THE Love Story: Salvation, What now...

The inspired/God breathed WORD of God

2 Timothy 3:16–17 LEB

16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, 17 in order that the person of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

GOALS achieved by reading the Bible:

To gain understanding of the Bible and who we are in relationship to God

To have a closer relationship with our Savior

To understand the principles for living “THE WAY”

to Understand where do I fit into Gods Kingdom

to Understand what I am

I am not a pastor and I learn daily, the goal of the class is not to tell you how to live, but to give a better understanding of how to go through the Bible and draw closer to God through that process. Life application and deeper dives will come from your readings and from the words of Spirit coming from men and women that God has placed in positions to minister from the pulpit.

We all communicate and share and bond through our stories, its how we relate to one another.

When the Holy Spirit resides in your it creates this communication network that works vertically when we speak truth and love to one another and then vertically when we pray to God. It even groans and intercedes on our behalf when we can not.

So what now?

Now lets look at this massive paperweight that you got after your Baptism.

There is a lot to read probably feels like your back in school and you just found out that your teacher assigned you a 1000 page book to not only memorize but also present to the class who all had done their assignment and got A’s.

This is not the case we are all broken. So many stories of well known people in the bible that were rebels, destroyers, just plain ole mean villains that God changed and used for his purpose. (maybe insert something about the will of God, permissible, providential (decretive) and perceptive.

The perceptive stuff is what you are learning when you read the Bible.

Where do we start?

Remember we already know the end. God has revealed that to us, we just don’t know when the events in Revelation will come to pass, but we can rely on the veracity, the truth of his claim.

You can start anywhere you want, I know some of you may have favorite stories like Samson or the great flood or Jesus’ birth…but the best place to start is with what you have already decided. That is to follow Jesus…so starting with Mark or Luke would probably be a great starting point.

(side comment) you may ask ‘Why so many gospels?’…mention something about multiple sources from a crime scene support event so much better than a singular point of view, even though witness testimony does not always sync up…because they had a different point of view…yet all of the gospels support one another and evidence of Christ.

Start small, one verse a day and do it in community/accountability..this is not bust-your-chops-ability. Remember CONTEXT IS KING. What did you think about the verse, may only be a 10 second conversation, but during those moments you were able to communicate spirit to spirit about the word of God and in doing so draw closer to him and each other.

Hebrews 4:12 LEB

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and able to judge the reflections and thoughts of the heart.

Jeremiah 29:13 LEB

13 When you search for me, then you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart.

Consistency

Partner to share with or a group

Work your way through one book at a time and don’t try to understand everything…good things take time.

Pray before during and after

Ask: What does this teach me about God? What does this teach me about how I should live?

The mind is a sponge ( or another analogy) it will soak up whatever it is exposed to...

Pillars of effective Bible Study (from…???)

Understanding context

Building a habit

Practicing memorization

Using the right tools

Learning in community

Integrating prayer

Pursuing vulnerability the right way

Future Topics

Prayer: how to pray (different types of prayer)

Examples:

Prayer of Manasseh not as doctrinal scripture but for an example not referenced as Prayer of manasseh, but as an out line showing that repentance is not for a select few when they mess up but for all sinners...

Matthew 6:8-13 & Luke 11:1-4 Lords prayer

Acts 4:23-31 prayer for bold disciples

Psalm 28:1-9 A prayer for help

Types of Bible Translations: Gods word always comes through

NIV NLT NASB CEB LEB ESV NKJV

breakdown of the books of the Bible (new/old testament, then the law, history, etc etc)

OT sets the stage for Christ it ends and the messiah has not come, the NT is the fulfillment of the OT and is the beginning of the never ending eternity that we have promised from God.

Words of caution regarding religious backgrounds and other teachings that are not Biblical

Big stories and where to find them

creation and the flood

abraham and the promise

belief in God the father, jesus christ as the son of God and the holy spirit (many books referenced

Ten commandments

birth of jesus

death, resurrection and ascension of Christ

The second coming and the day of judgement and the salvation of the faithful

the fall of man

everlasting gospel & how to be saved

becoming a new creation

Names of God understanding our creator from his names and where to find the context stroies

Internal conflict with Sin…when we screw up Romans 7:13-8:17.

???How can we trust the Bible...