This is the info we'll be covering from (pgs 8-10 of the 2010 Yearbook) in the Service Meeting part: "Make Disciples, Teaching Them" this week.
DOING MORE TO OFFER BIBLE STUDIES
Beginning in January 2009, congregations were urged to designate one Saturday or Sunday each month to focus on offering Bible studies. The result? Many publishers have been experiencing surprise and great joy—surprise because offering a study is easier than they had expected and joy because of the variety of people who have accepted a study in the book What Does the Bible Really Teach? Traveling overseers report that congregations are enthusiastic about this new arrangement, and early results are very promising. For example, in the first five months, over 8,000 new Bible studies were started in Italy.
Publishers who have never conducted studies are now making return visits and starting studies. Carolina, in Peru, said: "Before this arrangement I did not conduct any Bible studies, but the suggestion of concentrating one day a month on this made me see the need to strive to start a Bible study. I have been able to show householders that a Bible study is simple and does not take much time. Thanks to Jehovah, by applying the suggestions we have been given, I have had good results; now I conduct two Bible studies."
Satya, a pioneer sister in Britain, was apprehensive about offering a Bible study on the first call. But on the day set aside for offering Bible studies, she determined not to return home without trying this method. She was delighted when a lady immediately accepted her offer. It was much easier than Satya had expected!
Luca, a young brother in Palermo, Sicily, regularly left our magazines with a widow who was afraid to let anyone into her house. One Saturday afternoon, on the day to offer Bible studies, Luca approached the widow with the Bible Teach book open, and he read an excerpt from the book. The lady was intrigued by the book and took some time to talk to Luca. He told her that he had in his hand the answers to her questions—including the one about whether she would ever see her husband again. Luca opened the book to page 72, which explains who will be resurrected. The lady was touched by this Bible hope and accepted a Bible study. She now has a regular study, inviting the Witnesses into her home without fear.
"From the start," reported a circuit overseer in Peru, "this arrangement has helped most congregations increase the number of Bible studies they conduct. One congregation in Chiclayo reported 25 new studies in one month, and in Chepén, 24 new studies were started."
Young publishers have also had success offering Bible studies. Eleven-year-old Giovanna in São Paulo, Brazil, relates: "One Saturday afternoon I was working door-to-door with my mother, offering Bible studies in the Bible Teach book. At the first door, I asked the householder, a well-known businessman, if he believed that the Bible is inspired by God. He said yes. Then I showed him 2 Timothy 3:16. He said that he was moved to see a young girl telling him such beautiful things, and he accepted the book.
"When I called back on the man, I took my grandfather because he is an acquaintance of the householder. The man asked us in, and I invited him to look at the table of contents in the Bible Teach book and choose the subject that interested him the most. He chose chapter 11, 'Why Does God Allow Suffering?' After reading the first two paragraphs, he and his wife asked many questions. They were so happy to find all the answers in the Bible, and they agreed to a regular study. How happy I was to start a study at the first door we called on!"
Of course, not everyone will accept a Bible study, and not all those who start will continue. But as God's fellow workers, we keep offering Bible studies to as many people as possible, knowing that Jehovah is drawing sheeplike ones into his organization before the destruction of Satan's system of things.—John 6:44, 1 Corinthians 3:9.
Showing posts with label extra study references. Show all posts
Showing posts with label extra study references. Show all posts
Monday, October 4, 2010
Sunday, June 14, 2009
backround info on Leviticus
Since we just started the book of Leviticus in our Bible reading schedule, I wanted to post some extra info taken from the "All Scripture Is Inspired" book (pgs 25 & 26) that helps to have in the back of your mind while you're reading Leviticus.
"...the book consists chiefly of the regulations of the Levitical priesthood, which was the chosen tribe of Levi, and the laws that the priests taught the people: "For the lips of a priest are the ones that should keep knowledge, and the law is what people should seek from his mouth." (Malachi 2:7)
Why was Leviticus written?
"As a new nation journeying toward a new land, Israel needed proper direction. It was still less than a year from the Exodus, and the living standards of Egypt as well as its religious practices were fresh in mind. Marriage of brother and sister was practiced in Egypt. False worship was carried on in honor of many gods, some of them animal gods. Now this large congregation was on its way to Canaan, where life and religious practices were even more degrading. But look again at the encampment of Israel. Swelling the congregation were many who were pure or part Egyptian, a mixed multitude who were living right in among the Israelites and who had been born of Egyptian parents and were raised and schooled in the ways, religion, and patriotism of the Egyptians. Many of these had undoubtedly indulged in detestable practices in their homeland only a short time before. How neccessary that they now receive detailed guidance from Jehovah!"
