The Salvation Soldier

It’s been some time since we highlighted the ministry and fellowship of Friday Night Bible Study.

We’re currently studying some of Paul’s Epistles to the early churches.  We just finished three weeks in Galatians, and tonight we begin a three-session study through Ephesians.  These are survey-type studies, meaning that we are analyzing greater themes throughout each book, rather than spending a great deal of time on verse-level study.

We believe our format is distinctive; each Friday evening, we play a recording of our study text while reading along in the same Bible translation [See tonight's handout for an example].  Then, we explore the text with some guided discussion and commentary.

Take a look at some of our upcoming studies; perhaps you’d like to join us!  We meet almost every Friday at 7:30 p.m. (exceptions are rare, but two of those rare exceptions are in this month!) at The Salvation Army ARC, 1301 Broadway, San Diego.

Here’s a map to help you find your way; just ask for Josh when you get there!

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We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

- The Salvation Army Articles of Faith

Being good, Bible-believing people that we are, we’ve begun to really challenge one another to stay in the Word daily.  After all…

• If this really is a message from outside the universe, we really should know it well.

• And if it really is authored by a Being so much greater than ourselves, we’ll have to work at it to really understand.

• And if we’re really human, it’s not something we can cram into our minds.  We need to visit the text often, and in small enough portions that the Word has opportunity to take root in our souls, bit by glorious bit.

So, we’re doing this together.

We’re reading through the entire Bible in one year, beginning today, March 1, 2010.  You can join us – it’s easy and it’s free.

Find more details on the Bible in One Year page.  Details like:

• How and why this is a chronological reading, which makes it NOT a Genesis to Revelation reading straight through.

• How you can commit to reading only the New Testament in one year instead of the entire Bible.

• How to get the digital version OR the print version (or both!).

If you really want to stay on top of this, ask for daily reminders via email.

Here’s week two of our “Prayers from the Bible” series of readings.  Use these prayers to bolster your spirit and shore up your convictions – next week we’ll begin the full one-year walk through the Bible!

The one year plan finds us reading through the entire Bible chronologically.  We begin in Genesis, but quickly find ourselves in Job, then back to Genesis again, and so on.

To keep our minds alert, though, we’re actually doing two separate readings at once: each day includes a portion of the Old Testament and a portion of the New Testament, so it’s really two separate timelines per day.

We’re set to launch a large-scale daily Bible reading plan for the collective experience and edification of our entire congregation (lots o’ big words there!).  In the meantime, please enjoy this first of two sets of Bible-based prayers.

Here’s a suggestion: pray these prayers yourself!

Here’s our 2nd week of passages on God’s view of social justice.  We have two days from Amos, an often overlooked Biblical hero with a passion for helping the hurting and the disenfranchised.

In these final two weeks of our congregation’s daily Bible reading challenge, we explore an issue important to God’s heart: justice.

Scripture presents a unified front on how humans treat one another, and Jesus summed it up in his response to the question about the greatest commandment.

Pick up your copy of the reading handout in church – or download it below.

We started our six-week campaign to get our whole congregation reading the same Bible passages together, and we asked for people to share their experiences; how that week’s reading made a difference.  Here are the first three we received:

These testimonies encourage others to seek the truths of God’s Word, to come together as a family, and to discover just how well the totality of Scripture fits together.  Keep ‘em coming!