In this season of fear of illness, quarantine, and shelter-in-place orders, we find ourselves facing a long period of isolation. We are anticipating weeks, or even months, of being unable to go to church or meeting with our regular study groups. Yet our hearts and souls need inspiration and encouragement now more than ever! As a pastor or group leader, you need new tools to help lead your people during this uncertain time.
Our team at Bible Study Media has been working over the last two weeks to convert our studies into an online format to meet the new requirements of today’s circumstances. We have created an online community forum, which will serve as our online home for community and courses. We want to offer this online forum to your ministries and congregations as an Easter resource for virtual small groups. We have two courses to offer for Easter: The Resurrected Life: Making All Things New (Fr. Charlie Holt, author) and our brand-new forthcoming study, A Living Hope: A Study of 1 Peter (Sarah Viggiano Wright, author). Many more online courses will be available soon.
Our Platform Offers:
Each study has:
Here is how it works:
Step One: You will be invited into a clergy host group. From there, we will organize and set up your private congregation group. The fee to join is $79.99; this fee covers the cost of setting up your private branded group and course. NOTE: It takes one full week to process a new group and course.
Step Two: Each congregation will be given a unique invitation to a private group and a private version of the course so that you can uniquely minister to your flock. Within your private group, you can customize your site, set up your events, and schedule church-wide notices of your teachings related to the course.
Step Three: You will use your private link to invite the members of your congregation into the study. They will be prompted to set up their profile and log in. They will be then automatically placed in your private group and course. Anyone that you invite can join. You can share it on your website, email, and social media. Each individual will be charged $9.99 upon registration for the cost of the course.
Our team is available every step of the way as you are getting familiar with this new tool for ministry. We also have the Clergy Host Group where we can all share ideas and figure out this new way of doing life together online—the Body of Christ helping the Body of Christ.
We would love to have the opportunity to serve your ministry. The first step is to join the Clergy Host Group. Let our team begin setting up your unique and dedicated ministry group and course so you can start inviting your members into a meaningful Easter Season.
To help you better understand our offering, we will host six Zoom Webinars over the next week. Please plan to join us at one of these times. Click the link to register:
We hope to see you there!
By Brooke Holt, Adult Curriculum Specialist
Many people have been asking me what I make of the Coronavirus, what I think the purpose of it is, and what God will do through it. My humble answer is that I have absolutely no idea! There is a reason that God is God and I am not!
While I do not have any answers, I do believe that we can be asking ourselves how God wants us to live through these days. I think there is a faithful way to live, one that puts our trust and hope in the Lord, and I think there is a fear-based way to live, one that looks around us and sees panic, doom, and gloom. No matter what your response is, God still sits on his throne. He is sovereign over this virus. Despite the pain, suffering, and loss, I know that God is good. I believe that he will work for his glory and our good through this.
As a Lenten discipline, I am meditating on a Psalm each week. This week, I am focusing on Psalm 95. There is a phrase that keeps calling me, speaking to me, and challenging me: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work” (verses 7-9). I keep wondering how my reaction to this Coronavirus will either harden my heart or soften my heart to the Lord.
In Psalm 95:7-9, the Lord speaks of when he led the Israelites out of Egypt. He worked powerfully on behalf of his people and accomplished many miracles so that the people could not only escape Egypt but leave with plunder. The Israelites saw the mighty hand of God as he parted the Red Sea for them to walk through. That sea then crashed upon the Egyptian army that pursued them. God changed bitter water to sweet water in the wilderness of Shur (Exodus 15:25); the Lord provided manna for food in the morning and quail for food at night.
As the Israelites moved on to camp at Rephidim, they couldn’t find water and became indignant. They grumbled against God and against Moses: “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3) Pause here a moment to think about all the miracles the Israelites had witnessed with their very own eyes, to remember how God had provided everything they needed just when they needed it. Instead of asking God to once again provide water, they whined and complained. Can you imagine how frustrating that must have been for Moses, for God? In his mercy, the Lord does provide water. Moses struck the rock at Horeb and water came out to quench their thirst.
