1 Bride & 7 Brothers!

Reader, let me tell you how bad I felt for the wife in the book of Mark, chapter 12. Here you have a woman that probably married at a young age, into a family with 7 brothers. She is wed to the eldest, who dies and leaves her childless, within her custom she can't go off and marry someone else, she has to marry the next brother. This guy may already have a wife or two and now she is the hand me down wife. But wait it gets better cause it doesn't end there he dies and so do the next brother, all the way down to the last; who all leave her childless and in my eyes lifeless!

I was all fine being negative about her situation , but God was kind enough to remind me that I do not know this woman and the life she led. She could have been happy to be with the family of her first love and to think that she could have a child that shared the blood of her first husband. And who am I to say that she was childless, there could have been nieces and nephews to watch over and love and be a second mother to them. She could have left but would she have been happy?

It really hit me that i was so quick to impose my own negative thoughts with out given benefit of thought to another side that was positive. 

Mark 12:18-27

The Message (MSG)

Our Intimacies Will Be with God

^18-23 Some Sadducees, the party that denies any possibility of resurrection, came up and asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to marry the widow and have children. Well, there once were seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her. He died, and still no child. The same with the third. All seven took their turn, but no child. Finally the wife died. When they are raised at the resurrection, whose wife is she? All seven were her husband.”

^24-27 Jesus said, “You’re way off base, and here’s why: One, you don’t know your Bibles; two, you don’t know how God works. After the dead are raised up, we’re past the marriage business. As it is with angels now, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding the dead, whether or not they are raised, don’t you ever read the Bible? How God at the bush said to Moses, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? The living God is God of the living, not the dead. You’re way, way off base.”

Song - Fee - Everything Falls Lyrics

You said you'd never leave or forsake me
When you said, this life is gonna shake me
And you said this world is gonna bring trouble on my soul
This I know

When everything falls apart your arms hold me together
When everything falls apart you're the only hope for this heart
When everything falls apart and my strength is gone
I find you mighty and strong, you keep holding on
You keep holding on

When I see the darkness all around me
When I see that tragedy has found me
I still believe your faithful arms will never let me go
And still I know

When everything falls apart your arms hold me together
When everything falls apart you're the only hope for this heart
When everything falls apart and my strength is gone
I find you mighty and strong, you keep holding on
You keep holding on

Sorrow will last for the night
But hope is rising with the sun, its rising with the sun
There will be storms in this life
But I know You will overcome, you have overcome

When everything falls apart your arms hold me together
When everything falls apart you're the only hope for this heart
When everything falls apart and my strength is gone
I find you mighty and strong, you keep holding on
You keep holding on

When everything falls apart your arms hold me together
When everything falls apart you're the only hope for this heart
When everything falls apart and my strength is gone
I find you mighty and strong, you keep holding on
You keep holding on

Grace is Mine!

Ruth 2:13

The Message (MSG)

¹³ She said, “Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don't deserve it. You've touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don't even belong here!”


It struck me that when Ruth spoke to Boaz, about not belonging or deserving; it made me think of how many times God has bestowed his grace to me and how I tried to run from it. 

How many of us have felt unworthy of God's grace; due to our past or present behavior and actions. But isn't it great as it says in 2 Timothy 1:⁹ He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

It is really amazing that long before we were born, we were worthy of grace and by grace have we been saved through faith; and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God;Ephesians 2:8. 

A gift isn't meant to be given because of the merits we have earned, or the people, clothes, money or status we have! God's gift of his son was freely given(Romans 8:32) to us! We've belonged because we have been his long before the stars were created. And because we have accepted his gift through faith, we deserve to proudly show, his grace in everything thing we say and do.  AMEN!

T-SHIRTS FOR PURCHASE!!!

university-of-godly-spiritual-ladies - Light Tee

university-of-godly-spiritual-ladies - Jersey Tee

Later there will be special order t-shirts available

Thank you and God Bless!

About TGSL - The Godly Spiritual Ladies

The Godly Spiritual Ladies begin by simple obedience on the night of 12/31/12. The lord moved me, urged me to hear the word by attending a service for the New Year. I don’t drive so it’s not like I could get out the house and go. No one near me was going to church for me to ask, so I asked God now what am I to do. Pointing me to my computer I started looking up local churches. I could have just logged on looking for any church in the nation but it had to be local; God had a plan I knew nothing about at the time.

