love life towards others - are you loving in "action" or just in "talk"?