DIVINE: Transformed by Knowing God Intro (Week 1)

 Hello, Sisters! Here is the first study for our new series DIVINE: Transformed by Knowing God. I'm so eager to see how God will transform us as we know him more and more. You can watch this week's video here!

I encourage you to follow along with the study guide this week. Whether you take some time to reflect on the Bible passages and questions all at once or a little at a time throughout the week, I hope you'll spend some time reflecting on how we know God. For a printable copy of the study guide below, click here.

VIDEO NOTES

1. What does it mean to "know" God? In the Bible "knowing" is more than information. Knowing is based on experience.
2. There is always more of God to know. Just like we can have more or less experience and knowledge of the ocean, or of another person, we can have more or less true experience and knowledge of God. No human has experienced or known ALL of God.
3. The more we know God, the more we will recognize God's Presence, Pleasure, Promises, Plan, Perspective, Provision, Purpose, Peace, Protection, Power, Perfection, and Purity in our lives on a regular basis.
4. God wants us to know him. He promises to reveal more of himself to us as we seek him.
5. As we grow in grace and know Jesus more, God gets the glory.

SEEK GOD

Take some time this week to read these Bible passages. Print this page and write your reflections and thoughts here, or use a journal or notebook to write down your prayers and what God is showing you.

Proverbs 2:1-6 NLT
1 My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands.
2 Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.
3 Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.
4 Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.
5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Write down (or circle) all the different ways we are encouraged to seek wisdom and understanding in these verses. Which of them stand out to you?

What do verses 5-6 say we will gain and understand?

EXPERIENCE GOD

The more we know God, the more we will experience God throughout our days and lives. We will experience God's Presence, Pleasure, Promises, Plan, Perspective, Provision, Purpose, Peace, Protection, Power, Perfection, and Purity. I'm not promising we will experience or feel all of these all the time, but I believe we can know them more and more.

Which of these do you know best and/or experience most often?

Which would you desire most to know more?

2 Peter 1:2-3 NLT
2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him [through the knowledge of him], the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

According to verse 2, when does God give us more and more grace and peace?

According to verse 3, by his divine power, God has given us ______________ ____ _______ for living a godly life. And we have received this by KNOWING HIM.

Does this describe your life? Do you feel like you have everything you need and that you are experiencing more and more of God's grace and peace, or do you want to experience more of the kind of life described here? Ask God to show you what that might look like in your life.

PRAY

Write out a prayer asking God for more of his divine power, grace, and peace as he helps you grow in your knowledge of him. Tell him what you are longing for and how you would like to experience more of him.

MEDITATE and MEMORIZE

Pick one of these verses to meditate on or memorize this week. Write it on a note card or sticky note and keep it where you will see it often.

"The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him." - Lamentations 3:25

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen." - 2 Peter 3:18

WORSHIP

Songs with words that remind us of who God is are such a help. Spend time worshipping God this week. Here are some Divine Worship song videos you can watch if that's helpful for you!

COMING NEXT...

For the next three weeks we'll be seeking to know God as our Creator, as our Deliverer, and as our Shepherd. Watch your email or our facebook group next weekend for the following week's study guide. If you're on facebook, share your thoughts with us! We learn the most when we learn together.

Have a blessed week seeking God!

Visit butlerchurch.org/sister-circles to sign up for a monthly Sister Circle small group or to receive the Sister Studies emails.

Sister Studies & Sister Circles - New series!

Hello, Sisters! It has been too long since we last gathered or studied together, but I am excited to let you know about a new series we're about to start called "Divine: Transformed by Knowing God". This video tells you a little about what's coming!

What can you expect this time around? This series will be like a combination of the original Sister Studies posts WITH the joy of monthly Sister Circles gatherings.

Based on our theme of Knowing God, I'll be sharing something with you (hopefully!) each week that you can read or watch, along with some suggestions for further study or application throughout the week. Then once a month, those that are interested will gather (online or in person) for a time of conversation around what we were learning that month.

