Just for Ladies – by Camille Stahl

Today’s Passage –Matthew 12 – 13 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)

(Second Milers also read – Psalms 41 – 45Proverbs 9)

Scripture Memory for October – Matthew 5:1 – 16

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – 1 Timothy 1:17

“Freeze” or “Get Over Here Now!”

“And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” (1Kings 19:12)

I would like to take a different approach to this week’s Ladies Bible Study. As I stated last week, before I start the blog, I pray and ask God to use a situation from the week before. This week’s blog is from an experience I had from selling at another yard sale.

On Friday I was with two of the ladies from church. The house we were at was on a busy road. Of course, no one did the speed limit. Anyway, one of the ladies was baby sitting an eighteen month old boy, which she does for a living. Some of the time he was sitting in his stroller, but at other times he was walking around being carefully watched. Later during the day, we played ball with him, rolling the ball on the ground, and then he’d get it and return it to us. At this point I’m thinking, ‘what will happen if he starts to walk in the wrong direction? We’ll have to get up real fast to get him’. Well don’t you know he started walking towards the house. His baby sitter said freeze, and he stopped, turned around and came right back to her. Wow!! No yelling, just one word. How many eighteen month old kids do you know who would do that? I thought of how much time and patience had to go into training him to do that. Because of the relationship he had with his baby sitter, he obeyed immediately. Just a side note, he was in no danger at anytime.

Now lets go to Saturday morning at the yard sale. Mom, Dad, and a daughter about eight years old park across the street to come to the sale. They all get out and the mom starts yelling at her daughter. The little girl stayed by her parent’s side as they crossed the road. When they all got into the yard, the little girl was attracted to the dolls and toys while the parents were looking at the things that they were interested in. Again, mom was yelling ‘get over here now, don’t touch anything……’. The girl didn’t seem to be doing anything wrong other than ignoring her mother. She was in the yard, not anywhere near the road or in any danger, but the mom continued to shout at her.

Sometime later I notice the little girl sitting on a child’s chair that was for sale, playing with some toys that were purchased for her. Mom and Dad were talking with the ladies who were running the yard sale holding the items they bought. There was no more yelling. Mom didn’t say anything about her daughter not being by her side. As a matter of fact, Mom didn’t seem concerned where her daughter was, as she had her back towards her as she was talking. What changed? When it was time to go, Mom yelled “Let go” and at first the little girl just sat there. Mom yelled again, but she still stayed seated. Then it was Dad’s turn. He politely called her name and said “its time to go”. She got up, and walked across the street with them as Mom yelled at her “get over here and cross with us”.

I know by now your asking yourself where is she going with this. Lets take the babysitter. Much time, effort and patience (long suffering) went into training the baby to listen. But the end results was obedience. It’s like our relationship with God. Got has not only given us time, effort and patience, He’s given us His life. We have the Bible, God’s instructions. It teaches us to ‘freeze’ when we need to, to get us to walk in the right direction, and stay out of danger. The Bible also tells us how much He loves us. There are many examples from the Bible of people who obeyed God. Lets take a look at a couple. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is the first woman who comes to mind.

“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”(Luke 1:26-28)

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.” (Luke 1:30)

“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:38)

Mary could have thought ‘what are you crazy? I have a wedding to prepare. I don’t have time for this…. and went on her way ignoring the words of the Angel. But she obeyed (freeze) and was blessed.

Next is Mary Magdalene.

“And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,” (Luke 8:2)

Mary wanted to stay close to Jesus not only to protect her from the ‘Evil One’, but to change her life from darkness to light, from the power of satan to the power of God. Because of her faithfulness to the Lord , she was the first one to witness the resurrected Christ. And there are others. Do we have what it take to obey Him like a little child?

On the other side, we have someone who wants the same results, but does not want to put the time and effort into the training. That’s the way Satan treats us. He wants us to ‘get over here now’ into a danger zone, away from God’s will. If we don’t listen, he’ll continue to hound us through trials and tribulations (get over here now!). When he has us, he’ll let us play in our sin until it’s time to move away from God again. An example of this is Eve: she ate of the fruit that God said not to eat (get over here now!). Job’s wife said, ‘Curse God and die’. Herodias disobeyed through revenge and murder. Sapphira also listened to Satan, which resulted in death, (get over here now!). There are many other examples.

So the question for today is will you ‘freeze’? The Bible instructions us when to freeze, and which way to turn. Or, will you turn a deaf ear (get over here now!). Will you join me in prayerfully resisting the devil, and walk side by side,day by day with Christ. He loves you and is waiting to take your hand.

Thank You

(1John 5:11-13)


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april aikens
april aikens
11 years ago

What a powerful message….Amen! Truly a message I needed to hear. Thank you and God Bless!

Dawn Brodton
Dawn Brodton
11 years ago

Thank you for that great Truth! I really needed that! Amen!

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