WELCOME BACK ~ A New Beginning
If you are reading this then you are most likely part of our Tuesday PM LifeGroup or a dear friend or family member. However I am officially opening this blog to any of our friends or others who may be interested in a simple blog by a simply servant girl, who serves and AMAZINGLY HUGE, INCREDIBLE GOD!!
All that said, this is a place where I can share things that God lays on my heart both from His Word and from experience. I pray that it is a place of peace for you to come and find rest when you feel weary, and a touch of hope that will encourage your soul. It is my desire to bring laughter, honesty, truth and love through sharing His Word, quotes from others who have walked this journey ahead of us and personal testimonies of our great God making Himself known.
If you have questions or thoughts that you would like to share with me personally, you may email me at pamelajunebundy@yahoo.com .
In the post - He Sees in Secret - I have no idea why it turned out white but I am still learning about this blogging platform. It's not as easy as typing and formatting in a Word document!! I most likely will only post once a week - sometimes not even that - but I wanted a place to share without clogging up everyone's email yet make it accessible to whoever wanted to check it out. AND the original thought (years ago) was that I would write here to keep a bit of a diary regarding my trips to Uganda. Well there have now been three trips and I never did a very good job of writing it here! I'm hoping that it will change and this will truly be a place of Country Shalom.
So - Welcome to Shalom House! May God be honored and glorified as we learn and share and give Him all of the honor and glory that He is so worthy of.
May your heart be blessed. Shalom!
God's Servant girl
Saturday, April 18, 2020
He Sees in Secret
Have you ever felt hidden? Or maybe invisible? Like no one sees you or notices that you are even there?
I was reading Hebrews 4:12-13 and I found some very interesting things. God's Word is in red and my comments are in black.
The Bible says:
vs 12
For the Word of God IS - Truth
→ living and active
→ sharper than any two-edged sword
→ piercing to the division
OF soul and OF spirit
OF joints and OF marrow
AND → discerning the thoughts
AND → intentions of the heart
That sort of encompasses ALL of who I am. All of who YOU are
vs 13
AND →NO creature is hidden - Not even you or me - EVER!
BUT → ALL are naked - That includes us
AND → exposed to the eye of HIM - His unblinking gaze!
TO WHOM WE MUST GIVE ACCOUNT - There will come a day of accountability
Now, I don't know about you but that is a pretty strong motivation to #1 - be in the Word and #2 - to stay away from sin. And it really touches me that His unblinking gaze is always on me.
As we (LifeGroup) continue in our study of Fundamentals of the Faith, we will be talking about how to study God's Word. Now there are different ways to study that emphasize different areas. HOWEVER, if we do not come before the Lord and prepare our hearts to hear Him speak to us through His Word, then we will miss out greatly. We KNOW He is always with us. And we learned in the verses above that nothing is hidden from Him and His gaze is on us. But do WE come before Him and prepare our hearts to hear form Him?
As I thought about this important time of preparation, I was reminded of Psalm 139:24
Search me, O God, AND
know my heart
Try me AND
know my thoughts!
AND see if there be any grievous way in me,
AND lead me in the way everlasting!
This would be a wonderful prayer for us to pray before we come to Him in our quiet times, in our Bible study times and even before we get connected on Zoom for our meetings. It is very important that we ask God to reveal to us any sin that is residing there. So that we may repent and accept His gracious forgiveness.
I hope you can see clearly that you are never hidden from God. And that He is always looking over you and in you. I pray that these verses, right from His Word, will help you to prepare your heart and your mind to receive whatever He has to show you in His Word.
I came across this quote by Bruce Wilkinsin that I thought was very good.
"When you read your Bible, receive and savor it like a love letter from God to you. Remember you're reading in order to meet Someone. Ponder what you have read, and apply it to your present circumstances. Let it go down into the core of your being. And as you read, expect Him to commune with you."
As we learn to go deeper with Jesus, may our hearts and minds be captivated by His unfailing love for us.
I was reading Hebrews 4:12-13 and I found some very interesting things. God's Word is in red and my comments are in black.
The Bible says:
vs 12
For the Word of God IS - Truth
→ living and active
→ sharper than any two-edged sword
→ piercing to the division
OF soul and OF spirit
OF joints and OF marrow
AND → discerning the thoughts
AND → intentions of the heart
That sort of encompasses ALL of who I am. All of who YOU are
vs 13
AND →NO creature is hidden - Not even you or me - EVER!
BUT → ALL are naked - That includes us
AND → exposed to the eye of HIM - His unblinking gaze!
