Download the handout.
Go to the beginning of this study series.
The beginning of Peter’s first letter did not disappoint. We started our discussion around the questions, “What was on Peter’s mind? Why did he take the time to write this letter?” After looking at the passage individually for about fifteen minutes, we talked about the various themes that seem to permeate those twenty-five verses: Continue reading
After our study and discussion of the Apostles’ Creed, I wanted to return to the format we had used for the Gospel according to John and the letters of John: simple, straightforward inductive Bible study, rigorously staying in the text to see how much we could glean from the single passage.
This study (and the blog resulting from our discussion group) will be different in a few ways. The common thread through these changes is to encourage more independent study and less dependence on a leader’s preparation.
I hope the blog will be helpful in your own study of Scripture. If you have the opportunity, please join us at 10:45 on Sunday mornings in the Conference Room at South Fellowship.
A new inductive Bible study discussion group has started during the second hour (10:45-12:00) at South Fellowship. We are going through the letters that Peter wrote to Christians scattered around what is now Turkey. Then, as now, this was a difficult area in which to practice the Christian faith. While few of us face the degree of hardships experienced in that region, Peter’s insights can help us understand what God might be doing through our own difficulties.
This new group will be small (we are meeting in the Conference Room) and short (a chapter a week for eight weeks to get through Peter’s letters). If you have not been in this kind of group before, this will be a great introduction to methodical, inductive study of Scripture.
Our past discussion groups have been lively and challenging. Regardless of your experiences in Bible study groups, you will find this study an opportunity to explore the Biblical text for yourself and then to compare your discoveries with other explorers.
The goal of our time is summarized by an eighteenth-century theologian:
Read nothing into the Scriptures, but draw everything from them,
and suffer nothing to remain hidden that is really in them.
J.A. Bengel (1687-1752)
I hope you will join us at 10:45 in the Conference Room this Sunday.
Or send an email to hurry things up!
Download an outline of the Creed.
Go to the beginning of this study of the Creed.
Download the handout.
Table Talk: One critique from non-believers is that faith is “just pie in the sky when you die.” Even Christians sometimes wonder if the afterlife will be boring or what we will be doing there. How might you respond to those descriptions of Christianity?
[“Table Talk” is an opening question or topic for discussion at the beginning of our time together. The intent is to help group members (around tables, with four to six at each table) build connections with each other, as well as to guide thinking in a direction related to the passage.]
We began our final discussion about the Creed with our thoughts or expectations about heaven. Those ideas ranged from meeting and talking with other saints (Moses, Paul, David, etc.) to the ability to travel in space. One person commented that we will be quite busy relationally with all those who have gone before us. Another expectation was that we will find the perfection of all that is beautiful here – majestic mountains and the rest of nature and everything else that is good and wonderful here. Job describes all we see as only the “edges” or “fringes” of God’s ways (Job 26:14), and C. S. Lewis called all earthly blessings “a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage” of what is to come.[1] Those suggestions should excite anyone who believes in and desires heaven. Continue reading
Download an outline of the Creed.
Go to the beginning of this study of the Creed.
Download the handout.
Table Talk: How might each Person of the Trinity be a part of the forgiveness of sins?
[“Table Talk” is an opening question or topic for discussion at the beginning of our time together. The intent is to help group members (around tables, with four to six at each table) build connections with each other, as well as to guide thinking in a direction related to the passage.]
As has happened on many occasions, the sermon we heard just before our group met was remarkably relevant to our discussion. In fact, before we met I changed the “Table Talk” based on a statement from the sermon, “A full realization of grace leads to a fruitful relationship with God,”[1] and asked for comments. Continue reading
Download an outline of the Creed.
Go to the beginning of this study of the Creed.
Download the handout..
Table Talk: “For many people the church is little more than the weekly meeting of Jesus’s Facebook friends. It is merely a gathering of religious consumers with a common interest, much like a group of people gathered together at an Apple Store or those waiting for their connecting flight in the lounge of an airport.”[1]
Comments? Has this ever been true in your experience?
[“Table Talk” is an opening question or topic for discussion at the beginning of our time together. The intent is to help group members (around tables, with four to six at each table) build connections with each other, as well as to guide thinking in a direction related to the passage.]
Our opening discussion suggested that Michael Bird’s comment (in the Table Talk question) usually does not apply to whole churches (although it might). Rather, the common experience among our group was that while we do encounter people with that attitude, there are important exceptions. There are people who we have formed connections with, maybe over several weeks, maybe over several decades. Those people we seek out. They are the ones with whom we experience some form of “the communion of the saints.” Continue reading
Download an outline of the Creed.
Go to the beginning of this study of the Creed.
Download the handout.
Table Talk: What have been your experiences in different churches when the topic of the Holy Spirit is brought up? Have you seen disagreements? Why do you think the Holy Spirit seems to be more of a source of controversy than the Father or the Son?
[“Table Talk” is an opening question or topic for discussion at the beginning of our time together. The intent is to help group members (around tables, with four to six at each table) build connections with each other, as well as to guide thinking in a direction related to the passage.]
Before our group met, I was in a conversation with a person who does not attend the group but occasionally reads this blog. When I mentioned that the day’s topic was “I believe in the Holy Spirit,” the immediate response was, “Oh, what a controversial topic.” The brief chat continued with lament that so much discord should grow out of such an important topic. Continue reading
Download an outline of the Creed.
Go to the beginning of this study of the Creed.
Download the handout.
Table Talk: Do you ever think about Jesus coming back? What circumstances prompt you to think about that? What effect do those thoughts have on you (if any)?
[“Table Talk” is an opening question or topic for discussion at the beginning of our time together. The intent is to help group members (around tables, with four to six at each table) build connections with each other, as well as to guide thinking in a direction related to the passage.]
Our “Table Talk” time covered three different directions of thinking about Jesus returning. One person thought immediately of persecution, “things will be a mess” with natural disasters and a variety of other forms of distress, especially for believers, but including all the earth. Continue reading
Download an outline of the Creed.
Go to the beginning of this study of the Creed.
Download the handout.
Table Talk: Without checking your Bible, what is the Old Testament passage that is most quoted or echoed in the New Testament?
[“Table Talk” is an opening question or topic for discussion at the beginning of our time together. The intent is to help group members (around tables, with four to six at each table) build connections with each other, as well as to guide thinking in a direction related to the passage.]
Our group began with the “Table Talk” question that came from Michael Bird’s book, What Christians Ought to Believe. Several suggestions included Psalm 23 (“the Lord is my shepherd”) and Isaiah 53 (“He was pierced for our transgressions”). The Shema from Deuteronomy 6 (“Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is One”) or a prophecy from Joel 2 (“I will pour out my Spirit”) or Isaiah 6 (“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne”) were other candidates. Several of these were consistent with Bird’s report, but none was the correct answer: Continue reading