the Good Book club

Daniel

2010-04-28T22:50:00.001-06:00

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

2010-04-09T09:52:00.000-06:00

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

2010-03-24T12:17:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-09T12:23:00.001-07:00

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

2010-02-22T21:08:00.004-07:00

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

2010-02-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-05T07:23:00.002-07:00

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.

Solomon

2010-02-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

We'll look at Solomon his week, focusing only on 2 chapters:

1 Kings chapters 3 and 11

I'll bring 'manuscript' versions for us to read, and some other tools to enhance our inductive study.

See you then.

Remember to post your prayer requests on the prayer blog.

Deacon / Deaconess Discussions

2010-01-27T20:42:00.003-07:00

Let's take another break from our normal programming to join the church in the 'deaconing' discussion to which Pastor Mike has dedicated 3 sermons. If you missed one of those sermons, check them out on the church website.

Read the following articles by two godly men who pastor a couple of the flagship churches in the PCA (skip reading the visitors' comments below the articles, they can be time-wasters).

The Case for Our Current Policy on Female Deacons, by Rev. Ligon Duncan of First Pres. in Jackson, Mississippi.

The Case for Commissioning (Not Ordaining) Deaconesses, by Rev. Tim Keller of Redeemer Pres. in NYC. Author of Reason for God.

Because we're still the Good Book Club, we'll read the applicable scriptures ourselves. But contrary to the Inductive Method, we'll dive into these outside interpretations to facilitate our discussion. Perhaps we can even listen to some of the audio from the debate, depending on what you guys think on Friday. I'll even bring a copy of the Book of Church Order... exciting. ;-)

Absalom

2010-01-18T23:39:00.000-07:00

So we touched on Absalom in the Amnon, Tamar, Absalom story, but this week we'll look more at his relationship (or lack thereof?) with David, his father and king, and with God.

Where we left off, Absalom had fled to Geshur (where he was possibly royalty there, via his mother's line). To summarize Chapter 14, David has another "you're that man" rebuke (this time by a woman) that made him allow Absalom back into the Kindgom, but he still refused to see him. After 2 years, Absalom set fire to a field of Joab (one of the King's men), to get his attention. He finally went before his dad David, bowed, and David kissed him.

Read Chapter 15, and the second half of 16 (vs 15 and on).

We'll discuss Absalom's whole story, but we'll focus mainly on the above passages. I'll summarize the rest after we read.

Remember the Inductive Method (see post below or click here), because we'll be using it again.

And finally, remember to read and post prayer requests on the prayer blog.

See you Friday.

Inductive Bible Study Method

2010-01-18T22:36:00.001-07:00

I hope you all enjoyed our first attempt at using the Inductive Method. I think it's a good way to keep us focused and looking deeper at the Word of God. For reference, here again is the structure:

Observation -- What does the passage say?
Interpretation -- What does the passage mean?
Application -- How does that meaning apply to me?

General Rule: Come to the Word with curiosity and humility. You are hearing/reading the very voice of God. Forget what you think you know about the passage and read it as if you've never read it before.

Observation

Read the passage carefully.
Discuss the context: Who, What, Where, When.
Look for repeated words or phrases, changes in tone, tense, person (e.g. 3rd person to second person), synonyms, comparisons, contrasts .
Use a Bible Dictionary or Concordance to help with historical background and language translations/word meanings.
Note unusual details or wording.
Look up cross references in other parts of the Bible (not commentaries).
Do not interpret yet. Just observe.
Write down questions and ask them aloud.

Interpretation

Try to answer the questions asked using only the passage and its cross references.
Search other passages that may answer the questions at hand.
Discuss relationships, themes, an overall message.
Use your mind-- logic, reasoning.
Do not introduce outside sources for answering questions (facilitator may share from a commentary if the group is stuck on a difficult passage).
Do not preach. The only teacher in the group is the Word.
Listen to one another. Share the discovery with one another.
Agree on one or more principals, meanings, messages.

Application

How does the meaning apply to us? What do we learn?
Where do we fall short? and why?
What can we do about it?
How do we make these applications habitual in our lives?
How can we pray for each other specifically in this area?

Ruth

2009-09-05T21:52:00.002-06:00

Looks like Ruth is up next. I think we can read the whole book this week. See y'all at the end of the week.
-Shane

Samson

2009-09-01T15:10:00.002-06:00

OK guys, back to blogging updates. Coming this Friday, 9/4, will be the story of Samson, Judges 13-16. This should be an interesting character, so I'm really looking forward to the discussion.
-Shane

Deborah

2009-08-09T13:22:00.002-06:00

This week we'll be discussing Deborah, who's story is in chapters 4 & 5 of Judges. I know some of you are very excited about Deborah, so I'm really looking forward to Fridays meeting.

The Judges

2009-08-03T13:52:00.002-06:00

This week we're going to be discussing the first three chapters of Judges, so we'll be learning about Othneal, Ehud, and Shamgar. The next week, we'll be talking about Deborah, whose story is in chapters 4 & 5.

