women's bible study

This year, I have the privilege of helping plan the ladies' bible study at our church.  We decided to study Nancy Guthrie's The Promised One: Seeing Jesus in Genesis. 

The four ladies on the planning committee decided to look through the book early, so that we can have a better grasp of what we will be facilitating.  This quote about sums up the book: "Jesus opened up Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Psalms and Hosea and Isaiah and all the way Malachi, showing them, 'This is who I am, this is why I came, this is the curse I came to bear, this is the mercy I came to show, I am the blessing God promised, I am the sacrifice God provided'.  Jesus didn't work his way through Genesis to point out what we must do for God, but to help us see clearly what God has done for us" (pg 20).  In this study, we'll be learning how all the old testament symbols and stories relate to Jesus.

This book is amazing.  I'm actually using it as my quiet time study.  I was pretty skeptical about it at first-because, really?  Another old testament study?  How boring or relevant is that going to be?  It has blown me out of the water!  I love Nancy Guthrie's teaching.  She uses lots of illustrations, and stories, and has an easy listening kind of writing style.

Some more quotes that I love from this book:
"Sometimes, when we think we've got Jesus all figured out, we simply can't hear or can't see that our understanding is distorted or diminished.  And sometimes we think we have Jesus figured out when really all we've done is create in our own minds the Jesus we want, the Jesus we can be comfortable with...isn't it interesting that we feel free to take so much liberty with defining who Jesus is and what He came to accomplish?"
 
"We don't want to read little bits of Scripture and take away an inspirational thought.  We don't want to pluck out Scriptures that make us feel good regardless of whether we're reading them in context.  We want to understand the big picture of what God has done and is doing in the world.  But more than that, we want our hearts to burn in recognition that this is not just a story outside of us, but a story God is accomplishing in us through Christ."

I'm excited to dig into this book!  I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will begin preparing my heart, and the hearts of the ladies' who will be studying alongside me.  I'm praying that we will grow in our knowledge of the Word and our knowledge of Christ.  I'm praying that we will deepen our love for Him through this study.