The LORD has given me this great opportunity to teach a bible study online with the women in Romania and not only. It has been a tremendous experience, and I would like to share a few of the highlights of this time we spent together during this study.
Thank You, Pastor Timotei!
First of all, I would like to thank pastor Timotei Stînea, the national director of our ministry in Romania for this initiative, for the care he has for the Christian women and their spiritual needs, and for inviting me and trusting me to teach this study for the women. He was also very sensitive to offer me a very precious helper, a young and vibrant young lady to be my assistant, sister Damaris Joldos from Alba Iulia, very gifted with technology, very capable, with much tenderness towards our ladies and very ready to assist me in whatever way I needed, from recruiting, registering the women, encouraging me, to the very end, constantly in communication with the women through the WhatsApp group that she created for us. A real treasure!
“Search Me” A Bible Study about God’s Redemptive Plan in Psalm 139
This bible study that was a study of four weeks, I chose to have it spread out in seven weeks.
First week was dedicated to get to know each other, women young and not so young, from so many different places, and introduce myself, as well as introduce this study to them.
I translated this study from English three years ago. I personally know the author, Mandi Cornett and her daughter Maggie, who have together written this study. Mandi is a speaker, writer, author to several studies and books that can be purchased on amazon, and is the founder of CLEANSE. FILL. POUR, a Christian ministry for women. Mandi and I are members of the same church in NW Indiana in the United States. In the Spring of 2018 both Mandi and her daughter were part of a short term mission trip that our PIEI ministry organized and they came with us to Romania where we organized several women conferences and evangelistic events for women. It was then that I translated this bible study, so this is how I got the desire to use this study for the ladies in Romania now, knowing that we had this material already translated and it was such an appropriate study for women.
We studied four weeks of lessons about God’s Redemptive Plan in Psalm 139, after which we added two more weeks, one in which we met the author, Mandi Cornett, who was so gracious and loving, and gave an overall teaching of David and the writing of the Psalm 139, and the last week was dedicated to prayer and all the prayer requests that the women have been writing on the WhatsApp group over all these seven weeks. There have been personal, for loved ones, for salvation, for healing, for suffering and loss, for friends and relatives, and the women have been so loving in praying one for another.
About the Bible Study
The Bible study was divided in theme stanzas, and in each of them we studied a Biblical character, such as the woman Hagar, a woman whose circumstances did not change, but from her we learned that we have a God who sees us and knows us in a personal, intimate way. Then we studied Peter, his spiritual progression, saw the change that took place in him, and the fact that the Lord has chosen him with intention before he became the restored “Peter”. We have been chosen and called also with intention, and each have our own unique character, and are a work in progress. Then in the third lesson we studied the sin problem that is our problem and the redeeming solution offered by our Savior Jesus Christ, the message of salvation. In our last lesson we studied David, the author of the Psalm, a few events from his life, and we also opened our own hearts asking God to search us deeply, to know our thoughts, our ways, helping us realize what paths we are on, to make sure that we are on the path that leads to everlasting life.
About the Women
We had two groups of study, one in the morning, and one in the evening (Romania time), middle of the night and afternoon U.S. time! We had a colorful group of women, from many different parts of Romania and not only, even from over the border, from Germany, Spain, Italy, Republic of Moldova, and overseas, Chicago, U.S.A., all Romanian women, of different ages. Some young moms with small babies and children, some mothers with adult daughters, some grandmothers, some sisters, a wonderful tapestry that the Lord has put together on the screen of beauty part of His workmanship. I had like a moment of revelation as if we were seeing through the eyes of the Lord, as He sees, at the same time, all of us, no matter where we are, who we are, at what time zone, He knows us by name, and sees us! How marvelous this eyes of technology enabling us to have fellowship, worship, prayer, study, from our own homes.
My sisters are so precious, they have value, are loved, and each of them are a very important part of God’s work of art, His masterpiece. They are unique, loving, patient, and each have had hardships, sufferings, some quite trying that have tested their faith and continue to struggle. We have heroines of faith among them, who, in spite of trying times, are still standing, by faith. They have encouraged me, encouraged one another, and the Word of God is and remains the source of power, light, and strength from which we all drink. The prayers that were lifted up in the last two sessions we had in the last week were like the breath we breath, going up to the throne of grace to our God according to His will and to His glory and honor.
Amen.
by Gabriela Stef
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