Simply Study: Philippians 4

Welcome to Week 4 of Simply Study: Philippians! We pray you will be blessed by the time you have simply study God’s Word! In Philippians, Paul encourages to pray about everything! What are you praying for today?

Continue reading for more information about Simply Study Bible studies!

Simply Study contains the following parts:

Simply read Repeated readings will help you meditate on truths of God’s word.
Simply mark Let loose your creative side as you simply mark the daily scripture reading passage.
Simply answer Look back in the scripture to answer questions about the text.
Simply reflect Consider what God is speaking to your heart and record your thoughts.
Simply act Become a doer of the word as you decide how to apply what you have learned.
Simply pray Reflect on your learning and pray how God leads you.

Please scroll down to access each week’s Bible study. Better yet, invite a few friends to join you! Start your own Simply Study Bible study in your own home or favorite coffee shop!

Focus deeply.
One book at a time.
One day at a time.
Simply Study.

Leave me a comments below! I’d love to hear about what you have learned while you simply study!

The Fatherland

“The next morning we were woken by the signal of a trumpet. The crew weighed anchor, and the boat left harbour at 8:00 am. Shirt-sleeved, I rushed to the forecastle to say my last Good Bye to my dear German fatherland and to the people standing at the pier. After a couple of hours we were …”

The Fatherland.

To my grandfather, Viktor Herrmann (he’s in the life preserver), the Fatherland refers to his place of birth. He left his Fatherland in hopes of finding a new life in America. This new land promised freedom, hope, and happiness. After my grandfather settled in America, he sent back to the Fatherland for my grandmother, Hilda Knoll. She too left Germany and made the trip across the ocean to start a new life.

I often heard my grandparents use the term Fatherland to describe their homeland. From time to time my grandfather would start a sentence with the phrase back in the Fatherland. My grandmother told me about how her brother Otto walked home from the Great War back in the Fatherland. In the Fatherland, girls went to knitting school on Saturdays and learned to bake bread from scratch.

The book of Hebrews also speaks of a Fatherland.

A land of freedom. A land of hope. The Father’s Land. The journey to the Father’s Land is a walk of faith that requires courage and strength. As wanderers as pilgrims, we count the cost of leaving the familiar and friendly to go where our Father leads. In our Father’s Land we find challenge, joy, enemies, purpose, pain, love, loss, and blessing. But the best thing about the Father’s Land is the presence of our Father.

13 … they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13-16

And one day, like my grandfather, we will be woken by the signal of a trumpet, and we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:17

Forever with Him, in the Father’s Land.

By Mary Kane.

Simply Study: Luke the Christmas Story, Chapter 2

Are you ready to simply study God’s Word?

Happy New Year and welcome to Luke 2, Sessions 1-6 of Simply Study! We pray you will be blessed by the time you simply study God’s Word. During this busy last week of Christmas Break take a little time to finish your study of the Christmas story. In Chapter 2 of Luke, we meet two often forgotten members of the Christmas story, Anna and Simeon. Like Anna and Simeon, I want to leave a legacy of a life well lived, looking for Jesus!

Simply Study daily Bible study contains the following simple pieces:

Simply read Repeated readings will help you meditate on truths of God’s word.
Simply mark Let loose your creative side as you simply mark the daily scripture reading passage.
Simply answer Look back in the scripture to answer questions about the text.
Simply reflect Consider what God is speaking to your heart and record your thoughts.
Simply act Become a doer of the word as you decide how to apply what you have learned.

Note: This Simply Study Bible study will only cover the Christmas chapters of the book of Luke, not the whole book.

Simply Study, Luke Chapter 2, Sessions 1-6

Simply Study Luke Chapter 1, Sessions 1-5

Merry Christmas!

Simply Study: The Christmas Story, Week 1, Sessions 1-5

Are you ready to simply study God’s Word?

Merry Christmas and welcome to Luke 1, Sessions 1-5 of Simply Study! We pray you will be blessed by the time you simply study God’s Word. During this busy last week before Christmas God asks us magnify and rejoice in Him as we wait for His deliverance. This updated link contains the rest of the Bible study sessions for week 1, plus sessions one and two.

Simply Study daily Bible study contains the following simple pieces:

Simply read Repeated readings will help you meditate on truths of God’s word.
Simply mark Let loose your creative side as you simply mark the daily scripture reading passage.
Simply answer Look back in the scripture to answer questions about the text.
Simply reflect Consider what God is speaking to your heart and record your thoughts.
Simply act Become a doer of the word as you decide how to apply what you have learned.

Note: This Simply Study Bible study will only cover the Christmas chapters of the book of Luke, not the whole book.

Simply Study Week 1, Sessions 1-5

Merry Christmas!

Simply Study: Luke, Session 1

Are you ready to simply study God’s Word?

Merry Christmas and welcome to Luke, Session 1 of Simply Study! We pray you will be blessed by the time you simply study God’s Word. During this busy last week before Christmas God asks us to trust Him with the impossible. Impossible relationships, impossible challenges, impossible obstacles. All things are possible with God.

Simply Study daily Bible study contains the following simple pieces:

Simply read Repeated readings will help you meditate on truths of God’s word.
Simply mark Let loose your creative side as you simply mark the daily scripture reading passage.
Simply answer Look back in the scripture to answer questions about the text.
Simply reflect Consider what God is speaking to your heart and record your thoughts.
Simply act Become a doer of the word as you decide how to apply what you have learned.

Note: This Simply Study Bible study will only cover the Christmas chapters of the book of Luke, not the whole book.

Please click on the following link to start your fist day of the Christmas study of the book of Luke.

Check back tomorrow morning for the next session!

Simply Study, Luke Session 1

Merry Christmas!

Circle or Soar?

I saw them circling. Relentlessly wheeling, turning, grinding ruts in the sky. Vultures. Birds of prey, snatching at life. Ebony feathers tracing, ever tracing, paths in the clouds. Never progressing, yet always present. It’s what they do year in and year out.

I have some circumstances like that in my life.

Circling. Relentlessly wheeling in my mind, grinding ruts in my heart. Preying on my joy, snatching at my peace. Season upon season. Always, always, circling, ever present. Will I ever be free?

But something else caught my attention.

High above the ebony feathers, I saw it soaring, maneuvering, gliding. Flying with an eye to go higher. It didn’t engage the vultures below. It didn’t get tangled in their fruitless circling. In the presence of the death birds, the eagle spread it wings cut the sky with skill and grace.

I heard God’s message to me.

Fly above it. Don’t engage in fruitless entanglements. Keep my eye on my higher calling. Always follow my Jesus. Leave the vultures to their circling and soar on eagles wings to my Father. Amen and Amen.

Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold. Job 39:27-28

What is God calling you to leave behind and rise up on wings like an eagle? Leave me a comment below; I’d love to hear from you.