Lessons from the Law of Love, Session 3 Article
An Abbreviated Phone Tree Bible Study based on The Law of Love: Lessons from the Pages of Deuteronomy by Beth Moore with Articles by Melissa Moore Fitzpatrick
“For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land…You will eat your fill and then praise the Lord your God because of the good land he has given you.”
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The Week in Summary (Synopsis of Featured Session): Session 3 Article
Key Point – – > Deuteronomy…a book worth remembering. A book whereby we might sense the love of God and fall more madly in love with Him.
The Law of Love lecture series includes a listening guide with six supplemental articles. With each session, participants are granted a chance to read a featured message from Biblical languages student and researcher, Melissa Moore Fitzpatrick. The Session Three Article specifically talks about the love of God, grace as it relates to the Old and New Testaments, the fundamental goodness of the law and the testimony of the LORD, and the importance of understanding the freedom-life principles found in God’s revealed Word.
The Lesson (Phone Tree Take Away Points):
- Love has been communicated by God to His people over the course of time in and through various means.
- Even in the writings of old, there are good lessons meant for us to grasp and take hold of.
- An ongoing continuum related to God’s profound extension of blessings can be found in the pages of Deuteronomy.
- The good and abundant life that God’s people have always sought out is reflected in His law and testimony.
The Question (Something to Consider):
Do you view the Bible as a guide that reveals God’s way of blessing or do you view it as a set of rules meant to restrict and tightly bind your freedoms?
* Next week, The Phone Tree Bible Study Group will be featuring Session 6.*
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Special CONNECTIONS
A Phone Tree Book Review: Unexpected Love by Julie Zine Coleman
Unexpected Love: God’s Heart Revealed in Jesus’
Conversations with Women by Julie Zine Coleman
About the Book: “How would you characterize Jesus in his interactions with women? Gracious? Preachy? Aloof? Kind? Dismissive?
Unexpected Love is an essential read for anyone eager to understand Jesus Christ’s true heart for women. We ache for a satisfying relationship with him and crave his healing touch. So did the women of the first century. Each approached him with something they wanted. They left with more than they could have imagined.
Writer and teacher Julie Coleman carefully walks readers through the gospel narratives, offering evidence of a perceptive Savior deeply concerned about the women he met. Through vivid descriptions, thoughtful questions, and empowering applications, she brings a fresh perspective to these sometimes puzzling stories.
Unexpected Love offers a compelling vision of a Savior who meets us where we are and will take us where we need to go. Discover his passion for women. What you read will impact your own relationship with him. You will fall in love with the dynamic, beautiful, and unexpectedly personal Jesus.” – Amazon.com
Phone Tree Review: Unexpected Love by Julie Zine Coleman is a solid read that will stimulate the mind and cause one to do much in the way of deep thinking. Written in a very scholarly and functional voice, this book is a study on biblical essentials, such as understanding the importance of having a relationship with the LORD, considering how we view life circumstances, other people and self from day-to-day, and knowing the significance of the religious practices of old and seeing how they had an impact on thought processes.
The way that this book is formatted is appealing in that it presents Scripture, background and conversational content, food for thought which features discussion questions, and journaling. Particularly, I appreciated the fact that the book could be taken as a whole or broken down per section for feature studies.
Unexpected Love would most certainly be a good place to begin for anyone who wanted to learn how to further study the Word of God.
Phone Tree Rating: 4 Stars ****
I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Table Talk Tuesdays…Dry Bones Dancing by Tony Evans
Dry Bones Dancing: (Quote from Tony Evans): “Could there be life again where life had totally departed? Can strength and movement and energy and awareness and responsiveness somehow reappear in those who are so utterly dead that their bodies have decayed away, leaving nothing but bones – and even those very bones are disconnected and bleached and dry?”
Table Talk (The Chat): Does hope exist beyond despair? Is there a reason to believe that goodness and wholeness live outside of those things that seem lifeless or lost? In the lives of those who are lacking, can there be expectancy? Anticipation? Trust in the God of heaven? Can there be a zealous desire to believe that something – anything – is possible with God?
