Bible stuff - April to July 2010

Below is the list of things we will be doing on a Monday night at St. Michael's next term - but you can also follow the Bible notes on this blog:

Bible notes for the Easter holidays

Image by Coach O. via Flickr

Senior Church club Bible notes – Easter Holidays

The Bible study notes are looking at the bit of the Bible we will next look at in club (on Monday nights)... so you get to think about it first!


Day one - Read Matthew 28:16-20 (Pray: Ask God to help you understand his word, before you read the passage...)
The Great Commission
Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted!
Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Question one: What three things did Jesus tell his disciples to do?

Question two: Can you explain those three things in your own words?


Day Two – Think (Pray: Ask God to help you think about this question, ask him to give you wisdom...)
Jesus said that the whole of God’s law could be summed up with Love God and love your neighbour: what has that got to do with the Bible passage?

Day Three – Explore (Pray: Ask God to help you think about what it means to be a disciple and ask him to show you what he wants from you as one of his disciples...)
Have a look on http://dictionary.cambridge.org – type in Disciple: What can you learn about what it means to be a disciple?

Day Four – Do (Pray: Ask God to lead you to the right book for you...)
Have a look on http://www.eden.co.uk in their teen section (for example http://www.eden.co.uk/shop/youth_teen_life_issues_108/index.html) pick a book you think will help you grow as a disciple of Jesus and either buy it or order it from your local library

#2 Growing Faith - Reading the Bible

Image by CR Artist via Flickr

Remember a while back we looked at Fruit of the Spirit? If you go to church club on a Monday, we will be looking at them next term. Growing in faith (and seeing the fruit of the Spirits work in our lives) means seeking God and acting on His word... of course we would have a job acting on it if we... never read it.

Bible reading. It can be really hard can't it? Of course all you Monday people have started doing just that with our weekly notes! There are also some very cool/helpful notes that you can buy, for example you could try Breakfast with God or Knowing God better than ever - its worth trying a few until you find something that suits you... and you can always borrow something off the youth worker!! If you ask Him, God will help you find something right for you... I mean what a great prayer: "Father please help me to read your word and to find things which help me understand it" ... Brilliant!

In the mean time, if you dont go to a Monday night group, how about trying the Bible studies they are doing? Below is last weeks notes (I will use a separate post for the notes for the Easter holidays)... may God bless you as you seek him more and more.

Senior Church club Bible notes – Week beginning 22nd March

Quoted from the ReJesus web site: "What is the significance of the resurrection?
For the first Christians, the greatest significance of the resurrection was that it turned the verdict about Jesus on its head. Without it, he was just another failed guru, strung up naked on a pagan gibbet, punished by God for his false teachings and claims about himself. But by raising him from the dead, God instead set his seal of approval on him, vindicating his teachings and claims.
As they reflected further, though, the early Christians saw more and more in it. In fact, it could be said that most of the New Testament is about unpacking the meaning of the resurrection.
Essentially, the realisation they came to was this: Because Christ rose from the dead, those who belong to him and are united with him will rise from the dead, too, and share in his power and glory…
“In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you”. 1 Peter 1:3-4
And not only is that a promise for beyond the grave, but that same resurrection power is at work in believers even now, transforming their lives and changing them to be more like Jesus…
“Since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him… In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus”. Romans 6:9 and 11" (http://www.rejesus.co.uk)

Day one - Read 1 Peter 1:3-15 (Pray: Ask God to help you in life’s trials. Think of some of your friends who don’t know Jesus and ask him to help them understand what Jesus death and resurrection means)

Question one
As followers of Jesus we have been born again and have eternal life. How do verses 3-5 say this is possible?

Question two
What do verses 6-9 say trials show? And what is the reward for trusting God?

Question three
We are people saved by God and given eternal life. What do verses 10-15 say about how we are to live?


Day Two – Read Romans 6:6-14 (Pray: Ask God to help you serve him. Say sorry for the times you have ignored him and ask him to help you follow him more closely.
You could even ask God if there is something particular he would like you to do.... could be more bible and prayer, could be talking to others about Jesus, could be volunteering somewhere... or something completely different!!)

Question one
In verses 6-11: how is it that we are dead to sin and alive to God?

Question two
What do verses 12 – 14 say about how we are to use our bodies and lives? Can you think of some practical examples about what this means to you, for your life?

Lent 2010 - week 5

Image by stevesheriw via Flickr

All though Lent we have been looking at "giving up consumerism" and what it means to be rich towards God. Tomorrow we enter holy week, and we begin the journey to the cross - and beyond (but more of that next week).

For the last couple of weeks I, along with others, have been delivering "the meaning of Easter" lessons to year 8. As part of that we show the scene from the film "The Miracle Maker" where Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane. Even though it is a cartoon, even though I have seen that part of the film what feels like a million times, it never grows old for me.

Because there for all to see, is the cost of love. The beginning of the price God paid (it being completed on the cross) to redeem us and all creation. Sometimes we can slip into the rote of Easter being here again, passing though the festival without stopping to look once again at the wealth of God's love as demonstrated in Jesus.

