Welcome to Bethlehem North Women’s Ministry Bible Study! For more information, email NorthWomen@Bethlehem.Church
TRUST our faithful God, who hears, remembers, sees and knows.
An outline:
Welcome to our study of Exodus, Our Redeemer: Mighty to Save! If you are new to Bethlehem North Women’s Bible Study, a special welcome! Thank you for joining us! Information on registering for our classes is available at bethlehem.church/womensbiblestudy/#north
Our Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning on-site classes have a lecture portion that will be recorded each week and made available here each week. If you prefer a video format, please subscribe to our Bethlehem North Women's Bible Study YouTube channel.
John 17: Jesus Prays for Us
Aim: Hear Jesus’s pleas to the Father for himself, for the disciples, and for all believers to live in unity and on mission.
Paul prays for his beloved church that they would be:
Psalm 51 will help you understand more of the heart of your Heavenly Father. May you see more clearly...
Remember that God has revealed himself as, The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin (Exodus 34:6–7).
May you run to Him quickly when you recognize your sin!
Judges 4–5 gives us a surprising, hopeful, powerful picture of deliverance from bondage that we could never escape alone.
If you are less familiar with the history of God’s redemptive story, find a refresher of the overarching picture with this 3-minute video or the full KINGDOM seminar video. This week’s story occurs in the period of the judges, when Israel has entered the Promised Land but failed to fully obey God by removing the idolatrous people of the land. Where does this partial obedience (i.e. disobedience) land them? Under the oppression of the Canaanites.
But God does not save us because we are good enough! And so this story goes on to describe the faith of two women (the judge Deborah and a surprising “deliverer” Jael), the hesitation of God’s appointed military leader (Barak), the different responses of the Israelite tribes, and the foreshadowing of a nail that crushes the head of the enemy … pointing forward to our true, perfect Deliverer, Christ Jesus.
Because we have such a Hero, we can walk in courageous faith and express our hearts in praise for the large and small deliverances that God accomplishes for us.
By God’s grace, the prayers of Hannah and Mary are recorded for us in the Bible. These are women who loved God and were familiar with disappointment and uncertainty.
As you reflect on the prayers of Hannah and Mary, consider the following:
Listen to the first day of our summer Bible study, June 9, 2021, "He Hears Me: Prayers of the Bible," and get to know our teaching team:
“Teach us to pray, Lord,” the disciples asked after observing Jesus in close communion with his Father. In response, Jesus offered the Lord’s Prayer as a template. Like a skeleton giving structure to a body, this simple, six-petition template forms the framework for the muscles, tissues, and flesh of our own prayers.
I like to think of the template as the triple A’s of prayer. We first address God as “our Father in Heaven,” fully aware of both the privilege and cost of doing so. We then agree with the goodness of God’s purposes in this world, asking him to hallow his name, bring his kingdom and accomplish his will. Based on God’s will, which we have labored in prayer to align our own hearts with, we then ask God to meet our every need, to continue forgiving our sins, and to nurture in us a forgiving heart. We close our prayer time by asking our Father to keep us from anything that does not hallow his name and to protect us from the predations of the Evil One. With unwavering faith, we request all these things, knowing God intends to grant them.
Ignoring this template results in prayers with broken bones and deformed bodies. For instance, if we consistently prioritize our “needs and greeds” in prayer, it could be that our hearts are not in agreement with God’s will, and our requests stem instead from sinful lusts and desires. If we habitually forget to repent of our sins, we may be startled to find a vengeful and self-righteous spirit taking root in our hearts. If in pride or foolishness we continually fail to ask God’s protection from temptation, we may be surprised to find how easily sin derails us. If our hearts do not beat as one with God’s in his desire to build his kingdom, we could be sidelined in His cause and miss out on the great joy of being used to advance the gospel.
If however, we follow the template, we have confidence that God will grant our requests. He is already hallowing his name. His kingdom is on the march. More and more people are doing his will. He has promised to provide our material needs. He has promised to forgive our sins. He has promised he will not tempt us or allow us to be tempted beyond our ability. He is doing and will continue to do all these things through the prayers of his people. In our Father’s mysterious and wise economy, he takes our prayers and turns them into the tools of his trade. So pray as Jesus instructed because God powerfully works when we do!
Psalms 139: Search me, O God, and know my heart
Message Outline:
Stanza 1: The All-Knowing God, 1–6
Stanza 2: The Ever-Present God, 7–12
Stanza 3: The All-Creating God, 13–18
Stanza 4: The Ever-Worthy God, 19–24
Click here for the printable outline handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C6aH6pDuwpfmUq719z3qY6fBOwRy25X5i2dKEtk1YuU/edit?usp=sharing
