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    Immersion Bible Studies: John
    Immersion Bible Studies: John
    Immersion Bible Studies: John
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    Immersion Bible Studies: John

    By Carol J. Miller

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    About this ebook

    Journey inside the pages of Scripture to meet a personal God who enters individual lives and begins a creative work from the inside out. Shaped with the individual in mind, Immersion encourages simultaneous engagement both with the Word of God and with the God of the Word to become a new creation in Christ.

    Immersion, inspired by a fresh translation—the Common English Bible—stands firmly on Scripture and helps readers explore the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual needs of their personal faith. More importantly, they’ll be able to discover God’s revelation through readings and reflections.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    ISBN9781426733635
    Immersion Bible Studies: John
    Author

    Carol J. Miller

    Carol J. Miller authored the Kerygma Program books on Mark, Luke, John, Acts, the Advent texts, and the Lenten texts and has written numerous curriculum pieces for Cokesbury. She received Master of Theology and DMin degrees from Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas. For forty years she served United Methodist churches in Eastern Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and she now resides in Annapolis, Maryland.

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      Book preview

      Immersion Bible Studies - Carol J. Miller

      Image1

      JOHN

      Praise for IMMERSION

      IMMERSION BIBLE STUDIES is a powerful tool in helping readers to hear God speak through Scripture and to experience a deeper faith as a result.

      Adam Hamilton, author of 24 Hours That Changed the World

      This unique Bible study makes Scripture come alive for students. Through the study, students are invited to move beyond the head into the heart of faith.

      Bishop Joseph W. Walker, author of Love and Intimacy

      This beautiful series helps readers become fluent in the words and thoughts of God, for purposes of illumination, strength building, and developing a closer walk with the One who loves us so.

      Laurie Beth Jones, author of Jesus, CEO and The Path

      I highly commend to you IMMERSION BIBLE STUDIES, which tells us what the Bible teaches and how to apply it personally.

      John Ed Mathison, author of Treasures of the Transformed Life

      The IMMERSION BIBLE STUDIES series is no less than a game changer. It ignites the purpose and power of Scripture by showing us how to do more than just know God or love God; it gives us the tools to love like God as well.

      Shane Stanford, author of You Can't Do Everything . . . So Do Something

      Image2

      JOHN

      IMMERSION BIBLE STUDIES

      by Carol J. Miller

      Copyright © 2011 by Abingdon Press

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Permissions Office, 201 Eighth Avenue, South, P. O. Box 801, Nashville, Tennessee 37202-0801, faxed to 615-749-6128, or e-mailed to permissions@abingdonpress.com.

      Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Common English Bible, © Copyright 2010 Common English Bible, and are used by permission.

      Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Miller, Carol (Carol J.)

      John / Carol Miller.

          p. cm. — (Immersion Bible study)

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-1-4267-0984-5 (curriculum—printed/text plus-cover, adhesive - perfect binding : alk. paper) 1. Bible. N.T. John—Commentaries. I. Title.

      BS2615.53.M55 2010

      226.5'07—dc22

      2010042478

      Editor: Jack A. Keller, Jr.

      Leader Guide Writer: Martha Bettis Gee

      11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20––10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      Image3

      Contents

      IMMERSION BIBLE STUDIES

      1. The Mystery of God

      2. Jesus Offers Life

      3. Do You Want to Live?

      4. The Law and Freedom

      5. Who Is the God Whom Jesus Reveals?

      6. To Be a Disciple of Jesus Christ

      7. The Holy Spirit Creates and Sustains the Church

      8. The Glorification of God

      Leader Guide

      REVIEW TEAM

      Diane Blum, Pastor

      East End United Methodist Church

      Nashville, Tennessee

      Susan Cox, Pastor

      McMurry United Methodist Church

      Claycomo, Missouri

      Margaret Ann Crain

      Professor of Christian Education

      Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

      Evanston, Illinois

      Nan Duerling

      Curriculum Writer and Editor

      Cambridge, Maryland

      Paul Escamilla

      Pastor and Writer

      St. John's United Methodist Church

      Austin, Texas

      James Hawkins

      Pastor and Writer

      Daybreak United Methodist Church

      Smyrna, Delaware

      Andrew Johnson

      Professor of New Testament

      Nazarene Theological Seminary

      Kansas City, Missouri

      Snehlata Patel, Pastor

      Woodrow United Methodist Church

      Staten Island, New York

      Emerson B. Powery

      Professor of New Testament

      Messiah College

      Grantham, Pennsylvania

      Clayton Smith, Pastoral Staff

      Church of the Resurrection

      Leawood, Kansas

      Harold Washington

      Professor of Hebrew Bible

      Saint Paul School of Theology

      Kansas City, Missouri

      Carol Wehrheim

      Curriculum Writer and Editor

      Princeton, New Jersey

      Image4

      IMMERSION BIBLE STUDIES

      A fresh new look at the Bible, from beginning to end,

      and what it means in your life.

