A New Year & A New Challenge for the Blog Community!

posted by Trudy 

Hey there Blog Sisters!

In 2011, some of us took a very thrilling journey to memorize Scripture together. We called ourselves the Ms. Team (Ms. stood for Memorizing Scripture) and headed down a road that was life changing. In fact, I am so taken by how memorizing God’s Word has changed my life and thought process that I have no intentions of slowing down in 2012. I encourage you to keep plowing ahead too in whatever manner that causes you to memorize and retain God’s Word best. If you are a multi-sensory learner I highly recommend a site that has made the journey so do-able to me. You can find it here:
http://scripturetyper.com/

But the fresh start of the New Year calls for a fresh challenge, so, several months ago I began to ask the Lord what else we could do on this blog to continue spurring each other on to knowing Him better. He began to open up a direction through my own time with Him and through some conversations with some of you.  So below is the result.

I’m going to call it the "WAW Team" Just think of the word "Wow" and add a hint of southern accent and you will have "Waw". (Hear that in 2 syllables). The WAW acronym stands for Word At Work in us. (It’s just that I didn’t include the ‘in us’ part in the acronym.)

Here’s how it will work.

Twice a month, the 1^st and 3^rd Fridays of each month, for the duration of 2012, you will find a post on the blog entitled Waw Team.  It will be a Scripture verse that has spoken to me or one of the co-writers in our own quiet times. Along with the verse we might share what we found when we looked up one key word in that verse and how that really opened up that verse for us. We also might share 2 or 3 lines about how God spoke to us through that verse and how He helped us apply it to a current situation. Then in the comment section we want you (the Waw Team) to share a verse that has spoken to you in your own quiet time. And if you can, share a word that you looked up that really expanded the meaning of the verse for you or something that God spoke to you as you contemplated that verse.

Let me show you an example of what I mean. The below is from Metta Redding.

This is Metta

She is a new member of the ladies ministry team and also was on the Ms Team last year. Right about the time that I was praying about this idea she posted this verse that she was memorizing and wrote this comment. I was really taken by it because without her knowing it, this was exactly what I was thinking of doing this year. I asked her if I could show it to you. Bear in mind that when she wrote this, she had no inkling that it would be shared like this but she graciously agreed to let me use it for an example.

Here is the verse she was memorizing and the comment she posted.

"Your steadfast love is before my eyes and I walk in your faithfulness." Psalm 26:3
His love is what I have been lead to this week.
Word study on steadfast - I found: fixed in our direction, firm in purpose, fixed or unchanging, firmly loyal, constant, unswerving, abiding, and devoted.

And there you have it. That simple. Nothing long or complex. Just a line or two about a verse or a key word you picked out of it to explore. If you take those different words that she found when she looked up "steadfast" and replace "steadfast" with them and read it through again, you will begin to see how looking up one simple key word can really open up the meaning of a verse.

A simple exercise with profound results.

For some of you this is going to be ‘old hat’ and I so hope you will jump on here and post what you are learning so the rest of us can watch how you do it and learn. You may never know how your posting will help someone else learn some simple steps of how to study Scripture. Maybe someone out there just needs to see some examples of what to do in order to get them started.

Others of you might feel intensely intimidated by this. Please don’t. Maybe you have no idea where to start. I encourage you to join the team then watch what others post for a few rounds, ask whatever questions you have, then hop on here and try it out. Learn as you go. This isn’t about showing off, this is about sharpening each other in the Word. As we do this together I am convinced we are going to learn so much from one another about how to dig a little deeper in Scripture.

In fact, a perfect place to start is to use the Scripture you are studying daily during the 40 days of transformation. Or maybe you plan to be a part of a Ladies Bible Study starting up in February, you can share what you've learned through a Scripture verse in one of those studies. You certainly are not limited to these, but they are a great starting place.

Okay so here’s a recap:

Look for the WAW Team post on the 1^st and 3^rd Fridays of each month. Post at least once a month but you are welcome to post both times

At the bottom of the post press comment and type in any verse that you are studying.

Pick out a key word in the verse and look it up either in a Key Word Bible, Bible Dictionary, Concordance (like Strong’s) or any kind of a word study resource (you can find some free resources online) and then share the meaning of the word and how that opened up the verse for you.

If you want you can also share a line or two about either how God has spoken to you through that verse and/or how He’s helped you to apply it.

Like the Ms. Team, the Waw Team will last for one year (2012) (I don’t know about you, but its sometimes easier for me to commit to things with a clear start and end time.)

　

Are you in? Ready to see the Word At Work in you during 2012 and share it with some girlfriends so they can benefit too? If you’ve never done anything in a group before, this is the perfect time to join in. Because iron sharpens iron, we are at our sharpest when we help each other.

Would you email me or post right here and let me know if you would like to be a part of this?  Then, if you'd like a reminder twice a month when the post goes up you can do one of two things. Email me and ask to be on the reminder list or sign up as a follower of the blog and you should automatically be notified when a new entry is posted. To become a follower look for the word "follower" to the right of this post and then click the button that says "join this site" under it.  If you have trouble with that contact me (Trudy, either by email or by leaving a comment here)

We would be so delighted to have you be a part of this 2012 team!