You can participate however much you want. Follow along and read/watch all the Sister Studies without joining a Sister Circle, join a Sister Circle even if you don't have time to read/watch. Or do it all! Our goal is simply to connect and encourage each other and to grow in our faith and understanding of who God is and to know God more throughout our daily lives. We're excited to do that together.

To sign up for the emails and/or join one of the new groups, head over to butlerchurch.org/sister-circles and let us know that you're in!

We can't wait to know God more together this year.

SS31: God's Promises Never Fail

A couple of weeks ago, on the last Saturday morning of September, 14 lovely women gathered together at church. It was the first in person Common Ground women's gathering we've had in a really, really long time. We sat in a large circle in the shade under the trees, wearing our masks and keeping our distance, but coming near to each other and to God with our hearts. It was a precious time.

Helen and I both shared some thoughts with the group about HOPE and God's promises and I want to share them here to refresh our memories if we were there and to encourage those who weren't, as well. I don't think we can ever be reminded too often to hold on to hope.

Before going any further, I want to ask you the question Helen asked us that Saturday. 

What do you hope for? Right now. What are you hoping for? 

Many of us that day said we were hoping for the pandemic to end soon so students and teachers can return to in-class instruction. (And praise God! At least some younger kids and their teachers ARE heading back to school part time!) Others are hoping for a peaceful, successful Nov. 3 election (with or without a particular candidate in mind!) Some of us are hoping and praying for a loved one to be healed from a disease or an addiction. Many are hoping for community violence to cease. While honestly, in some circumstances, maybe we've even given up hope.

Like Helen shared with us, the truth is there were many people in the Bible who had lost their hope. Moses and the Israelite slaves, Esther upon hearing of Haman's plot to annihilate the Jews, the adulterous woman brought before Jesus in John chapter 8. Even Jesus' followers lost their hope after Jesus was crucified.  All of these people had no hope in their circumstances, but when they hoped and trusted in the Living Hope, our faithful God, He answered their pleas for help. Captives were freed, evil was defeated, sinners were forgiven, and disciples were found by a risen Jesus. What glory!

So what about us? Can we have hope for victory in these days?  Yes, because our hope is in our Faithful God, not in the situations we face or our abilities to face them.  Ps 62:5 "Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my Hope is in Him ." We have hope for a blessed life because God keeps his promises!

But what about when it looks otherwise?

Sometimes we are sure we have put our hope in the Lord and we are sure God is going to answer our prayers. And then the unthinkable happens. A dream is crushed, a job is lost, a child goes astray, an illness is diagnosed, or a life is lost. Where did God go? What good did it do to hope?

The longer we walk with the Lord, the more we will find God is not a genie in a bottle we can command to grant our wishes. While God delights in answering our prayers with a resounding YES when a YES is what's best for us, throughout the Bible and throughout our lives there were and will be times when God doesn't answer in the way we or others hoped. 

Does this mean we give up hope? NOT AT ALL. Instead, it's a reminder to be sure we are hoping IN THE LORD rather than in a particular outcome or answer to prayer. There are plenty of blessings we can hope for, but what is sure and solid enough to stand on in every trial is God's Word and his promises. 

In the Bible God promises us so much.
His presence.
His strength.
His peace.
His grace.
His power.
Truth that will set us free.
Love that will never let us go.
That he is good all the time.
That he will never change.
That he knows the good plans he has for us.
That we are loved more than we will ever know.

Sure, we can still pray for specific outcomes and we may even get what we ask for! But if our hope is rooted in God's promises, we will be okay even when we don't get everything we ask for. And if we ask for God to give us what He knows is best, we can rest knowing he holds our future and our hope and his promises never fail.

Be encouraged today, Sisters. Cling to God's promises. Listen to this song and print out these verses. Tape them up where you can see them daily and be encouraged.

"Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm,
for God can be trusted to keep his promise." 
~Hebrews 10:23 (NLT)

Let's hold on to hope, Sisters. God is faithful.

Love,

Melissa

Seedling photo by Sushobhan Badhai on Unsplash