The purpose of these pages is to engage in some group study focussing specifically on the mid-week period of Tuesday to Thursday.  We will post some scripture verses, and a few thoughts before throwing the conversation over to you.  This is not a teaching session, use the prompts (and Google) to explore scripture and share relevant verses.  Log in to the conversation as often or as infrequently as you like and if you wish to join in put your thoughts in the comments box at the bottom of the page.

The right frame of mind

Before you start to dive into this week’s bible study, take a few moments to calm your spirit.  Get comfortable with your beverage of choice, your Bible and something to write with. Pray that God would give you the time to study and put to one side the concerns of the day.  Breathe deeply for a few seconds and focus on who Jesus is

8.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9.  This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

1Jn4:8-9

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Love

We are going to look at a few verses that are read at every wedding you have ever been to, so you will know them quite well, but have you ever stopped to consider what they actually mean?

Read 1 Cor 13v1-8  Now read it again slowly pausing to consider each verse separately.

We are going to look at two sections – 1-3 and then 4-8.

Verses 1-3

Verses 1-3 talk about the importance of Love and its position in the scale of things.  1-2 talks about spiritual things and 3 talks about more practical actions. All three verses point out that if we don’t have Love, then all the rest is pointless.  The previous chapter talks about Gifts from the Holy Spirit, and five of them are mentioned here.  Identify them.

Take a moment to process the last few words of verse 3 – I can have these beautiful, Spirit given gifts, but unless I have Love they are worthless to me.

Let’s also put this into perspective.  We marvel when we have the faith to see someone healed, or when a situation works out the way we were praying it would. Faith, Mustard Seed, Mountain, No love, worthless,  ‘I am nothing’ …..!!???!   How important is Love?

Paul then moves from the spiritual to the practical and makes the point again.

Before we go into the second part, let those thoughts simmer for a few minutes.  The Importance of Love.  Whilst you are doing that, this video from the Bible Project puts the chapters on Gifts and Love into a broader context of the church in Corinth.

Verses 4-8

This second section is quite a practical one. Paul tries to define for us what he means by Love.   It is a series of “Love is……” statements – 15 or thereabouts.  Our response should be equally practical – write down the 15 actions or attributes of Love.  Leave some space between each.

Make sure you have enough time for this – if you spent four minutes on each, it will take an hour.  It might be better to do a couple now and schedule one a day: complete it over a fortnight.    Work through the list and spend some time meditating on each – think of how it relates to you – applies to relationships – How you demonstrate Love in day to day situations.

e.g. Love is patient – When am I impatient?  Who do I get impatient with?  What can I do to demonstrate patience (Love) in these situations.

ooo      †††     ooo

The purpose of these pages is to engage in some group study focussing specifically on the mid-week period of Tuesday to Thursday.  We will post some scripture verses, and a few thoughts before throwing the conversation over to you.  This is not a teaching session, use the prompts (and Google) to explore scripture and share relevant verses.  Log in to the conversation as often or as infrequently as you like and if you wish to join in put your thoughts in the comments box at the bottom of the page.

The right frame of mind

Before you start to dive into this week’s bible study, take a few moments to calm your spirit.  Get comfortable with your beverage of choice, your Bible and something to write with. Pray that God would give you the time to study and put to one side the concerns of the day.  Breathe deeply for a few seconds and focus on who Jesus said he was….

58   Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am.     John 8:58

When you are ready move on…

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Faith

From last week….  Faith and hope are tied together.  We see God moving in our lives, answering prayer and we have faith and hope for the future.  1 Peter 1:21 We see and sense the Holy Spirit working, and our faith grows; our hope is a strong and confident expectation that God will do all that He promised.  The things unseen.

Definition

There are many definitions of faith along the lines of believing in things that don’t exist – Mark Twain remarked “faith is believing in what ain’t so.” – however Scripture defines it as…  1.   Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.   Heb 11:1

Martin Luther, “…faith is a living unshakable confidence,”

Faith is mysteriously tied up in the core of our being with hope, belief and service to others.  Believing in the Lord Jesus is what gives us our salvation; an act of faith. It is also what allows us to see the purposes of God unfolding in our day to day lives.  James 1:6,  Jn 11:40

What does scripture tell us about the development of faith?  Rom 10:17,  1 Cor 2:4-5

Core relationship

Read Ephesians 3:14-21 a couple of times and try to reduce it to just a few words.

Do the same to Galatians 2:16-20 note the comparison to the vine – ‘life in the body’.  There are many more verses in scripture that point to life in the spirit being a mixture of hope, faith and belief.  The three are intertwined and build each other up.  they form the core of our walk with God and allow us to please Him and do things in His name.  2 Cor 5:7, 2 Tim 4:7, 1Cor 16:13, Heb 11:6

Hebrews 11 is the Faith Hall of Fame and contains the stories of some of the great individuals of faith from the Old Testament.

