Segments of Each Week
The Compass
Like the needle of a compass which helps us know the direction we are traveling, this section is intended to show the way the study is heading for the week. You may find God leading you on a different route. That’s ok! Excursions can be enlightening. Take pictures then refocus on the destination.
Your Challenge for the Week
This section encourages the participant to make this study a part of his/her daily life. The challenge will suggest a way to enter into conversation with others, a particular twist to consider for the week’s reading and scripture to memorize.
A Note about Scripture Memory
The scripture I suggest for memorization during this study is 2 Peter 1:2-11. Rather than move from one scripture to the next each week, I have suggested that you add verses to the previous week so that by the end of the study you will have memorized all 10 verses.
Many of us want to skip this spiritual discipline because we say we cannot memorize yet we easily quote phone numbers, street and email addresses, social security numbers and several user IDs and passwords if you use the internet regularly. This information is relatively easy to remember when it is personal to us. The goal of this study is to assist you in making God a very personal part of your life. It is also my desire that this study will reveal to you how much control God can have in your life and how little control you truly have. Here are a few scriptures to encourage you in God’s desire for you to know His word personally.
- “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds” Deuteronomy 11:18
- “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:26
- “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 1:7
- “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” Proverbs 2:1-6
Use a journal or loose leaf notebook to write out your responses.
The questions are designed to stir your thoughts but not intended to limit where God may want to take you in the study of His Word. The depth of these questions will be determined by the time you take to let God speak to you.
For everyone involved to get a truer picture of God, it is very beneficial to only share in the discussion if you have taken the time to study throughout the week. Share what God is teaching you in those moments of solitude.
You always have the freedom to pass if you are called on to share your thoughts. You will not be called on by name for questions marked “Personal”. Only those who feel led by God to share their Personal responses should do so.
Digging Deeper
This is for those who have more time and desire to go deeper into God’s word. Again, this is simply a guide offered to assist you in doing so. Be open to God’s leading if your Digging Deeper goes into a different direction.
Weekly Summary
This section provides a reminder to evaluate what you have learned throughout the week. Journaling this information will be a treasure for a lifetime. Over time you will be able to look back at this section of your journal to see exactly how God is transforming you. This will be a great source of encouragement as you grow in your ability to recognize God’s presence in your life.
This, and any Bible study material, should be used only as a guide to encourage you in meeting with God daily. The intent is to deepen your intimacy with Christ. Please do not view this as “homework” to be completed before the next class session. The questions are only a tool for building the relationship. To attempt to complete a large portion of the study in one sitting and avoid daily contact with God will be counter productive. Establishing a routine of a few minutes a day will do much more for your relationship than longer periods once or twice a week.
The study has been written so that it may easily be used on a five or seven day schedule. The five day schedule is encouraged to allow you to spend two less structured days in your time alone with God.
Seven Day Schedule
First Day: Compass
Second – Sixth Days: Study Questions/Digging Deeper
Seventh Day: Weekly Summary
Five Day Schedule
First Day: Compass and Day 1 Study Questions/Digging Deeper
Second – Fourth Days: Days 2 – 4 Study Questions/Digging Deeper
Fifth Day: Day 5 Study Questions/Digging Deeper and Weekly Summary
Study ResourcesThis study is designed to put emphasis on your ability to have an intimate relationship with God. This personal relationship includes your ability hear God directly and interpret scripture for yourself with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For that reason, I want to encourage you to not use commentaries or additional resources for interpretation of scripture until after you have shared your responses with others in a group discussion. Use only the imagination and thought processing God has given you. This will provide more opportunity for you to be guided by the Holy Spirit rather than influenced by other people.
Digging Deeper suggests the use of a Bible concordance for further study on specific words. A Bible concordance is an alphabetical listing of words used in scripture. The listing includes a reference to the scriptures using that word. A partial concordance can be found in the back of many Bibles. Concordances such as the NIV Compact Concordance by John Kohlenberger are available at Christian book stores. Online concordances are also accessible at http://www.gospelcom.com/ and http://www.crosswalk.com/.
May this study assist you in finding your purpose in life to be that as stated by Paul in Philippians 3:10-12 (Amplified Bible):
[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]
That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].
Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.