The Israelites were slow to understand and slow to believe. They say it took 40 days to get the Israelites out of Egypt but 40 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites. All those years of bondage certainly took their toll. Likely, the Israelites felt forgotten by the Lord. God never forgets his covenants! God never forgets his people. During the years of slavery, the Lord had a plan for their escape. He knew their course through the wilderness, and he knew the glories of the promised land.
In Numbers 13, Moses sends the men to spy out the promised land. They go into the land and find it is even more glorious than they could have imagined. The only problem was the people in the land. The report from 10 of the spies was that the people were like giants and there was no way to overcome them. Only Caleb and Joshua brought back the report that the land was glorious, and although the land was occupied, they knew that God would give them the land. Caleb and Joshua remembered God’s faithfulness through their Egyptian escape and their journeys. They believed that the same God who provided water, food, protection, and guidance would allow them to supernaturally defeat the giants.
Sadly, the Israelites succumbed to the dour report of the 10 spies instead of choosing the faith and hope of Caleb and Joshua. They cried and groaned all night and once again asked why they couldn’t have just died in the land of Egypt or in the wilderness. After all God’s faithfulness, they still did not believe. Their hearts were hard to the Lord.
The Israelites serve as a warning to us. Though we are quick to criticize them, they represent us. In Psalm 95, we are warned not to harden our hearts. How do hearts become hard to the Lord? The Psalmist says that hearts harden when we hear the voice of God and choose unbelief instead of belief, when we put God to the test, and when we go astray in our hearts. The Lord was certainly worthy of the Israelite’s full-hearted faith. Nevertheless, they chose fear over faith; they chose to complain instead of pray; they chose despair over hope.
As Christians living in the year 2020, have we seen God’s faithfulness? Have we experienced his gracious provision, his mercy, and his love? If so, how do these experiences shape our response to the Coronavirus? As we see the people of the world around us panicking, retreating, and lamenting, do we join them or do we take a posture of trust in the sovereign Lord? Do we move into complete dependence on him and into continual prayer? I am not saying we won’t have a range of emotions. We are human, and those emotions are normal and even healthy. It is what we do with those emotions that makes all the difference. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). We can choose to dwell in the perfect love of the Father or we can choose to camp out in fear. Love will keep our hearts tender, soft, and dependent on the Lord, while fear will harden our hearts and cause us to seek comfort in idols and the things of this world.
So, what does faith look like? Solitude, contemplative prayer and meditative Scripture reading are Christian disciplines that have been lost in our day and age. We are constantly busy with our agendas. If it is not work, school, family, or friends then we find ourselves lost in social media. What if we used this extra time in our schedules to get truly still and quiet before the Lord? What if we turned off all our technology for certain hours of the day so that we did not have the constant distractions? What if we read a passage of Scripture, then re-read that passage asking the Lord how he wants to speak to our hearts and lives through his words? What if we sat before the Lord without a major list or agenda and just invited him to speak? What if we spent some time journaling, allowing our thoughts and feelings to be released, knowing that God sees, knows, and cares about each and every one of those thoughts and feelings?
What does fear look like during this time? Fear can take many shapes and forms. It can look like the person obsessed with the next announcement by the CDC, absorbed by the media, and consumed with all the unknown. It can look like choosing to put our trust in busyness to keep our minds occupied and to keep our hearts hard and unknown, even to us; it is looking to our ways of comforting ourselves – food, alcohol, internet, online shopping, exercise, etc. You know your go-to. We all have them.
What if God wants to take this time to expose our idols so that we can turn aside from these lesser things, these things that never truly bring comfort and healing, so we can fix our eyes firmly upon him? What if God wants to use this time to search us and know us, to reveal the things in our lives that rob us of true intimacy with him, of living his abundant life so that we can choose life, so that we can choose faith, so that we can choose him?
Today, let’s make the choice to not harden our hearts. Let’s ask God to soften our hearts. Let’s allow him to work through the trials of this Coronavirus to draw us to the only true hope in him. Let’s trust him to provide what we need, to comfort us in our sorrow and fear, and to lead us through these uncertain times knowing that he is good, that he sees all of it, knows all of it, and will love us in the midst of it.
