Merry Christmas

Have a great Christmas celebration this year.  Christmas celebrates the birth of the One who fulfilled the Old Covenant and established God's New (Unconditional) Covenant with His people through the blood of Christ, the spotless Lamb of God.

See you next year.

Leadership Training (Exodus 32:1-33:6)

Idol Time (Exodus 32:1-6)

God and idols don't mix.

How is sin causing you to rationalize your attitude and behavior?

What good things are your doing for God to compensate for the idols in your life?

What tangible things in worship are you substituting for the invisible God?

What unbiblical teachings are you embracing that have led to a false view of God and His character?

Advocacy (Exodus 32:7-14)

Love for God and for people leads to intercession.

On whose behalf are you interceding to God?

When you confront a brother, are you more concerned about your reputation or about God's reputation?

Self-Sacrifice (Exodus 32:15-33:6)

Sin leads to loss of fellowship with God.

What sins are you bearing that need to be humbly repented of before God?

In what areas of your life have you yet to submit to God?  What are you waiting for?

If anyone, who is it that has paid the price for your sin?

What are you tolerating in your sphere of influence that God views as detestable?  What are you going to do to deal with it?

‏

Tabernacle Worship (Exodus 25-31)

Specification (Exodus 25-28)

God's work requires God's calling and direction.

How might your service to God really not be service to Him at all due to your attitude?

How closely do God's commands guide your daily life?

What ministry, symbolized in tabernacle worship yet fulfilled by Christ, are you grateful for?

How does your giving reflect the giving that pleases God – from a willing heart?

Preparation (Exodus 29-30)

Preparation for God's service requires atonement for sin and anointing by God.

What new work is God calling you into and what do you need to do to ensure you are ready?

What sins are you tolerating that need to be taken to the wash basin of repentance?

What are you giving back to God in gratitude for the life He's given you?

How do you know that your sins are forgiven?

Implementation (Exodus 31)

God will always provide the ability to accomplish His required tasks.

What abilities has God given you that you need to employ for His service?

How are you questioning God's ability based upon the seeming lack of talent at hand?

What reminder has God given you that it is Him that makes you holy and ready for His service?

God's Covenant (Exodus 21:1-24:18)

Accountability  (Exodus 21:1-22:15)

With humanity comes accountability.

If you are an employer, how are you treating your employees with equal dignity regardless of their pay level?

As an employee, how are you ensuring that you give your employer an honest day's work, every day?

Who have you injured and what type of restitution can you make for the injury?

How have you neglected someone else's property?  And what can you do to make things right?

Societal Impact (Exodus 22:16-23:19)

Holy living effects all areas of a believer's life.

What area of your life are you holding back from God?  Are you giving Him the first and best of everything?

How might you be guilty of conditional justice, giving so you can get, or only giving to those who can return the favor?

Does holiness characterize all of your life or only church and BSF?

How might you be allowing the corruption of our society to adversely effect you?  What are you going to do to change that?

Provision (Exodus 23:20-33)

God provides for His people throughout life.

How has provided for you as you obediently follow His will?

What blessing have you missed out on due to your disobedience to God?

Ratification (Exodus 24:1-18)

Christ is the only way to enter in and to obey God's covenant.

For you, is God's law merely written in stone or has He written it upon your heart?

What is your response in regard to God's new covenant in Christ's blood?

How well are you doing at keeping God's moral law out of love for Christ?

God Speaks (Exodus 19:1-20:26)

Prerequisites (Exodus 19:1-25)

God instructs those who are ready and willing to obey.

Are you willing to obeying God no matter what He commands you to do?

If so, how are you preparing yourself to hear from God?

If not, why not?  Is God not trustworthy?  Is He not just?  Is He not perfect in all He does and requires?

What do you plan to do this week that will prepare you to meet with God?

Proclamation (Exodus 20:1-17)

God's prohibitions are really protections.

How have you been wrongly using the 10 commandments as a means of becoming right with God?

How do you need to become more serious about the intent of the law?

What commandments are you neglecting, thereby adversely effecting your relationship with God and/or others?

Posture (Exodus 20:18-26)

Fearing God is the basis for obedience and authentic worship.

Does the thought of God frighten you, or does it fill you with awe?

On whose terms are you approaching God, His or yours?

What images are you putting alongside God and what do you need to do to remove them?

Who is providing mediation between you and YHWH?