James 1:5-6 comes with a health warning- God often works in the weak and untrained so that the individuals involved know that it could have not been anything else but God working through them.

What does Faith Do?

Faith empowers you….   T / F?

Matt 14:29-31, Matt 17:20, Matt 21:21-22, 

The more we practice our faith, the more it grows. Faith give us vision; the ability to believe God for the impossible.

ooo   †††   ooo

The purpose of these pages is to engage in some group study focussing specifically on the mid-week period of Tuesday to Thursday.  We will post some scripture verses, and a few thoughts before throwing the conversation over to you.  This is not a teaching session, use the prompts (and Google) to explore scripture and share relevant verses.  Log in to the conversation as often or as infrequently as you like and if you wish to join in put your thoughts in the comments box at the bottom of the page.

The right frame of mind

Before you start to dive into this week’s bible study, take a few moments to calm your spirit.  Get comfortable with your beverage of choice, your Bible and something to write with. Pray that God would give you the time to study and put to one side the concerns of the day.  Breathe deeply for a few seconds and focus on who Jesus said he was….   CS Lewis wrote:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

When you are ready move on…

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This week we will look at Hope from three perspectives.

• What is it?
• What does it do? and …
• How do we cultivate it?

What is it?

In modern times the word hope has come to mean a weak desire that something will happen.  “I hope we will win this weekend”  “I really hope my child will pass his exam” – Let’s put down at the start this concept of hope and look at ‘Biblical hope’.

The biblical words translated as ‘hope’ convey a much greater degree of certainty, trust and confidence.  Faith and hope are tied together.  We see God moving in our lives, answering prayer and we have faith and hope for the future.  Rom 8:24-25.  We see and sense the Holy Spirit working, and our faith grows; our hope is a strong and confident expectation that God will do all that He promised.  The things unseen.

What does it do?

Watch the overview of John’s letters…

Read 1 John 3:1-3

Our hope causes us to change our behaviour and to refocus our lives.  To put it another way, as the Spirit works within us we change our focus, we strive for holiness, and our hope (our strong expectation)  for things eternal flourishes and grows. Read Titus 2:1-13.  

What is meant by hope in this context – we see that Hope can be an activity, or an object – that which we hope for.

Hope when it flourishes in our lives brings with it other blessings.  See how many you can identify from the following verses.

Make a list…..  Hope brings about….?

Heb 6:18-19, Rom 5:2, Rom 15:13,  Psalm 31:24, Psalm 33:18, Col 1:5,   There are many more, google ‘Hope in Jesus’ and see what else you can find.  Hope is mentioned about 165 times in the bible (depending on which translation you use).

How do I develop it?

Pay attention to your daily walk with the Lord, and your prayer life.  There are many warnings throughout the scriptures  – “The hope of the Godless will perish” –   Job 8, but “how blessed is he…. whose hope is the Lord his God” – PS 146

What is the theme here… Psa 62.5,  Rom 15:4,   2 Thes 2:16,

Rom 15,13,   1Pet 1:13…..

ooo     †††     ooo

The purpose of these pages is to engage in some group study focussing specifically on the mid-week period of Tuesday to Thursday.  We will post some scripture verses, and a few thoughts before throwing the conversation over to you.  This is not a teaching session, use the prompts (and Google) to explore scripture and share relevant verses.  Log in to the conversation as often or as infrequently as you like and if you wish to join in put your thoughts in the comments box at the bottom of the page.

The right frame of mind

Before you start to dive into this week’s bible study, take a few moments to calm your spirit.  Get comfortable with your beverage of choice, your Bible and something to write with. Pray that God would give you the time to study and put to one side the concerns of the day.  Breathe deeply for a few seconds and focus on who Jesus said he was….  When you are ready move on…

Ph4 8-9.   Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

The Message

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Last week we looked at pressing on to live lives that are honourable This week we are going to stay in Philippians and focus on living in contentment in our day to day lives…

Watch the remainder this video from The Bible Project, explaining the background to the letter…

Take a moment and write a list of the things that might affect your contentment over the coming months…

Read Phil 4 verses – Click here to read it in context of the whole chapter

10.   I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11.   I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Write down your thoughts on  v11 – what does it say about contentment?

11.   I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Compare with 1 Tim 6

You might have something like…

Paul seems to be saying…

• that his needs are currently being met.
• that contentment does not depend on circumstances
• that contentment is something you learn not something you catch…!

