Thursday, February 28, 2008

Say Anything...


Movie Night at St. Simons.
This Tuesday March 4
6:30pm at St. Simons (1450 Litchfield Rd)
Pizza & Drinks

We are watching the film, "Say Anything..." a romance/drama directed by Cameron Crowe, starring John Cusack.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Thessalonians: Key Words and Study Tips

Key Words write these down in your bible, mark 'em up, so you don't forget them and they start to pop out at you.
gospel/word
faith
love
hope
any reference to Jesus
God
Holy Spirit
affliction/suffering./tribulation
day of the Lord
-any other words you think are key


Recapitulation: Observe/Interpret/Apply - see below blog for detailed approach.

Observe the 5 W's Who wrote to whom? When? From where to where? What is being said? Why is the letter written, or is Paul saying what he says?
Interpret - derive meaning of passages based on context of the chapter/bible/history/society
Apply - Transfer principles to our lives today based on our interpretation.


Some Helpful questions to double check along the way:

a. Where does this passage fit into the Meta-narrative?

b. What is its immediate context?

c. What is the genre of this passage/book?

d. What was the intended meaning of this passage to its original audience? (A text can’t mean what it never meant?

e. How does this passage point to or enlighten our understanding of Jesus?

f. What are the transferable principles for our context today?

g. Are there any biblical principles that shed light on this passage?

h. How does this challenge me personally? What course correction should I make? How should this change how I get up in the morning? What would align my life more with Jesus?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Manuscript Study - Steps and Resources

Hey!

I'm really excited about these next few lessons we have planned - I think we're going to be able to pull alot out of 1 Thessalonians, have some good discussions and grow from what we learn and from seeing each others points of views. I think we all have something valuable to bring to the table.

For those of you who weren't there tonight we going to be digging through 1 Thessalonians - looking at a chapter each time we have a regular meeting. You can get a copy of this from the last email we sent out - if you need the file again just ask. It's helpful to print off the passages so you are free to mark it up and make notes.

We were using three steps tonight when we were looking at the first chapter of the book. Here's a rundown to help you remember:

Observation
Here's where read through the passage, without looking at any outside sources, and note down things that strike you. This could be powerful phrases, reoccuring words or themes, metaphors etc.

Interpretation
Now you can look up anything you want that you think might help you understand the passage better. You can refer to other parts of the Bible that you think relate to what you are reading, look up definitions of words you don't understand, and use commentaries and other resources that are available to you.
Here's some online resources I found - I know there is more out there and feel free to look (searching under 1 Thessalonians, or bible commentary was pretty successful for me)

http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/52.html

http://www.searchgodsword.org/com/bcc/view.cgi?book=1th

http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/index.php?action=getBookSections&cid=60&source=2

http://eastonsbibledictionary.com/ (Bible Dictionary)

Application

The last step is apply this to your life - open your heart to what God is trying to say to you and how He wants you to respond to the passage.

So those are the steps - don't feel like you need to entirely dissect the passage. It's a group effort. I encourage you all to definitely read 1 Thessalonians 2 and dig into it a bit for our next regular meeting (which will be March 11th because of the movie night on March 4), but don't feel like you can't come and join in on our discussion if you haven't gotten through it all. The themes we'll be talking about are things that relate to our lives - so your bound to have opinions/stories/experiences/wisdom to share.

Have a great Break Week everyone!


Sunday, February 17, 2008

1 Thessalonians begins


This Tuesday (post family day) we'll be starting to read and study Paul's letter to the Thessalonians.

Written in 49 CE, it's Paul's earliest surviving letter.

Thessalonica is and was a port city. Located in present day Greece, it was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia during the time of the Empire.

Check us out at 6:30pm in room C207, not 209.

Monday, February 11, 2008

You don't know jack.

Scf this tuesday (February 12) room c209 at 6:30. We are going to let those who want to share their personal faith journeys in 10 minutes or less. This should expose our deeper bonds we share with each other, the work of Jesus Christ.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Barriers to belief.

A fundamental concern with Christians is really believing all this Christian stuff. Doubt plagues us, debilitating us from being passionate followers of Christ unto transformation; first of ourselves and then others.

Jesus asks in John 5:44, "How can you believe, when you receive honour (glory, praise or fame) from one another and you do not seek the honour (glory) that is from the one and only God?"

Jesus is tackling a barrier to belief - something we'll unpackage at SCF.
Something else we will unpackage is chocolate fondue.