House-Churching, Day 1
This morning was our first official day of house-churching. Whenever I plan for any type of Bible study... well, I don't plan exactly. I believe in allowing the Holy Spirit to lead without my interference.
So this morning, we decided to begin studying the Epistles. Usually when my sons pick a Bible study, they choose the Old Testament. The Old Testament stories are pretty exciting. We study a lot from the earthly life of Christ through Bible discussions and books and movies. So the Epistles seemed like a good place to begin.
We started in Romans 1 today. Romans just happens to be my favorite Book of the Bible.
We began by discussing the reason Paul wrote his letter to the Romans - as a way to settle an argument between two different groups of Christians. On the one hand, there were Jewish Christians, who kept the Jewish Law in addition to knowing Jesus as Savior. On the other hand, there were Gentile Christians who only did the latter. The former group told the latter group they could not be real Christians, sanctified and set apart, if they did not follow specific rules. The latter group disagreed. An argument erupted. Paul intervened.
We decided to read from the Message Bible this morning, and we stopped at these words, "Through Him we received both the generous gift of His life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ! And I greet you now with all the generosity of God our Father and our Master Jesus, the Messiah" (Romans 1:5-7).
Imagine these Christians reading this introduction. I wonder if the sentiment "You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ!" stood out to them as much as it did to me this morning. Arguments, divisiveness, and then Paul's correction within his greeting. "Stop fighting. You are who you are by the gift and call of Jesus Christ."
In our study this morning, we then moved on to Verse 18, "But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth."
Could it be that when we do not allow ourselves to be who God calls us to be that we mistrust Him? It's wrongdoing? It's lying to ourselves and others?
We concluded our study by making "Who God Made Me" posters. We drew or listed our interests, our talents, our gifts - just to emphasize the importance of being who we are in trust.
I would say God definitely led our study this morning. How about you?
So this morning, we decided to begin studying the Epistles. Usually when my sons pick a Bible study, they choose the Old Testament. The Old Testament stories are pretty exciting. We study a lot from the earthly life of Christ through Bible discussions and books and movies. So the Epistles seemed like a good place to begin.
We started in Romans 1 today. Romans just happens to be my favorite Book of the Bible.
We began by discussing the reason Paul wrote his letter to the Romans - as a way to settle an argument between two different groups of Christians. On the one hand, there were Jewish Christians, who kept the Jewish Law in addition to knowing Jesus as Savior. On the other hand, there were Gentile Christians who only did the latter. The former group told the latter group they could not be real Christians, sanctified and set apart, if they did not follow specific rules. The latter group disagreed. An argument erupted. Paul intervened.
We decided to read from the Message Bible this morning, and we stopped at these words, "Through Him we received both the generous gift of His life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ! And I greet you now with all the generosity of God our Father and our Master Jesus, the Messiah" (Romans 1:5-7).
Imagine these Christians reading this introduction. I wonder if the sentiment "You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ!" stood out to them as much as it did to me this morning. Arguments, divisiveness, and then Paul's correction within his greeting. "Stop fighting. You are who you are by the gift and call of Jesus Christ."
In our study this morning, we then moved on to Verse 18, "But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth."
Could it be that when we do not allow ourselves to be who God calls us to be that we mistrust Him? It's wrongdoing? It's lying to ourselves and others?
We concluded our study by making "Who God Made Me" posters. We drew or listed our interests, our talents, our gifts - just to emphasize the importance of being who we are in trust.
I would say God definitely led our study this morning. How about you?
Comments
Post a Comment