I was SO sad to see our study of One Thousand Gifts come to an end!! But I am SO grateful to have shared this journey with all of the women who fulfilled their commitment to stick it out with us in our study on Thursday night and SO thankful for those of you who have endured these weeks with us online! As I said in the beginning, this was a project that was MANY months in the making. I did a lot of praying over this particular study and spent literally months praying for the women God was going to bring to this study. I hope this book challenged your thinking on gratitude and thankfulness. I pray that this book has been a blessing to you and that you've been encouraged to share the principles found in this book with those closest to you.
I'm going to do something a little different with these last two chapters and simply jot down a few quotes within the chapters that really struck a chord with me personally. And then, as always, I will add the video sessions at the bottom.
Chapter 10, Empty To Fill
"A life contemplating the blessings of Christ becomes a life acting the love of Christ."
"Jesus is about to let flesh be broken with nail, heart be broken with rejection, the chains be broken with bleeding love. And in His last hours before His earthly end, He doesn't run out to buy something or catch a flight to go see something, but He wraps a towel around His waist and kneels low to take the feet of His forsakers gently in hand and wash away the grime between their toes."
"I am blessed. I can bless. Imagine! I could let Him make me the gift!"
"Christian hands never clasp and He doesn't give the gifts for gain because a gift can never stop being a gift - it is always meant to be given."
"He calls us to serve, and it is Him whom we serve, but He, very God, kneels down to serve us as we serve. The servant-hearted ever serve alone. Spend the whole of your one wild and beautiful life investing in many lives, and God simply will not be outdone. God extravagantly pays back everything we give away and exactly in the currency that is not of this world but the one we year for: Joy in Him."
"The way through the pain is to reach out to others in theirs."
"I give happy thanks for the daily mess with a smile a mile wide, because this is again my chance to wholeheartedly serve God, to do full-bodied eucharisteo with the hands and the heart and the lips. I can count each task a gift, pure eucharisteo. Grace! This work - the thousand endless jobs - they each give the opportunity for one to become the gift, a thousand times over! Because with every one of the thousand, endless jobs, I become the gift to God and to others because this work is the public God serving, the daily liturgy of thanks, the completing of the Communion service with my service."
Here is the video session with Ann Voskamp for Chapter 10. Don't forget to go to the bottom of this page first and pause the music from my playlist on the blog so that you can hear the audio. :)
One Thousand Gifts: Chapter 10 from Bloom (in)courage on Vimeo.
Chapter 11, The Joy of Intimacy
"He will rejoice over you with joyful songs." (Zephaniah 3:17)
"It really is like C.S. Lewis argued that the most fundamental thing is no HOW we think of God, but rather WHAT God thinks of us. 'How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important.' Years of Christian discipleship, Bible study, churchgoing had been about me thinking about God; practicing eucharisteo was the very first I had really considered at length what God thought of me - this ridiculous and relentlessly pursuing love, so bold. Everywhere, everything, LOVE!"
"Gratitude is the most fruitful way of deepening your consciousness that you are... a divine choice." (Perhaps one of my FAVORITE lines in the entire book!) ;)
"Nothing I am counts for anything, but all that I count of Him counts for everything - seeing eyes might illuminate the glory of Christ in all."
"... we're called to do more than believe in God; we're called to live in God. To enter into Christ and Christ enter into us - to cohabit."
Here is the video session with Ann Voskamp for Chapter 11. Don't forget to go to the bottom of this page first and pause the music from my playlist on the blog so that you can hear the audio. :)
One Thousand Gifts Chapter 11 from Bloom (in)courage on Vimeo.
Blessings my friend! Again - thank you for journeying with us!! We have LOVED every minute of our time with you!!
Finding JOY in the JOurneY,
www.wendybender.blogspot.com
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