This study guide is provided as a way to follow a program of weekly Bible readings to help deepen our fait h and reflect on the main points of Sunday’s message. May it bless you richly! Monday, April 30, 2012. Read Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-10. How does this writer’s definition of “faith” square with your own? Try to think back to a time when you had an experience that you might consider similar to Abraham’s experience of “setting out [for a place], not knowing where he was going”. How did you feel? What role did God play in that part of your life? How was your faith affected?
Tuesday, May 1, 2012. Read Hebrews 12:1-2. Who, in your life, is part of the “great cloud of witnesses” surrounding you and watching you? How does the awareness of that great cloud help you to set aside the weights and sin and “run with perseverance the race that is set before” you? What are the chances that you might now or someday be a part of the great cloud of witnesses in someone else’s life? How does that affect your behavior today?
Wednesday, May 2, 2012. Read Ephesians 4:4-6 How do you think about the different denominations and divisions in the church when you consider the truth of this passage? Where has the church in contemporary life forgotten – in your view – the essential unity that it was founded upon? Are there ways that we might consider the different denominations to be a gift rather than a mistake? How?
Thursday, May 3, 2012. Read 1 Timothy 3:1-13. This passage contains some of the earliest records of instructions regarding the ordering of the life of the church and its leadership. How well do you believe the church today is adhering to these instructions? For you, what is the significance of the instruction in v. 10 to “… let them be tested”? Also notice that v. 11 specifically addresses the conduct of women as deacons in the church. How might you as a church member help your leaders live up to these standards?
Friday, May 4, 2012. Read Deuteronomy 10:12-13. The essence of our faith is spelled out clearly in this passage, and yet it comes from one of the earliest books of the Old Testament. What, for you, is the proper role of the church in your quest to, “fear the Lord… walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord,” and to “… keep his commandments”?