Tamar- Woman Blessed by God

I just got this great book called All the women of the Bible.

I thought it might be fun to do a couple of posts about some of the women of the Bible.  I started with the first woman listed in the Genealogy of Jesus, Tamar.

To start read Genesis 38.  This is the story of Tamar. 

In studying Tamar I had a hard time figuring out what to draw from it.  Well I had forgotten to pray first so once I realized that and did it, God showed me something.



So many Christian woman are married to unbelievers, either they became Christians after marrying or made the decision to marry an unbeliever in hopes of changing them.


Can we still be blessed when we are in an unholy union?  Tamar was given in marriage to a man so evil that he was the first man recorded that God killed.  We don’t know what he did but it must have been pretty bad.  Then Tamar, by Levitical Law-Hebrew Law, was given to the next brother in line, he too was evil in the eyes of the Lord, directly towards Tamar, and was killed.  Judah, the father of the two brothers had one more son but refused to give him. 


Judah himself was the only one left in the family who could then be her Kinsman-redeemer, click to read about that.
She would have been rejected by him as well because of incest.  So she tricked him into following Levitical Law.  After Judah realized what she had done he said, “She is more righteous than I”, because he had refused her his last son.


Because of the one time that she and Judah came together, God blessed Tamar with not one son but 2, one of which is Perez, whose name along with his mothers is found in Matthew 1, the Genealogy of Christ.


Tamar did her best to follow God’s law as we do our best to be obedient to God and have a relationship with Him.  Because she was committed to obedience, God blessed her.  Her life may not have been peachy but she was recognized in the eyes of God and her name was placed in a place of honor, in God’s very own Holy word.

Side note:
Do you remember John 1, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God  and the word was God.  Jesus is the word (hard for our human mind to understand, I know).  So in two ways Tamar was placed in a place of honor in God’s own Holy Word.  One, in writing and also she was literally in His bloodline.


We too can be blessed when our husbands are unbelievers, by being obedient to God’s word, loving God and being in a relationship with Him.


God Bless

Jeannie

Dry Crusty Bread

How many days do you, make dinner or purchase shoes for you kids and, feel like if you were a full time working mom or a working mom at all you could help to provide more or better things for your family. 

I feel that way almost daily but I remind myself that this is what God has call me to do with my family.  So, that keeps me going.
 
This morning during my devotion time, I read in Proverbs 17:1- Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.


If I were working there would definitely be strife during our feasting.  Our lives just go smoother when I am not working and we do have peace and yet we do have more than just a dry crust of bread.  So, I am thankful.  I hope this verse inspires you the way it did for me.

Jeannie

Week 2- “The Greatest Book” Club

 

 
Here we are in week 2 and as you saw in my last post we have been very busy, so I have to be honest I fell behind.  I am going to start to double up this next few weeks to get caught up.  I tell you that to give you the freedom to fall behind and yet to press on to reach our goal (hey that sounds like a verse I know from Philippians).  I also didn’t memorize the right verse.  I memorized a different one.  But it fit something that was going on in my life at the time.  More freedom.  Just stay in the word.

We are on Mark 2- Luke 14  and our verse is:
 
Mark 2 16b-17
 
Here is the schedule for the whole reading:
Week 1- Matthew 1- Mark 1
Week 2- Mark 2- Luke 14
Week 3- Luke 15- John 19
Week 4- John 20-Acts 27
Week 5- Acts 28- I Corinthians 12
Week 6- I Corinthians 13-Philippians 1
Week 7- Philippians 2-Hebrews 1
Week 8- Hebrews 2- I John 1
Week 9- I John 2- Revelations 22
 
Have a great week in the Word!!
 
Jeannie

Book Club

I would like to see if some of you would like to join me in reading a book together.  I think if we break it down we can comfortably get it done by the end of summer.  Some of you might say well I can read much quicker than that,  that is great I will have a fast track set up for you.

The name of the book is The Bible.  To be specific the New Testament.  What happened to some of your enthusiasm?  A few of you dropped the thought right as I mentioned the book.  That is why this is a challenge.  I really want to challenge all of you to try to get through the entire New Testament in the months of July and August.  It has no more pages than a great Novel.

I know that we can do this.  Over at Women's Fellowship House my Mom’s blog she actually challenged her readers to read it all in July.  I know my schedule and I know that yours is similar, so I decided that we would need the remainder of the Summer.  In addition for those of you seeking more, I am going to have a verse to memorize each week.  Nothing hard.

God’s Holy word is our connection to Him.  He is our creator and His only thought is Us.  Why is it so hard for us?  We need to pray before we begin that God will open the eyes of our heart so that we are able to understand His truth.

Lord,
Collectively we come to you and pray that you will open the eyes of our hearts that we may see all that you have for us in your precious and Holy word.  We pray that we will be blessed because of our willing hearts, even if we don’t understand a word we are reading at first.  Please bring us clarity and understanding over the remainder of this Summer while we are in your word daily.  We pray that you will also make memorizing your word easy for us and pray that it would become hidden in our hearts.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Starting July 1st I will post the verses to be read for the week and the memory verse as well.  I will be doing this right on alongside you.  If anything comes to you during your reading that you would like to share we can use either the comments section or click on my Community Button(Blog Frog) at the top of the page and click “see all” and then on the next page click “New Conversation”.  That will get you started once you are a member. 

Jeannie

An Internet Surfing Accessory

As I was writing a post the other day I was about to put a link into the post to a scripture verse, which I forgot to do, because I was thinking about…

What a great internet surfing accessory- The Bible.

So many of us look around at the inspirational blogs and run across a post that has a reference to God’s word.  Many times the person who posted will put a link or will even write out the verse they are speaking about.  I want to remind you of how God works.  You all know this but I’ll say it anyway.  God teaches us through things that we run across in our daily life, a song, a radio program and also a blog posting.  So, if a post or verse really jump out or speak to us then what a better time to pull out you Bible and see what else God has to say to you.



You may not need it every time you poke around the web, but you just never know and if you have it handy you are more likely to grab it and surf the Bible as well.  This is just a tip on making you internet time purposeful and meaningful.





Happy Blog Hopping!!

Jeannie

How Do You Do a Word Study From your Bible?

• This is one of my favorite ways of studying the Bible and also one of the simplest.
• Either in the back of your study Bible ( a study Bible will specifically say study Bible on the front.  It has paragraphs of explanations of the verses on every page.  Very cool!  If you do not have one I would highly recommend getting your hands on one.) or in a Concordance( a Bible concordance has every word used in the bible and every place that word is used and the scripture references of where to find them.  Another cool thing to have.)
• Look for your word.  You could study the word HOPE if you need some, or PATIENCE if you need that(You’re a mom why would you need that?)
• Once you find the word you are looking for look up each verse that is listed.
• As you do this take notes, or even write out each of the verses.  I have found that writing them out helps me to really read them so that they sink into my brain and my heart. 
• When you are done with the study, especially if you use an Exhaustive Concordance, you will know everything that the Bible has to say about that topic.
•   Don’t forget too that as Isaiah 55:11 says God’s word will not return to Him empty and will accomplish what he desires and achieve the purpose for which He sends it.  In other words you will be blessed!

Jeannie