Hey, sister! It's Wednesday again and that means it's time for my favourite series; Southern In-Law Sisters In Christ!
Last week, we finished up our five week series on How to Be a Godly Woman - and this week, we're jumping straight into a brand new series, Jesus 101. There is also something new happening for us sisters that I am very excited about!
As you know, each week on a Wednesday, a brand new Sisters In Christ post goes live on the blog, however, you might finish the post each week craving more. There have been quite a few of you email me letting me know that you'd love to have some daily inspiration and more chances to share God's word with your fellow sisters - so I put my thinking cap on and decided it was time we started a Sisters in Christ Bible Study Group!
All you have to do to join us is sign up here and each week* after the Sisters in Christ post goes live, you'll be sent an email with our reading plan and questions to ponder and explore for the week - as well as a link to a comment stream on our Facebook page where you can chat with your fellow Sisters in Christ!
*At the moment, the emails will be weekly, however,l I will also set up a daily email option for those of you who'd like a daily reminder! We will also set up a new Facebook page devoted to Sisters in Christ if there's enough of us!
But, I digress! I bet you're wondering what exactly our next topic, Jesus 101, is going to be?
Well, if you read the title, you'll see that we're going to look at The Gospel of John! The Gospel of John is one of four gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) and it's often referred to as the new believer's or seekers gospel.
This is because the book of John gives us an up close and personal look at who Jesus was and what Jesus did. If you want to know Jesus, John is a great place to start - and that's exactly why I chose it as our next topic to explore together.
I like to think of John as Jesus 101, hence the name of this next study!
First, John takes us back in time to "The Beginning" where the word become flesh - and the "word" John is referring to there is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
The book of John includes the most famous verse in the New Testament;
John tells us that because Jesus is "God in the flesh" (that is; fully divine, yet fully human), He is able to reveal God to us clearly and accurately. Therefore, if we want to know what God is like - we only have to look at the life of Jesus!
As Paul said in Colossians 1:15;
"The Son is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation".
You can really sum it up in just four simple four words;
The great declaration of the Bible is that God was born in human flesh in Bethlehem. It was God in the person of Jesus Christ who lived a perfect life, performed miracles and amazed thousands with his teachings - and it was God who allowed Himself to be put to death on the cross for our sins. But it doesn't end there - it was also God who overcame death and rose again!
Jesus and the fact that He was God in human flesh is the "bottom line" of the Christian faith.
Luckily, you don't need to be a theologian to understand the purpose of the Gospel of John because he tells us himself in John 20:30-31;
John wants to show us how believing that Jesus of Nazareth is God the Son will change our lives in incredibly ways. He wants us to know that through believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God we find life - real, eternal life!
Every single event recorded in John shows us that Jesus is God - he uses specific incidents that demonstrate his power and majesty. In the first twelve chapters of John we read about seven miracles. These miracles weren't simply performed to meet human needs - they were "signs" that pointed to the truth of Jesus' claim to be the Son of God.
If you're a bit of a history nerd like me, you might like to know when John was written. Whilst there is no specific date, John was the last Gospel writer and evidence points to a date of around AD 90. The other Gospels had already been in circulation for some time by the time John's Gospel came around and John wrote his Gospel to add his unique perspective whilst also filling in some of the details not recorded by the other writers.
So, why did I choose John? Well, in addition to the reasons I explained above, I chose John because this is an incredible study on the greatest person who ever lived, Jesus Christ!
After all, to trust someone completely you need to understand them - and it is only through trusting Jesus that we can understand God's plan for us and carry out His will in our daily lives!
So whether you're a new Christian, wondering about God or a Christian with years of Bible Studies under their belt - this is going to be an incredible study to join in with as we explore Jesus's life together!
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This week's inspiration downloads:
Click on the link to download the image :)
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I'm looking forward to it sisters!
ReplyDeleteYou and me both! xoxo
ReplyDeleteDuuuuuude....(ette)....great great job at simplifying the book of John, and making it so easy to follow for those who are still new to Jesus' identity. :D I think John is so amazing because it has the power to briefly summarize all the "spiritual" attributes of God/Christ. Since all Gospels are written with different points of view in terms of their focus (ie: Christ as human (Mark), God, etc.), John is so awesome in ministering to all of us yes, but particularly for the new believer. When my sister was first starting to do Bible studies with me and embracing this whole thing of faith I rec'd her John. She was so blessed by it and wanted to know more and more! God is so good and I'm so glad we have His Words with us. Isn't that humble too, if you think about it? That He's willing to put His majestic and glorious words all within one little book? He really could be like, "whatever", but He goes as far as leaving us this little manual called the Bible. :)
ReplyDeleteStill reading your posts and enjoying (a lot!) everything you share... Great perspectives with this new series, I'm really looking forward to read your next posts, as it is for me an excellent way to discover more about Jesus without getting lost alone in the middle of all these aspects of Jesus' life.
ReplyDeleteHaha, thank you my love! I cannot wait to get started on this series!
ReplyDeleteJohn is such a good place to start and you are so right - we are so lucky that we have our own how-to guide to life that actually WORKS!
Hey Loise, I am so glad you're following along! I cannot wait to share this series and find out more about Jesus together! xoxo
ReplyDeleteVery true, but sometimes people can be thrown off by the "sugar-free" label. My husband is a type 1 diabetic, and often people will make him recipes like this because they are incorrectly labeled and they can really throw his blood sugars off (sometimes dramatically). :) If you would re-label it, it would be helpful for those who are truly not educated on the different forms of sugar. If this has any sugar at all (as you mentioned), it should not be labeled sugar free. :)
ReplyDeleteI used Swerve for this recipe because I can't have the maple syrup. It is a natural sweetener and measures cup for cup like sugar. It has the ability to caramelize just like sugar, and doesn't leave a yucky aftertaste, cause digestive problems, or cause sugar cravings. The recipe worked perfectly, and was amazing! If you are truly sugar free...that means no added sugars or foods with natural sugars in them, this is a wonderful alternative. I was so excited to find this recipe, because I'm REALLY missing the cider mill treats this year. Now I can make a yummy caramel apple, or popcorn, or even a caramel glaze for wheat-free donuts. I can make it with the maple syrup for my family, and I just save the Swerve version for me. :) I'm excited to hear how your almond milk version turns out. I love coconut flavor, but the almond would be good too!
ReplyDeleteHi Kathryn,
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear this recipe worked for you with Swerve! :)
I get you meant refined sugar... but thats sugar, saying this recipe is sugar free is just not true... which is lying... just saying. On to find an ACTUAL sugar free caramel recipe.
ReplyDeleteYou can also say this is lactose free because coconut milk doesn't have lactose.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't sugar free.
ReplyDelete