Ladies, how is the reading through the Bible going? This month, we focus on context! As you are reading, knowing the context will help you in understanding the Word. Let's define it first: context means the 'circumstances that form the setting for a passage of Scripture by which that passage can be rightly understood.'
There are four key kinds of context:
1) historical - events in the biblical era, either recorded in pages of Scripture or that form the backdrop for the biblical story; what's going on - the historical setting for the reading?
2) cultural - attitudes, patterns of behvior or expressions of a particular society that affect our understanding of a passage: what's the culture about, how do people think, behave during this time?
3) literary - how a passage fits into a book, group of books or Bible as a whole; what's the theme, message of the particular book or passage you're reading?
4) theological - how does the topic fit in the bigger story of the Bible, God's redemption plan?
Tools such as using a Study Bible, Bible dictionary and commentaries can help us in understanding these contexts.
Finally, we all have personal contexts we bring with us in reading the Bible - our culture, ways of thinking, past experiences and even our families affect our reading of the Bible.
Let's look at the cultural context for this lesson. Read Leviticus 19:32 and Proverbs 16:31. What cultural patterns or attitudes do these verses reflect for this biblical era? What are examples of the way people in our culture might express their attitudes toward aging? What does these examples say about our culture's attitude today toward old age? What personal attitudes do you have about aging and the elderly? What changes do you need to make to bring your attitude in line with what God says about aging in these passages?
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Cultivating a Passion for God's Word
Sisters of Mount Carmel, I hope you've decided to join us on our journey this year through the Bible! If not please join us..it's never too late! Get a reading plan or a devotional daily Bible and start reading..for it's in making the choice each day to make Bible reading a priority that it becomes the desire of our heart! When we intake the Bible, regularly and consistently, we want more of it...yet, when we neglect our Bible reading, our hunger and thirst for it lessens each day! So true!
This lesson is a summary of the first lesson in the Bible Study: Read the Bible for Life by Dr George H Guthrie. For more in-depth study, you can purchase the workbook or check in each month for a new lesson posted on the blog.
Our first topic this month is about cultivating a desire for the Word by checking the condition of our hearts for receiving for God's Word. Our study takes us to Mark 4:1-20 and the Parable of the Soils. Please take some time to read and meditate on this passage. There are four types of soils that illustrate the condition of our hearts:
This lesson is a summary of the first lesson in the Bible Study: Read the Bible for Life by Dr George H Guthrie. For more in-depth study, you can purchase the workbook or check in each month for a new lesson posted on the blog.
Our first topic this month is about cultivating a desire for the Word by checking the condition of our hearts for receiving for God's Word. Our study takes us to Mark 4:1-20 and the Parable of the Soils. Please take some time to read and meditate on this passage. There are four types of soils that illustrate the condition of our hearts:
- Soil on the path: a hard-packed heart (Satan prevents the Word from penetrating our hearts)
- Rocky soil: a shallow heart (Word is received but develops no roots)
- Thorny soil: congestion of a weed-choked heart (worries and desires choke the Word)
- Good soil: a receptive heart (Word is received and produces fruit)
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Church Women United are Reading thru the Bible in 2012!
Join us ladies as we embark on an focused journey of reading and studying the Word this year! Our theme this year, Women Transformed by the Word, will provide many opportunities for you to grow with us. Pick up a daily Bible reading plan or a devotional/daily Bible and start reading. Here's a link to get you started selecting a reading plan: Read the Bible in a Year.
On this blog, we will share more information on how to be more effective in reading and studying the Bible. Here will be a place to interact and share your journey thru the Bible and to get information on upcoming events to go deeper! We plan workshops on how to study, meditate and apply the Word for life transformation. It does no good just to take in all this good Word if we don't apply it for life change! James says it better: "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." James 1:22-25
Now, that's a Word to meditate on and memorize! Respond to this blog and let us know you're joining us!