It is truly astounding. Jesus gave all he had, his very life - and he is the true example of humanity, the perfect demonstration of what it means to live as we were always meant to -in love worship and submission to God the Father.

How all our material goods, our passing difficulties and the things we think make us "somebody" pale into insignificance. As Paul said:

" I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ" Philippians 3:7-8

As we enter holy week, lets once again lay down our lives, fall in love again with Jesus and all he has done for us, walking with him to the cross.

Lent 2010 - Week 4

Image by jenny downing via Flickr

This week, more on rich relationships...

Jesus knew a thing or two about time management. Admittedly, he didn't live in our post 80's, free market, time is money, survival of the fittest culture...

But all the same.

There have always been pressures on time, there has always been the temptation to find other things more attractive than decent time with our heavenly father, and Jesus modeled a better way.

He only had three years to bring in the kingdom of God in word and action, before his time had come.

And he needed to prepare for that too - nothing less than the sacrifice of his own life - traded for ours and all people's. Which is why you read, at each strategic moment in his life, that Jesus went away and spend time with his dad:

"Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Luke 5:15-16

And if he needed it, how much more do we need it. We find ourselves in places where we wonder how on earth we got there, or why life is like it is. We feel like we are going under, or that we have lost direction. Perhaps we even blame God for it.

But life always was a matter of perspective - its that age old thing of is the glass half empty or half full? Perhaps the reason Jesus was able to say "not my will but yours" in the agony of Gethsemane, was because he had spent so much of his life listening to what that will was.

So how to find the water of the Spirit with which to fill our glass half full?

Its at this point I would normally waffle on about reading the bible and praying, which is of course, what Jesus did. But I would like to suggest something else too. Lets look for people who have a rich relationship with God and hang out with them. Copy them, let their way of life - rub off on ours.

We have a good precedent, the apostle Paul says:

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4:8-10

So lets do it, whether its some one we know or someone famous, lets find people who model a rich relationship with God - and put it into practice.

Lent 2010 - Week 3

Image via Wikipedia

This week we continue to look at our choices between wealth, time and God, with a further look at what the Bible has to say on the matter.

Jesus says something we all know, but sometimes find hard to put into practice:

"Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.”
Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?” Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

(my italics) Luke 12:13-15

It's hard isn't it? R and I have just got a new TV - he won it through work, and it IS amazing! Should we not be pleased with it? Should we not have it? It depends whether its the TV that matters the most. Jesus goes on to say:

"Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’

“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”

Luke 12:16-21

Jesus doesn't say we can't have wealth, what he does say, is there really isn't much point in any of it if we don't have a rich relationship with God. And everything we have, everything we are, it flows through our relationship with Jesus. Its how the kingdom of heaven enters this world.

Everything belongs to God, everything flows through him. As it says in the Common Worship liturgy:

"Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the splendour, and the majesty; for everything in heaven and on earth is yours. All things come from you, and of your own do we give you."

And this isn't a concept restricted to the new testament. It is a golden thread through all scripture, that we should put first in our lives a rich relationship with Jesus, on the understanding that everything belongs to him in the first place:

‘I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’

“Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:13-15

This lent, lets ask ourselves - do we view all that we own as belonging to God? How do our actions reflect that? And, how are we actively growing a rich relationship with God?

Lent 2010 - Week 2

Image by stevendepolo via Flickr

Last week we looked at how Jesus calls us to give to those in need and how we can share the material wealth we have.

This week we turn to look at something more important than the possessions we have - our time. Jesus points out that we can't have two masters, that it will either be God or money:

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

Matthew 6:24 (New International Version)

I would like to suggest that it is because we only really have the time to devote our hearts, minds and actions to one - so with two in our lives, resentment creeps in.

And the pull of possessions is very strong on all of us. Just add up how much time you spend watching TV/on the internet/in the cinema each week. Now none of these things are bad, in fact they can be good, if for no other reason than they give you something to talk about with friends and family.

But time is precious and we need to consider what we spend it on.

There are less obvious "masters" to be considered - we all have work to do, whether paid, or in education but finding that "work-life balance" can be difficult. Its hard to take time to consider time when you don't have any. But all the same, if we are truly to be rich and not be a slave to the master consumerism, this issue of our time - needs time.

Because lets face it, TV time, essays at the last minute because we faffed earlier, extra hours in the office for a bit of overtime... they are worth nothing compared to family and friends. And the same goes for our friendship with God - I mean when we think about it in the light of day, which "master" do we really want? Friendship with our ipod or eternal friendship with the King?

Some times it takes a tragedy for us really realise it. It's then that we realise that the things we thought mattered (things which in daily life we might allow to "master" us) are worthless compared to the precious time we have with one another and with God.

This week, why not set aside an hour to consider your time. Figure out where an when you need to do that essential study/work and then book yourself some quality time in with God and with your family and friends. Because Jesus is right, we really can only have one master - and He is without doubt the most compassionate one.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Who do you run to? (dlunatic.wordpress.com)


• Those Who Scatter and The One Who Gathers (Luke 13:31-35) (gatheringinlight.com)


• Prosperity gospel: When Christianity and capitalism go together (network.nationalpost.com)