What’s true for sharks is doubly true for Christians. Move forward or die.
Who knew sharks could be so spiritual
Every fall the Discovery Channel airs a very popular series. It’s called Shark Week. Seven days loaded with documentaries about sharks and stories of sharks.
We’re fascinated with sharks. They are so large and powerful and … dangerous! But for all that menace, there’s one fundamental truth about sharks. If they stop swimming, they die.
Literally they will suffocate, because their “breathing” is based on water flowing through their gills. If the water stops flowing, then they can’t get oxygen, and then it’s lights out for even the biggest, meanest great white shark.
The Christian life works the same way.
If we’re not engaging with God, we’re falling away from Him. Humans, living in a body corrupted by sin in a world permeated by sin, don’t have the ability to “just maintain” their relationship with God while doing nothing. If we’re not actively moving forward, then we’re absolutely drifting backwards.
It’s a fundamental truth of the Christian Life that we need to always be active and engaging with God and His Word.
This is why I am opening the Fall Semester of Study Groups.
If you don’t have something that you’re doing right now to keep your relationship with God alive and vital, this could save the day for you.
Yesterday I introduced you to 2 email studies that you could dive into. A Guided Study of 1 Timothy and A Guided Study of Ruth.
But email isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I get it. You may be saying to yourself, “I need to do something, but that doesn’t sound like it would work for me.”
That’s fair.
Unfortunately, while that might be true for you, it doesn’t help you solve the shark’s dilemma of needing constant spiritual movement.
So I’ve created the same 2 studies in a different format: Online Video Classes.
On my website, I have established the Bible Study Academy. It’s a series of courses in studying the Bible based on the Six Easy Steps study method. And both the 1 Timothy and Ruth Guided Studies are available there.
Either study would be a great avenue for you to create spiritual movement in your life. They will guide you into God’s word and help you uncover what God has to say to you. You’ll gain knowledge and apply God’s truth in your life.
In short, these studies are catalysts for spiritual growth.
But I couldn’t help myself and in the online video courses, I added a number of bonuses that just didn’t make sense in the email format:
- A bonus module on how to create your own study manuscript
- A bonus module on how to use Blue Letter Bible to look up words in the original languages to get definitions and expanded meanings
- Expanded discussion on key or interesting topics in the text
- Weekly encouragements and discussions of how to cultivate an effective Bible study mindset
- Weekly goals and a checklist of what you should accomplish for the session
- Lifetime access to the study to go back and review or redo the study whenever you want
Plus all of the material is delivered in videos where I’m talking to you and sharing my screen so you can see exactly what I’m referencing. The 1 Timothy study has 4.5 hours of video and the Ruth study will end up with close to 4 hours. So you will be well prepared for your own study.
If you look in the mirror and know that email isn’t going to do it for you, this could be exactly what you need to dig in and get moving. And movement is the urgent need.
When you sign up for the online studies, I will release a session each week, so you’ll receive the same cadence and prompting to move on with your study. I think this is critical to avoid getting bogged down in one session or burned out by going too fast.
If you wanted to just take the course online, I’d normally charge $39.99. That works out to roughly $5 per week for the study. But because I want to increase the number of people that can afford this study plan for the Fall Semester, I’m offering you a 50% off coupon.
Yes. When you put the coupon code FALL-SEMESETER in at checkout, I’ll reduce the price to just $19.99. That’s about $2.50 per week – or the price of a fancy coffee drink. For all the links in this email, I’ve included the coupon in the URL so you don’t have to do anything.
Of the two studies, I recommend that you do the Guided Study of 1 Timothy first. It’s most like the study of Titus in chapters 7-10 of Study the Bible – Six Easy Steps. Since it’s a slightly longer study, that familiarity will be a big help. But if you’ve already done the 1 Timothy study, then the Guided Ruth study is the next step. It will show you some new aspects of studying God’s word that are appropriate for books of the Old Testament.
Don’t be a dead shark because you’ve stopped moving. Sign up for one of the studies today and lean in toward God in the Fall Semester of Study Groups.
I’ll be back tomorrow with some more information about the benefits of combining email and online courses.
Always moving…
Dennis
