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by M. Ted Forester (Author)
Jesus called. You responded. NOW WHAT? Forty Days of Faithfulness is the seventh volume in the Welcome Holy Spirit (WHS) Bible Study Devotional Workbook Series, which welcomes the Holy Spirit into our lives every day and enriches our relationships with this amazing and wonderful Comforter that Jesus sent to us. The Holy Spirit makes our lives happy and full, and more importantly, establishes us as children of God: "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16). The Welcome Holy Spirit (WHS) Bible Study Devotional Workbook Series is designed to facilitate Bible study reflection for individuals and discussion opportunities for groups. Each day's entry is followed by a page of discussion prompts and space to write down any ideas they elicit. The prompts include reflections, connections, questions, implications, applications, and exemplars. The prompts are followed by sentence stems that help readers to elicit and express their ideas. Below, and in the introduction of the workbook, is a more detailed description of each of the prompts: Reflections: This space allows readers to share thoughts that the Holy Spirit prompts them to have as they read each day's entry. Maybe you are not convinced or disagree with something in that day's entry. Maybe you have thought of that verse differently. Maybe it implies something more in your mind. Connections: In this space, readers can describe the things that day's entry reminds them of, perhaps other scriptures, or maybe something they learned in a previous lesson, something they remember from a sermon, or even something from their childhood. Questions: Here is where readers record any questions they may have. Questions begin with who, what, where, when, why, and how. Questions are meant to clarify any confusion. If something confuses you, try to formulate a question from that confusion. Implications: This is where readers can record any inferences they have from the passage. Given what the passage says, what else can we then deduce or infer? Applications: Readers can record what they believe this passage would look like in practice. The focus is on how we can apply the concepts of the day's entry in our lives. Exemplar: This space provides the opportunity to celebrate someone in your life whom you believe to be an ideal model of the lesson in the day's entry. Once we identify someone, we can invite them to be a mentor or resource to help us develop that quality in our own lives. Below is a sample format for a group Bible Study meeting provided in the introduction. 1. Call to Order. 2. Greetings, Welcome, and Announcements. 3. Opening Prayer (seeking each member's surrender to the presence and promptings of the Holy Spirit). 4. Good News/Bad News Round-Robin Share: Each member shares the celebrations and concerns of the week and any prayer requests. 5. Golden Line Round-Robin Share: Each member share's one "golden line" from the previous week's readings, a sentence or two that resounded powerfully with them. Remind participants to resist the urge to engage in discussion or debate at this juncture. Simply allow each person to share. 6. Discussion of Daily Prompts. For each day's reading, ask for two or three volunteers to share one of their responses to the prompts for that day, and allow other people to respond and build upon each person's contributions. 7. Closing Prayer (seeking the Holy Spirit's presence in each member's life throughout the coming week, particularly as they read and respond to their daily WHS entries).Thank you for choosing The WHS Bible Study Devotional. May God bless you and keep you, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ shine upon you, and may the amazing Holy Spirit dwell in you and merge with your spirit to produce the fruits of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and temperance in your life more abundantly than ever before!
