Lesson 1

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WELCOME to the class Grace and Truth in Your Story. This is a journey towards spiritual wellness and growth. We will be utilizing the GTYS 7 steps, scripture, and the study of Jesus to heal & grow in our God given design, enjoying the life God meant for us.  

“Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.” Genesis 1:26

YOU WERE DESIGNED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD! God intimately knows how He created you, more so than we know ourselves.  Our best blueprint is Jesus, our example of the design of God perfectly expressed in a human form, a form we can understand.   Jesus is man free from damage, baggage or sin.    The more we live and imitate His lifestyle the more we are living the life that God designed for us.  When we operate outside our design, life is harder, we are not as successful in carrying out our purpose, we can even do harm to ourselves and others.  Sometimes we can’t be the best mothers, friends, daughters, wives or disciple makers we could be. We don’t enjoy the fullness of life.  Please resist feeling shame about this shared truth, we are all struggling in some area of our lives.

1. None of us look a lot like Jesus, but is there something in your life that you wish did look more like Him?

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All things are designed to operate in a way they work best. A phone is designed to communicate with people through voice calls and text.   Let’s say I decide to use my phone as a hammer, not only does it not do a good job of driving a nail into the wall it also breaks my phone.   I should not be surprised my phone wasn’t a good hammer and now has a cracked screen and only works sometimes.  It was never intended to be used as a hammer and now it doesn’t work well as a phone.  

You may be asking yourself, why am I here, my life is going great, there are no big issues or crisis?  I don’t see any cracks.  May I ask that you consider that we all still have room to grow in our faith and character?  I don’t know a single person who is operating 100% in their God given design.   This means none of us are living as we were created to function at our best.   We all have thoughts and behaviors that don’t look much like Jesus that hinder us from living our best life. 

Sometimes we can be in denial that anything in our lives have effected us.  Sometimes we have a blind spot that blocks our ability to see the character flaws in ourselves.  Looking for unhealthy thoughts, emotions or behaviors can give you a clue that there is something we could be working on. 
Can you say yes to any of these questions?

• Do any of your relationships feel strained or unhealthy?

• Do you lack a feeling of satisfaction with your life?

• Is your marriage hard?

• Do you distract yourself with social media, shopping?

• Do you abuse drugs or alcohol?

• Do you struggle to do things you know you should not do? 

• Do you struggle to do things that are healthy for you?

• Have you hurt someone?

• Have you judged others?

• Are you anxious or depressed?

• Do you eat too much?

• Are you angry, judgmental or harsh with people in your life?

• Do you spend too much money?

• Do you feel jealous of others?

• Do you feel like you can’t forgive someone? 

• Do you have a porn addiction?

• Have you cheated on your husband?

• Do you yell at your children?

• Do you lie?

• Are you pretending to be someone you aren’t? 

• Are you afraid of God? 

Welcome to the club if you said yes to any of these.  We are all in this boat together.  A boat full of imperfect people who have room to grow in the likeness of Christ.  We do not want you to feel ashamed by your imperfection.   We want you to access the power of grace and truth in your life story and join God as He works on you.  We believe God takes all our imperfections and uses them to strengthen us.  We can choose to join him as He transforms us.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”  Romans 8:28

During GTYS you will uncover lie based beliefs that have been fed by your wounds and life experiences and replace them with truth.  These lies and thoughts drive your emotions and your emotions drive your destructive behaviors sin.   This damaging cycle continues until we decide to join God to transform it.  

Thought: I am a bad christian

Emotion: Shame and sadness

Behavior:  Hiding sin

More sin and destructive behaviors

2. What is one unhealthy thought you struggle with?   

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The journey will help you find your blind spots, to find the lies you have accepted as truth, to understand who God really is and how he feels about you.  Our hope in this room comes from the belief that the damage done to us can be healed by God.  That God loves us and wants us to live out the freedom of operating as we were made to. 

3. Do you believe there are areas in yourself that need healing or growth, please describe them?

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How we are healed is revealed in processes or directions laid out for us by God in the Bible.  As I have studied these biblical processes it has become apparent to me that God has also revealed these truths in the science of psychology, psychiatry, human behavior studies and alcohol anonymous’s 12 steps.  While we will spend a significant time learning what these Biblical processes are but we will spend the majority of the time in this course actually walking these processes out.    I want you to feel confident the work you are doing here is prescribed by God but we can’t just study it we have to do it.  

Grace and Truth in your story will give you tools to start the work in the 7 Steps to Spiritual Health and Wellness.  Before you begin the journey through the steps we need to get prepared.  We need to “pack our bag”  so we have what we need to do the work the journey requires of us.  This packing will occur over the next several months as different tools are introduced to you.  In a sense we are packing to go on a journey to unpack the grace and truth in our lives.

OUR HEART TOOL

Our heart tells the story of who we are and where we've been. When God first formed us, he gave us a heart that was new and untouched. He made this the center of where our gifts and personality came from. Each person's heart is unique and special, just as God intended. 

To represent this heart, we have construction paper and scissors to make a heart that is whole.

Shortly after we were born, the world started impacting us and our heart. Every hurt we suffered affected our heart, think of each one as creating a hole in our heart. Take time now and think about the story of your life. It doesn't matter if the "world" thinks the hurt was big or small, it only matters how you felt when you were hurt. There is no judgement of the hurt. If it hurt you, it matters. Were you ever told you weren't good enough either verbal or nonverbally, put down, felt insignificant, did someone close to you pass away, were you left or abandoned, not allowed to have your own thoughts or feelings, physically abused, neglected, sexually abused, did you witness violence in your home, were you touched in a way you didn't want to be touched, treated unfairly, passed over, humiliated, not given love. 

