New Bible Studies Offered Online

I am leading TWO great studies coming up: The Daniel Plan by Rick Warren and Choose Joy: because happiness isn’t enough by Kay Warren. Pastor Rick is my pastor at Saddleback Church.

Both of the studies will begin on Sunday 11/22/15. One will begin at 8 PM Eastern time for Choose Joy and the Daniel Plan will follow at 9:30 pm EASTERN time. You are welcome to join one or both. No cost other than your book, and video’s are included online at Saddleback Church Website. If you are interested please email me at pollardtl@cox.net and I will be happy to add you to the study.

“Bible teacher Kay Warren shows women that a joy-filled life is within their reach. In this inspiring book, she teaches women what joy is, where to find it, and how to choose it in both good and bad times. Perfect for small groups or individual reading, Choose Joy will empower women who feel like their emotions and well-being is at the mercy of others by helping them understand the life-giving truth that joy is within their grasp – every day”.

The Daniel Plan Bible Study by Rick Warren is a very popular get healthy fitness plan. It is not a crash course diet, but a means to implement both your spiritual walk and physical walk at the same time. There is no cost except your book. The videos are included online at the Saddleback Church website. Email me so I can add you!

This six-session, video-based, small group Bible study offers an innovative approach to creating a healthy lifestyle – rooted in a revolutionary approach and framed by five life areas: faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends. The Daniel Plan step-by-step program focuses on an abundance of healthy choices giving you the encouragement and accountability needed to succeed. Transform yourself in the most head-turning way imaginably―from the inside out.

Sessions include:

• Faith: Nurturing Your Soul
• Food: Enjoying God’s Abundance
• Fitness: Strengthening Your Body
• Focus: Renewing Your Mind
• Friends: Encouraging Each Other
• Living the Lifestyle

(taken from the Daniel Plan Intro.)

A great Study!!! Great people!!!

All classes are held on the Saddleback website at www.mysaddleback.com

Email me at pollardtl@cox.net if you would like to join me or reach me on Facebook.-by-step program focuses on an abundance of healthy choices giving you the encouragement and accountability needed to succeed. Transform yourself in the most head-turning way imaginably―from the inside out.

Sessions include: •Faith: Nurturing Your Soul •Food: Enjoying God’s Abundance •Fitness: Strengthening Your Body •Focus: Renewing Your Mind •Friends: Encouraging Each Other •Living the Lifestyle

A great Study!!! Great people!!!

 

There is Still Beauty in this World Through Jesus

Tonight France suffered a terrible tragedy and as we pray for them and their families, we must remember that even through the cruelty and meanness in this world, that God is still in control, and will make something good come out of this awful tragedy. Watching the news and reading the paper is often depressing. Just like Jesus told us, man is of sin since the fall and that this world is evil, but the good news is that this is just a temporary home until we go home to meet Him.

We can still have joy in the middle of all this turmoil. Standing on the Word of God reveals over 7,000 promises of God. Although some have claimed that there are more or less Promises in the Bible; I believe that 7,000 promises is correct, for the number 7 represents completeness, and God finished every thing He starts.

How do you find joy in this world? The easiest way is to see the beauty in things that God created. Some of the things that I enjoy and is so calming are listening to the waves at the beach roll up on the shore. Watching the sunrise and set in the sky. I love when the moon is full, and radiates light over the sky. The moon is especially beautiful over the Ocean waters.

I love listening to a child laugh, or hearing the first cry of a newborn baby. I love watching children play, run, and laugh. I love watching my children take part in sporting events. I love reading a good book, and watching a sweet historical movie that is clean and has a positive message. I love holding hands and cuddling with my husband.

The last thing I love is that in all things, Jesus is in control, and no matter how bad it gets, there is always something that is revealed that is good, especially when it comes to helping resolve other people’s pain.

So the next time a trial comes, ask Jesus to reveal the lesson in all of it. Ask Him to be a vessel for Him, to radiate Jesus’ love and hold on to the conviction that what God says is true, “this too shall pass.”

Lesson’s Through Elijah

Knowing Him

Prayers of Elijah- 1 King 18:30-46

I Timothy 2:1-8, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Psalm 33:12,

Your word is settled in Heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations.

