Hello everyone! Today is a snow day for me so I have extra time to spend searching questions I had in Jonah so praise God for that! I hope that you are all doing well today! We are on the second part of week 3 this week, if you are behind, keep trucking along and feel free to answer any blog questions as you want, even if they are old posts! I think we learn so much from each other and things become more concrete when we share them.
So first is an interesting short article on Jonah from Answers in Genesis.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v1/n1/great-fish
I never doubted Jonah being swallowed by a fish because nothing is impossible for God but it is fun to see that it isn't that unreasonable and that is has happened to some people and a dog.
Here are a few questions:
1. What themes did you come up for Jonah 1 and 2? I think this is so helpful to pull the main events together!
2. What did God do in response to Jonah's prayer? What does this show you about God?
3.What application do you see for your life?
ALSO...As you come to Day 19 and she is talking about looking up words to find out more about them. This is when www.blueletterbible.org come in handy. You can go to the site and type in the word you are looking for on the upper right under Lexicon or you can type in the verse and click on the C next to the verse.
Few things I learned today to help me understand more:
Sheol - Sheowl - Can mean the grave, shows that Jonah thought he was going to die. He cried out from that mindset.
Lots- Gowral - pieces or pebbles put into an urn and pulled out to make decisions. We see that the priest did this when determining out of 2 goats which one was going to be for the LORD and which was for Azazel.
Ninevah- Capital of the ancient Kingdom of Assyria, 3 days journey ( One day is thought to be about 12 miles) Jonah had a lot of walking to do! :)
Sackcloth- Saq - worn in mourning or humiliation. I love Psalms 30:11-12 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever! Could this be how the Ninevites felt after God relented towards them!
Anyways, that is enough reading for one day! Love you all!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Days 8-14 Thoughts on Jonah 1
Hello everyone! I hope you can forgive me for not posting last week! The past two weeks flew by me, so we will just be covering days 8-14 in one post! The main thing I would like to talk about this week is what is inductive bible study? And what did you all learn from studying Jonah 1 inductively?
So a brief overview of inductive bible study:
1. Observation - What does the text say? Such a vital step to make sure we have a solid foundation!
2. Interpretation - What does the text mean? With out proper observation we can not interpret accurately.
3. Application - Conforming to the word of God. This could be an action or choosing to believe what you read and conform your mind to the truth.
The thing that hit me the first time I went through this was that I was continually trying to apply scripture to my life without properly understanding it because I had failed to simply observe what the text said. For me also realizing and believing that all scripture is God- breathed and that God said what he said and how he said it for a reason. Because I know God is in ever word that makes me all the more want to carefully observe it to see exactly what God is trying to teach me. Despite the repetition of reading over and over I hope that you enjoyed watching the text unfold before you each time you went through it!
1. How has this new way of leaning to study the bible changed your perspective in approaching the Bible?
2. What did you learn from making the key words calamity and prayer?
3. What did you learn about God?
4. Was there someone specific God used from this study in your life this week?
In Jonah I am so encourage that in the midst of Jonah's disobedience that God still uses the situation to reveal himself to the sailors and that in the end they sacrifice to the LORD and make vows! Wow! Pretty cool how calamity reveals who God is to the lost! And we see it over and over today that in the midst of trials, people surrender to God! Something good to think about...are we going to make God look great even in the midst of our suffering?
My challenge this time around has been the question, "Is God the first one I run to in the midst of calamity?" Even though the sailors worshiped other gods, their first response was prayer! I must say many times I want to call family or friends first instead of Creator God! God can use people to give us comfort and guidance but I must first go to God for only through him can the storm cease from raging!
Much love to you all!
So a brief overview of inductive bible study:
1. Observation - What does the text say? Such a vital step to make sure we have a solid foundation!
2. Interpretation - What does the text mean? With out proper observation we can not interpret accurately.
3. Application - Conforming to the word of God. This could be an action or choosing to believe what you read and conform your mind to the truth.
The thing that hit me the first time I went through this was that I was continually trying to apply scripture to my life without properly understanding it because I had failed to simply observe what the text said. For me also realizing and believing that all scripture is God- breathed and that God said what he said and how he said it for a reason. Because I know God is in ever word that makes me all the more want to carefully observe it to see exactly what God is trying to teach me. Despite the repetition of reading over and over I hope that you enjoyed watching the text unfold before you each time you went through it!
1. How has this new way of leaning to study the bible changed your perspective in approaching the Bible?
2. What did you learn from making the key words calamity and prayer?
3. What did you learn about God?
4. Was there someone specific God used from this study in your life this week?
In Jonah I am so encourage that in the midst of Jonah's disobedience that God still uses the situation to reveal himself to the sailors and that in the end they sacrifice to the LORD and make vows! Wow! Pretty cool how calamity reveals who God is to the lost! And we see it over and over today that in the midst of trials, people surrender to God! Something good to think about...are we going to make God look great even in the midst of our suffering?
My challenge this time around has been the question, "Is God the first one I run to in the midst of calamity?" Even though the sailors worshiped other gods, their first response was prayer! I must say many times I want to call family or friends first instead of Creator God! God can use people to give us comfort and guidance but I must first go to God for only through him can the storm cease from raging!
Much love to you all!
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