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| What Love Is Week Five | Online Bible Study Posted: 15 Feb 2015 04:30 PM PST I can’t believe we’re already on week 5 of our study, What Love Is by Kelly Minter! This week as we discuss the lessons from week 5 in our small groups, we’ll be covering these themes:
In my freshman year of college, the campus packed a charter bus full of students with ‘leadership potential’ and took us on a retreat to the mountains of Western Maryland. Most of us shuffled off the bus after the long drive and congregated silently on the sidewalk, awaiting further instructions. No one really knew each other so we generally avoided awkwardness by pretending to be busy getting our stuff together. Not this one girl, though. She pushed right past the group and flung her arms open into the cool October air. She spun around just as if she were Maria in the Sound of Music singing, “The hills are alive….” and this girl said, "It's so beautiful! How could you see all this and not know God?" It's the first time I really noticed her. We'd spent a whole semester together in a history class and I think I knew her name and nothing else about her by the end. But here she was, declaring the glory of God in front of all of us. She was bolder than I had been all year. It turns out, I hadn’t known her at all, hadn’t know what was in her heart and didn’t know about her testimony and her faith. Sometimes we think we know what's inside the hearts of others. We think we can tell who is close to salvation and who is so ‘hopeless’ we might as well give up on them. But we can be wrong Maybe you’ve been praying for salvation for a child, parent, spouse, coworker or best friend for so long that you’ve grown worn out and weary or even just forgetful. Maybe you’ve given up, not knowing if they are simply one step away from faith. Rahab lived in that pagan town Jericho. No one would have expected her to be a God-follower, not a rescuer of Israelites or the one person in Jericho who was closest to salvation She was a prostitute. Hopelessly lost, for sure. Maybe that's what we would have thought if we’d seen her walking the streets of Jericho. But God knew her heart. He knew that of all the people in the city, she was the one person who believed that God was a God of miracles. That's what she said in a whispered conversation with two Israelite spies she hid on her roof:
She believed. Who would've thought? God, that's who. He sent those spies straight to her door because He knew she would save them…..and He knew that He would save her. He knocked down a seemingly impenetrable fortress around Jericho, but kept her one lone house standing. He moved heaven and earth to save a woman whose heart was ready for grace and faith. This is our God with His heart to save, with His power to do the impossible and to share the Gospel with those who need to hear because He does not want "anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 NIV). We’re so tempted at times to limit God by only asking for what looks possible. Yet, in this week’s lesson, Kelly Minter quotes from Andrew Murray:
Noone is beyond the grasp of God or outside the reach of His grace and forgiveness. Nothing is impossible with our God-of-the-impossible. Have you given up in prayer? Have you stopped faithfully asking for salvation for the lost? Have you written off your requests as hopelessly unlikely and even downright impossible? This week, choose to persevere in prayer. Bring those requests right back to the feet of Jesus and remember:
BIBLE STUDY TIP:I’m a mom with four kids ages 15 months to 10 years old. Life is fast, loud, busy, and messy at my house! People tell me all the time they don’t have time for Bible study, and I get it. The truth is we will never “have” time for God just handed to us. I never wake up in the morning and find myself with 30 minutes of absolute quiet and inactivity. We have to make time for God. But how that works might depend on you. It may be that you need a set time and place to study. At the same time every day, you tuck yourself away in your quiet place to be with God. If you’re like me, I set up camp at the kitchen table with my Bible, pens, laptop and study guide. You may have another place that works for you. The point is that consistency helps you establish the spiritual discipline of time in God’s Word. This is probably the best way to make time for God—-schedule it and plan it in advance. But, here’s the reality of my life. Every day, my schedule is different. My kids have varying degrees of patience with what Mommy has to do. So, what works for me in this season of my life is flexible discipline. If we only plan to study God’s Word at lunchtime every day and something disrupts our plan, we may never get back to Bible study. Instead, we fall behind and behind and further behind because our plan is too rigid. For me, I know I’m going to finish my lesson today. I won’t click on the TV, flip open the novel or scroll through Facebook without it being done. But today it may happen in the morning. Tomorrow, I’ll spread out over lunch. The next day, it will be while waiting for my kids to finish their after school activities. I may even study in 5 minute increments throughout the day. If I have the slightest opening of time, I fill it with God and His Word. ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEK:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THIS WEEK (answer in small groups or post a comment here):
In Christ,    |
| Covenant Week 5 | Online Bible Study Posted: 15 Feb 2015 04:21 PM PST
Kay Arthur writes, “The oneness of covenant was often sealed by a cut in the flesh and the commingling of blood. Having cut covenant, sometimes the covenant partners would seal the incision in some way so that it might become a permanent scar–a constant reminder of their covenant promise.” When I was a little girl, I recall running to go play outside. The screen door of my home was never latched, but this particular morning it was latched, and as I tried to run through the door a piece of loose metal from the screen pierced my forehead causing a gush of blood to flow freely. Although I was very young when I suffered this injury, I will never forget that day, because the permanent scar on my forehead is a constant reminder of the pain I endured that uneventful morning. Pain and suffering always accompanies permanent scars whether physical or emotional. What permanent scars do you bear in your life today? Jesus bears the permanent scars on His hands and feet as a constant reminder that He paid the penalty for our sins by shedding His blood on the Cross. What a perfect reminder to us that we are in a covenant relationship with Him. By His scars we have been set free. Therefore, He knows each of us personally, because He has written our names on the palms of His hands. “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands…” Isaiah 49:16 Kay Arthur writes “The word translated inscribed is aqaqand, which has the primary meaning of cutting in or engraving in stone as hewing a tomb in the rock and as drawing a picture on a brick or a wall.” A more modern term would be tattoo. Our generation today is all about tattooing the body as a permanent reminder of something or someone they want to remember. How awesome that Jesus Christ has tattooed our names on His hands! ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEK:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THIS WEEK (answer in small groups or post a comment here)
Bonus Question: What personal blessings are you enjoying as a result of being in covenant with Jesus Christ? (Page 117) Blessings, Sheree Poole  |
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