Interested in studying the bible at home with your family? If your church is small and it doesn’t offer a weekly bible study, you can study about the bible with the people that you love most right in your home. You can all support each other in developing your faith and knowledge together. Instructions Step 1
Gather your family together on a night that you all can have a “family meeting.” Begin by writing out a schedule that will correspond with everybody’s day. Find out which day would be the best time for everybody to meet for bible study.
Step 2
Choose a time where everybody would be together at once, such as after dinner. Create a setting at your table that has some bibles, and a few light snacks along with some drinks as well.
Step 3
Research some topics that you can discuss at your bible studies. Talk with your minister on some topics that might be good for your family to study. Also browse the internet for any topics that you could discuss too. Be sure that most will be age appropriate so that everybody in your family can participate together.
Step 4
Assign a leader for each week of your bible study. You can hold your studies from anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or however long you wish to have them. Let everybody take their turn in discussing bible verses and topics they they wish to cover.
Step 5
Enjoy this time with your family as you learn about your faith together. This can help everybody become closer, and perhaps help everyone learn together as well.
How to Organize a Bible Study at Home
Bible study on Revelations: Making the Connection between Daniel and Revelations on the Antichrist
Where the study of the book of Revelation is concerned, there are many different views out there on the Antichrist of Bible prophecy. And there are more speculative ideas concerning his identity than they are Bible truth. The purpose of this article is not to say who I believe is the Antichrist but to give you an idea of the kind of person we should expect him to be. This can easily be found out simply by connecting the dots between predictions in the book of Daniel and those in Revelations.
One of the things in prophecy study that some Bible students fail to understand as they should is the importance of consistency in their conclusions when comparing similar predictions. That is, if one prophet prophesied one thing don’t expect something contrary from another prophet if both are under the inspiration of the same Spirit. Every prophecy student recognizes this in theory but in their Bible studies it is not really being put into practice. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be suggesting that Barak Obama is the Antichrist.
When it comes to general rudimentary Bible teachings the Lord is usually clear in His communication of our duties as children of His. Every principle is clearly set forth and where difficulty arises there is always a passage where it is clearly explained. God’s approach in unraveling end-time prophecies is no different. He has made provisions for every man who wants to get a better understanding of His will to know the truth concerning events predicted in the books of Daniel and Revelation.
One of the most exciting prophetic themes spoken of both in Daniel and Revelations is the activities of this end-time enemy of Christ called the Antichrist. There is striking harmony between the accounts of both prophets that there is no need to speculate whether they are describing the same individual.
When you are comparing parallel prophecies between Daniel and Revelations, while you will see a clear sameness of description between the prophets, they use different words and expressions to tell the same story. Below is a comparison of descriptions of the Antichrist and his activities both in Daniel and Revelations:
1. Daniel says: His power shall be mighty but not by his own power (Dan. 8:24).
Revelations says: The dragon shall give him his power, his seat, and great authority (Rev. 13:2).
2. Daniel says: He shall exalt himself above every god (Dan. 11:36; 8:11, 25).
Revelation says: All that dwell upon the earth shall worship the beast (Rev. 13:8).
3. Daniel says: He shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods (Dan. 11:36;7:25).
Revelations says: He shall blaspheme the name of God and His tabernacle (Rev. 13:6).
4. Daniel says: He shall scatter the powers of the holy people (Dan. 12:7;7:25; 8:24).
Revelations says: He shall make war with the saints and overcome them (Rev. 13:7).
In your Bible study of Daniel in connection with Revelations, you will see that even within the book of Daniel there are three separate descriptions of the Antichrist. There is that ‘little-horn king’ in chapter 7, ‘the king of fierce countenance’ in chapter 8, and ‘the king of the north’ in chapter 11. And all of these designations are comparable to the beast of Revelations 13. A comparison of all these passages shows clearly that the Antichrist will not be known until he is fully endowed with supernatural powers. Certainly, that’s not what took place in the USA on November 4, 2008.
We must take note of the fact that in the book of Daniel all these descriptions are given to us within the framework of parallel prophecies. Therefore we should treat them as one complete story with repeated information while the book of Revelation focuses on the last-day aspects of the same narrative. The key to a fruitful Bible study on Revelations is to compare its prophecies with the writings of other prophets.
Bible Study Basics: Write Out Your Lesson
When I taught a class on how to lead Bible studies and teach in a group, the biggest push-back I received was when I promoted writing out – in full – your lesson for the week. People objected that writing out a lesson would squelch the Spirit of God and would make the lesson mechanical.
After having led adult Sunday School classes and small group Bible studies for over fifteen years, I disagree. Instead, I have found that thorough preparation – including writing out as completely as possible everything you want to say – brings only benefits to the group or class you are leading. And that holds true regardless of whether the class is more lecture-oriented or more discussion-oriented. Here are three areas that benefit significantly from taking the time to write out your lesson:
1. Content
Writing helps you focus your lesson and achieve your goals. It requires you to define your main point and decide how to explain it, support it, illustrate it, and apply it.
Writing out your lesson ensures that you have enough content to fill the allotted time. You won’t have to suffer the embarrassment of being done with your material and still have 15 minutes of dead time to fill, nor will you find that the bell has rung and you have 15 minutes of material still to cover.
Teaching is about expounding on points, not just stating points. It’s one thing to say “God calls us to forgive others.” It’s another to talk about the reasons we resist forgiving others, the process of forgiveness, and the benefits of forgiveness. When you write out your lesson, you can carefully develop all aspects of your main focus.
Since you know the points you want to cover when you write out your lesson, you can also prepare effective handouts and note-taking sheets to help the participants engage with the material and remember it.
2. Presentation
By writing out your lesson, you can learn how to pace yourself. You will see in black-and-white where you are spending most of your time, and what points need to be strengthened.
You will not find yourself groping for words, forgetting your points or sub-points, or faltering to make transitions between sections.
If you find that some portion of your lesson has taken longer than you planned and you are running short on time, a written lesson will help you evaluate faster what to eliminate and still achieve your goals for the session since you can literally scan the remainder of your content in a few seconds.
3. Discussion
Written lessons help you determine where to intersperse discussion to keep people involved and engaged.
By writing your lessons out, you are also able to guide discussion more effectively. Instead of asking “What do you think? Does anyone have any input?” – which can open the door to absolutely anything – you can ask targeted, well-crafted questions that lead the discussion in order to support the focus and goal of your class.
When you develop a written lesson, you are more likely to realize ahead of time where people might have questions – and prepare for them.
A written lesson will also help you recognize and derail tangents as soon as they happen – whether it’s you who are tempted to go off on a rabbit trail, or whether someone else is veering off during a discussion time.
When you consider the benefits, the time and effort it takes to write out a lesson becomes an investment that you can’t afford to be without. Rather than squelching the Spirit of God, God is able to move more powerfully in the hearts, minds, and lives of others because of your thorough preparation. And rather than make the lesson mechanical, your preparation sets you free to be at ease during the class – to lead and teach with confidence.
© 2008 Paula Marolewski
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