Studying the Bible is an important duty of every Christian.  You will experience the difference that the Bible will make in your life as you study the word of God daily.  D. L. Moody one said, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge.  It was given to change lives.”  He also said, “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”  We encourage you to participate in at least one of these studies below to daily walk in the word of God and be transformed and purified by it.

 

DISCIPLE 1 - Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study

 

DISCIPLE 1 is a 34-week overview of the Bible.  Beginning with Genesis and continuing through Revelation, participants will read approximately 80% of the Bible during this life-changing study.  Students have daily assignments in the Bible and study manual, and they discuss these assignments in their weekly group meeting.  Each of the 34 chapters in the study manual has a theme word and a theme verse that provides a perspective from which to read and think about the Scripture readings of the week.

 “Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31-32 

DISCIPLE 2 -Into the Word, Into the World

 

DISCIPLE 2 is an in-depth study of Genesis, Exodus, Luke and Acts.  Genesis and Exodus are foundational books of the Bible that cover creation, Noah and the ark, the call of Abraham, the stories of Moses, the Ten Commandments and much more!  The writings of Dr. Luke, who wrote both Luke and Acts, cover more of the New Testament than any other single author including Paul.  From the first chapter of Acts, the Holy Spirit is active in very powerful way.  These writings are very readable and convey information and an excitement about the early church that are not to be found anywhere else in the Bible.

 

 The emphasis of this 32-week study is both to understand the text (”Into the Word

“) and to allow the text to challenge and inspire the student to respond in practical ways (”Into the World”).  In addition to the Bible study, each lesson identifies one spiritual discipline to experience during the week.

 

“Do not be afraid; for see- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  Luke 2:10-11

 

DISCIPLE 3 - Remember Who You Are

 

The prophets in the Old Testament, from Isaiah to Malachi and the Lertters of Paul in the New Testament are the books read in DISCIPLE 3.  By studying the prophets and learning of the mistakes made by God’s People in the past, we can hopefully avoid making those same mistakes going forward as the church of Christ.  The writings of Paul are instructional, challenging and thought-provoking for the serious Bible student.

 

“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”  Isaiah 40:31

 

DISCIPLE 4 - Under the Tree of Life

 

“Being faithful community, we freely choose to be bound together as the people of God.”  This is an example one of the “Marks of Faithful Community” from DISCIPLE 4.  As the Writings in the Old Testament (Esther, Nehemiah, Psalms, Proverbs and more!) and the writings of the apostle John in the New Testament are read, students are constantly reminded that life lived in faithful community is the answer to the “Human Condition.”  A 32-week study.

 “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  Revelation 3:22 

DISCIPLE 5 – Jesus in the Gospels

 

This 30-week study examines the different portrayals of the most important events and teaching from the life of Jesus, found in the four Gospels—with supporting passages also drawn from other books of the Bible.  In addition to the Study Manual, participants use a Gospel Comparison book to easily see the similarities and differences in the four Gospel accounts.  Students will encounter a Jesus who is hard to ignore, and to control – a commanding and morally compelling figure who is our Lord and Savior,.

 

“When the men came to Jesus, they said, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’” Luke 7:20

 

CHRISTIAN BELIEVER – Knowing God with Heart and Mind

 

Christian Believer is a 30-week study of the classical doctrines of the Christian faith.  These doctrines include God’s Providence, Atonement, Judgment, Eternal Life and many more.  Structured like the Disciple Bible program, Christian Believer participants daily read both Scripture and writings of early and modern church leaders and theologians.  Once a week, individuals meet together to watch a video and discuss what they have learned.  All deeply committed Christians should take Christian Believer to understand more fully what the Church has believed and taught over the centuries and to learn the concepts and images that unite us all as Christian believers.

 

Invitation to the New Testament

 

Using Matthew’s Gospel as a starting point, this study explores how the New Testament writers and the early Christian community wrestled with the coming of Jesus --  his life,, actions, mission, death and resurrection – and the implications of his arrival for their lives and their communities of faith.  Moving through the Gospel of Matthew sequentially, the overarching themes from this story of Jesus provide the conversation topics for each of the eight sessions.  Each theme is then traced through other related passages in the New Testament.

 

Who is Jesus and what is his significance fro our lives?  Participants are invited to join this conversation, to study afresh this story of Jesus, and to Learn more about their calling to discipleship and to community.

 

Study Contents

 

1. Jesus Calls Us Into God’s Redemption Story
2. Jesus Calls Us to a Transformed Life
3. Jesus Calls Us to Minister to a Hostile World
4. Jesus Calls Us to Complex Communities of Faith
5. Jesus Calls Us to Serve One Another
6. Jesus Calls Us to a New Relationship With Tradition
7. Jesus Calls Us to Live in Light of His Coming Again
8. Jesus Calls Us to Experience the Gifts of His Ding and Rising
9.  

Invitation to the Old Testament

 

This study approaches the study of Hebrew Scriptures by inviting participants to hear the story of God and God’s calling of the people of Israel through the many “voices” of the biblical text.  Narrative, poem, history, and prophetic utterance all have their own distinctive characteristics and purpose, arising out of a particular historical. social, and cultural setting.  To understand fully the story of God’s covenantal relationship with Israel’s calls for listening to these various ways the story is told throughout the Old Testament. 

