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A women's free Bible study on God's love
with commentary, homework, and
audio devotions
posted 6/5/2009
Dearest Ladies,
When I first decided to do this study on God's love some years back, I was going to look up every Bible verse on love and go from there. However the Holy Spirit made it very clear to me to write about God and what He has done for us. This is because God’s actions scream of His love for us!
In reality true love, which is God’s love, doesn’t depend on what a person does or who she is but on the one loving. In this study I felt getting to know the One who loves us so very much and His actions of love towards us was a must. So the purpose of this study on God’s love is to enable you to get to know Him and His acts of love. One of the ways we will do this is to study God’s characteristics.
Why is it so important as a Christian, to truly know God and His love? It is because God asks you to have faith in Him and love Him. And how can you possibly trust in and love someone whom you don’t know? God also asks you to believe that He loves you so very much! And how can you believe that He loves you if you don’t know that He does? As Christians, the more we get to know God and comprehend His love through His Word and what He has done for us, the more passionately we will want to trust and love Him. In reality the more we trust and love God, the stronger and more mature Christians we will be.
As you will see in this study the foundation of God’s love is Jesus Christ! So you will study Jesus Christ and what He has done for you. You will hear about His love starting before eternity past, how He created you to love you, how His love stood unyielding even after the first sin, and how and why He was born, lived and died for you. You will understand why He pursued and loved you to be His. You will see that He died for you when you were His enemy. You will learn how His love gave you eternal life and made you His Bride. You will hear how and why He redeemed you from slavery to sin to make you His Father’s beloved daughter. Rejoice ladies, you are truly His loved princesses!
because of God's love - Gini
Course outline
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Bible devotions for women
A women’s devotional series on – getting to know the One True God, by studying
His Characteristics.
posted 2/11/2010
revised 2/28/2010
When someone says “God,” what do you think of? In the book, The Shack by William P. Young, God the Father is made out to be a friendly woman. People have said, “The Shack makes me crave God’s presence.” There is a huge problem with this because they are yearning after a man-made fantasy of God, instead of God Himself. To describe God in such human terms, I believe, is doing what the second of the Ten Commandments tells us not to do.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. Exodus 20:4 (NIV)
Since God the Father is Spirit (John 4:24), no man-made representation can possibly resemble Him! To make an image of God by using something that is familiar, pleasant, or even powerful or supernatural to you, instead of the God who is presented in His Word, is just plain sin.
One of the reasons I decided to write this series of devotions on God’s characteristics is because The Shack is such a popular book. Since this book is a bestseller, I figured people had a strong desire to know and understand the God of the universe. Do you?
God is zealous that devotion be given exclusively to Him, and not to a false image of Him. Wouldn’t it be disheartening to have someone not to like you for who you are, so they make up a fictitious you? My family wanted me to be different than I was, but at least they didn’t make up a pretend child. When we don’t take the time to get to know the real God - and He wrote a Book so we could - we are being very dishonoring and even slandering Him. Ouch! We need to recognize God for Who He is, not who our imagination or someone else’s imagination makes Him out to be! And we can know the real Him through the knowledge and understanding that comes from His Word.
- Read Exodus 20:1-7 and Isaiah 44:6-17. When we create God in our mind contrary to His Word, we are fashioning a false god (idol) and serving it. In other words, we are not trusting in God and giving Him the devotion He deserves, but instead we are trusting in and worshipping some man-made god! Just to remind you, this is sin! Read Hosea 3:1, 4:12, 5:4. What have you learned about the dangers of creating God in your mind contrary to His Word?
to continue go to:
think rightly about God
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God’s sovereignty and the beginning of mankind’s free will
2/25/2010
God’s has always been sovereign! God’s eternal sovereignty is talked about consistently throughout His Word. (Sovereignty means that he does as he pleases and nothing can stop Him.)
From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done. Isaiah 43:13 (NLT)
When did our free will start? I believe it was on the 6th day of creation. That is when God gave Adam the one command that he and Eve needed to obey. God gave them and us that very day His gift of free will. Take note - God has always been sovereign, and always will be - even though He has given us free will!
…God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Genesis 2:16-17 NASB®
It just seems reasonable that Adam and Eve, with their ability to choose, would obey God, doesn’t it? This is because they absolutely knew that God had just created them and loved them. The command God had given them was very reasonable and had no hardship in it, because it only asked them not to eat from one of the many desirable trees that produced good fruit to eat. God had tailor made the command, so that they would have no excuse for not obeying. I would imagine, even if you are familiar with the Bible, you know Adam and Eve used their freedom to choose to disobey God. (Read Genesis 2:1-3:6).
Why did Adam and Eve use their free will to choose to go against God (sin)? It seems they wanted something more than what God offered, or they thought they knew better than God, so they chose fruit over the Creator. I would dare say, their pride was getting the best of them! This scenario does sound familiar. How many times have you thought you were going to acquire or accomplish something, or feel wonderful, by choosing to disobey God? (Read Psalm 32).
Why would God, give them the command not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, since He knew they would eat it? This is because the command gave them a choice. God never created us to be puppets! He wanted us to be able to freely love and obey Him! Yes, God could have stopped Adam and Eve from eating, or could have never told them, not to do something – He is sovereign. But where would He draw the line with people’s free will? He doesn’t water it down through constant intervening. God in His sovereignty gave us the gift of free will, and allows us to use it.
Their perfect relationship with God, and with each other and the world was wrecked because of their rebellious choice. They had also lost their freedom of choice concerning sin because they became enslaved to it. If all this wasn’t bad enough, they passed this inheritance of bad choices on to us!
If you have believed in Jesus Christ, then He has set you free from being enslaved to sin. He has also brought you back to the freedom of choice - whether to obey God or not, like Adam and Eve had before they sinned. Will you chose to obey God or not? You do have a choice, because God in His sovereignty gave you the gift of free will! (Read Ephesians 2:1-9).
Because of God’s sovereign love, Gini
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