OK…people of the Mingo United Methodist Church – at the beginning of this year, you had the opportunity to prioritize how you wanted to be different by the end of 2020. We just completed 21 days of John Wesley’s challenging questions. Now we move to addressing our need to learn more about the Bible. But the challenge is to do it in a new way – in a way that you haven’t tried before and can actually fit into your lifestyle and allow you to really prioritize learning about the Bible. No more discouragement. No more feeling as if you need to do it. But in a book that helps us discover God’s great love story. The book was written by a young mother with a busy life who is a United Methodist and hungry for God. So she created this new book God’s Great Love Story, that was published just last year. It’s simple, down-to-earth, and is rated five out of five on Amazon reviews.
God’s great love story exists to help increase your love, understanding, and connection to the Bible. The main aim of this book is to address and reduce any barriers that have prevented you from reading and fully understanding the Bible in the past and addresses some of the BARRIERS that keep us from reading and understanding.
WHAT TO EXPECT As with any learning experience, the Bible can be a bit difficult to digest all at once. To assist you in sticking with this journey, the book divides the Bible into 35 daily readings over seven weeks – five readings per week. A typical daily reading should take about 10 – 20 minutes and will familiarize you with one large book of the Bible (or several smaller books). Each daily reading will include a brief introduction with the following elements:
• The Big Idea – one sentence summary of the upcoming section
• Breakdown Bullets – familiarize you with the people you expect to meet within the reading and summarize the themes and lessons you will notice that day
• How God Shows Up – quick summary about where our loving God fits into the chapter and book. It summarizes and challenges you to see God through a different lens as you read. My hope is that these introductions will help you discover the simple, beautiful truths that draw the 66 books together and each Bible story in a fresh light to discover how each Bible book fits into a larger story.
• Music Listening Suggestions – listing of song suggestions that will help you come to a deeper level of insight, emotions, and connections stimulating other parts of your brain. Today’s music on the radio!
• Application Ideas – suggestions to help you take practical action steps and begin positive life changes in response to what you’re learning.
What a great idea! What a great Bible book and answer to your prayers – a book that helps you understand the Bible and fall in love with God more deeply than before. I hope the stories allow you to see God’s beauty and glory in a new way. As you begin to relate to the beautiful characters in the stories, I hope this fresh perspective inspires you to apply biblical lessons to your life like never before.
The challenge is that each person needs a book, so you must order one. With Amazon’s one- and two-day delivery, you will have this book in just a matter of days and ready for our first Sunday on March 1 – the first Sunday of Lent. This will be our Lenten study for 2020. But it will not be like any other Lenten study you’ve ever used. We invite you to join with our entire church family and invite others to join in to purchase the book. Each day there will be a devotional that will come to you to help you stay engaged and challenge you to fall in love with God.
In addition to the short daily devotionals, we’ll also have Sunday night small groups and Wednesday afternoon groups for those interested. This is an outreach, so invite others to join the study! May God be with you and our church as we begin
this journey. GO BE THE CHURCH!
