Bible Study - I love it!

I have been going through Beth Moore’s study: John, the Beloved Disciple this summer on my own. I have just finished the section where Beth goes through Revelation 2 & 3 where John writes what Jesus told him about the seven churches.

She is so good about giving information beyond the Word, such as the history of the locations, the culture, and their community challenges. It really gives a lot of clarity to what Jesus says about them. She deals with churches in her study, but churches are a group of people, and therefore she focuses on individual's weaknesses and strengths. But at the end of this section, she encourages review to see what was gleaned regarding the church as a body.

Here is what I learned:
The church as a whole needs
Repentance – to cleanses ourselves from our selfishness
Forgiveness – of one another of our short-comings

No matter what we have to deal with in the future of our country and the state of the world, the church needs to stay faithful to its beliefs and stand up for our Lord Jesus! Be a witness and never let go of the hope!

Compassion – forget your own needs and care for those around you with great needs
Faithfulness – we must endure the fires of adversity to be strong in our faith and we will be tested as a church or we cannot consider ourselves worthy of notice
Survival – in a world where Satan’s goal is to lure us away from obedience and faith in our God, he works hard to attract us to the things of this world: money, beauty, power, ease of life, personal gain … so we have not time for the things God calls us to do.
Leadership – taking responsibility to lead people to Jesus, without compromise.
Attentiveness – fixing our eyes on the needs of today in our community and not living in the world as it used to be.

Spirit-filled churches are built one way: through spirit-filled people.

Significance – making a difference

A landowner doesn’t judge a harvest by the quantity of fruit alone. Diseased fruit means nothing but loss to him. He looks for quality. Be serious about our faith – aim to make a difference.

Usefulness – Jesus has invested everything in earth in His church. He willingly fills her, frees her, purifies her, and restores her, but He NEVER takes His eyes off her. Lives are at stake. Church matters. Bride, make yourself ready!

Awareness – God is always walking beside the church – he knows our heart, attitudes, needs and actions. HE SEES ALL AND KNOWS ALL.

Is our church pleasing him?
Are we raising our lampstands – giving light to the community?
This is what I love about a Beth Moore study – relevancy! I can hardly wait for the study this fall: Living Beyond Yourself — Exploring The Fruit of the Spirit.