September 2019Theme: Faithfulness

“A Battle Plan for Discipleship”

Summary: This study discusses a biblical plan for realizing our responsibility for discipling our families and those coming along behind us.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 6; Ephesians 6:4; Psalm 78:6; II Timothy:1-5

Song: “Build My Life” (Pat Barrett Lyric/Video YouTube); “Speak O Lord” (Keith & Kristyn Getty/YouTube).

Suggestions and Helps

Promotional Helps

Resources: Poster & invitation are available from http://www.wnac.org/treasure/program helps

Presentation IdeasIce Breaker: Buy a bag of little green army men from Dollar Tree. Separate the men into as many matching pairs as you have women in attendance and randomly hand them out. Print copies of IM’s Missionary Hotline (iminc.org) for each woman. Share a couple of the requests on the list, then ask women to find their matching army partner and spend time praying together for missionaries—those that were mentioned, or any on the list that catch their attention. Encourage them to take the Hotline home and refer to it during the week.

Study/Discussion: For the 5 Principles, use a white board and have the group come up with one word that defines or summarizes each principle. Provide postcard-sized pieces of pretty scrapbook paper and markers for the women to write the five words on as reminders of the principles of discipleship.

Have the women discuss specific ways older women in their life have influenced their Christian walk and how they can do the same for someone else. There may be women who have had no older mentor. Perhaps they might be willing to share how that has affected their growth as a Christian.

Ask women to discuss how the church can provide opportunities for these types of relationships to change in the future.

Books to Consider: Biblical Grandparenting by Josh Mulvihill

The Legacy Path by Brian HaynesVisionary Parenting by Rob and Amy Rienow

ServiceSet up a station in your church to remind people to pray for our servicemen? For an example, Google “Chick-Fil-A giving away toy soldiers to remind people to pray.” Fill a decorated plastic shoebox with little green army men and add a sign inviting people to take one home as a reminder to pray for those who serve our country. If there are any from your church who are deployed, or relatives of church members who are serving, you might invite them to display their picture.

Are there groups in your area who bake cookies to send to servicemen? See how you can get involved. Usually these groups need women who will help bake and/or pack cookies, donate funds, and make trips to the post office to ship the cookies. See how you can help!

PrayerClose in prayer by teaming up the same “matching soldiers” and share prayer requests for whatever discipling opportunities women are facing in their homes and churches.

RefreshmentsCamouflage napkins can be purchased at Dollar Tree, and combining brown and green foods can create camo type snacks:

Chocolate iced brownies with green sprinkles

Chocolate Mint Oreos have green filling

Camo trail mix: green and brown M & M’s, raisins, mini pretzel twists, green goldfish crackers, etc.

Extras

Prepare for the pre-Thanksgiving Week of Prayer for North American Ministries November 18- 22. In addition, make plans to give to the Mission North America Offering on November 24, 2019. Contact NAM (877-767-7674) for more information.

October 2019Theme: Faithfulness “Spiritual Disciplines”

Summary: Spiritual disciplines are for growth in godliness, not because the exercises are goals in themselves, but because of their potential benefits. This lesson will help us understand the importance of faithfulness in observing the basic disciplines of Bible intake and prayer.

Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:7-8; Psalms 19:7-11; 119:9, 11, 24, 28, 35, 49, 50, 105, 165; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 and Philippians 3:12-14

Songs: “Thy Word” (YouTube); “Ancient Words” by Michael W. Smith (YouTube); “Sweet Hour of Prayer” Rejoice page 588.

Suggestions and Helps

Promotional HelpsResources: Poster and invitation are available at http://www.wnac.org/treasure/program helps.

Decoration: Many of us have an undetermined number of Bibles. Probably you can also find some Bibles that are very old and well used among your members. Place some of the newer Bibles as well as some of the oldest Bibles around your meeting room for people to look through as they arrive.

Cut out praying hands (see below) and write requests or praise items on them. Ask permission (and use the proper materials that allow them to be removed without ruining the wall) to attach them to the wall so people can see them.

Presentation IdeasIce Breakers: If you have sword drill Bibles, bring them to this meeting. If not, be sure the women know to bring their Bibles. Conduct a sword drill competition choosing Scriptures from this month’s Bible study. Don’t forget the other types of drills: character names, book names, and subject drills. Be sure to help new people find Scripture also. You might bring a couple of Bibles and have the page numbers to slip to those who are new to the Bible and Christianity.

Project: If your community has a Gideon’s Chapter, do a fundraiser to purchase Bibles for the Gideon’s to use in your community. If not, purchase some Bibles to be placed in a homeless shelter or a crisis center for women and children.

MissionsMissionaries always need Bibles in their communities in the language of the people they serve. The American Bible Society (https://www.americanbible.org/) publishes Bibles in many languages that you can purchase to help missionaries.