“Oh come, let us sing the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods” (Psalm 95:1-3).
By Christine O'Brien, Hearts Alive General Manager
One particular morning, several weeks ago, I saw Jesus in the sky. Stick with me here-I’m not entirely crazy!
As we were driving to school, we saw birds in the sky. The kids said, “Are those bats?” Another one said, “No, those are ducks!” To which I responded, “Look at the geese! They’re flying in a V-shape.” I said the V-shape is what shows that they are geese. From there, a conversation started about why geese fly in a V formation. Nobody quite knew the answer, so the only solution on this particular Wednesday morning was to ask Siri.
“Siri, why do geese fly in V formations?”
She answered us by sharing that there are two reasons why geese take on these formations while migrating. My thirteen year old was quick to point out his brilliance, as he had stated migration was why they fly in this shape prior to us involving Siri!
Siri said that the first reason was for aerodynamics. It’s much easier for geese to fly in a V-shape, as each goose helps direct the air flow around the geese behind it. This takes the pressure off and allows them to fly easier, more gently, and faster.
The second reason was for protection. It is much safer to be with the group than it is to be flying solo, because predators can’t take on an entire flock.
It was in that moment when God spoke to my heart and said, “I’m not done with you yet. This is for you. I’m getting your attention through a flock of geese!”
It began to resonate deep within my spirit that we each need to be like a goose in that pattern. We need to be in formation with others. We need to be in formation with others so that when we are tired and weary and don’t feel like we can go on anymore, you and I will have others beside us. Others who are Aarons in our lives, ready and willing to assist and carry one another’s burdens. To make the flight feel shorter. Less heavy. Less burdensome. To take that weight and share it with others. It might not change the flight, but it sure would make it easier to feel like we’re not so alone.
The second way we are like that goose is because We need protection. It matters who we are giving a seat to at our table. If I am alone, not protected and flying solo, I might as well have a giant bullseye on my back. If we have people that are surrounding us, that are protecting us, that are building us up, we are much less likely to allow an open spot for the enemy, with his lies and schemes, to attack. I don’t know about you, but I know that if there are open seats all around my table, it’s really easy for the enemy to creep in and start to devour my thought process, my emotions, my senses -- what I see, feel, hear, believe. All of those are areas where, if I’m sitting at a table alone and the enemy takes a seat -- beside, before, below, beneath me -- he could devour me.
How much more difficult is it for somebody to find a seat at a crowded table?
If there are people around our table who are surrounding us with Christ-like relationships, what a different outcome it would be.
There is strength in those numbers. When those geese were in the sky that morning, it took them a little while to get into formation. At first my kids thought that they were bats because they were scattered all around. They were flapping their wings every which way. They looked to be on top of each other. They simply looked to be chaotic.
As those geese got into their formation, their plan of action seemed so much more clear. It was evident that they were organized, they were unified, they were working together. They had a similar shared vision that they were trying to accomplish. Those geese will migrate somewhere together, and they had an end goal in sight.
If our end goal on this earth is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, pointing others to him, we need to be surrounded. We need to be rooted and grounded in Jesus, in the Word, with his Holy Spirit inside of us, sensitive to his nudgings and his leading. You and I also need to be surrounded by other geese who will get in formation with us. Who will occupy space around us, and who will remind each one of us of who we are in Christ and what we are doing, especially when we are prone to wander?
Who are the “geese” around you? Are you flying with the right crew? Is your vision aligned or might it be time to either refocus or reposition yourself?
If you don’t have them around you, if it feels lonely, if it feels wavy, if it feels hard, try to identify some people who could come alongside you.
As leaders, let’s humble ourselves to say, “You know what, I need you… We’re better together… Let’s do this life together… We can accomplish more together than we ever could apart.”
Will you join me in this spring of a brand-new decade, in either finding “geese,” tightening up your formation, and/or being a “goose” for someone else? We have so much to glean from one another as we stay yielded to Jesus, and consistently remind others to do the same.
We are thrilled to announce that the Bible Study Media app is now available for download in mobile app and smart TV stores!