Resurrecting Your Spiritual Passion (Scripture Reference): Ezekiel 37
Table Talk Discussion Question: Do you believe that God has the power to revive and resurrect that which is dead in you?
Lessons from the Law of Love, Session 1
An Abbreviated Phone Tree Bible Study based on The Law of Love: Lessons from the Pages of Deuteronomy by Beth Moore
“And He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in…”
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The Week in Summary (Synopsis of Featured Session): Session 1
Key Point – - > Deuteronomy…a book of words. Words meant to explain and to make clear the law of the LORD.
Steeped with Scripture, to the point of wonderfully infinite overflow, Session 1 of this Beth Moore lecture study delivers much in the way of teaching. In the first of six DVD-based lessons, Moore gives background on the fifth book of the Pentateuch. Throughout the teaching, she provides generous insight into the Hebrew-to-Greek meanings of key words. She also supplies many functional perspectives on how Deuteronomy relates to present-day believers.
The Lesson (Phone Tree Take Away Points):
- God’s word has a way of reaching across the pages of history to reveal relevant truths to those who belong to Him.
- No matter how lost we might seem or how prone we are to wander, God is ever-present and ready to direct us to His place of promise.
- The word of God has the capacity to restore, direct, and revitalize the children of God.
- There will come a time in each of our lives when we will be called to go out and encouraged to go in.
- Sadly, many of us are not confident in or convinced of God’s promise of provision.
- Faithlessness can paralyze us and cause us to become “stuck.”
- By way of the book of Deuteronomy, we are granted an opportunity to regain our vision, we are encouraged to see a more divinely purposed path, and we are called to experience an even greater release.
The Question (Something to Consider):
Are you presently moving (“running quickly”) toward your land of promise or are you paralyzed because of your life circumstances?
* Next week, The Phone Tree Bible Study Group will be featuring Session 3.*
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Special CONNECTIONS
FYI: Just So You Know
Just so you know, here’s what’s coming your way from The Phone Tree Bible Study Group over the coming weeks.
- Sundays in May (5/12/13, 5/19/13, & 5/26/13): The Law of Love: Lessons from the Pages of Deuteronomy by Beth Moore
- Table Talk Tuesdays in May (5/14/13, 5/21/13, & 5/28/13): Dry Bones Dancing: Resurrecting Your Spiritual Passion by Tony Evans
- Thursdays in May (5/16/13, 5/23/13, 5/30/13): Book Reviews on Unexpected Love by Julie Zine Coleman, Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert and Fruit Happens by Michael Christopher.
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And don’t forget…coming in June 2013
The Phone Tree Bible Study: Repurposed: The Memoirs of Nehemiah by Mike Hurt
Length of Study: 5 weeks
Details about the Study:
Start Date – Sunday, June 2, 2013; End Date – Sunday, June 30, 2013
Objective of the Study: Learn what it takes to live courageously with compassion.
* All study material associated with this lesson series will be posted on the blog each Sunday. You are encouraged to post your responses to the study questions by the following week. A Phone Tree conference call feature will be included with this study.
“Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger. Forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart.”
― Jim Henson
The Jesus the One and Only Gift-Away Winner is…
Congratulations, Debbie Boger!
You are the winner of the Jesus the One and Only Gift-away.
Please contact The Phone Tree at edifier1@hotmail.com to let me know where you would like your gift sent.
Jesus the One and Only – A Phone Tree Review & a Gift-Away Opportunity
“His One and Only Son. Our One and Only Savior. Your Closest Friend Today and Forever.
In Jesus, the One and Only, Beth Moore invites you to know Christ personally. Watch and listen as He breaks up a funeral by raising the dead, confronts conniving religious leaders of His day, teaches on a Galilean hillside, or walks on the waves and calms the storm. Like a ragtag band of followers two thousand years ago, you will never be the same again after such an up close and personal encounter.
Beth writes:
He is Jesus, the One and Only, transcendent over all else. To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to long for Him.
