The women’s bookclub at church read this book for our December meeting.  I have to confess that I didn’t read it – I listened to it on my iPod, which is not the same.  While I endorse audio books wholeheartedly, this was a book that really lent itself to reading instead of listening to. 

The title initially put me off a little, I soon got over it.  My fear was a 19th century “health and wealth” endorsement.  Happily, it is not.  I plan on reading this over the next few weeks and reflecting on it, as my “audio absorption” was sorely lacking and I feel that this book deserves more attention from me.  Here is a link to an on-line version of the book which I will reference from time to time.

One of the initial arguments that she presents, in chapter 1, is that the believer has only one responsibility: to trust.  God also has one responsibility: to work.  Here is a quote from chapter 1:

We are to be delivered from the power of sin, and are to be made perfect in every good work to do the will of God. … We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. A real work is to be wrought in us and upon us. Besetting sins are to be conquered. Evil habits are to be overcome. Wrong dispositions and feelings are to be rooted out, and holy tempers and emotions are to be begotten. A positive transformation is to take place. So at least the Bible teaches. Now somebody must do this. Either we must do it for ourselves, or another must do it for us. We have most of us tried to do it for ourselves at first, and have grievously failed; then we discover from the Scriptures and from our own experience that it is a work we are utterly unable to do for ourselves, but that the Lord Jesus Christ has come on purpose to do it, and that He will do it for all who put themselves wholly into His hand, and trust Him to do it. Now under these circumstances, what is the part of the believer, and what is the part of the Lord? Plainly the believer can do nothing but trust; while the Lord, in whom he trusts, actually does the work intrusted to Him.

One of the hardest things I find as a believer is to simply trust – to turn over all my worries and concerns to Him and He will take care of them.  The times in which I have done this my circumstances have come out far better than if I had simply trusted in myself to get me through it.  It is easy to trust when times are bad.  Much harder to trust when times are good.

Have you seen God work in your life?  Have you been transformed?

We are going to embark on a brief study of the Old Testament starting in January.  The Old Testament can be a daunting study for most people.  First of all, the events took place more than 2,500 years ago, the names are hard to pronounce, the history is somewhat unknown and, well, is it really relevant to us?  I hope to answer these questions and more during the spring.

The goal of this study is to look at the chronology/timeline of events and people.  More importantly, though, I would like for us to take a look how each of the Old Testament books ties in with our Christian beliefs.

?         Why is the book here?

?         Is it consistent with the New Testament message and if so how?

?         How can I/we grow spiritually because of the passage/book? 

?         What does this reveal about God’s character?

These are just some of the questions that we will be exploring throughout the study.

Please keep in mind that this is a brief study, i.e. we will not have a lot of time to explore things in depth.  If you would like to go deeper with this study during the week, I can provide you with some additional passages/questions to think about to help you go a little deeper.

Here is the proposed outline of the topics to be covered.  There is no definite timeline, so I don’t have dates for these.

 Part I – Intro and Pentateuch
Week 1 – Introduction: who wrote it, when, order, reliability, history, types of literature
Week 2 – Pentateuch: what is it, what are the overall themes, what are the individual books?
Week 3 – Pentateuch: discuss Gen – Deut.

Part II – Pre Monarchy
Week 4 – Period of the conquest and judges: Joshua – Ruth and setting up for monarchy
Week 5 – Intro to the monarchy, Saul and intro to David
Week 6 – David (+Nathan) and Solomon

Part III – Divided Kingdom – Part Post Exilic Period
Week 7 – Divided kingdom, why’s and discussing the lineage of each, who were the kings and when did they reign
Week 8 – Divided kingdom – adding in the Minor Prophets to the timeline and why they were important: Part 1
Week 9 – Divided kingdom – same as above, Part 2
Week 10 – Divided kingdom – same as above, Part 3
Week 11 – Isaiah
Week 12 – Jeremiah
Week 13 – Ezekiel and Daniel

Part IV – Post Exilic Period
Week 14 – Post Exilic period: Ezra and Nehemiah   –> this completes the history

Part V – Poetry and Wisdom Literature
Week 15 – Psalms
Week 16 – Proverbs and Job
Week 17 – Song of Songs and Lamentations 

Keep in mind that I don’t want to concentrate on the facts of the OT but what the OT teaches us about God. 

I hope that you will enjoy this study.  I will post the first set of “readings” here on or before January 2nd, 2008.