Week 3 Part 1

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!  

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!

Week 2 ~ Days 4-7

Hello everyone!  Happy Friday, I hope that you had a good week in God's word!  I must say how encouraging it has been get to see you in God's word as we were home last weekend and talking with some of you over the phone about the study.  I am SO proud of each of you!  This first week can be a little tough, as we are just beginning and as Kay is leading us through God's word to show us why seeking God is so vital for our lives!  But next week we are going to get started in Jonah and learn more practical tools on how to study the Bible.  I think you will be amazed at how much there is too learn through a story we have heard since childhood.

Here are a few questions on the past 4 days. If you have any additional questions, please post!  No question is silly!

1. Based on what you read this week, what do you think about Josiah at this point? What new insights into his life did we gain as you read 2 Chronicles? 

2. Have you read anything this week that has encouraged you? What?

3. What can we learn about God's character through His response to Josiah in 2 Kings 22?

4. In Deuteronomy 17, how often was the king to read the words of the law? How often would we think God would want us in His word today?

5. Briefly what is inductive Bible study?  This is what we will go into more next week!

Love you all dearly!  Praying the pray on page 41 for each of us, this week!

Week one questions

This week I would like to focus on the questions on page 20.

1. What similarities do you see in Hosea and our world today?
2. What effects have you seen from having a knowledge of God and his word in your life, your family, or your country?
3. What effects have you seen from a lack of knowledge in these areas?
4. Most important, how will you take what you have learned and apply it to your life?

Feel free to answer any or all! Just click on comment below! Love you all :)

Week One Days 1-3

Good evening! I hope that you all are having a lovely week and making time to be in God's word!  I hope that you have caught a glimpse of the truth that there is nothing sweeter and nothing more desirable than God's word to YOU!  If this week has been tough for you, please hang in there and press on!  We have been going through John in church and I was amazed at how much it went along with what we are learning about knowing God and his word this week. 

In John 14:21, Jesus tells us "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me."

In John 15:10 Jesus tells us "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."

I pray that this will encourage you to know that God's commands are not to be burdensome to us but to allow us to abide in his love.  As we saw in Hosea, it was a lack of knowing God that led to mourning and wasting away in the land.  God's commands are to protect us and allow our joy to be full!  So reading God's word is for your good!  And keeping God's commandments is proof that we truly love God.  When we love God, our obedience flows out of us in response.  And the more we learn about the truth of who God is, the more we fall in love with him!  As 1 John 4:19 says, "We love because He first loved us."