Wondering What to Believe?
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Does Nature Give Proof of God?8 Digging Deeper
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Can I Hear God's Voice?8 Digging Deeper
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Digging Deeper
- Does God Care About My Concerns?
- Best practices for a thriving relationship.
- God wants us to know Him
- Ways that God communicates to us today.
- God gives us scriptures through men.
- Life changing love letter from God.
- God provides us a way for a relationship with Him through Jesus.
- Are you too busy for God?
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Who is God?8 Digging Deeper
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Digging Deeper
- God reveals himself throughout time so that people can worship the one true God.
- Evidences of the Existence of God.
- A God that always keeps his word.
- God’s ways above our ways.
- The Truth of God’s Nature.
- God is a loving, caring, beneficent God.
- A God that is God is long-suffering and forgiving.
- Striving to become more like God.
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Who Wrote the Bible?8 Digging Deeper
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Digging Deeper
- The Truth in the Bible.
- The Origin of the Bible
- The single author behind the many writers in the Bible.
- God foreshadowing discoveries made in today’s world.
- Why people downplay the evidences in the Bible.
- Foreshadowing of Jesus in the Old Testament
- Using doubt as an excuse to not change.
- What it means to have faith in the Bible.
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Can I Trust the Bible?7 Digging Deeper
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Digging Deeper
- Is it possible for us to know if the Bible is true?
- The differences and similarities between faith and trust.
- The significance in the magnitude of New Testament manuscripts compared to other ancient manuscripts.
- How large numbers of discovered manuscripts support the authenticity of the Bible.
- Why do you think about the very small (.001) part of critical textual variations found in the New Testament?
- How has the Bible impacted your life?
- Do you trust the Bible?
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Is there a Right and Wrong?7 Digging Deeper
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Digging Deeper
- The different standards for determining what is right and what is wrong.
- Is it in our nature to know what is right and wrong?
- Is right and wrong discerned by each person for themselves or is it ultimately determined by a higher authority?
- What to do in a situation where two people have different beliefs on what is right and wrong?
- Is there a standard when determining what is right and wrong?
- Is the Bible is our absolute moral standard for topics such as honesty, sexuality, the value of human life?
- Do you believe you can determine with absolute certainly what is right and wrong?
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Why Does God Allow Evil?9 Digging Deeper
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Who Am I?7 Digging Deeper
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What is the Meaning of Life?7 Digging Deeper
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Digging Deeper
- What is the meaning of your life? What is your purpose?
- How Jesus brings meaning to our lives.
- How does knowing Jesus will judge both the good and the bad in our lives impact the way we live?
- What do you make of the reading from Ecclesiastes 5:15?
- What do you want to be said about your life when you’re gone?
- How our understanding of the meaning of our life impact the way we live.
- What would you say was the meaning of the life you’ve lived so far?
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Does God Love Me?5 Digging Deeper
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Group Progress
Group Progress
The Truth of God’s Nature.
God gave his name to Moses at the burning bush when he said, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:13-15). This is translated from the Hebrew word “YHWH” which with the vowels supplied by the reader is “Yahweh,” a name for God that appears in the Old Testament 6,823 times. The Hebrew verb “havah” means “to be” or “being.” This indicates that God is the absolute self-existent One who in himself alone possesses essential life. “I am” is present tense. God is always “I am” because he is always eternally present. The present tense includes all that is in the past, all that is in the present and all that will be in the future.
The Hebrew word is transliterated (to change letters or words of one language into corresponding characters of another alphabet or language) as “Jehovah” in the American Standard Version (ASV) and a few times in the King James Version (KJV). Most other English translations translate “Yahweh” as “LORD” in capitals (note the capital letters) to distinguish it from another Hebrew word “Adonai,” also translated as “Lord” but in lower case letters.
The people of God in the Old Testament used the name “Yahweh” (Jehovah) in word combinations describing how God was acting in the events of their lives. It is spiritually strengthening to study God and his activities in these contexts:
“Jehovah-Elohim” (Genesis 2:4). Translated as “LORD God” in KJV and ESV, and as “Jehovah God” in ASV.
“Jehovah-jireh” (Genesis 22:14, KJV and ASV). Translated as “The LORD will provide” in the ESV and other translations).
“Jehovah-rophe” (Exodus 15:26). Translated “I am the LORD that heals you” in the ESV and others).
“Jehovah-nissi” (Exodus 17:15, KJV and ASV). Translated as “The LORD is my Banner” in ESV and others).
“Jehovah-M’Kaddesh” (Leviticus 20:8). Translated as “I am the LORD who sanctifies you (sets you apart)” in KJV, ASV, ESV and others.
“Jehovah-shalom” (Judges 6:24, KJV and ASV). Translated as “The LORD is Peace” in ESV and others.
“Jehovah-tsidenu” (Jeremiah 23:5-6). Translated as “The LORD is our Righteousness” in ESV and others.
“Jehovah-rohi” (Psalm 23:1). Translated as “The LORD is my shepherd” in KJV and ESV and as “Jehovah is my shepherd” in the ASV.
“Jehovah-shammah” (Ezekiel 48:35). Translated as “The LORD is There” in KJV, ASV, ESV.
The video shows us that God in his nature is far, far beyond us and is powerful, awesome, loving, patient and good. He is not human because he, unlike us, is immortal, eternal, perfect, pure, righteous, truthful and promise-keeping. His attributes determine what he does and how and why he gets involved with our lives. He acts in our time-space history. He is fully aware of our needs and situations. He cares about us. He is touched by our pain and suffering and he works to do something about it. At the burning bush, God said to Moses,
I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, . . . behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. (Exodus 3:4-10)
In his first letter, the Apostle John says that “God is love” (I John 4:8, 16). God expresses his love by seeking our best and saving and serving us. God loved us before we knew he existed. His love for us teaches us to love one another. Whoever loves the Father must also love his children. John writes,
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (4:7-11, NIV)
The great, active and giving love of God for us models how we are to love one another. John explained,
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (3:16-18)
What this means is that “God talk” is not just “talk” about a far away, uninvolved, isolated, and uncaring deity. The God revealed in the Bible is a personal God who loves us, cares for us, reveals himself to us and is involved in our lives. We are to love one another the way that he loves us (John 15:12). We are to be “God-like” in the way we live with others. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2). Paul encouraged believers to live like this when he wrote, “Let all that you do be done in love” (I Corinthians 16:14).