 

What does it mean to be God’s chosen people?  And how does the story of Israel’s covenant with God inform out own identity as heirs of that covenant?  Through this study, participants will be invited to listen afresh to the witness of the Old Testament to hear God’s call and purpose for their own lives and respond to that call.

 

Study Contents

 

1. The Making of the Hebrew Bible
2. The Creation Story of Israel
3. Out of Bondage
4. Promise and Problem in the Land
5. Israel Has a King
6. Division and the Rise of Prophecy
7. Exile and Response
8. Restoration and Renewal

INVITATION TO GENESIS

 

“In the beginning … “ These first words in Genesis may be among the most familiar words in all the Bible.  Many readers of the Bible recognize Genesis as a book that describes the beginning of all things: the Creation.  This is certainly true but is only part of the story – the creation of the world only takes up the first two chapters of a fifty- chapter book.  What are the other chapters about? 

 

This study approaches the Book of Genesis not only as a story of the beginnings but as a story of beginnings from start to finish.  Through the study, participants will be invited to listen afresh to the witness of this opening book of the Hebrew Bible and to understand more clearly God’s purpose in beginning to form a people with the likes of Adam and Eve. Abraham and Sarah, and Jacob and Esau

 

Study Contents

 

1. The Beginning … and What Went Wrong
2. Another Beginning:  The Flood … and What Went Wrong
3. Another Beginning:  Abraham and the Patriarchs
4. Abraham and a Glimpse to the Future
5. The Promise Fulfilled:  Isaac
6. Another Beginning:  Jacob and the Uneasy Birth a People
7. Jacob:  The Struggle Continues
8. Another Beginning:  Joseph and the Family of Israel
9. The Trek into Egypt
10. An End and Another Beginning:  Israel’s Story
    
    

INVITATION TO PSALMS

 

The human emotions expressed in the Book of Psalms rise to peaks of joy and descend into valleys of despair.  In the Psalms, the promise of the reign of God meets the historical experience of God’s people.  Faith in God’s faithfulness collide with human experiences of pain and suffering, enslavement, oppression, and exile.  God’s people – given voice in the Psalms - struggle to make sense of who God is and who they are, and in so doing they have composed a collection of moving testimonies of grace, glory, sorrow and beauty unmatched in sacred literature.  For students of the Psalms today, this study offers greater understanding of how these ancient texts of praise, lament, worship and prayer can still speak to us and for us.

 

Study Contents

 

1. Word of God, Words of Prayer
2. The Prayerbook of God’s People
3. Praying the Psalms
4. The Language of the Heart
5. The Geography of the Imagination
6. A Theology of the Imagination
7. Lament and Praise
8. Grace and Repentance
9. Love and Wrath
10. Hallelujah and Amen

 

INVITATION TO JOHN

 

In its wisdom, the early church chose to keep four Gospel accounts of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Three of these Gospels are very similar to each other in both what they tell about the story of Jesus and how they tell it.  However, the Gospel of John stands apart.  In it we find Jesus speaking not in parables but in lengthy discourses.

 

We overhear Jesus taking with Nicodemus, a Samaritan woman and Mary Magdalene.  We marvel at Jesus turning water into wine, calling Lazarus from the tomb and washing his disciples’ feet.  We linger over Jesus’ great promises;  “For God so loved the world…” “I am the bread of life….” In the very first chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus issues two invitations: “Come and see.” And “Follow me.”  They echo the invitations of this study: to come and see this Jesus – to hear him speak, to see his signs – and to consider anew what it means to be his followers.

 

Session titles and scripture

 

1. Come and See (John 1-2)
2. How Is It Possible?  (John 3-4)
3. Taste for Yourself  (John 5-6)
4. To Believe of Not to Believe  (John 7-8)
5. Are We Blind?  (John 9-10)
6. I Couldn’t Believe My Eyes!  (John 11-12)
7. Would You Believe It?  (John 13-14)
8. What Time Is It?  (John 15-16)
9. Look Out!  (John 17-18)
10.  Believing Without Seeing  (John 19-20)
11.  Do You See Him?  (John 21)

 

 

INVITATION TO ROMANS

 

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Romans in

Christian tradition.  Some of the great formers and re-formers of church teaching were themselves formed by their reading of Romans.  As a result Paul’s teachings in Romans come to us mediated through the history of the church’s interpretations of his letter.

 

The challenge of reading Romans, then, is to learn to have our own interpretive conversation with the text itself, in spite of centuries on commentary on the text.  One of the aims of this study is to invite us into conversation around several key themes: (1) Paul’s emphasis on communal salvation (2) the centrality of

God’s righteousness and (3) the relationship between Jews, Gentiles and the relationship of both to God.

 

Study Contents

 

1. An Orientation to Romans
2. The Righteousness of God and the Faith of Jesus
3. Abraham, Father of All
4. Christ, the New Adam
5. Sin, Law and Grace
6. Divine Purpose and Human Responsibility
7. The Salvation of Israel and the Nations
8. Love and Humility Are the Making of God’s Kingdom
   
   

Advent Study

 

A 4-6 week study provided before Christmas to deepen your faith during the season of Advent.

 

Wednesday Lunch Bunch with Rev. Gifford Long

 

Bring your own sack lunch and come meet and study with our Senior Pastor, Rev. Gifford Long, every Wednesday except during the GPISD summer and winter break.  During this time, he will share on the scripture and topic of his sermon prior to his actual preaching on Sunday.  Come hear his understanding of the scripture and the topic and also share your understanding as well.