Women's Bible Study - September 6th, 2023
September 6, 2023 · Deborah Buckingham · Rooted
Scripture referenced 10 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Matthew 7 Building your life on the rock; when storms come you will not collapse
1 “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.
2 For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?
4 Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye;’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye?
5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.
6 “Don’t give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
7 “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.
8 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.
9 Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent?
11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
12 Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.
13 “Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it.
14 How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.
16 By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
17 Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit.
18 A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit.
19 Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.
20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’
23 Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’
24 “Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock.
25 The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand.
27 The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching,
29 for he taught them with authority, and not like the scribes.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
Jeremiah 17
Blessed if you trust in the Lord; like a tree planted along a riverbank whose roots reach deep into the water
1 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.
2 Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles by the green trees on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.
4 You, even of yourself, will discontinue from your heritage that I gave you. I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don’t know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”
5 Yahweh says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.
6 For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, an uninhabited salt land.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose confidence is in Yahweh.
8 For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green; and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
10 “I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
11 As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right. In the middle of his days, they will leave him. At his end, he will be a fool.
12 A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
13 Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.
14 Heal me, O Yahweh, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.
15 Behold, they tell me, “Where is Yahweh’s word? Let it be fulfilled now.”
16 As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you. I haven’t desired the woeful day. You know. That which came out of my lips was before your face.
17 Don’t be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil.
18 Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed. Let them be dismayed, but don’t let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
19 Yahweh said this to me: “Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Tell them, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
21 Yahweh says, “Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
22 Don’t carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day. Don’t do any work, but make the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
23 But they didn’t listen. They didn’t turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.
24 It will happen, if you diligently listen to me,” says Yahweh, “to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;
25 then there will enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on David’s throne, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will remain forever.
26 They will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, to Yahweh’s house.
27 But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. It will not be quenched.”’”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Psalm 22
David wrote a thousand years before Jesus that Messiah's hands and feet would be pierced through
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
2 My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not disappointed.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
7 All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
8 “He trusts in Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
9 But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust while at my mother’s breasts.
10 I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb. You are my God since my mother bore me.
11 Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
13 They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.
14 I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.
17 I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.
18 They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.
19 But don’t be far off, Yahweh. You are my help: hurry to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth! Yes, from the horns of the wild oxen, you have answered me.
22 I will declare your name to my brothers. Among the assembly, I will praise you.
23 You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him! Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard.
25 Of you comes my praise in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him.
26 The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you.
28 For the kingdom is Yahweh’s. He is the ruler over the nations.
29 All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can’t keep his soul alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him. Future generations shall be told about the Lord.
31 They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, for he has done it.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Isaiah 53
Messiah will be rejected and killed, sacrificed for his people, silent before accusers, buried with the rich
1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
4 Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.
8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
9 They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
1 Corinthians 15
Over 500 brothers and sisters saw Jesus after the resurrection
1 Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8 and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11 Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
12 Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.
14 If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.
15 Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up, if it is so that the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised.
17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.
18 Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.
21 For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.
24 Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
27 For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.
28 When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.
29 Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?
30 Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
32 If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
33 Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”
34 Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”
36 You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.
37 That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.
38 But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.
41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.
53 For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers,…
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
2 Peter 1:16
Peter wrote that he was not making up clever stories; he saw Jesus with his own eyes
16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Lamentations 3:25
The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the one who seeks him
25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
1 Corinthians 15:57
Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
1 Corinthians 15
Stand firm, let nothing move you, your labor is not in vain
1 Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8 and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11 Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
12 Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.
14 If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.
15 Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up, if it is so that the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised.
17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.
18 Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.
21 For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.
24 Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
27 For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.
28 When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.
29 Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?
30 Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
32 If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
33 Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”
34 Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”
36 You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.
37 That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.
38 But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.
41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.
53 For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers,…
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
1 Corinthians 15
If our hope in Christ is only for this life we should be pitied; Christ was raised first and all who belong to him
1 Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8 and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11 Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
12 Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.
14 If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.
15 Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up, if it is so that the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised.
17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.
18 Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.
21 For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.
24 Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
27 For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.
28 When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.
29 Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?
30 Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
32 If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
33 Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”
34 Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”
36 You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.
37 That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.
38 But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.
41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.
