Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

• Psalm 27:1

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

• Isaiah 40:28-31

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

• Philippians 3:9

The Boilerplate

My wife took a Bible Study in 2011.  (There was a note in the study guide that identified September 2 and that the study was being held on Friday mornings, or I might not have ever figured out what year.)  My wife had become a Christian in 2000. She greatly respected the pastor’s wife who was also a pastor.  The pastor’s wife spent time as the interim associate pastor, and this Bible study might have been during that time.

My wife passed away in March 2023, and I found this study guide as I was cleaning up.  It is a Beth Moore study guide.  Most of the questions are close-ended, mostly fill-in-the-blank.  But my wife was eager to learn.  She wrote her thoughts in the margins, sometimes encouraged to do so by Beth Moore.  I will use her comments as I did once before, calling this a “with a little help” series in that my wife contributes.  There is more to follow in that she wrote Scriptures and prayers in a notebook.  Probably what she found in her personal Bible study, giving her encouragement through the long illness that took her life.

So, instead of writing about a topic at random, I am going to write on my wife’s comments in the Study Guide.  It may follow the study guide topics, but it may not.

Discussion on this topic

What is your favorite part of Isaiah 40:28-31?

“Hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

• My wife’s response

Whose strength will be renewed?

“He gives strength to the weary.  Our strength thru Him.”

• My wife’s response

What is meant by hope in the Lord?

“Trust, have faith.”

• My wife’s response

Where do we find righteousness according to Philippians 3:9?

“And be found in Christ not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law.”

• My wife’s response

This ends her answers from the study guide.  There was another two pages left in the book but left blank.  In the last summary, one at the end of each week’s set of lessons, she wrote that she would write things down, seal them in an envelope.  It was a commitment to God, to be given to her teacher.  Her teacher for this course was a former pastor, the wife of our senior pastor at the time.  She may still have the envelope, but they are now retired, and not in good health.  I think that commitment was between my wife and God, and she is now in the arms of Jesus.

Next week, I am going to look at Bible verses and prayers that she wrote in a notebook.  I will try to relate the verse or prayer, trying to remember from our past why that verse at one time was important.  Since I have no idea when she wrote these verses, actually copying the entire verse, it may be hard to do, but like this, it will be a labor of love.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory