Minor Prophets 2
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About this ebook
Wake Up Your Faith
Turn around. Wake up. Look alive. Be alert. Pay attention. Don’t forget. The messages of the prophets are like spiritual caffeine—a shock to the system. Through the prophets, God called his people out of their routine neglect to go forward in active faith. Like a bucket of ice water or the trill of a trumpet, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi startle our hazy thoughts to hope and rekindle our ashen hearts with zeal. If you find your spiritual muscles wan and your spiritual eyes drowsy, these clarion prophets may have just the word to enliven your spirit.
LifeChange
LifeChange Bible studies will help you grow in Christlikeness through a life-changing encounter with God’s Word. Filled with a wealth of ideas for going deeper so you can return to this study again and again.
Features
- Cover the books of Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi in 12 lessons
- Equip yourself to lead a Bible study
- Imagine the Bible’s historical world
- Study word origins and definitions
- Explore thoughtful questions on key themes
- Go deeper with optional projects
- Add your notes with extra space and wide margins
- Find the flexibility to fit the time you have
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Minor Prophets 2 - The Navigators
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
Along with all the volumes in the L
IFE
C
HANGE
series of Bible studies, the two guides to the Minor Prophets (Nahum through Malachi in this second volume; Hosea through Micah in the first) share common goals:
1. To provide you a firm foundation of understanding, plus a thirst to return to the Minor Prophets throughout your life.
2. To give you study patterns and skills that help you explore every part of the Bible.
3. To offer you historical background, word definitions, and explanation notes to aid your study.
4. To help you grasp as a whole the message of each of the Minor Prophets.
5. To teach you how to let God’s Word transform you into Christ’s image.
As you begin
This guide includes twelve lessons that will take you chapter by chapter through the last six of the Minor Prophets. Each lesson is designed to take from one to two hours of preparation to complete on your own. To benefit most from this time, here’s a good way to begin your work on each lesson:
1. Pray for God’s help to keep you mentally alert and spiritually sensitive.
2. Read attentively through the entire passage mentioned in the lesson’s title. (You may want to read the passage from two or more Bible versions—perhaps at least once from a more literal translation such as the New International Version, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, or New King James Version, and perhaps once more in a paraphrase such as The Message or the New Living Translation.) Do your reading in an environment that’s as free as possible from distractions. Allow your mind and heart to meditate on these words you encounter, words that are God’s personal gift to you and to all His people.
After reading the passage, you’re ready to dive into the numbered questions in this guide that make up the main portion of each lesson. Each of these questions is followed by blank space for writing your answers. (This act of writing your answers helps clarify your thinking and stimulates your mental engagement with the passage, as well as your later recall.) Use extra paper or a notebook if the space for recording your answers seems too cramped. Continue through the questions in numbered order. If any question seems too difficult or unclear, just skip it and go on to the next.
Each of these questions will typically direct you to the text of one of the Minor Prophets to look again at a certain portion of the assigned passage for that lesson. (At this point, be sure to use a more literal Bible translation, rather than a paraphrase.)
As you look closer at this passage, it’s helpful to approach it in this progression:
Observe. What does the passage actually say? Ask God to help you see it clearly. Notice everything that’s there.
Interpret. What does the passage mean? Ask God to help you understand. And remember that any passage’s meaning is fundamentally determined by its context. So stay alert to all you’ll see about the setting and background of the Minor Prophets, and keep thinking of these books as a whole while you proceed through them chapter by chapter. You’ll be progressively building up your insights and familiarity with what they’re all about.
Apply. Keep asking yourself, How does this truth affect my life? (Pray for God’s help as you examine yourself in light of that truth, and in light of His purpose for each passage.)
Try to consciously follow all three of these approaches as you shape your written answer to each question in the lesson.
The extras
In addition to the numbered questions you see in this guide, each lesson also offers several optional questions or suggestions that appear in the margins. All of these will appear under one of three headings:
Optional Application. These are suggested options for application. Consider these with prayerful sensitivity to the Lord’s guidance.
For Thought and Discussion. Many of these questions address various ethical issues and other biblical principles that lead to a wide range of implications. They tend to be particularly suited for group discussions.
For Further Study. These often include cross-references to other parts of the Bible that shed light on a topic in the lesson, plus questions that delve deeper into the passage.
(For additional help for more effective Bible study, refer to the "Study Aids" section.)
Changing your life
Don’t let your study become an exercise in knowledge alone. Recognize the passage as God’s Word, and stay in dialogue with Him as you study. Pray, Lord, what do You want me to notice here?
Father, why is this true?
Lord, how does my life measure up to this?
Let biblical truth sink into your inner convictions so you’ll increasingly be able to act on this truth as a natural way of living.
At times you may want to consider memorizing a certain verse or passage you come across in your study, one that particularly challenges or encourages you. To help with that, write the words on a card to keep with you, and set aside a few minutes each day to think about the passage. Recite it to yourself repeatedly, always thinking about its meaning. Return to it as often as you can, for a brief review. You’ll soon find the words coming to mind spontaneously, and they’ll begin to shape your motives and actions.
For group study
Exploring Scripture together in a group is especially valuable for the encouragement, support, and accountability it provides as you seek to apply God’s Word to your life. Together you can listen jointly for God’s guidance, pray for each other, help one another resist temptation, and share the spiritual principles you’re practicing. Together you affirm that growing in faith, hope, and love is important, and that you need each other in the process.
A group of four to ten people allows for the closest understanding of each other and the richest discussions in Bible study, but you can adapt this guide for groups of other sizes. It will suit a wide range of group types, such as home Bible studies, growth groups, youth groups, and church classes. Both new and mature Christians will benefit from the guide, regardless of their previous experience in Bible study.
Aim for a positive atmosphere of acceptance, honesty, and openness. In your first meeting, explore candidly everyone’s expectations and goals for your time together.
A typical schedule for group study is to take one lesson per week, but feel free to split lessons if you want to discuss them more thoroughly. Or omit some questions in a lesson if your preparation or discussion time is limited. (You can always return to this guide later for further study on your own.)
When you come together, you probably won’t have time to discuss all the questions in the lesson, so it’s helpful to choose ahead of time the ones you want to make sure and cover thoroughly. This is one of the main responsibilities a group leader typically assumes.
Each lesson in this guide ends with a section called For the group.
It suggests how to focus the discussion, how to apply the lesson to daily life, and so on. Reading each lesson’s For the group
section ahead of time can help the leader be more effective in guiding the group.
You’ll get the greatest benefit from your time together if each group member prepares by writing out his or her answers to each question in the lesson. The private reflection and prayer that this preparation can stimulate will be especially important in helping everyone discern how God wants you to apply each lesson to your daily life.
What to do in your time together
There are many ways to structure the group meeting, and you may want to vary your routine occasionally to help keep things fresh.
Here are some of the elements you can consider including as you come together for each lesson:
Pray together. It’s good to pause for prayer as you begin your time together, as well as to incorporate a later more extensive time of prayer for each other, after you’ve had time to share personal needs and prayer requests. (You may want to record these in a notebook.) When you begin with prayer, it’s worthwhile and honoring to God to ask especially for His Holy Spirit’s guidance of your time together.
Worship. Some groups like to sing together and worship God with prayers of praise.
Review. You may want to take time to discuss what difference the previous week’s lesson has made in your life, as well as recall the major emphasis you discovered in the passage for that week.
Read the passage aloud. Once you’re ready to focus attention together on the assigned Scripture passage in the week’s lesson, read it aloud. (One person could do this, or the reading could be shared.)
Open up for lingering questions. Allow time for the group members to mention anything in the passage that they may have particular questions about.
Summarize the passage.