Bible Studies by Kathleen Dalton
Simple Question & Answer Bible Studies
The Birth of Jesus Christ – A Christmas Chronology
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit together agreed, before They ever made the world, that God the Son would become a man and pay the blood-price for the sin which would be committed by the people They were about to create. At Christmas, we celebrate the day He came. Here is the story.
A verse-by-verse Bible Study of Zechariah. “One Sleepless Night”
Steve and Julie got us started on the Grandparent’s track almost 19 years ago when they brought Michael into the world.
They were living near us at the time, so when we got the phone call that they were on the way to the hospital…wow! it was time! We rushed to the hospital, too, and waited. We were right there wanting to be a part of the excitement and joy when he was born. Everybody was in a party mood – all grandparents were there – and even a few of Steve & Julie’s friends. All of us got to go into the room with Julie, a few at a time, and talk celebrate with Julie & Steve while we were waiting. (This whole process was a huge shock to me. There was no timing, no pain, no groaning, no little puffs of air while making it “through” a contraction – the advent of the epidural had completely changed the way women have babies…and I was totally unaware. Nice change, by the way…..not complaining…I was just so amazed J)
It was a really fun and exciting time – lots of laughing and talking out in the waiting area. And when Steve came out of the delivery room to tell us he had a son, he came striding down the hall, big as life, spread his arms out and said “It’s a Boy”!!! We all congratulated him with lots of laughter and slapping on the back. He walked up to me and gave me a hug – and when I threw my arms around him, too, he started crying. We stood in the middle of the waiting room with our arms around each other and we both cried.
You know what my thought was at that time? I stood there with my arms around Steve, thinking…”I wish I had held him more….I wish when he was little, I had held him on my lap more.” When we had Steve we were very young ourselves…I was nineteen years old, and he just went everywhere with me. He was on my hip, he was in the car seat, he was at church meetings…we were starting churches…so he was also in a lot of church nurseries. We just went go-go-go all the time. It was a wonderful life, but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to just hold him. And when I stood in the waiting room, knowing that his own baby boy was waiting back in the delivery room for him, I thought to myself, “I wish I had held him more.” If I had just had this little glimpse of the future – standing here in the hospital waiting room with Steve – I might have lived better, then, in the past – knowing what the future held.
Knowing what the future holds – that’s the wonderful gift the LORD, through Zechariah, is giving this handful of Jews living in about 400 BC. Little glimpses of the future.
Are you studying with us through Psalm 119? Great! This is Week #16, Psalm 119:121-128 “The Eye of the Tiger” . Click on the picture to the left to view or download this study.
I have learned there are two parts of me, when it comes to actually accomplishing the things I want to do:
My desires
My will
The problem I run up against is: Just because I desire something doesn’t mean I have the will to make it happen.
Every once in awhile, though, my desires and my will come together, and then I have what I like to call:
The Eye of the Tiger.
Intentional. Focused. Deliberate. Tenacious.
When I have the eye of the tiger, I don’t give up, for any reason.
But when I come to the end of my abilities, when I am totally out of options, when I have no way to make anything happens, when my desires are crumbled at my feet, when my will is unable to function …then I wait for God to have “the eye of the tiger”. I wait for Him to decide it’s time to act. Nothing will stand in His way – and there will be no giving up before the thing is done.
If you ask me, there is no better place to be in the world than in that helpless, hopeless place of waiting for God to have “the eye of the tiger”.
Right now in history we are all waiting for our God to have “the eye of the tiger” one last time. He will focus in on His world. The one He created. His desire for this world and His will to accomplish it will come together in time. There will be a 7-year explosion, fueled by “the eye of the tiger”, and our future will begin.
Are you studying with us through Psalm 119? Great! This is Week #15, Psalm 119:113-120 “Stinkin’ Thinkin'”. Click on the picture to the left to view or download this study.
Our world is full of stinkin’ thinkin’. We don’t have any idea how many of the world’s crazy ideas we have totally bought into until we compare our thinking with the clear, honest statements of the Word of God.
Here’s some “stinkin’ thinkin’” talked about in this passage:
Half-Heartedness
Hiding in the Wrong Hiding Place
Hanging on to Bad Friendships
Taking Tolerance Too Far
Forgetting Who Keeps Me Safe
Lies are Sometimes OK
God is Love. He Could Never Actually Send Anyone to Eternal Punishment
I’m Not Afraid of God
Micah is like a snapshot of the picture-perfect, 2-child, 2-car, 2-income family – just before the divorce.
Everything seems so great….but tumult is about to overtake everyone’s life.
Click on the image to the left to view or download this Bible Study.
Are you becoming “An Uncommon Woman” ? A woman so unique that some day people will look at you with shock in their eyes and ask: “What is so different about her?”
I think there are two ways to become this woman…I am recommending the 2nd.
The first way would be to look around you and decide that you don’t want to be like what you see. To see apathy and decide to be caring and intense. Or to see pettiness and decide to be live on a larger plane. Or to see immorality and decide to be pure. Or to see self-centeredness and decide to focus on others. All of those sound good at first….but I don’t think this is a powerful-enough way to approach this challenge. If you do this, you are always trying to not be somebody …but never knowing who you are trying to be.
The 2nd way is to look directly into the face of Jesus, and then ask Him to change you into the woman you see reflected in His eyes. Because He already sees the uncommon woman you could be.
We are not told how long this little family lived in Moab before life got harder, but at some point Elimilech, the father, died, and Naomi, the mother, was left with two sons to raise by herself.
The life of a single mom was, of course, much harder then than it is now, but at least she did have her boys. They would be her ticket to the future. They would turn around and take care of her some day. They would move her back to her home in Bethlehem. They would bring sons into the world who would also be a hope and a future for her.
But ten years later the family is still in Moab. The sons have married two Moabite women…no children yet. And then the unthinkable happens – the two sons die. And three widows are left to stare across an empty table at each other every morning, wondering…what will become of us?
Are you studying with us through Psalm 119? Great! This is Week #13, Psalm 119:97-104 “Sweet!”. Click on the picture to the left to view or download this study.
The point of this passage is not that you should feel this passionate about your Bible….but that you will feel that passionate when you are daily soaking it up. The more you read, the sweeter it gets. It just kind of grows on you.
If anyone knew about growing as a Christian it was Peter. He wins the award for mistakes in his Christian walk, and yet, he grew. He was loud, brash, and overly confident. He denied the Lord at the time when the Lord needed him the most. He slept while his Lord wept. He ran away from the cross. And yet, he grew. He grew closer to Jesus with each passing year.
If you are having trouble growing as a Christian, listen to Peter. He knows.
I recently had someone ask me to recommend a Bible Study method. She was wanting to get back to being in the Word herself, and also wanted to introduce a Bible Study method to the high school youth group she was working with.
Her question got me to thinking that there might be a few more people who have that same question – so I’m passing on my answer to you – in hopes you will find it helpful for yourself, or pass it on to someone else who might be wondering this, too:
“One really great method is called “inductive Bible Study”. It’s an awesome discipline for digging in and applying God’s Word to your every-day life.
Kay Arthur has written a great book on it: “How to Study Your Bible”, published by Harvest House.
Also, on this website, there’s an article there you might find helpful , called “Understanding the Bible”. Click on the picture to the left, or on the link below to read or download it.
https://kathleendalton.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/total-booklet-understanding-the-bible1.pdf
Bible Studies by Kathleen Dalton