Psalm 119: 89-90

The one who called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldee’s promising to fully bless him if he would follow Him in a life of faith is the same person who today calls us out of the world and promises to bless us if we follow Him in a life of faith.

How well do you know God? Would you recognize His voice if he called you?

The one who heard Elijah’s prayer and send down the fire to consume the sacrifice on Mt. Carmel and then sent down the rain to end the three-year drought in Israel is the same person today who hears and answers prayers.

Some confess a faith in God but many live as practice at heists.

Elijah was used to turn the hearts of the people back to the Lord. (18:37).

James reminds us that Elijah was a man of like passions with us, but what made Elijah effective in his day of spiritual and moral obedience was his prayer life.

Man of Prayer – Chapter 18:30-46

Elijah’s preparation for prayer in verse 30-35.

1. Public prayer and results

1. Fire from Heaven
2. Heart turned to Lord
3. Baal prophets removed ( v. 36-40).

1. Private Prayer

1. Rain from Heaven
2. Special strength v. 41-46Elijah’s influence

1. Felt in northern Kingdom but not the Southern Kingdom.
2. Relation to us we all have our own areas of influence and places of impact.
3. Varies in each one of us, but faith, faithfulness, integrity, and effectual pray can tremendously increase our capacity for influence, wherever it happens to be.
4. Pattern for Prayer Life

1. Effectively change your life? Increase the effectiveness of your prayer life and impact
2. Promise in James 5, James who was the half-brother of Jesus was nicknamed camel knee’s, because of the calluses on his knees from long hours in prayer.
3. The book of James covers prayers. It has 14 verses on prayer or Principles of prayer. (1:5-8, 3: 9-10, 4:2-3, and 5:13-18.We must remember that Elijah was merely a man used by God as a vessel to talk to His people. Elijah did not have any special powers, but in fact, was just like us, experienced both physical and emotional situations that without God made him weak and full of his own fears and doubts (1 Kings 19:1-4). During this time when he fled with fear at the threats of Jezebel, he ran to hide, exhausted, afraid and in need of God’s Word. God was there in full force, asking Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (19:9) and he gave Elijah exactly what he knew he needed, food, warmth, rest and encouragement.   God spoke to Elijah the way he speaks to us, in a “still, small voice” (1 Kings 19:12). I love what Joyce Meyers says about Elijah when referring to him, “Elijah needed to hear from God, and thankfully he had a reining ear toward God even though his circumstances had frightened him. “Elijah’s story helps us understand how to hear God when we need guidance and help. I love how such a big God can and do still speak to His children in a calming, soft, still voice that penetrates us deep in our spirit.I found these references in my notes from a few years ago, and do not know exactly where they came from as far as source. I wish that I did for I most certainly would refer to them, but the important thing is that I wanted to share with you all.

What Are You Doing With Your Story?

Sometimes when things get tough and we are challenged, it is good to remember that God  will use our pain to help another person. Whether that person is currently going through something similar to what we have experienced now, or unbeknownst to us, in the future, it is comforting to know that we will or have helped another person a long the way.

That is one of the reasons why I love God so much because I have seen it not only in my life, through numerous testimonies and conversations people have shared with me . God, does not waste one single tear or miss one unheard cry…. He uses it all, all of them, to help another hurting soul. There is no way that I would have survived the loss of my brother fourteen years ago without the stories and heart to heart conversations people shared with me, not from a textbook, or something they saw on television, but true everyday people who mysteriously crossed my path, that helped me along the way in my journey. I think life is a journey, a conscious, ever-changing process that is always changing, where time never stands still. Even though a person will meet thousands of people, have millions of interactions with others, it is all one systematic process that comes full circle.  I read somewhere, “we come into the world naked with our fists bawled up, and leave this world naked with our fists bawled up!

²⁸ And we know that God causes everything to work together^[a] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. ²⁹ For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn^[b] among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. (Romans 8:28-30, NLT).