A Win Win Situation (Exodus 18:1-27)

Worship in Light of Truth (Exodus 18:1-12)

Speaking the truth is our responsibility, the results are God's responsibility.

What acts of God in your life do you need to reflect on?

How has God's work in others' lives caused you to praise and worship Him?

Who are you going to approach this week regarding the greatness of YHWH?

What sacrifice do you need to make for God this week?

Wisdom in Line with Truth (Exodus 18:13-27)

Godly wisdom leads to order, not chaos.

Teachers and leaders needs to be teachable.

How do you rate at accepting other people's advice?

Where might your resistance to advice be causing you unnecessary stress and hardship?

How might your resistance be due to the sin of pride?

What are you doing to provide Godly wisdom, in a loving way, to those you know need it?

God the Provider (Exodus 15:22-17:16)

Bitter Water to Sweet (Exodus 15:22-27)

God tests His people for their good.

How has God turned a bitter experience in your life into something sweet?

How are you willing to take the good things God provides, but less willing to obey what God commands?

What past provision from God are you forgetting that is causing discontent with your present situation?

Bread From Heaven and Meat (Exodus 16:1-36)

Spiritual food only comes when one partakes of what God provides.

Remembering God's provision protects against grumbling.

What habits are you developing that ensure a right view of God's sufficient provision in your life?

What are you doing to reflect a grateful heart to those around you?

What “entitlements” do you need to give up in order to realize God's all-sufficiency?

How are you practicing the daily habit of taking God's word in each and every day?  Yesterday's manna is not sufficient to sustain you today!

Water From a Rock and Amalek's Defeat (Exodus 17:1-16)

God brings victory through the willing and obedient.

What small task has God called you to do? Are you doing it faithfully?

Where do you need to support someone in a key role for God either through prayer, encouragement, or both?

How might your grumbling be testing God?  How might it be revealing a lack of faith?

What evidence of God's living water do you have in your life?

The Null Posting

I was not here for this week, so the posting is lacking any input on my part.  This, however, is a placeholder in case I become ambitious.

God Revealed: Words and Acts (Exodus 6:28-10:29)

God's Preparation and Purpose (Exodus 6:28-7:13)

God's authority accompanies the correct use of His word.

How might you be misrepresenting God by incorrectly using His word?

How have you experience the power of God in your life through study, meditation, and application of Scripture?

What are Scriptures are you currently memorizing so they're available when God calls you to use them?

God's Power and Protection (Exodus 7:14-10:23)

Rejecting God's truth eventually results in complete darkness.

God crushes His enemies to redeem His people.

What things or people or pursuits in your life take precedence over God?  Honestly, where is your focus?  Where is your treasure?

How have you experienced God defeating other gods in your life by bringing on some plagues?

What plagues in your life do you need to thank God for?  These plagues in Egypt revealed God.  They can do the same in our lives.

How have you experienced God's protection even when trouble was all around you?

How is your obedience to God revealing God to those around you?

God's Face Turns Away (Exodus 10:24-29)

The final judgment awaits those who reject God.

How are you rejecting God by refusing to obey what He commands and demands of you?

Where are you compromising with God's word and questioning its authority and applicability for today?

What sacrifices to God are you withholding?

God's Ingredients for Success (Exodus 5:1-6:27)

Impossible Situation (Exodus 5:1-21)

Immediate outcome is an inaccurate measure of God's work in a situation.

Response to circumstances reveals one's focus.

How are you letting your circumstances dictate your attitudes or reactions?

When have you been disappointed because things didn't turn out as you expected even though you were in God's will?

What lessons has God taught you that you would have missed had everything turned out as you wanted?

When all your efforts succeed, who do you tend to depend on?

Powerful God (Exodus 3:11-4:17)

God encourages those who honestly seek Him in prayer.

What questions and discouragements are you carrying that need to be brought to God in prayer?

How have you experienced God's peace through prayer, even when there was no immediate answer?

Who has God told you to go talk to that you know will not listen?  Are you going to go anyway?

Ordinary Men (Exodus 4:18-31)

God takes the ordinary and uses it extraordinarily.

What are you refusing to do for God because you think you're incapable?

How have you seen God do extraordinary things with simple willing people?

How do you need to start trusting in the power of God to work through you rather than the power of you to do something for God?

Moses' Call (Exodus 3:1-4:31)

God Reveals Himself and His Purpose (Exodus 3:1-10)

God reveals himself to those He calls.

