The North Church Women

A Word to the Wise: Exploring the Proverbs, L7, Jenni Naselli 7.26.23

Proverbs 31: An Industrious Woman Who Fears the Lord

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and uniquely feminine displays of wisdom come from fearing the Lord.

What do we do when we compare our lives with the Proverbs 31 wife and become discouraged because we come up sorely lacking? Where do we turn with our discouragement and guilt?

This is where the good news of the Gospel comes in. God created women to be industrious nurturers because they fear the Lord. But we are all daughters of Eve, who each ask, “Did God really say ...?” and turn away from His good design to eat the deadly fruit. We all fall short in so many ways.

If your heart, like mine, is convicted by this good passage, then I encourage you to call out to Jesus, the source of all Wisdom. Confess your sins and shortcomings. Cry out to him for forgiveness and mercy. Ask him to give you his wisdom and goodness and joy in serving others. Ask him to help you to fear the Lord and to become truly wise.

 

A Word to the Wise: Exploring the Proverbs, L6, Amy Katterson, 7.18.23

Elbow Grease: Wise Work

Work is a gift from God, invested in faith to bear enduring fruit. Although the world tells us that work itself is our problem, we hear in the Word that sin is our problem, and the work of Christ has settled that for us. Now we may labor in the strength that God supplies and work in wisdom, the way Proverbs exhorts us.

A Word to the Wise: Exploring the Proverbs, L5, Julia Dembeck 7.12.23

Made for Friendship

We need purposeful friendships for our continued faithfulness to the gospel. God matures us as believers through friendship with one another—through consistent fellowship and through giving and receiving mutual counsel with candor and wise care. And while we will never be nor will we ever have the perfect friend, we can have confidence that God is at work in us and in our friendships.

A Word to the Wise: Exploring the Proverbs, L4, Charisse Compton, 6.27.23

Watch What You Say!

We all struggle to consistently use our mouths in service to God! May God to pour out fresh grace on us as we pause to evaluate the heart behind our words. Remember, you will sin, but in Jesus, there is grace for every failure. Remember, it is growth and not perfection that is the distinguishing feature of the Christian life. Remember to go to war with those sins of the heart, knowing that God himself will help you. Take advantage of all the help he offers—his word, prayer, the counsel of other Christians, the conviction and guiding of the Holy Spirit, his promise to provide an escape in every temptation, and the promised joy and satisfaction you will receive in doing his will. Seek the same joy that Jesus himself experienced when he spoke the words of life to the woman at the well and then to the Samaritan townspeople who listened to her testimony. May all our other appetites diminish this week as we increasingly feast on the good fruit of our own lips.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. —Proverbs 18:21.

A Word to the Wise: Exploring the Proverbs, L3, Kristin Tabb 6.21.23

Money and Wealth in Proverbs

In God’s economy, there are two ways of handling money: the way of wisdom that leads to eternal life, and the way of foolishness, which leads to eternal destruction. Mercifully, our failure to live wisely can point us to Jesus, the Perfect Covenant Keeper and the fulfillment of God’s perfect wisdom, who became poor for our sake, that we might be made spiritually rich. We are loved with a very great love!

A Word to the Wise: Exploring the Proverbs, L2, Lindsay Osborne 6.13.23

Keep Your Heart: Wise Emotions & Desires

Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to “Keep our hearts with all vigilance.” I hope our study this week allows you to listen to God’s wise and practical words for keeping our hearts. If we pour out our hearts to God and submit to his will, we can make our emotions and desires into strategic servants for holy living and a closer relationship with our Heavenly Father.

A Word to the Wise: Exploring the Proverbs, Introduction (Ryan Dembeck)

The Book of Proverbs is our training ground for making wise decisions in our daily lives, grounded in the fear of the Lord. An invitation to grow in this ancient, God-endorsed wisdom is extended to any who humble themselves and ask God for wisdom (James 1:5).

But on our own we can’t live skillfully and successfully as God has wired the world. The path of folly–choosing our desires over God’s commands–is too enticing in our own strength. But hallelujah, what a gracious gift given to those who are in Christ! In Jesus, we have all the treasures of wisdom (Colossians 2:2-3) and his Spirit working in us to grow in wisdom from above (James 3:17).

MOMS: Friendship: Life Together in the Day to Day, Heather Elting-Ballard, April 18, 2023

Having friendships where we can be “real” with each other is a desire for many women—especially in a large church. But it can be hard to know how to initiate and build these kinds of deeper relationships, especially in the midst of busy mothering. Drawing on years of mentoring and small group leading in a number of settings, Heather talks about building intentional friendships that help us see Jesus.

(Note that the last portion of the podcast includes some group discussion, so sound quality is not optimal.)

Jesus! Week 10: King of kings | Lord of lords (Pam Larson with Beth Nordquist)

As we come to the close of our study, is your heart bursting with joy? We’ve seen picture after picture—portraits of our precious Savior, painted for us in his Word. My prayer is that you have seen Jesus as he is revealed in the Bible, and that in seeing him, you love Jesus more now than when you started on this journey. And I hope you will share with others the sweet good news of his love and grace. One day we will all appear before the Lord of lords and King of kings, the Refiner and Purifier, and the Righteous Judge. Is your name written in his book, the Lamb’s book of Life? Can you say with Paul that he is your precious treasure? Sister, I pray that you will treasure Jesus in all of life, that you will count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. —Philippians 3:8

When you are afraid, trust him as your Rock, your Savior, you Defender. Run to your Refuge. When you are sad or discouraged, remind yourself that he is your Counselor, the Atoning Sacrifice for all your sins, your High Priest, and Advocate before the throne of God. When you are confused, seek the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth and the Life. When you are thirsty and hungry, drink deeply from the living water he gives and feast on the Bread of Life. He is Jesus. Yeshua, “the Lord is salvation.” Turn to Jesus, your Treasure in every circumstance of your life. “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."—Colossians 1:17

Jesus! Week 9: Revealed! (Pam Larson with Charisse Compton)

In this lesson, we pondered many titles and names of Jesus: the Author of Life, the judge of the living and the dead, the Righteous One, the Hope of Israel, the firstfruits, the last Adam, the cornerstone, the founder and perfecter of our faith, the head over all things, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, the Creator who holds all things together, the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, the hope of glory and our all in all! He is ​​the radiance of God’s glory, the exact imprint of his nature, the image of God, the upholder of the universe, our mediator, our ransom, our reconciler, our advocate! He is FOR us, not against us!! He is our forever perfect and great high priest, our atoning sacrifice and propitiation for our sins!

With His blood He has saved me

With His pow'r He has raised me

To God be the glory

For the things He has done