Christmas Bible Study

Opening Prayer, Introduction

Christmas, Easter and Pentecost are the most important festivals in the Christian year of teachings. At Christmas we celebrate the miraculous birth of Jesus as the coming of God into the world. On Easter Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus as a sign of our own resurrection. On Pentecost we celebrate the Holy Spirit of Jesus being poured out on all believers.

Christmas is preceded by the four Sundays of Advent during which Christians prepare for the coming of Jesus. Our first reading from Isaiah is a prophecy – words given to Isaiah directly from God over 500 years before the birth of Jesus. The part we read is the good news in a book that is mostly a warning to the people of Israel to turn from their rebellious and sinful ways. They ignored this warning and were overrun by other nations including Babylon and many were taken into captivity for 40 years. This prophecy gave those in exile – and us, hope of a better future.

We Grow Spiritually As We Overcome Lies, Temptations and Persecution (Proper 33)

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 In the Gospel Reading (Luke 21.5-19) Jesus is asked about the End Times. He gives a warning about false teachers and persecution. The Good News is that the Holy Spirit will guide and strengthen believers so they can overcome both false teachers and persecution. This helps us grow spiritually.

1. Our lives on Earth are a time of spiritual testing and growth

Don Cherry God Moment - Canada's Archie Bunker

A normally very quiet and spiritual woman at our prayer group suddenly blurted our "He's an A..hole" We all laughed and nodded in agreement. Then the Holy Spirit managed to get a word in. Our leader said "I think we should pray for Don Cherry." There was a bit of confusion as we all pried our minds off judgmental ism and onto spiritual things. The result was the realization that judgment and negative thinking is always spiritually destructive to everyone. We also realized that all of us are racist to a lesser or greater degree. We all need to repent, ask Jesus to bear our sin and give us forgiveness to free us from this bondage. On deeper reflection I saw the good news that always comes out of the bad news. Don Cherry is like Archie Bunker who helped a whole generation see how ridiculous, foolish and hilarious racism and bigotry looks to others. He used the power of love and humour to overcome the hidden fear and insecurity that drives racism. I don't know Don Cherry, but Jesus does and whether he did it accidentally or deliberately, Jesus still loves him and will thank him for showing us how unforgiving we are and how foolish and ridiculous bigotry and racism is in Canada. We love you, we thank you and we pray for you Don.

We Are Called to Persist in Our Historic Faith (Proper 29C)

The Readings call us to repent our collective failure as a church to proclaim the historic Gospel and to persist like the widow and Timothy in teaching the Faith that was handed down to us. We need to recognize our place as a Church that has been marginalized and in effect exiled as irrelevant to the culture. Like the Hebrews in exile we need to call on our leadership to repent and be more persistent in proclaiming and sharing our historical Faith.

1. The widow refused to give up in her quest for justice

Lords' Prayer Bible Study

General Outline of Sessions:

·      Opening Prayer

  - Introduction

·      Readings and questions for discussion

·      Closing Prayer and Prayer requests (daily bread)

·      Time for personal conversation and private prayer

Opening Prayer

(Mt. 6.9-13 NIV 2013)

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name,

Your Kingdom come, your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread,

And for give us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one

 

         1. Teach Us To Pray

Introduction

Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray. They were all devout Jews and the Jews were a praying people. Everyone believed in God and believed God heard each individual prayer.

For What I Received I Passed On To You (Mens Cursillo verse Oct. 2019 1 Cor. 15.3)

For What I Received I Passed On To You (1 Cor. 15.3)

(Men’s Cursillo Verse Oct. 2019)

Our mission on this Cursillo is to pass on to others what we have received. This includes both head knowledge and personal experience. The most important take-away from Cursillo is a life-changing experience of Christian community and witness. The experience itself verifies the teaching. This is the pattern of the Bible:

·      Jesus performed a miraculous healing – then he gave a teaching

·      We are all sceptics – need to see it or experience it ourselves

·      Weekend is a series of experiences and teachings

·      Experiences and teachings go deeper and deeper as the weekend progresses

1. What was it Paul experienced?

Outreach Tests Our Love (Proper 24c)

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We are like the lost sheep that has been found. Someone has reached out to us at various times in our lives to re-connect us to the church and inclusion in God’s Kingdom on Earth. We have found meaning, purpose and a new spiritual life of joy in Jesus. The Readings challenge us to get up, go out, find and bring others home to Jesus. They teach us how to do this by:

·      Being Discerning but not judgemental

·      Being Loving, patient and forgiving

·      Being Courageous in outreach

·      Remembering apathy is a failure to love our neighbour

1. Being Discerning but not Judgemental

Jesus is giving a stinging rebuke to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law in the parable of the lost Sheep: