Bible study
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12)
2008 – 09
Growing in Discipleship (book 6)
Our Hope in Christ (book 7)
2007 – 08
Foundations for Faith (book 5)
DVD series – “Making Jesus Lord” (Loren Cunningham)
DVD series – “School of Intercession, Worship, and Warfare” (YWAM)
DVD series – “Our Spiritual Say-So”
2006 – 07
We continued with the Navigator’s series:
The Character of the Christian (book 4)
2005 – 06
We used the book, Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler. The book gives a Monday to Friday format with Scriptures and prayer starters for each day.
We started the Navigator’s “Design for Discipleship” series:
Your Life in Christ (book 1)
The Spirit-filled Christian (book 2)
Walking with Christ (book 3)
2004 – 05
We are using Training Hearts, Teaching Minds, a devotional based on the shorter Catechism. It’s a fabulous way to systematically study the basics of our Christian faith! Now our kids can quickly & easily answer questions like “What is man’s primary purpose?” and “What is God?”
2003 – 04
We used the Visual Bible’s version of the book of Acts, and again, used additional Bible study tools like those listed below. We hope the Visual Bible people will work on other books of the Bible–they’re fantastic!
During the summer, we began a devotional, More Dangerous Devotions, which travels through the Old Testament, so we’re continuing with that. I plan to use Dangerous Devotions at some time in the future.
2002 – 03
We used the Visual Bible’s version of the book of Matthew as the foundation for our Bible study. If you haven’t seen this movie, it is incredible–it uses the actual words in the Bible only, and Jesus is portrayed as a smiling, warm, real Jesus, as he really is! We are studying one chapter a week–we watch the chapter on the video, then go indepth using various Bible study tools (e.g. “Victor Journey Through the Bible”, “Complete Bible Discussion Guide”, etc.), then watch the movie chapter again at the end of the week. We are each getting a lot out of it using this method, and this is the most in-depth study of a single book we’ve done as a family. There’s something about seeing the life of Jesus on a video that impacts you in a greater way than just reading about it!
1997 – 2002
For five years, we used a curriculum course to study the Bible–Bible Study Guide for All Ages. It covers the entire Bible in a 4-year cycle, and the whole family can use the materials.
The curriculum does a super job of continual review, which reinforces lessons learned earlier. Each day we do some Bible drills as well. In the future we plan to utilize the map and timeline features of the curriculum, which we have bypassed so far. After each lesson and questions, we memorize a verse, pray about it, then the children draw a picture depicting something they learned that day. In addition, there are drills on all kinds of things, like the days of creation, the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, names of the books of the Bible, etc, and several important passages are memorized along the way.
Here’s the breakdown, year by year:
Year 1
Joseph
Daniel
Jesus’ early life and 1st year of ministry
Adam
Noah
Job
Moses to Exodus 20
Joshua
Jesus’ last week
Year 2
Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, resurrection & ascension
Peter; the early church (Acts 1 – 8), Stephen, Philip
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
David (2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles, Psalms)
Solomon to end of 1 Kings (1 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs), Ahijah, Elijah
Non-Pauline letters (James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 & 2 & 3 John, Jude)
Revelation
Year 3
Moses (Exodus 21 – end, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
Hebrews
Jesus’ 2nd year of ministry
Paul’s conversion; 1st & 2nd journeys; Acts 9 – 18:22, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Peter
Judges
Ruth
Samuel & Saul
Year 4
Jesus’ 3rd year of ministry
Paul’s 3rd journey (Acts 18:23 – 28:31, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus)
Divided and Conquered Kingdoms, Prophets (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Joel, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Habakkuk, Obadiah)
Ezekiel, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Esther, Nehemiah, Malachi