      Welcome to IMMERSION!

      We've asked some of the leading Bible scholars, teachers, and pastors to help us with a new kind of Bible study. IMMERSION remains true to Scripture but always asks, Where are you in your life? What do you struggle with? What makes you rejoice? Then it helps you read the Scriptures to discover their deep, abiding truths. IMMERSION is about God and God's Word, and it is also about you––not just your thoughts, but your feelings and your faith.

      In each study you will prayerfully read the Scripture and reflect on it. Then you will engage it in three ways:

      Claim Your Story

      Through stories and questions, think about your life, with its struggles and joys.

      Enter the Bible Story

      Explore Scripture and consider what God is saying to you.

      Live the Story

      Reflect on what you have discovered, and put it into practice in your life.

      IMMERSION makes use of an exciting new translation of Scripture, the Common English Bible (CEB). The CEB and IMMERSION BIBLE STUDIES will offer adults:

      • the emotional expectation to find the love of God

      • the rational expectation to find the knowledge of God

      • reliable, genuine, and credible power to transform lives

      • clarity of language

      Whether you are using the Common English Bible or another translation, IMMERSION BIBLE STUDIES will offer a refreshing plunge into God's Word, your life, and your life with God.

      Image1

      1.

      The Mystery of God

      John 1:1–2:11

      Claim Your Story

      I am what you might call directionally challenged. I can and do get lost anywhere, which makes me more than grateful for my GPS! I once got lost in my own kitchen. No, really! I had come into the kitchen for something in the middle of the night; and as I prepared to leave the kitchen, I turned off the light—the only light on in the whole house. I missed the door out of the kitchen, turned around, and became disoriented. I couldn't find a door or the light switch. I stood in the middle of the kitchen for a second and thought, I don't believe it! I'm lost in my own kitchen! I hasten to add that this was only for a second or two. As soon as I found and switched on the light, all was clear, obvious. The light made all the difference.

      Almost everyone will admit to feeling lost in the dark at some point in their lives. It might have been in the terrors of a pitch-black cave or on a dark, unfamiliar road on a moonless night. Beyond being lost in physical darkness, human beings struggle with feeling lost in life, unsure of the next step, unclear about who they are and what they are here for, unable to find a light that would give them the knowledge they need to see the way ahead. What is the right direction? Is there a right direction?

      Enter the Bible Story

      Many times our feelings of being lost and in the dark stem from our inability to understand God. We feel like the writer of Psalm 8 as he looks at the vast number of stars and wonders about the mystery of their Creator. The God of black holes in space and the intricacies of the created order is not like us! How can we know such a God? How can we know what such a God wants of us? Someone has described our ability to understand who God is as being similar to an anteater's ability to understand quantum mechanics. We simply don't have the mind to comprehend the scope of the created order, much less eternity. How then can we know the God who authored them? How can we find our way out of such a profound darkness?

      When we go to a party with people we may not have met before, it is important to engage in small talk. In order to know someone or be known by them, we have to speak. When we are honest in our speech, we reveal something of who we are. We can't know a person who will not speak to us. We are left in the dark! John speaks about the Word (logos in the Greek) being with God and in fact being God (1:1). God is speaking to us—God is revealing God's self to us. What God has always been is now being offered to us so that we can know who God is and how God relates to us. God's speech reveals God's nature, just as our true speech reveals our nature.

      God does not use the kind of speech we think of when we think of one human talking with another. God's Word, in order to be understood by us mortals, becomes human: a form we can understand, a form with which we can interact. John writes, The Word [the self-expression of God] became flesh and made his home among us (literally, pitched his tent; 1:14a).

      Three Questions

      The overarching topic of the Gospel According to John is the nature and mission of Jesus Christ as the one who makes God known. Here is a Gospel that does not look or sound much like the other three Gospels (the Synoptics). Here we

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