You may also give Bibles through Voice of the Martyrs (https://www.persecution.com). They now have digital Bibles on SD cards people can download into their phones. This makes it less dangerous for those in nations where persecution is rampant for people to have and use a Bible.

ServiceBegin a Bible Study or an elective class in your church to people how to read the Bible and how to pray. Use some of the resources listed below under Study. You may have to begin simple because people new to reading the Bible and praying will be like “babies who need the milk of the Word.” Plan your sessions to start with some of the most well known passages, teaching people to look for God and how He works in each passage.

Write out some prayers or use one of the acronyms for prayer as you teach them. Or, start with “The Lord’s Prayer” or “The Model Prayer taught by Jesus in Matthew 6 or Luke 11.

ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication

CAST – Confession, Adoration, Supplication, Thanksgiving

StudyThrough Christianbook.com, you can find a package of 25 pamphlets called “Seven Minutes with God: How to Plan a Daily Quiet Time”, and cost approximately $11. Keep these on hand to give to new converts in your church but for our purposes, give them out to the women in your group. Some will admit to not having a prayer and study time while others will not. Getting people to spend seven minutes a day in prayer and/or study is a start to getting them to realize how important spending time with God is.

Other resources include:

o Beth Moore, Praying God’s Wordo Jen Wilkin, Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts

and Our Mindso Donald J. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

Prayer In your Scripture reading or as you recall various Scripture you’ve studied, take some time to turn some of them into prayers for your ladies to pray together. Examples are: Psalm 1, Psalm 139, The Lord’s Prayer, the Prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:10), Psalm 18 (it is quite long but some of it lends itself beautifully to prayer), and others that you can recall.

RefreshmentsGod’s Word is often referred to as “The Bread of Life.” Feature savory and sweet bread as well as other finger foods.

EXTRAS

Prepare for the pre-Thanksgiving Week of Prayer for North American Ministries November 18-22, 2019. In addition, make plans to give to the Mission North America Offering on November 24, 2019.

Both Bible Journaling and Prayer Journaling have become quite popular around the world. There are blogs and posts in Pinterest as well as Bible Journaling Facebook groups where a person can find more information. You may want to familiarize yourself with three or four methods of each of these journaling types. This will help you feel comfortable in sharing them with your women. Some of them are just fluff so you’ll want to avoid recommending those.

Operation Christmas Child collection week is November 18 -22. For more information, go to https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child.

November 2019Theme: Faithfulness

“Obedience”

Summary: Oh, the truth in writer Carol Reid’s declarations: “We prefer our own way. We prefer to do as we jolly well please. We do not welcome resistance or disagreement or even other suggestions.” This study covers obedience where we are today through Scriptures and illustrations from the categories of obedience to parents, education and jobs, government, and in the example of Jesus.

Scriptures: Faithfully Obey Your Parents —Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20; Mark 7:5-13; Judges 11:29-40.Faithful Obedience in Education and Jobs—Exodus 35:25-35; Nehemiah 3:12; Romans 14:19; I Corinthians 3:9, 10:31-32; Ephesians 6:5-8; Colossians 3:17; 22-24; I Timothy 6:1-2; Titus 2:9-10; I Peter 2:18-21; Hebrews 13:17.Faithfully Submit to the Government—I Peter 2:13-17; Luke 22:50; Acts 5:17-42; Romans 13:1-7.The Faithful Example of Jesus—Matthew 26:36-42; Philippians 2:1-11.

Songs: “Trust and Obey” Rejoice page 451;“Give of Your Best to the Master” Rejoice page 626; “Trust and Obey” Big Daddy Weave (YouTube); “Speak O Lord” by Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend. “While I’m Waiting” by John Waller (YouTube video featuring scenes from Fireproof). Robert J. Morgan’s book, Then Sings My Soul includes a hymn story of “Trust and Obey” on page 220 that would be a good opening for this study on obedience.

Suggestions and Helps

Resources: Poster & invitation are available on http://www.wnac.org/treasure/program helps.

Publicity: Make a collage (poster, bulletin board, PowerPoint, etc.) of examples of people obeying and disobeying in various situations. The examples should illustrate a mix of good and bad consequences. Add the title of this study along with the date and time of the meeting.

Ice Breaker: How did, “You are not the boss of me” get to be so universally common from the mouths of young children? Sometimes such comments can be funny but often they are not humorous. Have the women relate funny and/or frustrating phrases their children or younger acquaintances have uttered in a moment of stubbornness. Keep it as light as possible.

PresentationFaithfully Obey Your Parents—The Bible and life are replete with examples of children who obeyed the teaching of parents to their benefit. Joseph, Samuel, Jesus, Timothy, even Ruth can be used to illustrate obedience and respect to parents even through adulthood.

