ONLINE Bible study for the New Year

Last fall over 40 women attended From Ice Queen to Princess ONLINE.  We had a great time getting to know each other and sharing what God was teaching us.  So we are going to try this great experiment again!  We start next Sunday, January 13 and will end March 17.  That’s 10 weeks to becoming God’s Princess for only $10!

The book From Ice Queen to Princess is a Bible study based on the book of Galatians.  As we study the book chapter by chapter, we look at how three different “characters,” the Ice Queen, the Orphan and the Princess, relate to God.  As modern women, we often understand how God’s Princess is supposed to act and think.  However we get stuck in old behavior patterns, like the Ice Queen who works to be perfect or the Orphan who works to please other people, that hinder our relationship with God.  As I studied the book of Galatians, I saw both extremes in Paul’s audience.  He offers the transforming power of the gospel to show us how to become a Princess, a beloved daughter of the King.

Here’s how it works:  I will send an email each Sunday with a PDF file of the chapter attached.  You can read it on your computer, print it out or download it into an eReader.  Then each day of the week I post one discussion question from the chapter on a closed group Facebook page.  Only the women currently going through the study will see what is posted.  Each Wednesday I post a brief video on YouTube, and just for fun you can follow me on my Pinterest page or Twitter.

I learned a lot from doing it last fall.  This time I’m going to load all of the files onto the Facebook page so that you can read ahead or catch up as needed.  I also want to have some extra incentive for doing the “Royal Fun” section of each chapter.  In “Royal Fun,” I challenge you to go through the right side of your brain and be creative.  Most importantly I learned that I want to be more purposeful in praying for each woman in the study.  I am planning to drop you a Facebook message or email throughout the study, just to touch base and let you know I’m praying for you.

I’ve been praying for months that God would begin to call the women he has for this 2013 study.   I’ve been studying the Gospel of John and Jesus repeatedly talks about how he can only do the work that the Father has given him to do.  As His Princess, I can only reach the women he gives me to reach.  I know women out there desire a different life, a transformed life, but have no idea how to get there.  I’ve seen the power of His Word in my life as He has changed me from an Ice Queen into a Princess.  If the idea of this book has peaked your interest or if you know you need to get into God’s Word in the New Year, will you consider joining us in this ONLINE study of From Ice Queen to Princess?

If you have more questions, feel free to contact me at joy@joypatton.com.  For a video introduction to the study, click here.

Below are some comments from women who went through the study last fall:

“One of my favorite things about the  IQ2P study is the interaction with Joy and the way we were able to engage in conversation about the chapters. Talking with others about scripture and realizing that ‘I’m not the only one’ was amazing. I enjoyed the illustrations that were used in each chapter, and often found myself re-watching the videos from previous weeks. I appreciated what God showed me through this study, and am thankful for the honesty and real-life stories in the material!!” – Kathleen Murphy

“Even when I didn’t have the time to read the chapters, I got a lot out of the Facebook postings.  Even if I didn’t answer, I enjoyed the discussion.” – Karin Siccardi

“The King not only adorns me with my crown, but he picks it up and puts it back on my head whenever it falls off, I take it off and somebody tries to steal it. He keeps adorning me with it to remind me who I am…because of whose I am. I am so grateful because I desparately need HIS reminding of how HE sees me.  So grateful for this study of the Word that blesses so many woman and reminds them they were MADE to be a daughter of the KING of KINGs….a princess!” – Michele Hazelip

Lady Gaga and Jesus: Good News for Little Monsters

On the night of the Grammy’s, I watch Anderson Cooper’s interview with Lady Gaga and found it very interesting.  She is a fascinating person who has a specific message to share with the world.  A message that speaks volumes to teenagers and still touches adults.  Her desire is to help people know that they can be who they were made to be.  She has compassion for anyone who feels like they are on the outside and don’t fit in because she used to feel that way, and now she feels like she is free to be who she is.  It was interesting to me that she also talked about being insecure, and I was impressed with her honesty.  She wants to connect to people who disenfranchised from society, who don’t feel like they fit in or belong, people who feel like freaks. 

It reminded me of how I felt as a teenager and how I sometimes feel today.  The fear that being fully myself would be overwhelming to people, that they wouldn’t understand, and that I won’t ever fit in.  One of the truths that comforts me is  that Jesus understood what it felt like to not fit in or feel like you belong.  He knew what it felt like to be rejected and despised by everyone, including the people he trusted the most.

Not only does Jesus understand what it means to be disenfranchised by society, he came to bring life and to save those who feel the same way.  Consider him and his own band of Little Monsters.  Consider his cousin John the Baptist who lived in the desert, ate locusts, wore animal skin and didn’t cut his hair.  Not exactly the person you want to grow up to be.  His message of repentance didn’t make him very popular.  He was his own little freak show. 

Mary, Jesus’ mother, bore the shame of being an unwed teenage mother.  I’m sure there were many people who doubted her story that the Holy Spirit was the father of her baby.  Imagine waiting over 30 years to see her son step into his mission, only to die a horrible death.  I’m sure the doubting voices taunted her the rest of her life, yet she chose to believe no matter what they said. 

The first people to ever hear about his birth were shepherds outside of the village and considered the lowest of the low.  These are the people who first hear the good news, not kings, not princes, not the super-religious. 

Consider the men and women that Jesus paid attention to.  People who were demon-possessed and living in caves.  A women who had constant bleeding for twelve years and lived isolated and alone, outside of society.  Jesus went against the religious and societal norms by not washing his hands before he ate and touching dead bodies and touching people with leprosy.  “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)  He did not come to save those who considered themselves righteous or cool or normal, for they did not even know they needed a Savior.  Rather he came to save the people who were sick, demon-possessed, even dead, because they knew they needed a Savior and believed that he could heal them, free them and give them new life.

He bore our afflictions and carried our sorrow, even though he was the very son of God.  “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)  He came so that we could be brought near to God.  Through his blood and his death on the cross, our sins can be forgiven and we who were once far away, who didn’t belong and didn’t fit in, could be brought near to God. (Ephesians 2:13)  

Lady Gaga says that her stage name freed her to become the superstar that she is.  “I wish I could give that gift to all my fans.  We are all born to be superstars,” she says.  I have a new name too.  One that has freed me to be exactly who I was born to be, exactly who the God of the universe created me to be.  It’s a name that God gave to me when I believed that Jesus was who he said he was and did what he said he would do. 

My new name is Princess.  I used to be an Ice Queen demanding that everyone do exactly what I thought they should.  I was the one who pushed people out and made myself the center of the universe.  I used to be an Orphan who never felt like she was worthy to belong to anyone.  But now I have been adopted and brought near through the blood of Christ.  Now I am the Princess Daughter of the heavenly Father who also calls me Forgiven, Righteous, Beloved.  I am free from worrying about what everyone else thinks of me because I know that he loves me with an everlasting love.  Now that is good news for little monsters like me!