To represent the times in your life when you were hurt, take a pen or scissors to poke or cut out holes in the heart. These holes can be any size you want to make them to represent the hurt.

The purpose of this study is to honor your life, your story. Maybe you've never taken the time to sit and really think about your life as a story. Maybe you've always put yourself aside in order to put others first. Maybe you always "plow ahead" and don't take time to acknowledge things that happen to you. Or maybe it's too hard and too sad to look back over things that have happened, and it's easier to pretend like they never happened at all. No matter how you've handled these hurts, this is where you can bring them to give them a place to rest. A place to be seen by sisters who are safe, who don't judge, and who listen. This is the place to uncover these hurts, bring them to God to redeem them, and use them for good. This might sound crazy or impossible. Mary and the disciples probably also thought that it would have been crazy to one day think of the cross as a symbol for hope and love -yet that's what it means to us.

Right now those holes might feel like death, like a black hole. If you decide to trust us and trust God with these holes, you will see resurrection. God can take the black abyss and fill it with light. Those very holes can be the place where God meets you to show you Grace and Truth.

4. What does the biggest hole in your heart represent?

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We have all sustained holes, not a single one of us looks into the mirror and sees the blemish free image of Jesus staring back at us.  I might look a little more like him than I did 10 years ago but I know there is work to be done to heal the damage to my design.  There is damage or holes that hinders all of us from being the mothers, daughters, friends and disciple makers God created us to be. But don’t feel hopeless.  God knows where we are.  He was so sure that we would be broken that Jesus died so we would not STAY broken. 

In Luke 19:10  Jesus reveals HE came to seek and save that which was lost.

Save actually means to heal.

Lost means broken beyond repair.  Meaning you can not fix it.

God came to heal what seems like is broken beyond repair. 

That is called healing, sanctification or recovery. Repairing what has damaged us, that which stops us from living out our God given design. 

5. Does it feel like anything is broken beyond repair in your life?

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PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE

One of the significant scriptures to describe this process of healing or recovery is in Luke 13:1-9.  The scripture gives us some truth to pack along on our journey.  

“1About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. 2 “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. 4 And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.” Luke 13:1-5

In the first 4 versus Jesus is correcting the idea that He is passing judgement on the sins of the Galileans by killing them or by causing a natural disaster.    Jesus asks the question Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than everyone else, do you think that is why they suffered?  Then Jesus says NO NOT AT ALL.  You can see in His answers Jesus wants us to know that He is not in the business of punishment.

He then proceeds to further explain by giving them the parable of the fig tree.

“Then Jesus told this story: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. 7 Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down.  It’s just taking up space in the garden. 8 “The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention6 and plenty of fertilizer. 9 If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’” Luke 13:6-9

6. What do you think Jesus is trying to communicate to us ?

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There are many layers to every scripture shared.   Here is one interpretation for your to explore and consider.

• The man = our thoughts.  

• The fig tree = the condition of our lives causing us to judge ourselves as bad.

• The lack of figs = the lack of fruit in our lives.

• Cut it down = A legal response, the law or a judgement of right or wrong in our life that deserve punishment. 

• The Gardner = Our advocate, Jesus.

• 3 years = The time Jesus uses to heal or recover or sanctify us.

• “Sir, give one more chance, leave it…” = Jesus saying stop condemning your life, it’s preventing you from healing.

• Special attention & fertilizer = The processes that allow us to heal given by God.  

GRACE + TRUTH + TIME + ? = HEALING & GROWTH

When we look at our lives and get stuck in the legal response  of judging & condemning ourselves it will lead to destruction.  We have to give our brokenness over to our Gardner and advocate Jesus to guide us in doing the work of digging out our stories then we have to continue to fertilize ourselves with grace patiently over time to encourage the fruit in our lives to come again.   

Jesus does not want to cut you down but judging yourself or even others will do a lot of damage.  Jesus died to stop the judgement and to begin this process of growth or recovery or sanctification.

Additional scriptures to explore the idea that the law (judgement) can be destructive.

Romans 4:15 says the law brings wrath or anger.

Romans 7:5 says flesh and sinful desires are aroused by the law.

1Cor 15:56 says the power of sin is the LAW.

So this is we start we give ourselves special attention, we dig and search for answers as to why we aren’t fully living out our design.   We dig deep, we give ourselves and others grace as we see our mistakes and we give our selves time to do the work. 

We know the power given to things we hide or cover over and we are confident God wants your story in the light where He can help you process it and heal and grow and enjoy His perfect peace.  I know it’s hard to be vulnerable.  You may have not always felt safe but you are safe here.  It’s an honor and a privilege to know your story.  The leaders in this room pledge to protect your story and your heart.  Through the trust we will build and the sharing of our stories we will develop real relationships, real community.  My friend always says we bond over our weaknesses not our strengths.  That has proven itself true in this room and my life.  

Nothing is too small or insignificant to explore here.   Neither is anything too big or scary.  It all matters.   You may have experienced a critical or neglectful parent, a judgmental church, an illness, a divorce or rape, they all shaped the person you are today.    As much as we want you to share over the next 8 months, you are in control of what you want to share, you choose.

6. Do you have any fear about the journey you are packing for?

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Big ideas from Lesson 1

• We were made in the image of God as best understood through Jesus.

• Life has inevitably obscured that image and damaged our ability to walk like Jesus, we will feel tempted to be ashamed of this but remember none of us see Jesus when we look in the mirror.

• The damage has effected our thoughts, behaviors and character.

• There are biblical processes laid out in the word to help us heal the damage to our design.

• Jesus wants to build us up not cut us down.

• If we are going to join God as He transforms us we need to bring with us grace, truth and patience and a few other tools.