I was lead to Church of the Redeemer in Gaithersburg, MD. At first I thought it was a church on my bus route; it was not but that comes later. That night Pastor Dale said many wonderful things but what hit me most was what he talked about unpacking the things and people that really did nothing to uplift my life and to pack up those that do. Man, how can I explain how that really reverberated in me; to honestly look at myself from 2012 and to see what I had packed up to carry with me into 2013.

I started to unpack issues, situations, people and thoughts that were taking up space in my life suitcase. As I repacked I allowed the Lord to choose what must be entered, because he was reclaiming my 2013 for his glory and not mine.

He placed it in my heart to continue listening to Pastor Dale the next Sunday online, but he required I contact my god-sisters Gwen and Anna (Leis) to pray for the first 7 days on the New Year. Then the Lord led us to do it every first 7 days of each month; 3 days a week for the entire month. He then made it possible for me not use the excuse of not driving to go physical to the Church of the Redeemer; which is when I learned it was not on my bus route or any other on Sunday. The Lord knew that my mother and baby brother would not have an issue dropping me off to church on their way to theirs. And he knew the church has a shuttle that takes people to the nearest train station.

He has led us to share the scriptures through an online blog, to set up an email for prayer request, an online social group on facebook; and we even got t-shirts in the works to proudly testify who we serve. People already see that in us without all these things but this is our testimony to world that obedience is not easy but the prize of God’s grace out weights any cost.

Thank you for reading,

Sheila - Group Leader, blog writer, planner & whatever else I’m asked to do!

Gwen – head assistant group leader, assistant blog writer, & event coordinator  

Anna (aka Leis) - assistant group leader, scriptures leader & worship leader

Tenisha - assistant group leader, prayer leader, assistant worship leader & admin

Be a Teacher!

Titus 2:3-6

The Message (MSG)

A God-Filled Life

2 ^1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.

song - 

1. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
   Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
   Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
   Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
   • Refrain:
     This is my story, this is my song,
     Praising my Savior all the day long;
     This is my story, this is my song,
     Praising my Savior all the day long.
2. Perfect submission, perfect delight,
   Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
   Angels, descending, bring from above
   Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
3. Perfect submission, all is at rest,
   I in my Savior am happy and blest,
   Watching and waiting, looking above,
   Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

Discipline me like Normal, God!

Hebrews 12:4

The Message (MSG)

^4-11 In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,
    but don’t be crushed by it either.
It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
    the child he embraces, he also corrects.

God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

----- I was having a conversation with one of my male cousins and we touched on the word normal. I use the word in many phases but this time we were talking about faith. He was not in agreement that faith based life could be consider normal. I however do, so I looked up the word and the definition that closely fits my thought of the word and it says as an adjective: 

1.conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.2.serving to establish a standard.

Standard, what a word a rule or principle that is used as a basis for judgment. Our walk with God should be normal a standard! Amen! 

I should accept that all know and have been touched by the lord in some form or another! Amen

It should be normal to be tested and discipline us cause we are and having choosing to be follower(children) of the lord. 

Say What! I don't know it all!!!

here I go again, trying to tell God what I know. Acting like I know all his plans and how he does things; like I was his right hand person. That's right God I know just as much as you do when it comes to my life!

Wait a minute God, has some attitude; read:

Job 38

The Message (MSG)

God Confronts Job

Have You Gotten to the Bottom of Things?

38 And now, finally, God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. He said:

^2-11 “Why do you confuse the issue?
    Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?
Pull yourself together, Job!
    Up on your feet! Stand tall!
I have some questions for you,
    and I want some straight answers.
Where were you when I created the earth?
    Tell me, since you know so much!
Who decided on its size? Certainly you’ll know that!
    Who came up with the blueprints and measurements?
How was its foundation poured,
    and who set the cornerstone,
While the morning stars sang in chorus
    and all the angels shouted praise?
And who took charge of the ocean
    when it gushed forth like a baby from the womb?
That was me! I wrapped it in soft clouds,
    and tucked it in safely at night.
Then I made a playpen for it,
    a strong playpen so it couldn’t run loose,
And said, ‘Stay here, this is your place.
    Your wild tantrums are confined to this place.’

^12-15 “And have you ever ordered Morning, ‘Get up!’
    told Dawn, ‘Get to work!’
So you could seize Earth like a blanket
    and shake out the wicked like cockroaches?
As the sun brings everything to light,
    brings out all the colors and shapes,
The cover of darkness is snatched from the wicked—
    they’re caught in the very act!