To long for Him is to finally reach soul hands into the One true thing we need never get enough of . . . Jesus Christ. He’s all you need.” – B & H Publishing Group
The Phone Tree Review:
Have you ever wanted to experience Jesus in a profoundly intimate way? Have you ever wondered what it might have been like to breathe the air that He breathed or to touch the lives of others the way that He did? What if you could know Him more deeply or more personally? Would you?
In Jesus the One and Only, Beth Moore does a superb job of bringing Christ to the forefront. She invites readers to encounter the Messiah in such a way that His life gives depth of meaning to those who choose to follow.
More than just a superficial narrative, this book is a personal call from one lover of the LORD to all others.
Filled with Scripture references, word origin study points, personal reflections, and thought-provoking questions, this book is perfect for the individual who longs to go deeper with the One and Only.
Phone Tree Rating: 4.5/5 Stars ****~
Phone Tree Recommendation: Highly Recommend
A Phone Tree Gift-Away Opportunity:
The Phone Tree Bible Study Group will be gifting away a copy of Beth Moore’s book, Jesus the One and Only. If you would like to be considered for this very special Gift-Away opportunity, simply leave your name on this post, along with one thing you would like us to know about Jesus.
Please submit your name and your comment about Jesus by midnight on Sunday, May 5, 2013. The winner will be randomly selected and announced on Monday, May 6, 2013.
God Bless!
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A complimentary copy of this title was provided by the publisher. The words expressed in this review are my own. Special thanks to Shelton Interactive for starting this much needed conversation. It truly does matter.
The Forgotten Side of Yes
“What so often begins as a ‘yes’ to God sometimes ends as an ‘I don’t know what happened.’ Thankfully, there is grace.”
~ Eva Kim
In the natural, man often forgets himself. He forgets his identity, his convictions, his purpose, his focus. In one moment he stands as a pillar, sure and firm in his ways, but in the very next moment, he struggles against what he knows to be true and right. He loses himself in selfish desires, fear, a lack of faith, or maybe even insecurity.
Abraham. Moses. David. Solomon. Jonah. Peter. Paul. John Mark. They each veered off course at some point. They forgot their yes to God. And these men do not stand alone. No. Not at all. In their stories, we can glimpse ourselves. We can see the forgotten side of our yes. The side that once upon a time was rooted in the affirmative, but somehow lost traction and intent of heart. Thankfully, however, there is a more divine Yes in the LORD that pours out love, grace, and so much more on those whom He cares for.
A More Divine Yes for the Forgetful Pilgrim
For the forgetful pilgrim in search of a home, God’s Yes is a dwelling place.
For the forgetful pilgrim who questions his ability to speak, God’s Yes is His voice.
For the forgetful pilgrim who commits adultery in the physical and beyond, God’s Yes is a covenant relationship in the purest sense.
For the forgetful pilgrim who makes foolish choices, God’s Yes is wisdom and understanding of Him and in Him.
For the forgetful pilgrim who runs from truth, God’s Yes is revelation.
For the forgetful pilgrim who acts out without thought or care beyond himself, God’s Yes is forgiveness.
For the forgetful pilgrim who is so obtusely focused on what seems right versus what is right, God’s Yes is Light.
For the forgetful pilgrim who turns his gaze toward unknown trails, God’s Yes is the promise of supernatural transformation.
Prayer: Father, thank You for being our Yes. When we would forget, help us to remember. In the saving name of Jesus. Amen.
“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
A Tyndale Blog Tour Post| Take a Chance on Me by Susan May Warren
by Susan May Warren
“Darek Christiansen is almost a dream bachelor—oldest son in the large Christiansen clan, heir to their historic Evergreen Lake Resort, and doting father. But he’s also wounded and angry since the tragic death of his wife, Felicity. No woman in Deep Haven dares come near.
New assistant county attorney Ivy Madison simply doesn’t know any better when she bids on Darek at the charity auction. Nor does she know that when she crafted a plea bargain three years ago to keep Jensen Atwood out of jail and in Deep Haven fulfilling community service, she was releasing the man responsible for Felicity’s death. All Ivy knows is that the Christiansens feel like the family she’s always longed for. And once she gets past Darek’s tough exterior, she finds a man she could spend the rest of her life with. Which scares her almost as much as Darek learning of her involvement in his wife’s case.
