Last week, our Couple’s Bible Study group met for a potluck to make plans for the upcoming year. We take the summer off from regular weekly meetings but enjoy a potluck and time of prayer at one of our homes during summer months. It’s always such a joy to get together again and share what’s happening in our lives.
Even though we see each other on Sundays, small group Bible Study is our time to bond, study God’s Word, fellowship, encourage each other and, of course, eat.
Some of us have been in the group since its inception almost ten years ago, and every year we’re blessed with new couples joining us. I hope you’re enjoying the blessings and joys of being in a small group. Maybe it’s a women’s Bible study or a Single’s, Couple’s, or other focus group, but one of the things Dave and I have always realized since the inception of our relationship is that we need other Christians in our life on a regular basis.
If you’re new to an area or not feeling connected at your church, joining a small group is a perfect way to meet people and make new Christian friends.
Dave and I met in a church Business Small Group thirty years ago, and we’ve either been participants or leaders in Bible study groups ever since. We especially enjoy leading a Couples Group because men and women often meet separately in groups but a couples group allows you to mature in your faith together and make friends with other couples.
When we were first married, we asked God to bring other Christian couples into our life and the Lord has answered that request tenfold!! Over the years, we’ve had an abundance of Christian couple friends and many of the relationships originated in a small group Bible study. I know many of you have experienced the same thing. Sometimes the groups are called life groups, but they all have the same purpose of spending time together growing in our faith, while encouraging each other with prayers and friendship.
Today, our lives are bombarded with fearmongering doom and gloom news that can lead to stress and discouragement. That’s why the Lord told us in Hebrews 10:24-46 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Like in our group, fall might be a reuniting of your group and selection of a new study. That’s always an interesting experience trying to get the whole group to agree on a study. Our group decided to study the Book of Hebrews.
If you’re not in a Bible study group, I’d like to encourage you to join one this fall. If you are in one, consider who you might invite to join your group.
Sometimes groups expand to the point of needing to multiply and reproduce and that’s a good thing.
We all lead busy lives but God will always reward the time you make to gather together with brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s refreshing and refilling. We were never meant to be lone-ranger Christians.
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thes. 5:11
About His Work with You,
Janet
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