Maadi Women's Bible Study

6. Colossians Pushing Back and Pushing Forward (ch.1:24 Filling Up What is Lacking)

Pre- lesson Question

As you look back at your “come to Jesus story” how significant was the suffering that Jesus endured, to your story and understanding?

1. Do you think you have ever suffered in some capacity (physically, emotionally, relationally) because of your relationship with Christ?
2. What do your prayers say about your truest thoughts on suffering and trails?
3. Do you think all suffering counts as redemptive? 

5. Colossians Pushing Back and Pushing Forward (ch. 1:20-23)

Questions

1. How do you understand what Paul is teaching when he writes that we will be presented without blemish and free from accusation ‘if’ we continue in our faith?
2. What do you think Paul means by having the ministry of reconciliation?
3. What would this look like in practice in your life?

4. Colossians Pushing Back and Pushing Forward

	Orthodoxy (Right Belief)	Pushing Back	Pushing Onward
Image of the invisible God   God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him
For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers of rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ...the firstborn over all creation.
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Questions

1. In what ways does the supremacy of Christ challenge your worldview or personal experience?

2. What in your life needs to change to be brought back under the authority of Jesus?

3. How can you rest in the significance and security that an understanding of the supremacy of Jesus brings?

3. Colossians Pushing Back and Pushing Forward (ch.1:13-14)

1. What is your gut response when we talk about the spiritual realm in this fashion?
2. v. 12 speaks of God strengthening you with power according to his glorious might… How do you understand his effort at “strengthening you?” 
3. How can gratitude be a sufficient weapon against the dark evil which surrounds you? 
4. How can we keep a proper perspective toward the world? 
5. What is an application that you can make from today’s teaching to your life and journey?

2. Colossians Pushing Forward and Pushing Back (ch.1:9-14)

Questions

1. What can your prayer life learn from the prayer that Paul has for those for whom he feels spiritually responsible?
2. How does one go about determining what it looks like to walk “in a manner worthy of the Lord…?” How can this be understood in such a way as to not lead to critical self condemnation or outward judging of others?
3. Before praying for one another take some time to sit quietly and ask God for wisdom and insight into how to pray for another lady in your group.

1.Colossians Pushing Forward and Pushing Back (Intro)

Sorry we lost our electricity early on so this is a salvaged version of the audio. I will recap so major points in the next lesson.

15. The Seedbed of Scripture (Genesis 11 Tower of Babel is More Than You Think)

This is the final week of our Spring study. I hope that it has opened up some new avenues for reading and understanding Scripture. We will return in mid September  with a new study!  

Questions

1. Take a few minutes of quiet prayer and reflection and ask God to reveal ways that you might overtly or subversively seek to make a name for yourself or seek to create connection with God on your own terms? Discuss

14. The Seedbed of Scripture (Genesis 9:18-28, ch. 10-11 Table of Nations)

“N. American Christianity has a strong historical tendency to be ethnocentric, and part of this distortion is to project Caucasian people back into all aspects of the biblical story. Coming to grips with the multi-ethnic, non-caucasian cultural context of the OT is a critical foundational step in developing a truly biblical theology of race.” From Every People and Nation Daniel Hayes

1. Has this current discussion of race in US (although very relevant in France and UK at the moment) caused you in any way to self exam? What are some of your discoveries?
2. Unity is one of God’s greatest goals and a tool to reaching his greatest goal of reconciling all things to himself. How do you see the enemy using disunity as a primary tool to resist God’s purpose and plans?

13. The Seedbed of Scripture (Genesis 6:9-ch. 9 Noah and the Flood)

m. Questions ch. 6-9

1. The text (6:9) tells us that “Noah walked with God.” What do we understand “walking with God” to mean? Who else in the Bible walked with God? Do we feel we, ourselves, “walk with God”? Why or why not? Do we want to? How would that be different from the way we live now?
2. Why is the story of Noah, the flood, and God’s covenant with Noah important to you today, and how does it strengthen your faith, your view of God, and your hope for the future?
3. What kind of connection can you make (if any) between the flood and this pandemic that we are living under today?

12. The Seedbed of Scripture (Genesis 6:1-8 Who Are the Son's of God?)

1. Jesus said in Jn. 5:39 that all Scripture bears witness about him. How would you connect this story in Gen. 6 to the gospel message of Jesus?

 

2. Discuss the idea that human evil and rebellion works in conjunction with spiritual evil and rebellion.  Babylon in the Bible represents political, economic, cultural and personal depravity. All of these factors today contribute to human rebellion.