I decided to start this Bible Study blog for a few reasons. For starters, I’ve worked with both youth and adults and sadly have found that no matter the age, a lot of people come to a study unprepared for the topic. In other words, they don’t read the material beforehand so that they are ready to discuss it. This means that most of the time is spent going over the material rather than having discussions about it, and in a Sunday School setting that only has about 50 minutes, that means a lot of the material gets missed or overlooked simply because of time constraints.
When I set up a home fellowship, time constraints weren’t a concern for me because there’s nothing pressing us after the study other than lunch, in which case we could just grab a bit to eat from the kitchen and keep going with the discussion. However, it could be frustrating to those who were prepared by reading the material in advance.
This blog is set up to provide information on the topic in the days leading up to the Bible study. That way, the information is already known, and hopefully, the Bible reading has been done so we can jump right into the discussion. Also, the time constraints aren’t a problem because you can read the posts at your own pace and even go back to them whenever you want.
Another reason I started this blog is for those who cannot join my home fellowship. Maybe you have a fellowship of your own or participate with a group. This blog can provide you with information that you may not otherwise have known and can share with your fellowship to add to your discussion. And feel free to join the online discussion and let us know if you agree or disagree with anything posted here. I hope that you find this blog a blessing to you and yours.
How long is the study going to last?
The first part of this study will be going through the Torah Portions that were briefly mentioned in the Introduction to the Bible Study post that can be found here. The cycle lasts one year, so by this time next year, we will be wrapping up the first five books of the Bible and then moving on to the rest of the Bible in chronological order. This is where things may slow down a bit. When I divided up the remaining 61 books in order, I tried to finish them in a year. The Torah Portions also start over, which means there will be double reading. For that reason, I’m thinking about spreading the remainder of the Bible over two years. That means that the whole Bible will take three years to go through, with the Torah being read through three times. After the first year, the Torah Portions will just be summaries that are posted on the Sabbath for the reading scheduled that week. The summaries will include links to the posts made in the first year for easy access to that information.
There’s a reason why the Torah is read through every year. It’s the foundation for who God is and how He wants us to live.
“And these are the ordinances and the judgments that the Lord commanded the sons of Israel when they came out from the land of Egypt: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 And you will love the Lord your God from your whole mind and from your whole soul and from your whole strength. 6 And these words that I am commanding you today shall be in your heart and in your soul. 7 And you will impress upon your sons and speak on them when sitting in the house and when walking on the road and when lying down and when rising up. 8 And you will fasten them as a sign upon your had, and it will be a permanent thing before your eyes. 9 And you will write them upon the doorposts of your houses and the gates of your towns.”
Deuteronomy 6: 4-9
How is someone to remember all that God commanded if they don’t reread His instructions continually and not just occasionally? And since we know that it’s the Torah that defines sin, as Paul says in Romans 7 and John wrote in 1 John 3, then we should refresh our minds with what is sin so we know not to do it.
“With my whole heart I sought you.
Psalm 119:10-11
Let me not depart from Your commandments.
“In my heart I hid Your Words
so that I would never sin against You.”
That is why we’ll read the Torah once every year. To keep God’s Words, instructions, and commandments fresh in our minds so we can live with a whole heart toward Him.
Let’s get ready for some Bible study!