This week I’ve talked with Christian women facing all sorts of challenges…a woman whose marriage is quickly deteriorating, another who is addicted to pornography, one who is having great difficulty controlling anger and one who is just struggling with the pressures of an impossible schedule. A sweet sister asked for advice about helping another couple who’s dealing with possible adultery. Another is helping her husband recuperate from a mental and emotional illness. Another is struggling with her unfaithful husband. Still another, is striving to keep an addicted son and husband accountable.
The bottom line is this: We, as God’s women are simply not immune to the challenges that the devil’s temptations bring into our worlds. We can escape all sin, temptation and the sorrow they bring. But not yet. For now, ours is to take the trials that being born into a fallen world brings, and learn from them. So many times, the control in overcoming the sin that brings us sorrow is not in our hands. Often, the sin that devastates us is someone else’s sin. We have to get into the Word to know the secrets of using the spiritual challenges to develop strong spiritual muscles capable of enduring to the end.
This weekend, it’s my blessing to speak in Saint Charles, Missouri, from Psalm 46 about our “very present help in time of trouble.” The study is tailor-made for my present set of circumstances. The amazing thing about the Word, though, is that it’s tailor-made for your life, too.
Before this weekend, the Digging Deep podcast will be live. You can join us tonight at 7 CST here: http://livestream.com/whcoc/for-women. The podcasts are all archived here, as well. The discussion tonight is about how sin entered the world and it’s about the ultimate Overcomer of that sin. It’s about the beginning of sorrow in a perfect garden and about the triumph over sin in another garden where a stone was rolled away. I hope you can join us.
I want to stress that it’s not too late to begin the study if you have not already. The September study can be completed in just a few hours and you’re good to go with our October study. You can download the study at www.thecolleyhouse.org. We still have some study books available if you’d rather have the bound copy. Just go to the store for either.
You don’t have to do the Digging Deep study to go to heaven, but you do have to study the Word. God cannot be your “very present help in time of trouble” if He is not “present” in your life. His presence today only comes through His Word…what the Holy Spirit freely gives us between the first Adam in Genesis 1 and the “second Adam” (Romans 5 and I Corinthians 15) who is at the right hand of the throne of God even as you are reading (Hebrews 12:2). Whatever your method or venue, get into that message. You’ll be forever (literally) glad that you did!
PS. Post pictures of your group, if you think of it. We love the encouragement of seeing sisters in the Word!
