“Tying or binding up—captivating.” This is the meaning of the name, Rebekah, a girl found in the Bible. Rebekah was not only beautiful on the outside, but on the inside as well. “...For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”—1 Samuel 16:7b

Right now we are going to take a peek into Rebekah’s heart as a young woman...

When I saw that this issue addressed the topic “Discerning the Will of God,” I immediately thought of a message that my pastor preached on “The Will of God.” I used the notes taken from his sermon as a springboard for this article.

​God’s creation is certainly fascinating to study! From the features of the tiniest cell to the marvels found deep in the ocean, God’s handiwork clearly reminds us that He is the Creator! As we consider what the Lord has made, it should always point us back to Him. Also, there are many lessons we can learn from observing nature. In fact, there are a few things in nature that the Bible actually tells us to consider. Let’s take a look!

Follow your heart and your dreams will come true . . . We’ve all heard it. And it does sound reasonable, right? It leads us to believe that we can truly rely on feelings to guide our daily lives… As a result, we’ll be happy and successful. I’m not sure who thought up this quote, but we can be sure he maintained a fervent belief in himself and in his own will.
 
When a new idea (or even an old idea) is presented to you, what is the proper action to take? Pull out the Word of God and see what He has to say about it. Our Lord’s infinite wisdom and authority is the only instruction that should dominate the way we live our lives. Thus said, when we hear the “follow your heart” notion, we should retreat to the Bible and see if this is a Biblical truth.

“My soul thirsteth after Thee.”—Psalm 143:6
 
I smiled to myself as I watched my six-year old brother read his Bible. I had to help him with the big words and hardly got time for my own Bible study, but still enjoyed watching him as he completed his first book of the Bible—Philemon by name—since he got the Bible for Christmas.

Recently our internet connection was down for five days. Five LONG days. I am embarrassed to admit how much frustration this caused certain family members, myself included. The first day wasn’t too bad. Oh, okay, the internet is down—we will be back online soon. The second day, hmmm . . . what’s wrong here? The third day, man this is crazy, what’s wrong with this company? Whose fault is this anyway? This is costing us money!! That is because my husband receives his work assignments via computer, and he missed out on some work that would have been worth $1,000 to our family. The fourth and fifth day, we just went around moaning, openly admitting how much we felt “disconnected.” And then joy of joys, the internet reappeared, and we again felt “connected” to the outside world, and balance was restored!

​As my home school family learns about this vast earth, we notice that everything has a beginning and an end. We read that even our ever faithful sun is using up its energy at an astonishing rate of millions of tons each second; it can’t last forever, and hasn’t always been. Such can truthfully be said about the entire universe; everything has a beginning and end. So, when as Christians we claim the God of the Bible as the divine Designer of the world, someone could very well pose the questions, “Who created God? When was His beginning?”

The following notes are from my pastor's sermon at church; they encouraged me so much, and I pray they are a blessing to you as well!

Last time, we unpacked the glorious promise of Jeremiah 31:14, realizing that God wants to satiate our souls with living water and soak our lives in His all-sufficient presence.  This is a wonderful truth to apply to our lives; but most of us fall short of living it as we should.  We know that our Lord is all we truly need—that He alone can bring lasting satisfaction—but we focus our energies on earthly things as if they will fulfill and complete us.  We convince ourselves that “if only” we could have this thing or reach that place or become this different person, we would finally be happy; and instead, we wind up empty and miserable.  Our gracious Heavenly Father wants much more for us than this!  He wants us to know true satisfaction, to walk through each day with joy, and to showcase His glory before an empty, miserable world.  His vision for His children is not merely to survive the daily grind, but to thrive in the midst of its challenges.  Here is a description of the life He wants for us.  The last verse is one you will recognize.  “. . . [A]nd they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord . . . [T]heir life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more. . . . I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.  I will [satiate] the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord” (Jer. 31:12-14 ESV – emphasis added; same for the following verses).

We finished last time with the reminder that believers are “a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9), separated unto God for holy purposes.  A wonderful promise comes with this separation.  God spoke it to the tribe of Levi in Leviticus 18:2: “Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren; the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.”  God Himself wants to be our inheritance, our portion!  No thing(s) He could ever give us would be equal to the gift of Himself.  He said this to Abraham in Genesis 15:1b: “. . .  Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”  In Him alone is all we really need and more than we could ever want.  No one else in all the universe has the ability to satisfy us fully; but our all-sufficient God can and will.  Here is His promise to us: “And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness [abundance], and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD” (Jer. 31:14).  Let's explore a little bit of what this promise means.