March 13 Scripture Reading

-Psalm 72

-Exodus 18

-Ezra 8

-Romans 8:18-39

3.8.14 Bible Reading

Psalm 67

Exodus 12:31-13:22

Ezra 3

Romans 5:1-11

Happy Spring Break!

Blueprint – How We’re Reading The Bible Together In 2014

It has never been easier in the history of the world to read the Bible. Technology has put the Bible in your hands and given you a bazillion ways to structure how you read it. What technology cannot do is to give you a process for how you read the Scriptures and a community to read the Scriptures with together. 

So beginning on January 1, our church is going to read through the entire Bible together. Here’s our plan:

• Use the ESV Study Bible reading plan, which you’ll be able to access on your iOS calendar, via email, the web, our church’s Facebook page or you can print it out and put it in your Bible.
• Introduce a method of Bible interpretation called REAP (Read, Examine, Apply, Pray) that will enable you to listen and respond to God. 
• Invite you to start or join a DNA Group that gives you the opportunity to talk about the Scriptures and follow Jesus together with 2-3 other people.

You can get ready for next year by:

• Purchasing a copy of the ESV Study Bible or using a study Bible that you already own [NOTE: you don’t have to use a Study Bible but I do find them to be helpful]
• Choosing how you want your daily reminders to be delivered (calendar, email, web, print)
• Asking God to connect you with the 2-3 people he wants you to make this journey with next year. 

Thursday – Why We Chose The ESV Study Bible Reading Plan

For People Who Use Religion To Hide Their Doubts

Today’s message from Luke 1:57-66 has been crafted with so many people in mind – particularly those of us who struggle to have faith and sometimes hide behind religion to keep our doubts and fears hidden from plain sight.

Here are the questions we created for groups to walk through and talk about – based on the sermon but not entirely dependent upon the sermon. If you’re not in a group, feel free to use these but I can’t stress enough how critical it is for you to plug into the life of a group of people. For more information about our community groups, contact us at info@missionathens.com.

Fight Club – Psalm 37

Fight Clubs create a context for gospel-centered discipleship – studying the Scriptures to find your sin, fight your sin and trust your Savior.

Here’s a snapshot of one way to take notes for Fight Club during your personal study:

[37:1] Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!  [2] For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.  [3] Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.  [4] Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  [5] Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.  [6] He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

– Psalm 37:1-6 (ESV)

Main Point: Continue to do what is right even when you are being wronged.

Sin Exposed: Stress and envy that doing the right thing is not creating the expected successful outcome that comes to those who cut corners and take advantage of others.

Sin Fought: Continue to do the right thing – empowered by a deepening delight and trust in the God who always does the right thing in his perfect timing. ‘Delight in him and he will give what you delight in’

Savior Found: In Hebrews 12:2, we’re told to ‘[look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’ No one suffered more injustice than Jesus and yet he pressed forward because of his joy-filled trust that God would vindicate him. For me, this not only serves as an example but creates the confidence to move forward – if God can come through against those odds than surely my situation is not too much for him to handle.

 

 

Fight Club – Colossians 1

Fight Clubs create a context for gospel-centered discipleship – studying the Scriptures to find your sin, fight your sin and trust your Savior.

Here’s a snapshot of one way to take notes for Fight Club during your personal study:

[3] We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, [4] since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, [5] because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, [6] which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

– Colossians 1:3-6 (ESV)

Main Point: God works through the gospel to create hope that is expressed in a life of faith in Christ and love for all the saints.

Sin Exposed: Failure to trust Jesus or love those around me is evidence that I have become disconnected from the hope created by the gospel. My failure to love can show up in one of two ways – an unwillingness to extend grace or a failure to bring truth to bear. Both reveal a lost hope and lack of confidence in God.

Sin Fought: Prayer that thanks God for tangible evidences of grace that show up in a life of faith, hope and love. Praying for each other in this way will not only encourage but will be more likely to discover ways in which we abandon the life that God creates.

Savior Found: The hope needed to fuel faith and love is created by the gospel. We thank God for this kind of life because it is something he creates and gives to us as a gift.

Fight Club – Philippians 4

Fight Clubs create a context for gospel-centered discipleship – studying the Scriptures to find your sin, fight your sin and trust your Savior.

Here’s a snapshot of one way to take notes for Fight Club during your personal study:

[4] Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. [5] Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; [6] do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. [7] And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

– Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV)

Main Idea: In moments and seasons of anxiety, God holds out the promise of joy.

Sin Exposed: I get anxious about _______ because I’m worried that ________. This is a problem because anxiety is an attempt to play God and control my situation and circumstances on my terms.

Sin Fought: Confront every instance of anxiety through prayer – owning up to what’s going on and asking for help. There is great benefit from praying this way with other people.

Savior Found: On the cross, Jesus took control of every square inch of the universe and has promised to work out all things for my good. Even when I don’t  know or cannot imagine something good coming out of a particular set of circumstances, I can press into him knowing that his promise of peace (‘all things new’) is true and will bring about an unexpected joy that provides the stability and hope that I need.

Fight Club – 1 Kings 13

Fight Clubs create a context for gospel-centered discipleship – studying the Scriptures to find your sin, fight your sin and trust your Savior.

Here’s a snapshot of one way to take notes for Fight Club during your personal study:

[33] After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. [34] And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.

– 1 Kings 13:33-34 (ESV)

Main Idea: Jeroboam refuses to repent – even after God exposes his sin (1 Kings 13:4-5) and extends grace to him (1 Kings 13:6).

Sin Exposed: Are there patterns of thought, emotion and behavior that reveal that your hope and trust has been placed in something or someone other that God? Are you resisting God’s call to repent – to walk away from this part of your life? Do you believe this is something you need to give up?

Sin Fought: Why are you unwilling to walk away? Are there beliefs about God that make you unwilling to walk away? What would you lose if you gave up this part of your life?

Savior Found: Is there any truth about Jesus in this story that gives you confidence that he will compensate you for your loss if you walk away from this false savior? [Example: like Jeroboam, we need priests who will communicate our needs to God and remind us of God’s great love for us. Instead of grabbing onto anything and anyone to pull this off, we would do well to remember that Jesus is our great high priest – he understands what we need and graciously gives us everything we need for right here and right now.]

Using The Whole Bible

From Christopher Wright’s The Mission of God’s People:

Mission has to do with the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world, [which] means using the whole Bible. It simply will not do to quote a verse or two from favorite ‘missionary’ bits of the Bible and call that a ‘biblical theology of mission.’

Why You Should Be Part Of Porterbrook: Reading God’s Story

Porterbrook Southeast is theology for anyone who has a desire to learn and 2-3 hours a week to invest in material that will help shape you as a follower of Jesus.

One of the courses we’re offering this fall is called Reading God’s Story: An Introduction to Exposition and Biblical Theology. Here’s a brief overview of what we’ll cover:

This module will help you get a handle on the basics of understanding and teaching from the text of the Bible itself and seeing how the Bible as a whole fits together.The module starts by working through the what and why questions of exposition. It then shows you how to bridge the gap between what the text meant then and what it means now.

The module then asks the question more peculiar to the living word of God – what is the text trying to do? Having laid down these basics the module moves on to looking at Biblical Theology – how the story of the Bible fits together.

1. What does it say?
2. Why does it say it?
3. So what does it mean for us?
4. What is it trying to do?
5. The story of promise
6. The promise of a people who know God
7. The promise of a place of blessing
8. The promise of a king and a kingdom
9. The promise of blessing to the nations

For more information about Porterbrook and/or to register, click here.