^16-18 “Have you ever gotten to the true bottom of things,
    explored the labyrinthine caves of deep ocean?
Do you know the first thing about death?
    Do you have one clue regarding death’s dark mysteries?
And do you have any idea how large this earth is?
    Speak up if you have even the beginning of an answer.

^19-21 “Do you know where Light comes from
    and where Darkness lives
So you can take them by the hand
    and lead them home when they get lost?
Why, of course you know that.
    You’ve known them all your life,
    grown up in the same neighborhood with them!

^22-30 “Have you ever traveled to where snow is made,
    seen the vault where hail is stockpiled,
The arsenals of hail and snow that I keep in readiness
    for times of trouble and battle and war?
Can you find your way to where lightning is launched,
    or to the place from which the wind blows?
Who do you suppose carves canyons
    for the downpours of rain, and charts
    the route of thunderstorms
That bring water to unvisited fields,
    deserts no one ever lays eyes on,
Drenching the useless wastelands
    so they’re carpeted with wildflowers and grass?
And who do you think is the father of rain and dew,
    the mother of ice and frost?
You don’t for a minute imagine
    these marvels of weather just happen, do you?

^31-33 “Can you catch the eye of the beautiful Pleiades sisters,
    or distract Orion from his hunt?
Can you get Venus to look your way,
    or get the Great Bear and her cubs to come out and play?
Do you know the first thing about the sky’s constellations
    and how they affect things on Earth?

^34-35 “Can you get the attention of the clouds,
    and commission a shower of rain?
Can you take charge of the lightning bolts
    and have them report to you for orders?

What Do You Have to Say for Yourself?

^36-38 “Who do you think gave weather-wisdom to the ibis,
    and storm-savvy to the rooster?
Does anyone know enough to number all the clouds
    or tip over the rain barrels of heaven
When the earth is cracked and dry,
    the ground baked hard as a brick?

^39-41 “Can you teach the lioness to stalk her prey
    and satisfy the appetite of her cubs
As they crouch in their den,
    waiting hungrily in their cave?
And who sets out food for the ravens
    when their young cry to God,

    fluttering about because they have no food?”

My First Fast

I have been thinking about a lot of things lately. On Good Friday I did a fast for the first time. I did it to see if I could do it because I am diabetic. I wanted to do one for a while but was too scared to do it. On Friday I did it but I went into it not knowing what was going to happen. All day at work I was bored, I did all my work, played candy crush. It was not till I was in my prayer meeting with GSL that I got it. It was not what I thought it was going to be. In my head I going to have this spirit filled fix it but what happen was complete different. I learned that my fast was to shed an old part of my life. When I did that God show me that an old hurt that I thought was gone was there front and center.

 The hurt became my whole world for that short time. I am talking to GSL ladies but I am turning away from them at the same time. I started to see them as my old church, saying I wasn't good enough, judging me because I did not know what they did. Truly they did none of this but this is how the evil one uses a foothold to make you turn away from God. At this point I did not see what was happening. They start to sing songs that I do not know but they all knew them. I see this as them are shutting me out because I did not grow up in the church, looking down upon because I don’t know these things. So I hung up the phone and sat on my bed for a while. Then I just started to pray for help to understand what was going on. I was thinking that if they were going to act like this I was going to leave the prayer group and that just scared me.  One of the ladies’ called me back and told me that God told her to pray of me. I told her some of what I felt after we talked I went to bed.

 When I got up in the morning it was still on my heart it was double the pain of the night before. So I called her at 8am on Saturday knowing she would be sleep but she was up. I was so shock that she was awake, she told me that God told her to get up. I took that as a sign that I really need to talk out my pain. We talk for about 40 minutes I did feel better but I knew I need more prayer. So I had a bible study class and after the class I was going to ask my pastor to pray for me in private. For some reason we finish early and where waiting for our lunch place to open. One of the member said why don’t we do prayer request, we do not normally do not do this. When it was my turn I thought I should not tell them about my fast and my problems but I told them everything and I knew that was the right thing to do.

After I told we prayed and I truly gave my pain to God I relay started to feel better. I am not saying that all my pain is gone but I am giving it to God truly and with my friends interceding for me I will be free of all my pain.