My church has started a 13 week study called the Fundamentals of the Faith, this course teaches just what it says, the fundamentals of the faith, the teachings of the Bible, Biblical truths, personal obedience and service. This course can be found here: http://www.gty.org/fof, this study uses a workbook as well as audio lessons. Each week we do one part of the workbook and listen to the audio lesson, then we get together and go over what we learned, we talk about the lesson. We started last Monday Jan 17, 2011. This was just a preliminary, not the actual start, but we discussed how we wanted to conduct the class. This is a small class, which is good in a lot of ways, each of us is in a different place in our life with Christ, some of us are new Christians, some have been in church most of our lives. I am in the latter, been in church most of my life, I became born again as a teenager, was baptized last year. I have to say that many things within myself changed after being baptized, I asked God to remove everything that wasn't of Him, to leave the parts that are of Him, I can honestly say that I felt the things go that weren't Godly, that's not to say that I'm perfect, but I do feel a major difference in my mind and my life since making the public display of my faith.
Back to the Fundamentals of the Faith, this is taught by John MacArthur, let me say that I don't agree with everything he teaches, but honestly no one is going to agree 100% with what anyone else says, I will say that John MacArthur has a very good grasp on this part, I am enjoying his teachings. Here is each section of the 13 week course, I'll indicate which section I am in. The first line is the study, the second refers to the audio portion. We might not complete a section in one week but might take longer to work on them.
1 Introduction to the Bible
Our God-Breathed Bible
2 How to Know the Bible
How to Study Scripture
3 God: His Character and Attributes
God: What Is He Like?
4 The Person of Jesus Christ
Christ Above All
5 The Work of Christ
The Suffering Jesus: Our Substitute and Shepherd
6 Salvation
Exchanging Living Death for Dying Life
7 The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit
Be Filled with the Spirit
8 Prayer and The Believer
Praying Unceasingly
9 The Church: Fellowship and Worship
The Body of Christ
10 Spiritual Gifts
Miracles, Healings and Tongues
11 Evangelism and The Believer
Fishing for Men
12 Obedience
Love and Obedience
13 God's Will and Guidance
Knowing and Doing God's Will
Jan 17, 2011
In the first week, we discussed how we wanted to run the class.
Jan 24, 2011
The second week we did the first lesson, it was quite interesting to see the different ways each of us interpreted some of the lesson.
Jan 31, 2011
The third week we started the second lesson, we didn't get all the way through it though, we will finish it next week. I am thoroughly enjoying this, the biggest thing I have learned so far is how to read the Bible and the importance of reading the Bible.
Feb 7, 2011
Another interesting week, PB and I got there a little late, circumstances beyond my control (went to town). Once there, we quickly got into the last of the lesson 2 workbook pages. Then we discussed the audio portion of the lesson. This was mainly about how to learn the Bible, the importance of learning the Bible. What I have gotten out of this part is a framework for how to study the Bible, MacArthur says to read one book or one part of the bigger books of the Bible once a day, every day for 30 days, the same book/chapter part, this way you will really learn, LEARN what is in the Bible. At the end of that 30 days, you will KNOW what is in that book/chapter part you read over and over.
Feb 14, 2011
This week we had far fewer people, some were sick, some had plumbing problems from the big freeze, PB had to stay home to let the internet guy into our neighbor's house. This week we worked on the character and attributes of God. MacArthur talks about 12 of them, though there isn't really a number, God's attributes are infinite. We went through part of the workbook, we will finish that section next week and then discuss the audio portion of the lesson. Hopefully more people will attend next week, it's much more fun and interesting when more people are there.
Feb 21, 2011
We had more people this week, it makes it much more interesting, many more opinions, more voices, it's just better. We finished part 3, discussing the attributes of God.
Feb 28, 2011
Today's meeting was the most interesting to date, we didn't get too far into chapter 4 of the workbook, we worked on the last part of part 3 of the workbook, for some reason it was forgotten/skipped last week. We discussed prayer, and how our prayer was (or was not) changed by doing chapter 3, the attributes of God. I am paraphrasing and may not have this exact so please bear with me if you are said person, this is how I took what you said, one person felt like it was less important to pray and ask God for things about yourself, it was more important to pray and ask about other people and things. I have heard some people say they don't think you should ever pray for yourself or ask God for anything pertaining to yourself, apparently they think it's selfish, or maybe God will not answer prayers for or about yourself if you are the one doing the praying/asking.My answer was that I have no problem asking God to answer my prayers, even if it's something about myself. That's not to say my prayers are exclusively about myself, there has to be a balance, but I look at God as a Father figure, and it's OK to ask your Father, especially your Heavenly Father for the things you need, even the things you want as long as you don't go overboard.
My other comment about this was that I see my prayers being answered (both for myself and for others), I feel that my prayers are powerful, after all, I'm talking to the Creator of everything... that's not to say that ALL of my prayers are answered, but a great deal of them are, sometimes in ways I can't even imagine. I am also careful as to WHAT I pray for and HOW I pray, sometimes we mere mortals with our limited thinking and vision ask for things that will not be particularly good for us even though we really really want it. You know the old saying, be careful what you ask(pray) for, you might get it...
I pray that God opens my eyes and heart, fills me with knowledge AND wisdom, I feel the latter is more important that the former, knowledge without wisdom is just silly. Can't wait for next week. :)
March 7, 2011
We finished chapter 4 in the workbook. We discussed how Jesus was (and is) God made flesh, He was both God and man at the same time. Even though He was God, He was fully human at the same time, He felt all of the same physical and emotional things that the rest of us do:He felt tired (Matthew 8:24-Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.)
He felt hunger (Matthew 9:10-10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.)
He was happy (Luke 10:21-At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.)
He felt sad (John 11:35-Jesus wept.).
He also learned as He grew up, He prayed to God, which is hard for many to wrap their head around, how could Jesus pray to God if they are one and the same? When Jesus was born in the flesh, he was separated from God, He voluntarily separated Himself from God to become fully human, that's also why His sacrifice was valid, He paid the full price for our sins, past present and future.
Philippians 2:6 says: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, I believe that can be taken in 2 ways, this being something we would not understand (grasped) and something not to be hung on to (grasped). I see it more in the first part, that we are unable to understand the fact that Jesus was equal with God, my pastor see it more in the second, that it is something not to be hung on to.
Jesus was also fully God, He had the power over Heaven and earth, He had the authority to forgive sin, something only God had the authority to do, He had the power over nature, He had the power over good and evil spirits.
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