(Based on the fact that the Canaanites had some seriously gross and immoral practices such as pedophilia, incest, and bestiality, among other things, you can really see why the Israelites would need to be given such forceful, clear-cut regulations...so that those 'new laws' regarding clean moral conduct, would be firmly implanted in their minds & hearts PRIOR to entering the land of Canaan.)
"Jehovah had purposed to have a holy nation, a sanctified people, set apart for his service. From the time of Abel, faithful men of God had been offering sacrifices to Jehovah, but first with the nation of Israel did Jehovah give explicit instructions regarding sin offerings and other sacrifices. These, as explained in detail in Leviticus, made the Israelites aware of the exceeding sinfulness of sin ... these regulations, as part of the Law, served as a tutor leading the Jews to Christ, showing them the need for a Savior and at the same time serving to keep them as a people separate from the rest of the world. Especially did God's laws regarding ceremonial cleanness serve the latter purpose." but also, "Its statutes regarding diet, disease, quarantine, and treatment of dead bodies reveal a knowledge of facts not appreciated by worldly men of medicine until thousands of years later. God's laws regarding animals unclean for eating would protect the Israelites while they traveled. It would safeguard them against trichinosis from pigs, typhoid and paratyphoid from certain types of fish, and infection from animals found already dead. These practical laws were to direct their religion and their lives that they might remain a holy nation and reach and inhabit the Promised Land. History shows that the regulations provided by Jehovah gave the Jews a definite advantage over other peoples in the matter of health."
"...the book consists chiefly of the regulations of the Levitical priesthood, which was the chosen tribe of Levi, and the laws that the priests taught the people: "For the lips of a priest are the ones that should keep knowledge, and the law is what people should seek from his mouth." (Malachi 2:7)
Why was Leviticus written?
"As a new nation journeying toward a new land, Israel needed proper direction. It was still less than a year from the Exodus, and the living standards of Egypt as well as its religious practices were fresh in mind. Marriage of brother and sister was practiced in Egypt. False worship was carried on in honor of many gods, some of them animal gods. Now this large congregation was on its way to Canaan, where life and religious practices were even more degrading. But look again at the encampment of Israel. Swelling the congregation were many who were pure or part Egyptian, a mixed multitude who were living right in among the Israelites and who had been born of Egyptian parents and were raised and schooled in the ways, religion, and patriotism of the Egyptians. Many of these had undoubtedly indulged in detestable practices in their homeland only a short time before. How neccessary that they now receive detailed guidance from Jehovah!"
(Based on the fact that the Canaanites had some seriously gross and immoral practices such as pedophilia, incest, and bestiality, among other things, you can really see why the Israelites would need to be given such forceful, clear-cut regulations...so that those 'new laws' regarding clean moral conduct, would be firmly implanted in their minds & hearts PRIOR to entering the land of Canaan.)
"Jehovah had purposed to have a holy nation, a sanctified people, set apart for his service. From the time of Abel, faithful men of God had been offering sacrifices to Jehovah, but first with the nation of Israel did Jehovah give explicit instructions regarding sin offerings and other sacrifices. These, as explained in detail in Leviticus, made the Israelites aware of the exceeding sinfulness of sin ... these regulations, as part of the Law, served as a tutor leading the Jews to Christ, showing them the need for a Savior and at the same time serving to keep them as a people separate from the rest of the world. Especially did God's laws regarding ceremonial cleanness serve the latter purpose." but also, "Its statutes regarding diet, disease, quarantine, and treatment of dead bodies reveal a knowledge of facts not appreciated by worldly men of medicine until thousands of years later. God's laws regarding animals unclean for eating would protect the Israelites while they traveled. It would safeguard them against trichinosis from pigs, typhoid and paratyphoid from certain types of fish, and infection from animals found already dead. These practical laws were to direct their religion and their lives that they might remain a holy nation and reach and inhabit the Promised Land. History shows that the regulations provided by Jehovah gave the Jews a definite advantage over other peoples in the matter of health."
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