If you think about it, what would be the point of experiencing a trial in your life, if you thought there was no way out, nothing to believe in, and nobody to help? I know that there are some people who unfortunately believe that, I think as humans, we all can temporarily get caught up in that thinking, but it is nice to know there is a God. A real God that not to be clique,  will “make a way out of no way.” He really and truly does!

I can read research studies, and statistics about how people deal with life’s adversities, and that is good information to know, but I would rather have a friend put their hand on my shoulder and say, “Hey, I know, I have been there.” I do not believe there is any shame in sharing with others traumatic, tragic things that have happened to us in our lives. God warned us in His Word that trials would come to us.  What the real shame would be is when God brings you through something and you don’t share it with another person to help them along their way.

It is so amazing to know that we have a God that knows everything about us! From the number of hairs on our heads to our most inner being, he knows it all… I love Jeremiah 29:11-13,

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Whatever your story is, share it! My mother has a cousin named Karen Perry who lost her oldest son to a drug overdose. I am sure that some would have tried to cover up that their child got “caught up in life” and unfortunately lost his life at a very young age, but she didn’t. Karen took her pain to the world and to the schools, law enforcement agencies and now operates full-time NOPE Task Force, (Narcotic Overdose Prevention & Education) http://www.nopetaskforce.org.  NOPE is in the schools, law enforcement agencies, churches, community educating and preventing other parents from having to bury their children and other loved ones.

 

I ask myself daily, and I recommend you do the same, “What am I doing with my story?”

 

Blessings,

Traci

For more information on NOPE Task Force and drug education and prevention, please visit http://www.nopetaskforce.org

 

 

Teaching: Math’s Inter-connection with the Bible: Teaching from a Biblical Standpoint.

I wrote this post for an assignment at Liberty the other day. I received a lot of feedback from my classmates so I thought I would share.

One of the most interesting facets of thinking of mathematics and where science originated biblically is to look at the Scripture Gen 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Simply look at the numbers to understand that the Bible is truth, and that it is God’s Word written down explains the relation of the number of this scripture. Gen. 1:1- represent the beginning of all, and the number 1 in both the chapter and the verse of Genesis is the first number in our numbers count.  The Greek word for Genesis means origin or birth. (http://biblehub.com/greek/1078.htm).

In retrospect of the reading, it was clear that teaching math to students as well as all other content subjects is truly a teacher’s ministry. The gift that God gave us when he created mathematics not only began with the number concept, but the ability for a student to recall the same consistent pattern as in a formula to results in the math application becoming a formula or application. Not only does God give all of us the ability to comprehend and recall information as in knowledge and wisdom.

When a teacher is able to touch a student’s ability to grasp and engage in active dialogue that reveals their interest and engages them in such a way that they keep and comprehend not just for the moment but in their long-term memory, this is revelation of God’s gift to us.

The four main tactics in revealing math concepts to a student happens when a teacher is able to reword the math presentation, as if taken the math problem of the print of the page and bring it to life. Engagement of the student happens when the teacher not only shares the history of the math concept, as to where it came from, and when it begin, it concludes when the teacher teaches the student how to apply the concept in their everyday real life situation. Finally, when a teacher passes on the concept of math application to the student and it allows the student to better themselves or makes them academically successful, the true gift of “using the concept to explore the aspect of creation has come full circle.

References

Loop, K. (2010), Revealing arithmetic: Math concepts from a biblical worldview. Christian perspective, Va. P. viii-xii.

 

How Well Do You Know A Person?

I have been thinking about this today. We are all here for a short time, and have many interactions with other people on a daily basis, but how well do you really know a person that you proclaim to be close too? I know that there are some people that I think I know better than others, but  do I really know them as well as I think I do? I know that people share with me what they want me to know about them, and I do the same but to know someone’s most inner thoughts and likes and dislikes is what true relationships are all about.  I think that is why I write, because I can write what I am feeling at the time and share my inner most thoughts without fear of judgement or negative feedback that often slows the art of communicating with others.  I often forget what I write though and then wonder what my readers will think when they read it.

I guess that is being a part of being transparent and honest. If I want others to share with me then it is only fair I am transparent with them.

I hope that something you read along the way in my blog touches a part of you that you can relate too! Let me know your thoughts!