“Peace Making Women” Highlights

A long time ago, I told you all that I was going to post about the book our bible study read this past semester. Well, we finished it about 2 months ago, and I’m just now sitting down to fill you in on the highlights for me. This was such a great book and I highly recommend it to all you women out there. I think I’m going to have to leave you with one quote from the book a day or something. There is just too much here that I want to share and if I put it into one posting, you’d never read it all. So, here’s the first excerpt:

“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:1-2

“In the same way that a fisherman might cast his net over the side of his boat only to realize, too late, that his leg is caught in the net, we can be caught off guard by our own sin. The weight of the net pulls the fisherman over the side and he begins to sink. He can barely hold on with one hand to the side of the boat, but if he lets go of the boat to try to free his leg, he will drown. He is not strong enough to pull himself back into the boat. He is caught.”

‘Sadly, metaphorically speaking, if this fisherman was a Christian caught in sin, many of us would mock him: “Hey, Jerry! I thought you were a fisherman! No fisherman would ever let himself get stuck like that.”………..Instead of such a proud and condemning response we ought to run to the side of the boat and help our brother or sister. “Jump in! Hold his neck up so he can breathe! Get a knife and cut the net! Go and get help! He’s in trouble and he needs us!” This should be the response of the church.’

~Taken from “Peace Making Women”, by Tara Barthel and Judy Dabler, pgs.98-99.

That paragraph really impacted me. How many times have you heard of a brother or sister in sin and scoffed, with the thought of “I’d never do something like that!”? It sickens me to think of all the times I have done that very thing. It’s so easy to be proud and take on our salvation as an achievement, rather than a free gift from our Creator. When we are truly humbled and able to see our salvation as a gift that we absolutely do not deserve, we are able to run to our brother who has been “caught” and “cut the rope” rather than scoff and turn away. In my life, humility seems to come and go. My prayer for all of us is that our pride will be burned away and that we will not forget the free gift our Savior has given us.