Caught between new love and old grudges, Darek must decide if he can set aside the past for a future with Ivy—a future more and more at risk as an approaching wildfire threatens to wipe out the Christiansen resort and Deep Haven itself.” – Tyndale Publishing House
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Author Q & A:
What was your inspiration for this particular book and the main character Darek Christiansen?
As I started to put together this series, I began to think about our culture and our children today. I started to take a look at the big questions we are faced with as parents – and as young people; the issues that affect us as a culture, as well as personally. I wanted these books to go beyond family drama, beyond a great romance to raise bigger questions and stir truths that we might pass along to others. This story is about our propensity in our culture to blame others for what goes wrong in our lives – and how this alienates us from each other, and ultimately, God. Darek is the oldest brother in the family; the leader and a real hero. He’s a wildland firefighter and a widower who’s had to give up his job to come home and run the resort and care for his young son. Darek doesn’t realize he has a problem – he lives with anger on his shoulder, hating the man who killed his wife (his best friend). His real problem is that he can’t forgive himself. In this first story, readers meet the family, hang out at the resort and discover that God can redeem even a heart of stone, if we take a chance on Him.
What lessons or truths will your readers find in the pages of this novel?
This book is for the person who feels they just can’t get past the anger they have for someone else to live in joy again. It’s for parents who see their children making bad choices and don’t know where to turn. It’s for people who believe that no one will ever really love them because of who they are, or the things they’ve done. It’s for people who need the courage to take a second chance on love and faith and family. I’m hoping readers walk away with a sense of how much God loves them, and that yes, He can heal the angry and broken-hearted.
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Read an excerpt from the Book:
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The Phone Tree Review:
Absolutely outstanding in every possible way! I loved, loved, loved this book. I laughed. I cried. I held my breath. I cheered. This is very definitely a keeper.
Deep Haven…there is something in that name. It’s a place that holds within it the lives of those who have been wounded, scarred, and hurt. Darek. Ivy. Jensen. Claire. It’s a place where it seems anyone can find redemption, hope, and love.
Bring on the next Christiansen story…the next Deep Haven story for that matter. I am officially hooked!
The Phone Tree Rating:
5 STARS *****
The Phone Tree Recommendation:
Get this book! Read it. While you’re at it, read all of the Deep Haven stories. I know I will.
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Take a Chance on Me was received from the Tyndale Blog Network as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
The CHASE: Chasing After the Heart of God, Week 7
A Special Phone Tree Bible Study CONNECTIONS Series
“He made us incomplete without Him and yet we want everything but Him…so He came after us.”
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Study Objectives:
- Discover the heart of God.
- Explore the life of David.
- Examine your heart for God.
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Week 7 Assignment: Read CHASED DOWN (Lesson 7)
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PURSUE:
(Quotes from Jennie)
- “We chase everything trying to fill these God-given holes. He left space in us for Him.”
- “Something about David’s understanding of our God was different. He experienced something most of us long for more than any other thing: he experienced God’s love for him. There was no measuring up, just God who loved him and saved him.”
- “God chased us down and none of our pursuits, however vain, could make Him love us less.”
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ENGRAVE:
(Scripture Review)
Read Psalm 40.
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HUNT:
(Self-examination)
List some of the ways you have sought to pursue God.
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RUN:
(The Heart of the Matter)
The heart of the matter is that we must focus on the Essential. We must center our attention on the Most High in every way. We must seek, run, follow, and chase after the One who loves us beyond all comprehension. David understood this and so must we. The Almighty pursues us; we can and should do no less with regard to Him.
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The CHASE:
(A Question Just For You)
Have you done all that you can to pursue the heart of God?
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The CHALLENGE:
Experience God anew.
(Meditate on Psalm 40:16-17.)
Kim Teamer, Christ Follower/Bible Study Enthusiast/Pursuer of Truth 
