If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 2 Cor 5:17
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Go to the source! Discover what the Bible says about …
These pages are designed to aid study or investigation for Christian discipleship through individual Bible study, Cell groups, Home groups, or meeting one to one. The questions could be used alone allowing each person to use their own Bible.
Introduction
The Bible is spiritual food. As someone spends time reflecting or meditating on its words God builds them up. This effect is seen through the fruit of encounters by people with God’s Word. As someone commented, “Whenever I had problems I became weaker, but when this friend of mine who spent time with God in His Word had problems, he became stronger.”
Bible Zone
- Choosing God and His Word - They make people flourish even in hard times.
- Jesus is needed for life - We remain in Him to order be fruitful.
- Bible for life - Remaining in Jesus is linked to obeying His Word.
- Don’t neglect source - The vital need of God’s Word for our lives.
Choosing God and His Word
Reading God’s word to us, the Bible, impacts our lives. Many can testify to this, but few can explain it. Here is how a psalm writer explains what he sees. Psalm 1.
- How would you contrast the outcome of the two ways of life?
- How does the word of God impact the one who delights in it?
- Where is this person’s passion? How are his choices affected?
Psalm 1
1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.
2 But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night.
3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
4 But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly.
6 For the LORD watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.
In this passage the one who delights in and spends time in the Bible was nurtured by it. Through it there was growth not dependent on circumstances. A tree planted by a river is vibrant in plenty and in drought. It is in the hard times of life, the years of drought that the difference is most clearly seen.
Discovering that even the smallest intake of God’s word has an impact on my ability to live.
At the end of His life Jesus gave this teaching to His closest followers. John 15:1-5 He gives us an analogy that points the way to a fruitful life.
- Jesus is presenting an analogy, there is a gardener, a vine, branches and fruit. What do each of these equate to?
- What does a branch need for fruitfulness?
John 15:1-5 1 "I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 5 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
Jesus gives us the example of His life to illustrate the fruitfulness that is possible in our lives. John 15:9-11
- What might it mean for a branch to remain in a vine, how does that relate with our life with Jesus?
- How has Jesus demonstrated this life?
- What is the outworking of this kind of life?
John 15:9-11 9 "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in his love.11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
Here is how the Bible describes the urgent need of the Bible Deut 8:2-5
- What lessons did God give the people of Israel in the desert?
- How is the necessity of receiving God’s words related with the need for food?
- How did God impress upon His people their need for Him at this time?
Deuteronomy 8:2-5 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.4 For all these forty years your clothes didn't wear out, and your feet didn't blister or swell.5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the LORD your God disciplines you for your own good.
How do we spend time with God through His word? - Getting into the Bible.
WORDS FOR GROWTH