The mobile app, available in the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Appstore, is your source for on-the-go access to everything from Bible Study Media! Download the app to your smartphone or tablet, and use it for all of the following:
In addition, download our TV app on Apple TV and Roku in order to easily access all of the videos from our studies for your small group meetings.
Click here for links to the correct app store to download the app for your device!
By Brooke Holt, Adult Curriculum Specialist
I am one of those strange people who absolutely loves a good challenge. At least twice a year, I sign up for a challenge to work out six times a week, five workouts in the gym and one workout on my own. These are not easy workouts; they are specifically designed to challenge the participants physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Some days it is easy to make it to my workouts. Some days it is just not. In fact, this morning was one of those days I could have missed the workout for a hundred reasons. BUT, I have no margin in my schedule this week, so I awoke at 5:00 in the morning to make the 5:45am class. It was painful, but I did it. And you know what? I felt great after the class. There is something to be said about discipline and commitment.
The health industry is pushing people to learn new disciplines which strengthen and heal the body. Is the church encouraging its people to learn new disciplines which strengthen and heal the soul? There is something unique about a challenge, about accountability, about being pushed beyond what you would normally do on your own. There is also something special about community formed in a challenge.
This Lent, I challenge you to take on a 40 Day Lenten discipline! What would it look like for you to invite your church, your small group, your friends into a 40 Day Challenge with you? Bible Study Media understands the power of a Lenten study and has provided resources for you. Consider The Crucified Life. What does it mean to die to self in order to live to Christ? Or take on the challenge of Draw Near and learn what it means to live a life of worship. Each of these studies has 7 weeks of daily devotional readings, plus weekly small group questions and online video teachings.
The resurrection of Jesus takes on even greater meaning after 40 days of discipline and sacrifice. This Lent, I would love to support you in your own discipline, your own challenge. Let me help you find the right study for your church, your small group, or yourself.
I am at the end of my 40 day health challenge. I feel strong, accomplished, and awakened to new possibilities in my life. In fact, I am already thinking about my next challenge. While the process of transformation is not easy, it is so good. My ultimate desire is to look more like Jesus. In order to reach that goal, I need daily transformation!
What transformation does God want to do in you this Lent? My coaching hat is on, and I am ready to walk this challenge with you. 40 days of discipline really can change your life.
Follow us on social media for daily inspiration this Lent!
Imagine for a moment the impact on your church if for 40 days every person in your congregation lived in alignment with God’s will in the pattern of Jesus’ call to pick up our cross and follow him. What if your people lived in powerful community with their small groups to discuss and pray over lives sacrificed to God? What if, as groups and individual people began to experience the power of God in their lives as they surrendered all to Jesus Christ?
By intentionally coordinating and aligning the elements of your Lenten season using The Crucified Life materials, you will make an environment for spiritual growth that will move your congregation from self to surrender.
By aligning the following three elements of participation, you will see the power of God working in your church because of the intentional focus on the heart of the Gospel and the grace offered in the cross of Jesus Christ:
By creating a singular Lenten focus on what it means to “pick up our cross” and follow Jesus in the way of the Crucified Life, the entire congregation is called to a Holy Lent together. This unified focus will burst forth in new life with the announcement of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday!
Have you set your New Year’s Resolutions? If so, how are you doing with them a few days into the new year? As I am making my resolutions for the year, these are the questions I am asking myself: Are my resolutions God’s resolutions? Do my desires for the year align with God’s desires for my year?
The health industry LOVES the New Year! Gyms are full; diets are started. Everyone has good intentions. From what I can tell, all these resolutions are all about me. Make me look better, make me feel better about myself, help me achieve my goals. Don’t get me wrong, I think health goals are very important. If we do not take care of these bodies that God has entrusted to us, how can we go about doing the work he has given us to do with energy, vitality, and joy? Health is important.
Scripture does address our need to care for the body, but even more important than the body is the spirit. In 1 Timothy 4:8, Paul writes: “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” As we are making health goals, are we also making spiritual goals? What do those look like and how do they help us to truly grow in godliness?
