Discipleship 101

In the Bible we are exposed to numerous types of prayer. and a few models all of which we will examine, but to be powerful we must be strategic as well as diligent. Here is a list of 7 prayer types: 1. Adoration The first of these seven types of prayer is adoration. Adoration is praising God for who He is. God is the Lord of all and deserves our praise because of that alone.  Psalm 99:5  encourages us to exalt the Lord because He is holy. Recognizing the Lord’s power, mercy, love, and more in your prayer life is good. Check out these three prayers from the Bible as examples of adoration: Psalm 104:1-4 “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a f...

10 Reasons On The Importance of Prayer  1. Praying to God Helps Us Grow Closer To God Prayer helps us grow closer to God. When we pray, we welcome God to every part of our lives. The more you spend time talking and listening to God through prayer, the more we draw closer to Him and know Him. If God is close to us, what else do we have to fear? What else do we have to achieve? Nothing! Just like Paul, we can live fearlessly and courageously because we know that our mighty God is for and with us. Psalm 145:18 The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 2. Prayer Helps Us To Align Ourselves with God’s Will When we pray, we are aligning ourselves with God’s will. We are asking Him to lead us and help us in our journey through life. Prayer is a way for us to surrender our lives to God and trust that He will lead us down the path He has planned for us. When we take the time to pray, we are opening up a dialogue with our Creator. We are able t...

  Here are some additional straight forward methods to study the Bible. (Links in blue take you to step by step directions) 1. A character study   which is about people in the Bible. There are podcasts and books on these that are quite good. My Tuesday night Women's Bible Study studied the various women of the Bible for over a year. 2. A word study Focuses on a single word for example love In Greek there are four forms of the word all with different meanings. For this type of study you may want multiple Bible translations, lexicons, and/or Bible dictionaries. There are several software and online apps thar can help with this. I like biblehub.org 3. A thematic study In this type of study you choose a theme instead of a single word otherwise  it is very similar to a word study 4 . The sword method which basically takes any passage and asks three questions" What does this passage tell me about God? About mankind? What I am to do about it. 5. A book study. Pick a book o...

  The first Bible Study method we will look at is exposition . According to Dictionary .com exposition is explaining. It is one of the easiest and yet hardest types of Bible studies,  Lets look at an example... The well known verse Jo 3:16  KJV For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Start with where the book was written and when   The Gospel's place and date of composition are uncertain; many scholars suggest that it was written at Ephesus, in Asia Minor, about 100 ce for the purpose of communicating the truths about Christ to Christians of Hellenistic background   (Greeks). Next examine the words and their syntax . A dictionary can be helpful here. For instance the adverb so it has a totally different meaning if it came before the word God.  The word God Θεὸς Theos The word Theos means, God , the Creator and owner of all things The word love...

  So you have a new relationship with the savior of the universe, sounds intimidating doesn't it? But God came down in flesh (incarnate) so we could know him as a regular person.  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jn 1:14 NIV So my question is how do you get to know a new friend ? The answer is easy spend time with them. Jesus wants to be invited in to your day. We talk to Him, by praying and he tells us to do this unceasingly. Paul told the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing” and God told Joshua to meditate on his word day and night ( 1 Thes 5:17 ; Joshua 1:8 ) So where does the idea of a quiet time come in? Why do I need it? Having a quiet time will not earn you God points. It is not something for a spiritual checklist. It is simply an opportunity to spend uninterrupted and undistracted time with Jesus. 1 on 1 time with a friend. SO what is ...