How is God revealing Himself to you personally?  Are you going where God is for this revelation?

What holy things are you treating as common?  When are you going to take off your sandals?

God may be the God of your father, but how do you know He is also your God?  Does He know you by name?

Objections Overruled (Exodus 3:11-4:17)

No objection is a valid objection to God's call.

How are you erroneously considering your abilities in lieu of a clear directive from God?

What work for God have you avoided for fear of failure?

How have you experienced God's equipping for a job you knew you could never do?

Moses Obeys and God is Worshiped (Exodus 4:18-31)

Obedience to God brings glory to God.

How is your obedience glorifying God?

How have you experienced your obedience to God causing others to praise God?

How are you making right preparation now for the tasks God might have for you in the future?

Like Moses with his son, what areas of your life are you neglecting, thinking the things you're doing right outweigh the things your doing wrong?

Right Motive, Wrong Method, Wrong Timing (Exodus 2:11-25)

Right Man, Wrong Time (Exodus 2:11-15)

Presuming on God's plan leads to disaster.

What do you need to do to make sure your work for God is really what and how He wants it done?

How has something you've done your way led you to where you are today?

How is where you are today the place where God is preparing you for tomorrow?

How are your ensuring that your current course is in line with God's desire for your life?

Same Man, Same Motive (Exodus 2:16-22)

God removes any hindrance that keeps His people from hearing Him.

When have you experienced alienation from God and His people because of your actions or attitudes?

What are you doing to ensure you don't repeat the past?

What's hindering you from hearing God?  What are you going to do to remove that hindrance before God has to do it?

What hindrance has God already stripped away in your life that you can thank him for now?

Same God, Perfect Timing (Exodus 2:23-25)

God hears and answers the humble cries of His people.

How are you presently struggling but haven't yet cried out to God?

What is keeping you from bringing your struggles to God?  Is it pride?  Or do you think He's not interested?

How is your life a living testimony to God's answer to a humble heart?

God's Choice For Change (Exodus 2:1-10)

From Death Row (Exodus 2:1-4)

True faith results in right activity not passivity.

What responsibility are you neglecting and calling it faith?

Who are you expecting to take on the task of teaching your kids about God?  The church? BSF?  Their peers?  The schools? The world?

How does your life reflect a true faith in God?

What plans do you need to start making in faith?

To Royalty (Exodus 2:5-10)

God always provides the necessary preparation for the task that lies ahead.

How are you using past difficulties to encourage and strengthen others' faith in God?

What does God currently have you doing and what past preparations made you uniquely qualified for the task?

How are you, like Miriam, actively taking advantage of opportunities speak the truth to those God is working in?

In what ways are you giving credit to coincidence when you should be giving credit to God's providence?

God's Purposes Do Not Preclude Problems (Exodus 1:1-22)

Israel Prospers in Paradise

God provides His people with the perfect environment for optimal growth.

Have you thanked God lately for putting you where you are at this particular time in your life?

What can you do to ensure that you don't become comfortable and dependent upon your current prosperous situation?

How are you investing what God has given you (either physically or spiritually)?  Will your investment be gone when you die, or will it live on?

Israel Prospers in Persecution

God will accomplish whatever He plans despite opposition.

How are you guilty of accepting God's purpose when it involves prosperity but not in adversity?

What can you do to look beyond your current difficulties to God's larger purpose behind it?  Will you ask him for the grace to endure joyfully where you are?

Israel Prospers in Peril

Obedience is often costly but God always rewards it.

What are you currently doing because you have a greater fear of man than of God?

What price are you willing to pay to remain true to God's word?

Where have you neglected to thank God for a blessing in spite of the difficulties and challenges that accompanied it?

Introductions

Introduction to the Bible

God reveals himself through his written word.

Which would you say you know better, the content of the Bible or the author of the Bible?

How are you guilty of accepting what our culture says is right or wrong over what Scripture says is right or wrong?

Introduction to “Life of Moses”

God has a purpose and plan for His people every step of life's journey.

Where are you on life's journey?  Are you free?  Are you holy?  Are you Ready?  Are you Obedient?

What are you doing to discover God's purpose and direction for your life?  Will you ask Him to use this year's study to open your mind?

Introduction to Moses

God develops good character in his people.

Which of these character traits (faith, prayerfulness, humility, courage) are you lacking?

How might your leadership be improved by a change in one of these character qualities?

How have you been resisting God for fear of what it might take to change you?