Writing A Bible Study

I have been stirred about so many things to write this year.

One of the projects I am currently in the middle of is a bible study, mostly geared towards young people, girls specifically, from the book of Ephesians. 2009 was an extremely hard year for my family. We had many spiritual ups and downs. As a result, I pressed into the Lord really out of desperation at times. I felt like we were coming apart at the seems. My heart was so distressed it felt on days that it might burst out if it's skin. I remember on so many mornings crying out to Jesus, what do I do and He said one word to me...STAND. (I blogged a little about that here.)

I began to search the scriptures about this word that was pounding my brain and the Lord set me directly in Ephesians 6. I camped there for weeks. I read it over and over allowing the words to resonate in me, I meditated on it, read commentaries about it, and then dived deep into the entire book.

Since my daughter had been walking through some struggles of her own, I really wanted to speak to her about what it meant to Stand, having done all to stand, continuing to Stand. Our new High School Pastor was going to need some help with the girls discipleship and so I prayed about and asked him if I could share with the girls about Ephesians 6. He was willing and the studying began.

As I started to discover so many nuggets in Ephesians, I realized that I could not skip over the rich treasures of truth and just jump into chapter six. So I began with an introduction summarizing Paul's letter and then hit the basic outline, leading up to chapter six.

Here is an insert from the introduction:

In this book we do not find Paul rebuking the church at Ephesus over some intense sins like he did in some of his other letters to the early church. They do however seem to be a church that though they are rich beyond measure spiritually, they are living as beggars, spiritual paupers. In reading a commentary on the church at Ephesus I stopped to ask myself…

"Am I living as a Spiritual pauper? Or do I live as heir to the throne? "

Recently God gave me a vision that really spoke to me. I saw an amazing banquet table spread to the fullest with a feast of delicacies, it was surrounded by chairs of people so beautiful they could only be royalty, I saw a King extending his hand as a welcome or an invite to come and dine. I then saw a person turn away and settle on the floor with the scraps. Then I saw that person was not alone, many were seated on the floor. The vision switched and I saw people eating with pigs from a trough. I asked the Lord if the person was me…He did not answer and so I think yes, sometimes and He wants me to be very aware of the choices I am making. Where am I feasting? He has prepared a table for me.

Ask yourself, ask the Lord, how are you living, are you settling in your Christian walk, have you settled for scraps living like a beggar, or are you feasting with your King of all that He has for you or have you grown an appetite and desire for things of the world?

What I want to say is that I am learning so much as I work on this study. God has showed me to ask more questions, to challenge my own thinking about a passage, and to wait on Him for revelation. He has also been teaching me how to write a bible study. It is a process that He is taking me through to which I am sure will develop and grow over the years. But for now, this moment in this season, I am writing and I am studying and I am enjoying what God is teaching me and how that might effect those that I am teaching.

Do you have a desire to write, or teach, or both? Do you find yourself relating your every day personal experiences and walk with the Lord to other people and what they are going through?

Write it down, tell us about it.