"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you,for you have made known to us the king’s matter." -- Daniel 2: 20-23 (ESV)

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Bible Study: The Last Days


I'm in the final days of my study of Daniel (by Beth Moore) and I have to say it lived up to my expectations and hopes. First, I have to say that I was fortunate to be able to borrow a copy of the DVD set (the Leader Guide came with it, but I never opened that since I was doing this by myself). I bought the workbook since it's a workbook and it's expected that the participant will do the homework and actually write in it. I did. I'm grateful, because it's expensive and also because the DVD sessions are crucial for getting everything out of the study. There's so much that Moore speaks about in each week's session that to try to do this study without the DVDs is kind of ridiculous.

As for the work, I expected it to be a little harder, to be honest. Not that it wasn't challenging, but I expected it to require a bit more time each day. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the self-study homework days only took about 20 minutes. I broke up the DVD sessions into 2 parts of 30 minutes each. It made it very manageable from a time perspective, but also content-wise.

The content is good, in-depth study of some complicated prophecy. What I most appreciate is that Moore carefully broke up the book into two halves - looking at Daniel's life of integrity and then looking at the prophecies revealed to him. And then she broke things up into each chapter and within each chapter she tackled the smaller nuggets. She used commentaries and historical documents to open up the prophecies revealed to Daniel as the history that it is for us (except with regard to the end times, which is still prophecy for us).

I'm grateful for what God revealed through His Word and Moore's teaching. I'm reminded of His overwhelming power and His loving grace.

I highly recommend this study, whether for personal Bible study or for a women's small group.

On deck is Abide by Jared Wilson. I was fortunate to receive a leader's kit for this study. I plan to do the study myself and then donate the kit to my church as a resource for our small groups ministry.
Posted by at 2:34 PM
Labels:

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)