If you are looking for tools to help in your spiritual training, you may want to consider taking on The Bible Challenge: https://thebiblechallenge.org. There are 4 readings for each day of the year. At the end of the year, you will find that you have gotten through the entire Bible. If you want to go deeper, there are daily devotionals that align with the daily readings and even Old Testament and New Testament study guides. Studying God’s Word is the greatest exercise we could ever do!
New Year’s resolutions can be powerful tools of transformation.
Are you making yours, keeping yours, or breaking yours? Ask yourself these questions: Are these your resolutions or God’s resolutions? Do your desires for the year align with God’s desires for your year?
John 11
In John 11, we read about the death of Jesus’ good friend, Lazarus. By the time Jesus gets to Lazarus’ hometown, the man has been in the grave for 4 days. Grief is the reality experienced by the family and friends.
Jesus arrives at the tomb and speaks the unexpected command: “Remove the stone.” Martha reminds Jesus that Lazarus has been dead for four days so there will be a stench. Jesus is undaunted by her words or that reality. After praying to his Father, he shouts these powerful words: “Lazarus, come out!’
Lazarus Rises
Lazarus walks out of the tomb, wrapped in his grave clothes. The man who has been in the grave for 4 days has now been set free. In fact, Jesus commands the people watching to unbind Lazarus from those grave clothes.
Prior to working this miracle, Jesus told Martha that Lazarus would be raised from the grave. Martha believed Lazarus would be raised at the end of time. Jesus explains that he is the Resurrection and the Life and that Martha did not have to wait until the end of time.
Nothing Too Difficult for God
This is where this story applies powerfully to us. We may hope that Jesus can resurrect all things at the end of time, but are we missing what he wants to do in us today? Just as Jesus was not afraid of the stench of death, he is not afraid of the mess he finds in our lives. Where we see death and defeat, Jesus sees the opportunity to work a miracle. Calling a dead man out of the grave exemplifies the truth that there is nothing too difficult for God.
The question is will we come out of our graves? As Beth Moore describes in her book Get Out of Your Pit, we often choose to stay in our grave, wrapped in our grave clothes. Though our graves are miserable, they are also comfortable. We know them, feel in control of them, have a sense of safety there.
Walking out of our graves is risky. There is so much unknown out there. Light shines brighter than darkness. Light brings vulnerability. Light also brings life. And we were made for life, abundant life (John 10:10).
Reflection
Listen to Jesus’s words to us today: “Come out!” Will we come? Will we allow Jesus to carefully unwrap us of those grave clothes that hold us? Can we lay those things at his feet? Scary? Oh yes, but also liberating, exciting, and life giving.
Jesus speaks these words to us today: “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live” (John 11:25-26, The Message).
By: Brooke Holt
1. The Challenge
Throughout The Crucified Life, Charlie challenges us as Christians to follow Jesus in the way of the cross. As we lay down our lives to the Lord, we actually find our lives. On day 38, Charlie writes, “The key to receiving the life of God is in surrendering our spirit to his Spirit that we might be mysteriously united in the wonderful mystery of his will.”
2. Surrender
For me, the act of surrendering is not easy, even in little things. Jesus speaks these words from the cross right before he dies: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Jesus, being fully God and fully human, entrusts himself to the Father all the way to the cross, to his last dying breath.
3. God is Good
There is nothing I want more than to fully entrust myself to the Lord. I have been wrestling with this all week. In my mind and spirit, I know that God is good; his ways are good; he is fully worthy of my trust and submission. In my flesh, I want what I want, and I have this great desire to control my own life.
4. Submit your Spirit
Ultimately, I want to land into the loving arms of my Father. I want to submit my spirit, my very life to him. I have been asking him to show me how to do this, to make his will my will, his desires my desires. I wish I could say that after a week of wrestling and praying that I have this fully mastered. I certainly don’t! However, it has become my daily heartfelt prayer.
Romans 8:31-32 says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how we he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
5. God is for us!
God is for us! He has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). I may not have this surrender thing down, but I will daily lay my life before the Lord and ask him to help me fully commit myself and my ways before him. I want him. I want his life.
Charlie ends the devotional writing with these words: “Entrust him with your entire life today.” What does that look like for you today?