TO WHOM WE MUST GIVE ACCOUNT - There will come a day of accountability
Now, I don't know about you but that is a pretty strong motivation to #1 - be in the Word and #2 - to stay away from sin. And it really touches me that His unblinking gaze is always on me.
As we (LifeGroup) continue in our study of Fundamentals of the Faith, we will be talking about how to study God's Word. Now there are different ways to study that emphasize different areas. HOWEVER, if we do not come before the Lord and prepare our hearts to hear Him speak to us through His Word, then we will miss out greatly. We KNOW He is always with us. And we learned in the verses above that nothing is hidden from Him and His gaze is on us. But do WE come before Him and prepare our hearts to hear form Him?
As I thought about this important time of preparation, I was reminded of Psalm 139:24
Search me, O God, AND
know my heart
Try me AND
know my thoughts!
AND see if there be any grievous way in me,
AND lead me in the way everlasting!
This would be a wonderful prayer for us to pray before we come to Him in our quiet times, in our Bible study times and even before we get connected on Zoom for our meetings. It is very important that we ask God to reveal to us any sin that is residing there. So that we may repent and accept His gracious forgiveness.
I hope you can see clearly that you are never hidden from God. And that He is always looking over you and in you. I pray that these verses, right from His Word, will help you to prepare your heart and your mind to receive whatever He has to show you in His Word.
I came across this quote by Bruce Wilkinsin that I thought was very good.
"When you read your Bible, receive and savor it like a love letter from God to you. Remember you're reading in order to meet Someone. Ponder what you have read, and apply it to your present circumstances. Let it go down into the core of your being. And as you read, expect Him to commune with you."
As we learn to go deeper with Jesus, may our hearts and minds be captivated by His unfailing love for us.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Abide in Christ
3.26.2020
I can't believe it has been so many years since I actually posted on Country Shalom. It's like starting all over again - except that when I logged in, I had a draft waiting for me - which means I never sent the last post I wrote in June of 2014.
Since then I have had the joy of going to Uganda three times, leading an amazing LifeGroup, continuing to be involved in music ministry at LIFEhouse Church, being on the International Missions Committee, on the pulpit committee, and very involved with Light Africa Ministries, which includes Kampala Community Church, The Amani Children's Choir and Light Africa Sponsor Support.
So in order to get back in the saddle - so to speak - I thought I would go ahead and send out this last post and figure out how to get this information to my LifeGroup and others who may be interested in sharing together on Country Shalom
So for today - here is the post from a very long time ago that never was actually posted!!
I'm afraid to read it over so I think I'll send it as is - and then begin again.
Blessings,
God's Servant Girl
As we worked our way through the inductive study on the John 15:1-11 passage in our LifeGroup, we ended up with some questions. I have done a little reading by J. Vernon Magee, John MacArthur, Warren Weirsbe and also the Believer's Bible Commentary, as well as notes in some of my study Bibles. There seems to be two different takes on what Jesus was talking about in verses 2 and 6. I'm going to try and put it into a brief synopsis that will hopefully make sense and help us to put it in perspective.
Theologians differ as to what is meant in vs 2 " every
branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away." Some think that this
refers to someone who has professed to be saved but truly has never genuinely believed. He is in essence pretending to be saved – looks like it
outwardly but has not had a heart change. Others think that it refers to a
Christian who loses his salvation because of his failure to bear fruit.
However, that would contradict other passages that teach that the believer has
an eternal salvation.
This abiding relationship is natural to the branch and the vine but it must be cultivated in the Christian life. It is not automatic. Abiding in Christ, demands worship, meditation on God's Word, prayer, sacrifice, service and obedience!! We must be in constant communion with Him to bear fruit. That means when you wake in the morning, when you are at your desk in the office, when you are driving your car on the streets, you are abiding in constant communion. Once you have begun to cultivate this deeper communion with Christ, you have no desire to return to the shallow life of the careless Christian.
A branch that is not abiding in Christ is, "cast forth as a branch, and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned." The ones who are cut-off and thrown into the fire are Christians who fall into sin & are therefore out of fellowship with Christ and with fellow believers. The example of David was used in the BBC – his sin with Bathsheba & Uriah broke his fellowship with God but he repented in 2 Samuel 12:13 . Even though he lost the child that was conceived in his relationship with Bathsheba (consequence of sin) he was restored into fellowship with God when he repented and returned to an abiding relationship with God.
