Daniel

This Friday we'll study a small part of Daniel's life, just Chapter 6. To refresh your memory, if it's been awhile since you've read/studied Daniel, here's a summary up to that point:

Chapter 1 describes the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Along with many others, Daniel and his three friends were deported to Babylon and because of their courage and the obvious blessings of God upon them, they were “promoted” in the king’s service.

Chapters 2-4 record Nebuchadnezzar having a dream that only Daniel could correctly interpret. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a great statue represented the kingdoms that would arise in the future. Nebuchadnezzar made a great statue of himself and forced everyone to worship it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused and were miraculously spared by God despite being thrown into a fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar is judged by God for his pride, but later restored once he recognized and admitted God’s sovereignty.

Daniel chapter 5 records Nebuchadnezzar’s son Belshazzar misusing the items taken from the Temple in Jerusalem and receiving a message from God, written into the wall, in response. Only Daniel could interpret the writing on the wall, a message of coming judgment from God, that Belshazzar would lose his crown for his idolatry. Belshazzar died that night and Darius became king.


See you Friday at 6:30pm.

painting party

Tonight we'll be hanging out and painting walls at Mark & Tamara's new house. They might need some moving and/or organizing help too.

Come as early as 6pm. Wear some old or already-stained clothes for painting.

And there will be pizza.

Jonah, take 2

This week we're doing an inductive study on Jonah. Read the whole book if you haven't already.

For extra credit, read about the Sign of Jonah in Matthew 12:38-45.

Hope you enjoyed sleeping through the VeggieTales Jonah movie! lol

♫ Jonah was a prophet— oo ooh!
but he really never got it— Sad but true!
and if you watch it you can spot it— a doodley doo!
he did not get the point! ♫

See you Friday.

Jonah

This week we'll be doing the biography of Jonah.
Read the whole book (4 chapters) and prepare for some inductive method on Friday.

Bring colored pens, pencils, or markers for annotating, and feel free to bring your bible dictionary or concordance (but not commentaries! and avoid reading the comments in your 'study bible')

As always 6:30pm dinner at the Morgan's. See ya Friday.

Elijah and Elisha

For this week's biography we'll study Elijah and his successor Elisha. It's 4 chapters to read this week so try to read as much as you can before Friday. We'll read over the manuscript and go over it using the inductive method. If you've got extra time, read about John the Baptist too.

Read 1 Kings 17-19 and 2 Kings 2.

Jeroboam

We'll pick up with Jeroboam this week. We touched on him last week but here's a quick summary to bring us to 1 Kings 12:16:

A prophet Ahijah tore his cloak into 12 pieces and gave Jeroboam 10, signifying that he'd lead the 10 tribes that would split off to become the Northern Kingdom. The southern tribe, Judah would be set apart for David's line. The LORD, speaking through Ahijah, promises this to Jeroboam, so Solomon seeks to kill him. Jeroboam flees to Egypt, Solomon dies, Rehoboam (Solomon's son) is made king (in Shechem), Jeroboam returns.

Read these 2 sections: 1 Kings 12:16-13:10; and 13:33-14:20
We're skipping the section on the disobedient prophet.

I'll bring the 'manuscript'. See you Friday.

Characters in the Bible

Here's a tentative calendar for our next few weeks. Including Solomon, we could study 8 more people which would bring us up to Good Friday. What do you think? Is there anyone else you'd like to study? Anyone to skip?

• Feb 5 - Solomon
• Feb 12 - Jeroboam
• Feb 19 - Elijah
• Feb 26 - Elisha
• March 5 - Jonah
• March 12 - Daniel
• March 19 - Nehemiah
• March 26 - Job
• April 2 - Good Friday

Sometime between now and then lets have a talk about what's next for the GBC. Start praying about it now.