On this blog, we will share more information on how to be more effective in reading and studying the Bible. Here will be a place to interact and share your journey thru the Bible and to get information on upcoming events to go deeper! We plan workshops on how to study, meditate and apply the Word for life transformation. It does no good just to take in all this good Word if we don't apply it for life change! James says it better: "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." James 1:22-25
Now, that's a Word to meditate on and memorize! Respond to this blog and let us know you're joining us!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Praying in the Spirit!
"Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." Ephesians 6:18
What exactly does that mean? "It is through the Holy Spirit that the life of Christ is operative within you. He is Christ's life transfused into you and flowing through you. He is the One who makes the thoughts of God known to you. True prayer cannot happen apart from the Spirit of God." The premise and foundation of praying in the Spirit is based upon this understanding.
First of all, we received the Holy Spirit at salvation as God's guarantee of our relationship with him. Next, we are instructed to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) which is a not a one-time experience but continuous filling. When we are filled with the Spirit, we are empowered to pray in the Spirit. He will direct our prayers according to the will of God. He will teach us to pray and when we don't have the words: "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." Romans 8:26-27
Once filled, we can walk in the Spirit and grow in being alert to His still small voice. Yet we can make it difficult to hear that Voice. We can quench the Spirit's work in us by not doing what we should be doing. "Quench" means to extinguish the fire of the Spirit within us when we are disobedient, we neglect spiritual disciplines such as Bible reading, meditating, prayer, ... ; when we are too attached to the noise of this world.. We can also grieve the Holy Spirit by those things we do that make Him sorrowful. By our thoughts and words and actions we dishonor how we are representing Him to the world. Think about that...What are you not doing that God has called you to do? Are your actions and conversations grieving the Holy Spirit?
Do you feel you are filled with the Holy Spirit? If not, will you take the following steps?
1. You must first have a deep hunger for God. If not, ask God to create that hunger within you.
2. Ask God to show you what need to relinquish in order to fully surrender to Him. Ask Him to make you willing and able.
3. Ask God to fill you with His Spirit. Trust God to do what He has been longing to do.
4. Don't give yourself a schedule to follow. Trust Him to begin and to complete the process.
5. Walk in the Spirit. (Do not quench or grieve the Spirit.)
Did you see the process..once we receive the Spirit at salvation, we are to be continually filled with the Spirit, then we can walk in the Spirit and be empowered to pray in the Spirit!
What exactly does that mean? "It is through the Holy Spirit that the life of Christ is operative within you. He is Christ's life transfused into you and flowing through you. He is the One who makes the thoughts of God known to you. True prayer cannot happen apart from the Spirit of God." The premise and foundation of praying in the Spirit is based upon this understanding.
First of all, we received the Holy Spirit at salvation as God's guarantee of our relationship with him. Next, we are instructed to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) which is a not a one-time experience but continuous filling. When we are filled with the Spirit, we are empowered to pray in the Spirit. He will direct our prayers according to the will of God. He will teach us to pray and when we don't have the words: "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." Romans 8:26-27
Once filled, we can walk in the Spirit and grow in being alert to His still small voice. Yet we can make it difficult to hear that Voice. We can quench the Spirit's work in us by not doing what we should be doing. "Quench" means to extinguish the fire of the Spirit within us when we are disobedient, we neglect spiritual disciplines such as Bible reading, meditating, prayer, ... ; when we are too attached to the noise of this world.. We can also grieve the Holy Spirit by those things we do that make Him sorrowful. By our thoughts and words and actions we dishonor how we are representing Him to the world. Think about that...What are you not doing that God has called you to do? Are your actions and conversations grieving the Holy Spirit?
Do you feel you are filled with the Holy Spirit? If not, will you take the following steps?
1. You must first have a deep hunger for God. If not, ask God to create that hunger within you.
2. Ask God to show you what need to relinquish in order to fully surrender to Him. Ask Him to make you willing and able.
3. Ask God to fill you with His Spirit. Trust God to do what He has been longing to do.
4. Don't give yourself a schedule to follow. Trust Him to begin and to complete the process.
5. Walk in the Spirit. (Do not quench or grieve the Spirit.)
Did you see the process..once we receive the Spirit at salvation, we are to be continually filled with the Spirit, then we can walk in the Spirit and be empowered to pray in the Spirit!
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