Hi Five Oakers,

I have a few things I want share with you today:

// The Story of God group concluded last Tuesday with about 25 people participating. Here are a few comments from the session participants:

"I now understand ‘WHY’ Jesus died for our sins.  In my 24 years of existence, I never understood it until now...."

"Transformed my overall understanding and ability to talk about Scripture.  It has made me want to dig deeper into the Bible."

"The first time I heard the Story of God in your sermon series, I realized the bible wasn’t just a series of fairy tales.  Since then I have had a tremendous growth in my life toward God and started a relationship with Him.  This extra dive into SOG has helped solidify the Bible knowledge and helped me strengthen my framework to continue to grow to God."

"The Story of God really connected the dots and answered many questions I’ve had and some I didn’t know I had.  I understand the separation and why we needed Christ, and do today."

"It has helped me understand the complete Bible and why it is written like it is.  The course has also improved my marriage by bringing God into it."

// We do a Bible content quiz at the start and finish of the Story of God. The quizzes are different but comparable. One participant was very excited to go from getting two questions correct the first quiz to getting eight correct! Although the Story of God is not about memorizing a bunch of facts, knowing the flow of the story and main characters leads to a much greater knowledge and retention of the contents of the story. The group average score for the first quiz to the second went from 5 to 7.7 (a 53% improvement)!

// Here’s a selection from your comments, observations and questions from the weekend Communication Cards.

• Excellent music today.

• Thank you for the children’s bibles we received last week. My kids love them and are very excited to read them and learn more about God’s love. They felt very special to be given such a wonderful gift.

• Outstanding message.

• Revelation Song – this arrangement was beautiful! I enjoyed the simplicity. Libby, wonderful job. The Christmas décor this year are gorgeous! I love the winter window theme. The simplicity says a lot. Very warm and inviting. [Yes, a big thank you to Deb Carr and her team of volunteers who created the Christmas set and decorations!]

• The set looks great. I love the windows!

• Thank you to whoever designed our new Christmas theme in the worship center! It looks amazing! Love the windows! Thank you for your message Tim!

• Great illustration, Tim. Clear and powerful.

• We’re hoping to visit at Christmas the church in the phoenix, AZ area that Justin ended up going to. [Very cool.]

• Great service – I was just wondering through, if it would be possible to incorporate the cross back into the Christmas decorations. We really missed having it in the sanctuary. Thank you.

Thanks for all your comments.

Blessings,

Pastor Henry

Five Ways to Get into the Bible Daily

 

God calls us to come to him daily for our needs because he wants us to come to him daily.

So, where do you start? Here are five ways to get into the Bible daily.

1 // Group Life: Be better prepared for the weekend as you study the weekend’s passage in the daily Group Life study produced by Five Oaks volunteers with gifts and passions for writing and teaching the Bible. It’s one of the ways we listen to God together in our church community. Downloads are here. Or pick it up at the Small Groups table in the commons.

2 // Read (or listen) through the Bible. Most Bible apps have a listening feature and reading plans. There are plans that focus on key texts and plans that take you through every text in a variety of ways. I highly recommend the free YouVersion app. Check out the dozens of reading plans at BibleGateway.

3 // Practice “praying the hours.” Jews and early Christians prayed at set times of the day. You can read about it here and here. Useful and popular guides for praying the hours have been published by Phyllis Tickle and they contain an enormous amount of Scripture. For an online version of Tickle’s guide, go here. A helpful iPhone version can be found here. You’ll get more out of reading if you understand the framework of the Bible, so take the Story of God seminar or prepare for a lifetime of reading by working through the 40-day guide I wrote and that serves as the basis for the Story of God seminar.

4 // Read and reflect on the Psalms and Proverbs daily. The Psalms are the prayer book of the Jews and the church. The Proverbs contain daily wisdom from God. If you read one Psalm and on Proverb per day, you complete the Psalms approximately twice a year and the Proverbs twelve times per year.

5 // Use a devotional that has a good dose of Bible readings. Just don’t replace Bible reading with devotionals.

What would you add to this list?