Thinking Girls Bible Study

This summer we lost two heroes of the faith. Though they are no longer with us, their testimonies will live on indefinitely. Most people knew who Billy Graham was. Some might not be as familiar with the other one, Chuck Missler. Nevertheless, he had a huge following and impact on the world for Christ. Both had a tremendous impact in the world for evangelism and discipleship. It’s interesting as I write this, I see that in the twofold commission that Jesus gave his disciples that Billy Graham was most impactful in evangelism, while Chuck Missler’s call and passion was for discipleship. Chuck’s work can be found on his website khouse.org. I would urge everyone, if you are not familiar with Chuck’s Bible studies, to check them out. They have been most meaningful in my growth as a disciple of Christ. What is so significant about these two men and their ministries, is that their witness, impact and fruit will continue long after they are gone. This is true of so many, for example,

If we are going to study thinking girls, we have to look at Mary, the ultimate thinking girl. The first mention of Mary, the mother of Yeshua, by her name is in Matthew 1:16: “And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. Mary in Hebrew is Miryam and means “rebellion.” It’s from the root word meriy which means “bitterness, i.e. (figuratively) rebellion; concretely, bitter, or rebellious: —bitter, (most) rebel(-ion, -ious). It seems strange in a way that the mother of our Lord would have a name that means rebellion. But when you think about it, how appropriate that the Deliverer would be born from our rebellion. It goes back to the Garden of Eden when Adam rebelled against God and sinned, but God had a plan from eternity that He would send His son to deliver us. Now that plan was finally coming to fruition. Matthew 1:18: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they

There comes a time in our lives, if we are going to have a more intimate relationship with our Savior, that He must teach us about the hidden life. It’s a time to teach us to trust not in His gifts and what He can do for us, but to teach us who He is and to trust in Him. It’s a time to rid us of ourselves, our self life, so that we can come to know Him better and learn to fully depend on Him. It’s a time of shaking and cutting away all the unnecessary, so that what is left can’t be shaken, and so we can be the most fruitful. There came a time in Elijah’s life for this. Let’s study. 1 Kings 17: 1- 9: “And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.’ Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the broo

When I was trying to come up with a title for the online Bible study that I wanted to do, I decided on Thinking Girls because I wanted to do studies that are a little deeper than just a devotional. I love studies that make me think. We are so busy and preoccupied in our lives now. I’ve noticed that everything seems to have been reduced to the lowest common denominator. The emphasis for excellence has been diminished, because a movement back when my kids were in school wanted to take personal achievement away and give every kid a trophy or a metal. The idea was to not make a child feel bad about himself because somebody got an award and he didn’t. We are seeing the effects of that now. Everything and everyone is described in superlatives, but everything is really just average. That coupled with the fast paced life and social media, it’s hard to find something that really is thought provoking. One of the most important characteristics that we can have is to be

Are you waiting on the Lord for something? Have you been waiting a long time? Have you just about given up hope? Don’t. God’s delays are always designed and productive. He is doing something that He couldn’t do without the delay. It’s because He loves you that He delays...He wants to do something more in your life than what you can see. I have been waiting on the Lord for something major in my life for a long, long time. It has been a long, and at times, agonizing journey. Some days feel very dark. The longer I wait, the more I begin to question if I’ve really heard from Him. One particular day not too long ago, I woke up in discouragement. It was one of those days of questioning. I asked the Lord to just speak to me in a way that I would know that it was Him. I opened my Bible to John 11 which is the passage of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. My eyes went immediately to a note I had written in the margin, “God has told me what to do —I need to walk in the light He ha

This study is somewhat different than the previous ones. It’s a study of Bathsheba. Her story is important to us for many reasons. She is best known as the one with whom David committed adultery. But there is more to her story than that. We can learn from Bathsheba about repentance and then being useful and fruitful for the Kingdom. 2 Samuel 11:1-3: “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem . Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, ‘Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’” (Emphasis mine.) Problem number one: It’s the time of year when kings g

We often hear of the proverbial “blessing in disguise.” Many times, in fact, I would say every time we are faced with loss and hardship, there will be a blessing attached to it. It’s in our barrenness, our dry times, our wildernesses that we learn things we could not have learned otherwise. But when we come out on the other side, what we learned turns out to be precious stones in our lives. Our study of Hannah begins In 1 Samuel 1. I will be using the New King James Bible and the Blue Letter Bible and Strong’s as references. 1 Samuel 1: 1-2: “Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. And he had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Right from the start we get a clue for studying the story of Hannah when we look at the Hebrew word Ramathaim