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Inductive Basics Classic Passages Free Webinar Series with Pam Gillaspie

Pens Galore!

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Pilot Frixion ERASABLE Pens

Pilot carries a variety of fine point erasable pens (more than we can name here, but you will have fun searching Amazon). We love the 0.38! Great for marking your Bible! We think they are the “best on the block!” PS: We learned about these from Kari Dent!

 

Pilot Frixion 0.38 Fine Tip Erasable Pens CLICK HERE  

 

Pilot Frixion 0.4 Fine Tip Erasable Pens CLICK HERE 

 

Pilot Frixion 0.5 Fine Tip Erasable Pens CLICK HERE 

 

Pilot Frixion 0.7 Fine Tip Erasable Pens (two different types)

 

Retractable CLICK HERE 

 

OR

 

Pens with Caps CLICK HERE 

 

You’ve Got Mail!

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I have asked some of Beloved Truth’s Online Bible Study Leaders to share a little about why they enjoy leading Online Bible Studies. Of course, I put myself on the spot and realized I have to chime in as well.

Here goes…

Remember the phrase “You’ve got mail?” In 2008, when all I knew about the internet was how to retrieve my email, the Lord put a crazy idea in my mind. Now I thought it was crazy, but, of course, He didn’t! We serve a God of order…not confusion! The thought came to mind about leading Precept Bible Studies in a Chat Room (which at that time was all the rage)! And…to actually create a Social Network as a place to share these studies. Didn’t I say I was only an email junkie at the computer? I tell ya…God can do anything from nothing!

It’s been quite a few years, online classes and Podcasts since then, but today I feel more blessed to be sharing with people around the world than ever! I love meeting people…online and off! I love teaching people…online and off! I even love hugging people…virtually and offline!

Studying the Bible online does not replace the need for being with other students in a local setting, but it does open the doors for those who do not have that opportunity! It amazes me that the gospel of Jesus can travel so far with just a few keystrokes and I thank God for each hungry student He has sent my way!

Hope you will join me or another Beloved Truth Online Bible Study Leader someday for an Online study!

Finding Hope After Abortion

   

I was fifteen years old when my mother took me to get a pregnancy test.

I can’t remember why I called her. I wasn’t living at home. I had run away to live with my boyfriend who was physically abusive. He would beat me out of jealousy every time another man even spoke to me. I felt afraid and vulnerable, but when I found out I was pregnant I was happy. I think I thought his behavior towards me would change. The pregnancy test was positive and my mother said

“You need to have an abortion. A baby would ruin my life and yours.”

I ignored her comments, I had no intention of having an abortion, or so I thought.

Some weeks later, my boyfriend was next door drinking, something I could not do now. Playing cards with our rent money. I felt alone, very angry and afraid.

The twelve week deadline for a legal abortion in 1975, was approaching and the deadline tormented my mind.

“How long has it been, since I had my last period? How far along am I?”

I was experiencing nausea and morning sickness, but I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I had taken my pregnancy test. My stomach ached so badly I felt I was losing the baby. I began beating on the wall and they began laughing, this made me so angry, that fearful thoughts came in to my mind.

“What do you think you are doing? How do you think you will take care of a baby?”

We lived in a studio apartment with cockroaches and sometimes he went to the store to shoplift for our food. We were barely able to pay the rent each month. How would we buy diapers, where would we put the baby? All these fears attacked me. The next morning, I called my mom and said

“Schedule the abortion I can’t have a baby”.

“ I worried, how could I bring a baby into this relationship?”

My mom and dad came to pick me up that day. We were ushered into a room at the facility with the doctor, who proceeded to inform us of all possible physical consequences that could happen. They never mentioned any emotional or psychological trauma that could result from the abortion. I do not remember the specifics of what was said. I only remember what my father shared later. However, I do remember being in the bed alone, waiting and watching the huge clock on the wall. It was a sunny day and the sun seemed to wash all color out of the room.

Time seemed to stand still. Tick, Tick, Tick the clock sounded. I was alone and afraid.

The nurse came in to get me ready for the procedure and panic struck my heart.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

She said “I am getting you ready for your abortion.”

Recognizing the panic on my face she said “It will be over quickly and it will not hurt”.

“Besides all your papers have been signed and we are going ahead now.”

I felt I no longer had a choice and tried to ready myself for what came next. I did not know what to expect… trusting her words. I laid down on the cold table and she told me

“Lie very still, it will hurt and there will be a lot of blood, but it will be over soon.”

I remember when the doctor came in he smiled at me and that is all I can recall until I was lying in the recovery room, painfully cramping, cold and bleeding. Initially I felt relief, possibly for hours; my mother observed that I laid on the couch for days, in a fetal position, sucking my fingers. That is when my mother realized, the truth. What a women experiences when she has an abortion is not what it is represented to be-a simple, safe, painless, and
quick surgical procedure for an unwanted pregnancy. The truth is abortion is very painful, and it will last a lifetime. It doesn’t solve the crisis it creates a new one.