I can't believe it has been so many years since I actually posted on Country Shalom. It's like starting all over again - except that when I logged in, I had a draft waiting for me - which means I never sent the last post I wrote in June of 2014.
Since then I have had the joy of going to Uganda three times, leading an amazing LifeGroup, continuing to be involved in music ministry at LIFEhouse Church, being on the International Missions Committee, on the pulpit committee, and very involved with Light Africa Ministries, which includes Kampala Community Church, The Amani Children's Choir and Light Africa Sponsor Support.
So in order to get back in the saddle - so to speak - I thought I would go ahead and send out this last post and figure out how to get this information to my LifeGroup and others who may be interested in sharing together on Country Shalom
So for today - here is the post from a very long time ago that never was actually posted!!
I'm afraid to read it over so I think I'll send it as is - and then begin again.
Blessings,
God's Servant Girl
As we worked our way through the inductive study on the John 15:1-11 passage in our LifeGroup, we ended up with some questions. I have done a little reading by J. Vernon Magee, John MacArthur, Warren Weirsbe and also the Believer's Bible Commentary, as well as notes in some of my study Bibles. There seems to be two different takes on what Jesus was talking about in verses 2 and 6. I'm going to try and put it into a brief synopsis that will hopefully make sense and help us to put it in perspective.
First let's put it in context – Jesus was speaking privately to His disciples just before His
death.
It appears that this chapter is directed to believers (since
He is speaking to His disciples), to those who are already in Christ. Jesus is not talking about how a person gets saved.
He is talking about fruit bearing – not about salvation. "In me" that is in Christ, is what
it means to be saved. And the Holy Spirit not only indwells you but places you
into the body of Christ. If you are 'in
Christ' it is by a new birth and you are now a branch connected to the True
Vine.
The word translated "takes away" is the Greek verb
airo. It can mean "takes away'
as translated in KJV (vs. 2) and also in I Corinthians 11:30, referring to the
discipline of physical death. However, the same word may mean "lifts
up" as in John 8:59. Then it would be the positive ministry of encouraging
the fruitless branch by making it easier to get light and air, and hopefully,
to bear fruit. THE SAME WAY that a
vinedresser does in the vineyard. He 'lifts up' the new branches that grow and lay
on the ground. Those branches get bogged
down with insects, mildew, dirt and the
vinedresser actually lifts them up, cleans them (with water, no less) and
intertwines them with the good branches to keep them up – making it easier to
get light and air, and hopefully to bear fruit.
To abide means to stay where you are. The Christian has been placed in Christ; that
is his position. In his daily walk, he should stay in intimate fellowship with the
Lord. A branch abides in the vine by drawing all its life and nourishment from
the vine. So we abide in Christ by spending time in prayer, reading and obeying
His Word, fellowshipping with His people, and being continually conscious of
our union with Him.
Because we have free will, we can break fellowship with God
by allowing sin in our life. He wants us to abide so that we bring forth much
fruit. Remember that one way we abide in
Him is by keeping His commandments. When we do NOT obey His commandments – even
one of them – we sin and our fellowship with Christ is broken, however when we
come to Him in repentance and turn once again from our sin, then our fellowship
is restored. Notice I didn't say – salvation.This abiding relationship is natural to the branch and the vine but it must be cultivated in the Christian life. It is not automatic. Abiding in Christ, demands worship, meditation on God's Word, prayer, sacrifice, service and obedience!! We must be in constant communion with Him to bear fruit. That means when you wake in the morning, when you are at your desk in the office, when you are driving your car on the streets, you are abiding in constant communion. Once you have begun to cultivate this deeper communion with Christ, you have no desire to return to the shallow life of the careless Christian.
A branch that is not abiding in Christ is, "cast forth as a branch, and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned." The ones who are cut-off and thrown into the fire are Christians who fall into sin & are therefore out of fellowship with Christ and with fellow believers. The example of David was used in the BBC – his sin with Bathsheba & Uriah broke his fellowship with God but he repented in 2 Samuel 12:13 . Even though he lost the child that was conceived in his relationship with Bathsheba (consequence of sin) he was restored into fellowship with God when he repented and returned to an abiding relationship with God.
Apart from Christ – apart from abiding In Him – we can do
nothing, nothing that bears fruit.
Remember that the issue is fruit-bearing and God is
glorified when we do bear fruit. And we
WILL bear fruit, much fruit when we live moment by moment in fellowship with
Christ.
The bottom line, if you are "In Him" regardless of
how you understand vs 2 and vs 6 – ABIDE in Christ!!!
How are you doing at abiding today?
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