53 For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers,…
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This was the opening session of a new women's Bible study at JH Women's Bible Study, led by Deborah Buckingham. Deborah introduced the theme of being rooted in Christ as the answer to the anxiety and fear that mark our current moment. The message centered on the resurrection of Jesus as the foundation that makes that kind of rootedness possible.
What was said
Deborah started by naming what she had been hearing in conversations over the eight months she spent preparing this study: women are anxious and stressed in ways that feel different from any earlier season. She cited statistics from Psychology Today showing depression and anxiety rates rising sharply after COVID, and shared a conversation with her daughter in Los Angeles, who said the number of women suffering from anxiety disorders was probably still an undercount. Her daughter described her friends talking at dinner not about ordinary life but about looming wars, pandemics and artificial intelligence reshaping everything. That conversation confirmed for Deborah why the word she kept hearing from the Lord was "rooted."
She explained what being rooted actually means. It is the foundation a life is built on, where a person goes for answers, who or what she depends on for security, and what narrative she allows into her thinking. Deborah pointed to Jesus' words in Matthew 7 about building on the rock, and to a passage in Jeremiah 17 written during the Babylonian crisis, in which Jeremiah describes the person who trusts in the Lord as a tree planted by a riverbank whose roots reach the water and whose leaves stay green through drought. The blessing Jeremiah describes, she said, is not a prosperity-gospel promise about bank accounts. It is a deep, joy-filled contentment that no storm can take away.
From there, Deborah made the case for why this kind of trust is reasonable. She argued that the event that changed human history was not the virgin birth, not the miracles, and not the crucifixion taken alone. It was the resurrection, because that is the one thing that simply cannot happen unless it is God. Surgeons resuscitate people, she noted, but those people die again. Only Jesus died, was buried, rose on the third day, walked and ate with people for forty days, and then ascended bodily in front of witnesses while still alive.
She then laid out three categories of evidence. First, over three hundred Old Testament prophecies detail Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection, including David writing in Psalm 22 a thousand years before crucifixion was even practiced that Messiah's hands and feet would be pierced, and Isaiah writing in Isaiah 53 seven hundred years before that Messiah would be silent before his accusers and buried with the rich. Second, there were thousands of eyewitnesses, with Paul writing in 1 Corinthians 15 that over five hundred believers saw Jesus after the resurrection, and Passover bringing as many as a million pilgrims to Jerusalem at the very time of the crucifixion. Third, the impact on those who witnessed it was total and irreversible, seen most strikingly in Jesus' own half brothers James and Jude, who had not believed in him during his life but afterward wrote of him as Lord and called themselves his servants.
To make the cost of that witness concrete, Deborah told the story of Perpetua, a young North African woman from a wealthy family whose diary survives. Arrested for being a Christian, visited in jail by her father who begged her to come home to her baby and her comfortable life, she refused to deny Christ. She described a vision of a golden ladder to heaven, a dragon below, and a shepherd at the top who welcomed her and offered her cheese. She understood the vision to mean she would die as a martyr, and she did. Deborah set her story alongside that of Polycarp, told to offer just a pinch of incense to the emperor, who answered that after eighty-six years of serving Jesus Christ, who had never done him any injury, he would not blaspheme his king and savior.
Deborah drew three implications from all of this. There is no such thing as impossible with God, and whatever feels hopeless now, whether a broken marriage, a prodigal child or a dead dream, belongs in His hands. God is moving even when it does not make sense, just as the crucifixion made no sense to the disciples at the time, and the principle the death and resurrection teach is that sacrifice comes before the victory. And the third implication, which she called her favorite: this is not a fairy tale, but believers do get a fairy-tale ending, because the resurrection that happened to Jesus is coming for all who belong to Him, and that changes how seriously death and fear need to be taken now.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Deborah described being 'rooted' as where we go for answers, what we depend on for happiness and security, and the narrative we allow into our thinking. Where do you find yourself most often going for answers when stress hits, and how has that shaped you?
- Deborah shared the image from Jeremiah 17 of a tree planted along a riverbank whose roots reach deep into the water, not bothered by heat or drought. What does that kind of stability look like in a practical, everyday way for you right now?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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