Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Overview

The first two meetings we had went well. Our attendance doubled in the course of one week. Josh and I figure that at this rate we'll have 300 people at our next meeting!! (kidding) We did have a good time tough.

Josh walked us through the Book of Ruth and shared from Genesis on Tamar and Judah. The take-away was seeing just how God has used dysfunctional and sinful people to establish the line of Christ. Christ didn't just descend from a pure Israel line as we saw with Ruth and Tamar. God used so-called "pagan people" to have a part in the redemption story. It's almost a foreshadowing of Gentile conversion in the New Testament.

Our next study will be held Dec. 5th in Laurel at 7pm. We look forward to seeing you then.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Next Meeting

Our first meeting was held this past Friday night and things went well. We had a good time in the Word and eating food (food is important). I think I'll be making calls this week as a reminder to folks. I'll try to post notes from our meetings as kind of a synopsis of what we study for future use.

Our next meeting is this Saturday the 15th at 7pm in at our home in Laurel, DE. Let me know if you need directions. Thanks

Sunday, November 2, 2008

We're one week away from our first meeting and I think we've decided on our approach to the first four meetings. We thought we might teach about how to actually study and read the Bible. I know for myself I've always been a very distracted Bible reader and I've recently begun reading books that actually teach how to systematically approach the Word of God. It has really changed my love for learning. Now grant it that these techniques are always subject to interpretation, but they help nonetheless.

Not sure what book Josh will focus on. There are different methods for interpreting and reading different parts of the Bible. For instance, does the Old Testament still have a purpose today? When are we supposed to disregard it or are we? How do we understand the parables of Jesus? Who where they intended for and how does that affect us? These are good questions that we may at some point tackle. This is not meant to be so deep and mysterious that people don't get it. I believe that if someone comes along and says that they have a secret revelation about the bible then it's probably not right. The Word is meant for us all to understand. That is why God has given teachers of the Word who can help us in our pursuit of the truth. Once you learn how to rightly divide God's word then it makes it so much more applicable for you.

let me know if you plan to attend on Friday. It's not required that you do so but it is helpful for us, especially if you're bringing young children. You can email me at cfranklin@wolc.org to let know or just simply respond to this post. Thanks