Womens Bible Cafe™ |
| What Love Is Week Six | Online Bible Study Posted: 22 Feb 2015 03:35 PM PST
We are a mixture of sad and ecstatic this week as we finish up our study of Kelly Minter’s What Love Is. We are so sad to be meeting for the last time with our What Love Is small groups. But we are so excited to see you finish the study! You stuck with it and we trust that God blessed you for your obedience! If you have fallen behind, please don’t give up. You can keep working on the lessons until you finish completely. This week in our study, we learned about:
I clearly remember the first time my then future-husband, James, told me he loved me. He sat next to me on the couch, held my hand, looked deep into my eyes and said those three magic words. I love you. I then walked to the bathroom and threw up. Romantic, huh? It's partly because it wasn't just some sweet nothing that people in a relationship say to each other when their hearts go pitter-patter. We had decided when we started dating that James would be the one to say, "I love you" first and that he would say it when he felt confident I was the one he wanted to marry. So, "I love you" really meant, "I'm committed to you and to our relationship. This isn't casual dating; it's getting ready for marriage." Hence, my reaction. Now, we’ve been married 15 years and we say, “I love you” all the time. So, there are days when I pause after I’ve hung up the phone or kissed him goodbye after the rush of the morning. I want to make sure I never forget the significance of those words, never let “I love you” get lost in the banalities of life or the commonness of overuse. I love you. That means I'm committed to you and to us. I care about you because of who you are and not what you do. Whatever we're facing in life, we're doing this together. We all need a reminder at times of what love really is. Maybe it’s because we don’t feel loved. Maybe it’s because we take it for granted. The early church was no different. We read this week: When John was an old man he had to be carried into his church at Ephesus in the arms of his disciples. They would take him to the front where with barely the strength to speak, he’d say, ‘Little children, love one another!’ The church members wearied of hearing him saying the same thing each week with nothing to add. ‘Master, why do you say this?’ they asked. ‘It is the Lord’s command” was John’s reply, ‘and if this alone be done, it is enough” (Minter 175). John couldn't forget that God loved him. Jesus had chosen John for his inner circle of three intimate disciples. At the Last Supper, John had actually leaned against Jesus. He was the disciple "whom Jesus loved" (John 13). Jesus thought so highly of John, that He entrusted His mother into John's care as He died on the cross (John 19:26-27). It's no surprise, then, that John's primary message in his writings is that God loves us and that we should love others.He wrote: "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1). "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). "God is love . . . We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:16, 19). God didn't just love us; He loved us first and He loved us sacrificially.We can't take such extravagant love for granted. We can't depersonalize it and assume that although God loved the world, He doesn't necessarily love us–you and me—personally and passionately. We need to remember during stress, fear, trial, and even in the midst of the mundane that God's love for us never fails. But John doesn't stop there. He says, God loves you . . .so love one another. It's a natural progression. We all have the opportunity to be the physical, tangible reminders of God's love in a world starving for His affection.John tells us: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:7-8). You are loved, my dear friends. Never forget that you are loved. And, because God loves you so, you can truly love others. ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEK:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THIS WEEK (answer in small groups or post a comment here):
In Christ,
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| Covenant Week 6 | Online Bible Study Posted: 22 Feb 2015 03:28 PM PST
Welcome to online Bible study at the Womens Bible Cafe! What an amazing time we are having discussing the lessons from our Covenant Bible study workbook by Kay Arthur. This week we will be discussing Week Six, “The Covenants of Salvation” and our weekly lessons included:
This week we learned how covenant is woven together and points to the big picture of our salvation and covenant with Jesus Christ. The old covenant was written by God on tablets of stone. The new covenant is written on our hearts. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:33 Kay Arthur writes what the new covenant will do: It puts the law within us, writes it on our hearts. It makes God our God, and us His people. We will know the Lord–small or great in the eyes of others— we will know Him! Our iniquities will be forgiven; our sin remembered no more! About eleven years ago, my Daddy needed to have open heart surgery. The doctor explained to us in plain simple terms that we could understand that Daddy had a leaky heart valve which needed replacement for him to survive. His new heart valve was reconstructed using a pig valve. Little did I realize at that time what God was doing in the life of my dad.
My Daddy was not always a believer in Jesus Christ. He used to drop my sisters and me off at the church on Sunday mornings, and I realize today that he did that so he and my mother could have a little peace and quiet apart from three rambunctious little girls. We would always come home excitedly telling them about the Good News of the stories we were learning about Jesus Christ. The love of Jesus grew in my heart day by day. My mother was already a believer in Jesus, and we grew up praying for our daddy that He would believe. The years went by and still no change in his heart about Jesus Christ, but we never gave up. I didn’t realize at the time why my Daddy had a leaky heart valve. But God revealed to me that his heart valve had become so calloused and so hard, that it had to be replaced. The Lord was reconstructing my Daddy’s heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. My Daddy not only underwent a physical heart surgery, he also underwent a spiritual heart surgery. After my Daddy’s heart surgery, he was in intensive care and was in and out of consciousness for about three months. The day he woke up, the first thing he said was “I believe in Jesus, and I want to be saved.” My mother prayed with Him, the sinners prayer, and He was saved that very day and entered into a covenant relationship with our Lord and Savior. When he was released from the hospital, he spoke to the Pastor of our church, and he was baptized about a week later with his whole family sitting on the front pew watching excitedly and cheering him on. For the next ten years, my Daddy and my mother attended Sunday School and church together regularly. My sisters and I saw our Daddy grow closer and closer to the Lord every day. They even read through the Bible together in a year. They never missed a day. And on January 7, 2013, my Daddy went to be home with the Lord Jesus he came to know and to love. We still do not know what happened to our Daddy for him to have a “change of heart” when he woke up from intensive care that day, but what we do know is that God changed his heart, and for that we are forever thankful. What an answer to prayer! Do you have a family member or friend you have been praying for to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior? Do not give up, keep praying. The Lord hears and He answers. ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEK:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THIS WEEK (answer in small groups or post a comment here)
Bonus Question: The furnishings of the Tabernacle is a picture of our Lord and His plan of redemption. Study the diagram on page 152, and read about each article of furniture of the Tabernacle on pages 153-154. What article of furniture means the most to you and why? ANNOUNCEMENT: NEXT INDUCTIVE BIBLE STUDYBeginning March 30, we will be teaching the Inductive method of Precept studies using the Book written by Kay Arthur, David Arthur and Pete DeLacy, How to Study Your Bible. In this book, you will learn the joy and value of Inductive Study that will help you discover truth for yourself when you read and study God’s Holy Word. Kay Arthur states, “Inductive Bible study draws you into personal interaction with the Scriptures and thus with the God of the Scriptures so that your beliefs are based on a prayerful understanding and legitimate interpretation of Scripture–truth that transforms you when you live by it.” We hope you will join us on March 30 for this invaluable teaching tool. A reading schedule will be forthcoming. To order the How to Study Your Bible book, CLICK HERE Blessings,
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