This was the point at which denial began to set in for me. I simply couldn’t process what had happened. If the abortion solved my crisis, why did I feel so full of pain and loss. The resulting emotional pain was not what I expected or what they told me. Not knowing what to do, I got pregnant again three months later. I had planned it. I wanted this baby so much, but I miscarried. I was heartbroken this pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Although I did not realize it at the time in retrospect now, I realize I had attempted to replace the baby, I aborted.

After my abortion I began to live a life of self-destruction. I lived so recklessly and I didn’t realize why. I was a danger to myself and everyone around me. Drinking, drugs, sexual promiscuity and whatever, I didn’t care. I used anything to numb the pain. A year after my abortion I got pregnant again and had my beautiful daughter. When my daughter was four I got married. After my marriage I became desperate to have another baby. I didn’t realize I had developed Pelvic Inflammatory Disease which caused me to have two ectopic pregnancies and one miscarriage. I had no idea the abortion had anything to do with these physical infertility problems. This increased my suffering greatly. I spent years in depression.

Every month when my period came, I often fantasized about killing myself. I would lay on the cold bathroom floor trying to figure out how I could kill myself in such a way that it wouldn’t be too upsetting to my husband and daughter. I would cry out and tearfully ask God,

” Why won’t You forgive me? What do I have to do?”

I believed God had not forgiven me for my abortion, since I couldn’t get pregnant.
When I was unable to decide on the method of killing myself, I would get up and take a long hot shower and begin another month. Finally, I gave up the vigil and accepted that nothing would change.

My pain-filled journey lasted twenty-seven years, until I found healing that came through a Bible study. Forgiven and Set Free by Linda Cochran. My healing came when I looked at the truth about my abortion and found the forgiveness that set me free.

After an abortion, many women isolate themselves, believing there is no help, no healing and no forgiveness. Healing and forgiveness are available for women who have had an abortion when they allow God’s Word into     their hearts.

“Christ is building His kingdom with earth’s broken things.
Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the
unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of
the unsuccessful, of those who have failed.
Heaven is filling with earth’s broken lives,
and there is no bruised reed that Christ
cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty.
He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and
make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise.
He can lift earth’s saddest failure up to heaven’s glory.”
J.R. Miller Streams in the Desert

Forgiven and Set Free: A Post-Abortion Online Bible Study for Women

Fridays April 7-June16, 2017
7-9 AM, Eastern

WOMEN ONLY

Bible Study Leaders: Nicki Cornett and Saradawn Samuel

Disheartening numbers of women have undergone an abortion–and they need help to heal emotionally and spiritually. This study was developed out of Linda Cochrane’s own experience of being freed from the bondage of guilt and grief that followed her abortion. Forgiven and Set Free guides suffering and hurting women to bring their emotional scars from abortion “out of the dark past and into his holy light,” where true and lasting healing can take place. Appropriate Scriptures help women deal with issues such as relief, denial, anger, forgiveness, depression, letting go, and acceptance.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS ONLINE BIBLE STUDY

Hurt, Healing and Hindsight

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OUCH! That hurt! When we stub our toe, that is usually our response to the pain. We can’t deny the hurt and it comes in varying degrees, depending on how hard our toe slammed into the object. All we need to do is look down at our battered and bruised appendage to see the results of our appointment with affliction.

If I were a betting woman, I would put my life savings down on the probability that you have experienced hurt in your life. Like stubbing our toe, it might be a bruise, broken bone or the ripping off of a toenail. Remember I did begin this blog with OUCH!!! It is inevitable, we will experience stubbed toes on our journey to glory.

The next step to soothing our hurt might be an ice pack or antibiotic ointment. I can’t imagine ignoring the soreness. Can you? Depending on the degree of the affliction, will come the amount of the remedy needed to heal our malady. Soothing the pain becomes a reality and ignoring it leads to more intense hurt.

Could the hurt have been avoided? Maybe yes…maybe no. Years ago, I woke in the middle of the night and headed for the bathroom in the dark. You know where I’m going with this. BAM! I walked full force into the wall with my nose taking the brunt of the impact. I hope you are laughing at my mishap. I am and as we say…LOL! The saying goes…hindsight is 20-20. In hindsight, I could have said to myself, “If only…I had turned on the light, or if only…I had felt my way along the furniture to get to my destination”. Oh my, those “if only’s” can be humbling and haunting.

Hindsight is defined as the recognition of the realities, possibilities, or requirements of a situation, event, decision etc., after its occurrence. What is the purpose of hindsight? To look back and alter the situation, if possible. The key here is learning from the event and walking a bit more carefully the next go around.

What potential does the above example have for us in our lives as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? Let’s consider a few applications from the Word of God.