Finishing Joshua

2009-07-27T23:50:00.002-06:00

Hey All,
I think we can finish talking about Joshua this week. A lot of the rest of the book of Joshua is about allotments and inheritances, so I think it would be okay to skim the remaining chapters to get Joshua's life story. See you all Friday.
-Shane

Joshua

2009-07-20T15:11:00.002-06:00

Hey Guys,
Well, I think we hit all the main points about Moses, and we can move on to Joshua. So let's read the first 12 chapters of Joshua. See you all on Friday.
-Shane

July 17th

2009-07-14T08:57:00.002-06:00

For this week I think we can skip the temple design chapters and pick up in Chapter 32 of Exodus. Let's read to the end of Exodus. Again, take notes and come prepared to discuss. I'd like to finish Moses this week, but we'll see how far we get in the conversation. See you all Friday.

July 10th

2009-07-07T10:45:00.002-06:00

The story of Moses has been pretty great! This Friday, I'm thinking we should all go to the Brazil Dinner at the church, so for now, I'm not assigning any homework. Feel free to post comments if you have any other thoughts.

July 3rd

2009-06-27T09:13:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone. We really missed you all on Friday, but were praying that preparations for the Reu family went well. I guess we can pick back up in the story of Moses on the 3rd (if we all haven't made plans for the holiday). So let's read through chapter 24. Then we can all go to the lake.
And I guess we're still praying for Leila's LEED exam on Tuesday, and, of course, for Phil and the kids.
Speaking of prayers, perhaps we should talk about including prayer in our weekly scripture homework. See you all Friday, if not sooner.

Homework for June 19th

2009-06-16T10:59:00.002-06:00

Read Exodus up to the end of chapter 19, and take notes on key points, insights and verses about Moses that you would like to discuss with the group. After that we will start at the Ten Commandments. Enjoy your reading, and see you Friday night.

Characters of the Bible Series

2009-03-14T09:56:00.003-06:00

As you all know, we are done with Revelation. The next series of studies will be about characters of the Bible. We started last night by talking about Adam and Eve, which naturally included discussing Cain and Abel. Next week we will talk about Noah. Here is a list of characters I would like to learn about after that: Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Ruth, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, Jeroboam, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, and Daniel. So read about Noah during the week, and we will talk about him on Friday.

17 Chapters in

2008-12-15T13:36:00.002-07:00

Now we're in the 17th chapter of Revelation, and will be getting back into the same chapter when we pick back up again after Christmas. I have been encouraged by our study of Revelation a lot more than I had expected, and I expect that these last chapters will challenge our thinking even more. I just wanted to thank all of you who come to the Good Book club for your involvement and encouragement.

Revelation

2008-05-17T08:52:00.002-06:00

We have started a study on the book of Revelation. Last night we read and discussed the first chapter. Up next are the letters to the seven churches. There are a lot of things to talk about in this book. As I said yesterday, we're not trying to find all the solutions to Revelation, we're just reading and getting familiar with an often neglected book of the New Testament, and letting God teach (and sometimes dumbfound) us through His word. I think it's good to meditate on what this book says, so I'll try to post what we'll be looking at ahead of time. Next week we'll be reading the letter to the church in Ephesus, so read it, meditate on it, and we'll discuss it next Friday.

May 2nd

2008-05-01T18:07:00.002-06:00

The GBc will not be meeting on May 2nd, because I will be on the yurt trip with the other guys from church. I think we're about wrapped up on the restoration theme, so what I'd like to do next is go through a specific book, maybe some of the smaller ones that don't get read very often.

The Restoration

2008-03-24T09:38:00.002-06:00

Mike is always talking about "Restoring Shalom," and it's an idea I'd like to talk about more. I think we could fill a few weeks talking about this, and, hopefully, it will bring us into some often neglected books. Friday we'll begin in Genesis 1, and take a good at look at the Bible says about the creation when things were "very good". See you all on Friday.

Good Friday

2008-03-17T10:02:00.002-06:00

This coming Friday will be Good Friday, so the homework will be to read the accounts of the crucifixion in the gospels. Any discussion of the crucifixion would incomplete without the resurrection, so read that too. See you on Friday.

Discussion on the Word of God

2008-03-17T09:20:00.003-06:00

Last Friday was the first Good Book club discussion group. Whenever I'm involved in a new group, I like to begin by bringing the focus of the group to the Word, so we discussed what the Word of God is, and what the phrase means. After I decided this would be the focus of our first discussion, I did some research and found that there are over a thousand verses with the word, "word." So the topic was a lot bigger than I expected. That being said, we initially focused on the fact that Jesus is called "the Word" in John 1:1, and the "Word of God" in Revalations 19:13, and what it means that Jesus is given this name. Then we looked up other verses that describe what the word of god does. We found out that, among other things, the universe was created by the word of God, the word of God was given to us and abides in us, and the word of God stands forever.

It was a great discussion.

Starting The Good Book Club

2008-02-17T11:56:00.002-07:00

Starting March 14th, we will be starting the Good Book Club. The goal will be to further understand the Good Book through stimulating conversation/debate of biblical concepts that are simple, complex or otherwise inspiring. It will be at the Williams' home every Friday at 7:00pm and will end when the last person leaves.

The homework for our first meeting is to meditate on what the Word of God is, what it does and what that means, and to collect scripture, notes and other insights for discussion.

-snw