Faithful Obedience in Education and Jobs—There are a number of Scripture references with this topic. Since this is a life category where women find themselves, assign Scriptures on slips

of paper for the women to read aloud during the study. This will be a reminder that there are numerous principles in the Bible to be applied to today’s situations.

Faithfully Submit to the Government—To illustrate this topic, prepare a simple illustration or mime about times when a Christian might have to follow the examples of Peter and Paul in obeying God instead of government and the cost of disobeying government. These illustrations could be from history or future.

The Faithful Example of Jesus—Jesus not only respected His earthly parents, He ultimately reverenced His Heavenly Father with an example for us to follow. This lesson in obedience and respect applies to everyone, no matter if they have had earthly Christian parents or not. Our relationship with “Abba Father” can be the fulfilling relationship we lack. Include a plan of salvation if there are unsaved in your group. For example, using Scripture from the Romans Road to Salvation (Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8: 10:9-13), walk the group through the need of a Savior and the provision of Jesus. Reading Scripture is a powerful, spiritual influence toward conviction of sin and acceptance of a Savior.

Testimony: Assign several women for testimonies regarding each of the study’s topics from their life histories. These testimonies could be how obedience or disobedience resulted in drawing closer to God. A story of obedience to parents may be easier to relate than disobedience to government traffic laws, for instance, but do try to get a variety of testimonies for illustrations.

Breakout Groups: Have breakout groups discuss the definitions of obedience in the categories of parenting, education, work, and civic arena. Further discussion and summaries back to the entire group could include greatest difficulties in feeling comfortable in the role of the one obeying and the one receiving obedience in these areas.

StudyPrepare your heart with an additional biblical study on obedience. Spend time in prayer making sure you are following the pathway of obedience. Many missionaries write books that are illustrations of traveling down that obedience road. One book especially interesting and even exciting is Over Mountain or Plain or Sea by Trula Cronk, Free Will Baptist missionary to India. Her life from childhood through 25 years in India and beyond is an illustration of trials and blessings directed by God.

MissionsAn outreach of respect to children’s caregivers and teachers could include small gifts of thoughtfulness for the classroom. Check with teachers for ideas since many regulations (allergies, etc.) differ from school to school.

Similarly, reach out to local police and fire departments with cookies and snacks as gifts of thanks. In any situation, when you give a gift, include a spiritual gift as well, such as inspirational bookmarks, etc. Your most important area of responsibility is spiritual welfare.

ServiceIf your church library does not include copies of Robert J. Morgan’s books, Then Sings My Soul and Then Sings My Soul, Vol. 1 and 2, their donation would be an appropriate service project. Also, consider purchasing several copies of excellent children’s books on obedience. Find them online and ship to your church library and/or the homes of church planters with young children in the family.

PrayerThe persecuted church begs for prayer support as many of the same trials and tribulations the New Testament and first century believers endured for the cause of Christ are rampant around the globe today. IM and Voice of the Martyrs keep current prayer requests available. A globe, map and picture display can aid attendees in visualizing where prayers are needed across the world.

RefreshmentsHow about a faithful recipe potluck where women bring their favorite creations along with copies of the recipes. You may want to ask volunteers to bring an appetizer, beverage, salad, main dish, vegetable, fruit or dessert to make sure the meal is balanced. Enjoy tasting each dish and provide copies of the recipes for each to take home and add to their collections.

Extras

Participate in North American Ministries pre-Thanksgiving Week of Prayer November 18-22, 2019. Give to the Mission North America Offering on November 24, 2019.

Operation Christmas Child collection week is November 18 -22. For more information, go to https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child

The Poetry of GOD’S Promises

His promises are treasures of Pure Lovesoaring boundless from the heavenly Dove

unconditional from the beginningdespite the souls unrepentant sinning

His promises of Mercy to all who are lostwe seek redemption whatever the cost

In humility we bow on bended kneescalling out to Jesus as He hears our pleas

His promises to Intercede for usour prayers to Him we must entrustfighting battles of spiritual warfare

blessed assurance to a life in despair

His promises of Hope are for all who believethrough forgiveness His saving grace we receive

leading the lost to Jesus should be our storya blessing in the confidence to meet Him in glory

His promises of Power through the Holy Spiritovercoming all obstacles no need to fear it

giving us strength in knowing of His presencethe mystery of His unchanging essence

His promises of Peace in the midst of sorrowthe comforting embrace in the early morrow

clothing us with everlasting joyheirs to His kingdom is His ploy

His promises of Eternal lifeas we lay down all our mortal strifesalvation from this insensible loss

as Jesus laid down His life on the cross

Because of our faith in God we are sparedthe heavenly mansion He has prepared

entering into this Holy PlaceAt last we meet Jesus face to face

Mary Altgilbers