9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
14 “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
Matthew 6:9–15

Have you ever considered the fact that without hurt there would be no need of forgiveness? When we are hurt or cause someone else pain, forgiveness is essential to healing. Please take a moment and read v. 9-11 and place yourself into the context of the Lord’s Prayer.

What does forgiveness have to do with hurt, healing and hindsight?

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Forgiveness requires the payment of a debt. If there were no debts, the need for forgiveness would vanish. There is a need for payment owed. In this verse, debts are the equivalent to sins. Pain and hurt are the result of sin. Sin affects us all. Our nature tends to only look at the wrong done to us and the affliction it brings into our lives. As a Christian though, we do not have the luxury of assessing hurt in a one-sided manner. Often times, we are the creators of the lacerations in another’s life. Regardless of where it originated, we can all agree that pain is pain and PAIN HURTS!

There was never more hurt and crushing pain experienced by anyone like that of Jesus Christ.

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

On a daily basis, we hurt the heart of God by our sin. Yet, forgiveness flows out of God’s unending love and mercy bestowed upon us in Christ. As the sun is sure to rise in the morning, we can know “stubbed toes” will happen.

Will you grip the pain tightly or seek a salve for healing?

Healing requires forgiving sins and forgiveness is not optional. Do you really want to move on from the bruises you have incurred or have dished out? If so, you will walk in obedience to the truth Matthew 6:12.

Jesus, our example, expects no less from us.

“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

“But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Matthew 6:14-15

Healing simply will not come, if you do not forgive. What if the one who initiated the hurt does not ask for forgiveness? Forgive anyway. What if you have delivered the knock out blow to another person? Ask for forgiveness anyway. Don’t let pride keep you from health and well-being.

How can we forgive? News flash! It’s not possible apart from the power of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Just ask Him to come to help you…He will.

9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
11 “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?
12 “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?
13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
Luke 11:9–13

Utilize hindsight to learn from the pain. One important aspect of studying the Bible is the step where application takes flight. Do you desire to move past the past? Seek the Lord through His Word and prayer. Ask Him to reveal ways you can learn from your experiences and move on! Turn from any part you may have played in your circumstance and forgive yourself. There are times we need to be kind to ourselves, tender-hearted and forgiving, just as God in Christ has forgiven us.

30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:30–32

Meditate on what the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote in Philippians 3:12-14:

12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Now let it go…all of it. Press on! You will never win the race, if you try to run with a satchel full of rocks on your back. And if you don’t run the race, you will miss out on the prize of hearing from the Lord “well done, good and faithful slave.”

21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
Matthew 25:21

It’s past time to move beyond my own “stubbed toes”, too! I’m running right alongside you as you allow God’s Word to spur you on.

Simply Put…You Can’t Hold Time in Your Hands

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With the New Year upon us, my dear husband of 33 years, Bob, and myself sat down for a time of reflection and prayer. You know how it is…that fresh feeling of the New Year…a looking back on the faithfulness of God in the passing year and an eager anticipation of where He is directing our journey into the future. We began with the Word of God, which I believe is the foundational place to start any time of personal reflection.

Two superb verses to begin a “fresh start” are:

10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.
11 Who understands the power of Your anger And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
12 So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:10-12

and

15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16

This morning in my small group at church, I placed a watch and clock in a few students hands. I then asked them an important question…”What are you holding?” A few responded “time in my hands”, but one said, “A time piece”. This fellow learner got it right. We all realized that we can’t hold TIME! The only thing we can do is live in the moment and as believers in Jesus, maximize these tidbits of chronology for the kingdom of God!

I don’t know about you, but seventy years seems shorter to me the longer the Lord allows me to live on in the flesh. Which means I have less moments to present heart of wisdom to the Lord, to teach the Word of God and share the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. These verses are sobering indeed. With all my heart I want to “make the most of” or to “redeem the time”, so that I might present that heart of wisdom to the One who died for me. The eternal One, who is not constrained by time, but is above it. The only true God to whom all honor and praise are due.

How about you? Will you take a few moments of quiet reflection before the Lord in prayer to seek Him, express your love for Him, and embrace the truths of His Word? Will you determine in your heart to allow Him to reveal His desires for your journey in “making the most of your time”? Let’s press on together in 2017.

Let’s begin 2017 with what I call “one truth at a time”.

Don’t let the past keep you from following the Lord Jesus in the present.

13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
Philippians 3:13

Take “one truth at a time” and begin applying the truths of the Bible to your life beginning today.

PS: As a teacher of the Inductive Bible study method, I strongly encourage you to get your Bible and read these verses in their context as I have done. We can never really only take “one truth at a time” without placing it back into the context of the Bible as a whole. And as you do this…the Bible will begin to come alive to you in new and life-changing ways!

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Copyright © 2017 Alison Schuster. All rights reserved.

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