May, 2012

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in prayer of mine for you all making request with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. ~ Philippians 1:3-11


That's a mouthful of a way to start, but I felt it appropriate.  This month is May. We are in the final chapter of our first Bible study guide- Having A Mary Heart In A Martha World by Joanna Weaver. It has been such a wonderful study and fellowship with you ladies. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have learned so much, and I feel like I have grown so much through this study. When we started I was pretty much two personalities. Half the year I would be Mary, then summer would hit and Martha would push Mary out of the picture completely. So looking at my personality and comparing last year to this year, last year I was crazy and stressed and all over the place trying to get ready for summer. This year, I'm calm. I'm not stressed, I'm spending my mornings in the Living Room studying, and my afternoons in the Kitchen being busy. I'm starting to find that balance between Mary and Martha. I'm starting to understand the story Elizabeth George shares in A Woman After God's Own Heart about her friend Karen. Karen was in charge of the annual women's retreat one year, and she handled every challenge "graciously and put her administrative genius to work with each crisis." Everyone around her was frazzled and crazy and stressed trying to get their jobs done, but every day around the same time Karen would disappear. One day Elizabeth was looking for her and found her in a room alone, studying and praying and simply spending time with God. Elizabeth left her alone, and an hour later a calm, peaceful Karen appeared and handled the crises gracefully and calmed the other ladies' anxieties with her peace.  I'm not sure I have that kind of peace, and no one has ever accused me of grace, but I'm starting to understand how it's possible. 
June is coming up quickly. For my family, June is the craziest month of the year. Absolutely every day is jam packed from 6 am to midnight pretty much. I'm the director of Vacation Bible School, we have the national Association meeting this year in Fresno, we have missionaries coming, we have church camp, we have cleaning to do to get ready for the company coming in July, we have family coming and going. I know for other women June is insane too. Summer break is starting, church camp, band camp, school shopping for colleges, other things normal people do when school is out. Point being, June is crazy. When it begins, remember to take your time to hide away alone and spend time with God. Try to find that balance and peace to keep your calm and not kill your kids. Enjoy each day of this coming summer. It'll go by quickly, and you'll never have this summer again. I know that sounds like an admonition to a group of high school students, which none of us are (that meet at panera anyway), but it applies aptly to the married ladies, the mothers, the working women, God gave you each day for a reason. Spending all of your time in the Kitchen steals the joy of spending time in the Living Room relaxing and resting with God and your family. 
 Since this is the last chapter of this study, and since next month is absolutely crazy, we're gonna take a break for the month of June. The last Saturday of June falls on the last day of church camp. So I know several of us won't be there. Our next Bible Study book is going to be Growing in Wisdom & Faith - A Study in James by Elizabeth George. It's part of the A Woman After God's Own Heart series, and the lessons are short, designed to be completed in under a half hour. There's 25 Lessons, it's in a study and note/answer format, and because the lessons are so short and so numerous, we're going to try to double up the lessons per month. So each month we will review two lessons at a time. If it proves to be too much to handle, we can slow down and back up if we need to. I'm quite excited for this next study, I believe that many of us need to understand it, myself included. I think the change of format will grab our attention and make it easier to follow. And I think that many of us need the encouragement and messages from James too.  I hope you enjoy this coming study! Oh! I suppose I should tell you where to find it and the expected costs. 
Barnes & Noble ... 8.99 -Soft Cover    7.37-Nook Book 
Amazon ...0.99-8.99 for Soft Cover   7.19- Kindle 
Parable ... 8.99 - Soft Cover
CBD.com ... 6.99 - Soft Cover     7.19 - eBook
www.elizabethgeorge.com ...  9.00


The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. ~ Philippians 4:23

<3 Happy Mother's Day, all. 

I haven't posted in forever! I'm sorry!

A lot has happened since June. It's now December, and we're about to start chapter 8, and say goodbye to 2011. The idea of Webbit started a year ago this month. We actually started meeting in February, so we're not exactly a year old yet. (: Our monthly Panera/Bible Study attendance has grown insanely. We now take up a conference table, sometimes with extra chairs crammed around it! We have anywhere from 10 to 13 ladies regularly. We haven't had less than 10 since summer. We've kinda slowed down in number growth, but I'm hopeful and expecting at least one more lady to join this month. We also have one lady coming faithfully to our Bible study meetings that is not a member of our church! She is a wonderful addition to our group, and we definitely enjoy having her.
  What else is new.. hmm.  Our Facebook page has its own personalized URL. www.facebook.com/Webbit.Oakley . (:   I'm going through the overview for our ministry, and am prayerfully making changes to what and who we are. Whatever changes are made, however, will only be made after much prayer and consideration.

I truly enjoy meeting with these ladies every month. I anxiously await the time of fellowship all month long. It helps me to stay sane, and it feels like a safe place for me. I always am ready to laugh and to cry with them, and I feel like everyone is comfortable talking and listening. I love the time we have and take to grow together. Thank you for a wonderful year ladies. You mean so much to me. I look forward to a new year with you. (: <3