Note: Paul is writing this letter from prison…

We need to stop chasing contentment and start putting it into practice. Here are two ideas to help and a promise from scripture.

1. Our contentment is directly tied to our relationship with the father.  Think of a small child contentedly sleeping in the arms of his father.  Consequently, we need to be honest in our prayers.  It is unrealistic of us to expect to be able to hide things from the all knowing God.  Be honest, tell God how you feel, even when you are angry.  Be honest about your desires, even when you suspect they are driven by wrong motives. Cultivate an image of a Father God who loves to say ‘Yes’ to his children.         Matt 7:11                        Q: Do we lower our expectations so we don’t get disappointed, and call it contentment.  Be bold in your prayers Eph 3:12-21 and expect answers.
2. Live in the present! Make contentment one of your daily declarations.  When you wake up in the morning declare…  “I am a child of God, called according to His purpose and I will be content today!”  If you cannot be content in the season you are currently in, you will not be content in the next.

There should be a warning here about social media.  Q. How much time do we spend chasing contentment?  Looking at others’ lives – or their public portrayal of them.    Are you content with your current job? Where you live? Your state of health?

Paul says, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice”  Be content in your current season (not with)

And the promise…

ooo     †††     ooo

The purpose of these pages is to engage in some group study focussing specifically on the mid-week period of Tuesday to Thursday.  We will post some scripture verses, and a few thoughts before throwing the conversation over to you.  This is not a teaching session, use the prompts (and Google) to explore scripture and share relevant verses.  Log in to the conversation as often or as infrequently as you like and if you wish to join in put your thoughts in the comments box at the bottom of the page.

The right frame of mind

Before you start to dive into this week’s bible study, take a few moments to calm your spirit.  Get comfortable with your beverage of choice, your Bible and something to write with. Pray that God would give you the time to study and put to one side the concerns of the day.  Breathe deeply for a few seconds and focus on who Jesus said he was….  When you are ready move on…

6.  For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Hosea 6

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Over the last few weeks we have looked at being attached to the vine  and receiving sustenance from the Lord.  ‘Our daily Bread’ This week we are going to focus more on our day to day lives…

Life Worthy of the Gospel

27.  Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel     28.  without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.          29.  For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,      30.  since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

Phil 1

Watch the first part of this video from The Bible Project, explaining the background to the letter…

Go back to the passage and pick out the main instructions or themes from the verses….

You might end up with a list that looks like this…  We are told to …

• Behave appropriately, in a manner worthy of our calling
• Stand firm, without being intimidated
• Work together for the Gospel
• Expect adversity

Behaviour

So what does the bible say about our behaviour and what does it mean to be worthy of our calling? 1 Cor 13 has some clear things to say about our behaviour.. Note vs.4-5  See also…  It may not be easy,  Our relationship with the Lord comes first,  and…

9.  Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. 10.  You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11.  For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12.  encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

1 Thes 2

Summarise in one sentence what it is to be worthy of our calling.

Stand Firm

…or to put it another way do not be afraid, whatever your circumstances.  There are more than 365 verses along the lines of ‘fear not’ or ‘be not afraid’ – one for each day of the year.  Go back and read the story of Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings 6.

How does this relate to Eph 6:12

The chapter in Ephesians clearly gives us a number of practical things that constitute the Armour of God.  The battle is a spiritual one that needs us to daily tend to our armour.

Work Together

striving together as one for the faith of the gospel

‘Working together’ conjures up a picture of people standing shoulder to  shoulder, agreeing with each other and all working for the same goals.  There is more to it than that…. 1 Cor 12 talks about the gifts of the Spirit – How each gift dovetails in with all the others to create a fully functioning body of believers.  So working together is more than just agreeing, although that is good too.  It is being content with the gifts you have, striving for more and using the gifts to serve the body.

In addition, working with others creates a synergy that is greater than working solo. Ecclesiastes 4,   Proverbs 27  By discussion and speaking together we spark off each other and develop thoughts and ideas far more coherently than when we work alone.  Try it….!

Don’t think it is going to be easy

29.  For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,

Does this meant it is something we should seek out, or something that we should be proud of?  It’s an award? A badge of honour? It has “been granted to you” Mark 10:21,

What does it say about the relative importance of following Christ?

Paul,  Jesus, Paul’s letter to the Galatians, 

Paul’s letters very clearly tell us that if we are to follow the Saviour, there are things we will have to give up – Romans 8 – He outlines that anything we give up to follow Jesus will result in us being repaid many time over in both this life and the next. He outlines that people will not understand and their reaction to us might be negative and hurtful.  Are you ready for the negative? What will your response to abuse be?  Re read Romans 8.

ooo OOO ooo