May Webbit Meeting

Hello, friends, (: I want to first thank those who came to our meeting last week, I'm sorry the devotional is up late. We're growing pretty quickly! I'm very excited to see where the Lord takes us.  This meeting we had four in attendance, and we're starting to see new faces showing interest. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to grow together. This last month we studied chapter two in our book "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World." We talked about how the Lord does care for us. My devotional talks about how God cares when we're  worried, and wants us to trust Him with it. 
Psalm 121- I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
David starts by saying that he looks to the hills for his help, and that his help is the Lord. It stands out to me that his help is coming from the hills. In times of battle, the advantage was given to the side with the higher ground. Attacks were more effective if they could descend onto the enemy. Kings would meet in the middle, the no man's land, and if they decided to go to war they'd return or look to their army and signal their need and the army would immediately come to their aid. That's what I picture here. In his time of need, he looked to the Lord, and He immediately came to his help. Why? Because God won't even let your foot slip. He cares enough to take care of you constantly. David goes on to say that He never sleeps, He never even naps. The Lord keeps you, and He covers your strength, He protects you from the dangers of day and night. He protects you physically and spiritually. He watches and protects every step you take, from this moment on through eternity. Last month i talked about Matthew 28:20 and Jesus' promise that He will never leave us, and will be with us alway, even to the end of the world. The end of the world is going to be a hard, ugly, scary, terrible time. And God will be there with us every step of the way through the toughest of times. If He's going to be there through the hard times, He'll be there through the not so hard times too. 
In our study we talked about 1 Peter 5:7, which said we can bring our worries and cares to God, He cares and wants to know what's going in our lives. Psalm 55:22 says basically the same thing, but adds that He won't allow us to fall or get lost. This theme is touched on throughout the Bible. God cares. He loves us, and will not leave us.  
For me, finding these passages was an extreme encouragement. I've been so overwhelmed for the past month or so with so much. Finding these helped me to remember that I'm not alone, and that God wants me to just trust Him and give it all to Him and He'll take care of it and guide me through.  There's one more verse I want to leave you with, and this will be my conclusion. 




Psalm 62:8. Trust in Him at all times, ye people, pour out your hearts before Him: God is a refuge for us.      Selah.

Such A Time As This

Esther 4:13-14; John 12:27-28

Esther 4:13-14  Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.   For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
John 12:27-28 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.  Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

  Esther was faced with a very difficult choice: let her people die, and die with them herself, or try to stop it and possibly be killed by her husband the king. Her uncle Mordecai reminded her that it's entirely possible that God allowed her to become queen for this very moment. In John, we're shown a moment where Jesus is praying. He's telling God that He's worried. The human in Him doesn't want to go through the pain that is coming. But at the same time, He knows that He came to this very moment for this reason. Have you ever been in a situation that it felt like no matter what choice you made you could die like Esther? Have you been afraid to go through the pain of something to get to the other side? I think everyone is faced with some situation that we're scared to face. It's human to be scared, worried and stressed. It's okay to be that way. As long as we remember, like Jesus and Esther did, that we were brought to this specific moment, for a specific reason. Our whole lives have been building up to this point.
   Jesus adds in His prayer "Father, glorify thy name". He knew that God would be glorified in the course of this time. He knew that God was in control, and that there was a plan and a purpose for Him. Only Jesus could save mankind. Only Esther could save the Jews at that time. In going through the hard parts, God would be glorified and everything would be better for everyone. When we get scared we need to remember that God has a plan and a purpose, and that He's going to get us through this.
  In Esther 9:25 we're given a summary of what happened after Mordecai gave Esther his advice.
Esther9:25 - But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his [Haman's] wicked device, which he [Haman] devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
Esther went to the king, and the king allowed her to live, and he also allowed the Jews to fight for their lives and had their enemy killed. Everyone was better off, except for Haman anyway.
  In Luke 24:5-6 we're shown a scene where the disciples had gone to see Jesus, and an angel told them that He was alive! He was no longer with the dead, instead He was among the living. In Hebrews 2:9 and 15 we're told why He even had to come.
Hebrews 2:9,15 "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
He had to come to die for us so that we could be saved from death and bondage of sin. So, He came, He died, He left the tomb alive, and we're saved if we accept His gift. However, that isn't where it stops. In Matthew 28:20, we're given some of Jesus' last words on earth:
Matthew 28:20 "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." 
He didn't just walk out of that grave. He is still alive. He ascended into Heaven, and He is with us today, through the good times and the bad. All the way to the end of the world. The end of the world is going to be a scary time, and a lot of people are going to have to face it. But Jesus promises that He's going to be with us even then.  No matter what comes our way, when we're scared out of our minds, and we feel like the world is crashing down on us, Jesus is with us. God has a plan for us, and He will get us safely through it and He will be glorified through it in the end.

|At the end of the devotional and meeting, each lady was given a copy of the following blog|
http://www.incourage.me/2011/04/its-okay-not-to-be-okay.html

Hello Ladies! And followers (:

Welcome to the Webbit Blog! I'm going to post blogs after every meeting, or at least try to! Sometimes it will be recaps, sometimes it will be devotionals that are brought, sometimes it may just be a sharing blog. But it will hopefully keep you informed on what exactly we are and what we do. This first blog is going to introduce the program, and what it will one day hopefully be, Lord willing. (:

    Webbit is a growth and fellowship ministry for women. Our goal is to get the ladies of our church(es) fellowshipping again, and growing spiritually together and individually, as well as to outreach to other women that we may come into contact with, and to share the Gospel with them. Right now, we're just starting out as a monthly Bible study and we're meeting at Panera Bread in Antioch, California on the last saturday of every month. Lord willing, we are going to grow into a very active ministry which will include fellowship, discipleship, outreach, Bible studies, or to meet the changing needs of the ladies. It will go whichever way God wants it to, and will change with the needs of the ladies involved.

    For now, we are studying Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver and we've just begun.  If you'd like to join us, or would like information on us feel free to contact us! You can comment on our blog, or email us at bmbc.oakley.webbit@gmail.com, we're also on facebook- http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Webbit-Official-/172530462792789   if you get us up to 50 likes we can get our own URL which would be lovely for linking!  We are on twitter too www.twitter.com/webbitbmbc. Clearly, there's many ways to get ahold of us, so feel free! I hope to talk to you soon, God bless you!