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    Numbers - Women's Bible Study Leader Guide: Learning Contentment in a Culture of More
    Numbers - Women's Bible Study Leader Guide: Learning Contentment in a Culture of More
    Numbers - Women's Bible Study Leader Guide: Learning Contentment in a Culture of More
    Ebook121 pages43 minutes

    Numbers - Women's Bible Study Leader Guide: Learning Contentment in a Culture of More

    By Melissa Spoelstra

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    About this ebook

    Something in us aches for more—more hope, more joy, more freedom. All around us people are dancing to the steps of bigger, better, and faster, and we can easily join in without even realizing it. Before long complaining and comparing accompany our desire for more, yet we’re not any closer to filling the ache inside. God offers us another way.

    In this study of the Book of Numbers, we’ll find a group of people that wandered in the desert for forty years, unable to enter the Promised Land because of their complaining, grumbling, and lack of faith. The New Testament tells us that their story was written to warn us (1 Corinthians 10:6) so that we would not make the same mistakes and suffer the same consequences. God sent his only Son to die to buy our freedom from the sin that leads to discontentment, and we find our own promised land of peace and contentment in the life he gives us.

    By exploring Numbers we can come to identify the reasons for our complaining, learn contentment while being authentic about the difficulties of life, accept short-term hardship in light of the greater good of God’s ultimate deliverance, recognize the relationship between complaining and worry, and discover how to realign with God’s character and promises.

    Together we will learn contentment as we discover more of our incredible God who truly is more than enough. Only God can fill that ache inside and help us focus on his provision and purpose in the midst of life’s joys and pains.

    The Leader Guide, to be used along with the study's workbook and DVD, contains six session plan outlines, complete with discussion points and questions, activities, prayers, and more—plus leader helps for facilitating a group.

    Other components for the Bible study, available separately, include a Participant Workbook, DVD with six 20-25 minute sessions, and boxed Leader Kit (an all-inclusive box containing one copy of each of the Bible study’s components).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateAug 1, 2017
    ISBN9781501801778
    Numbers - Women's Bible Study Leader Guide: Learning Contentment in a Culture of More
    Author

    Melissa Spoelstra

    Melissa Spoelstra is a popular women’s conference speaker (including the Aspire Women’s Events), Bible teacher, and author who is madly in love with Jesus and passionate about helping others to seek Christ and know Him more intimately. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Bible Theology and enjoys teaching God’s Word to diverse groups and churches within the body of Christ. She is a contributor to Girlfriends in God online devotional as well as Proverbs 31 ministries First Five app. She is the author of eight Bible studies (Acts, The Names of God, Romans, Elijah, Numbers, First Corinthians, Joseph, and Jeremiah) and four books (Total Family Makeover, Total Christmas Makeover, 30 Days of Prayer for Spiritual Stamina, and Dare to Hope). Melissa makes her home in Waxahachie, Texas, with her pastor husband and four kids.

    Read more from Melissa Spoelstra

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      Book preview

      Numbers - Women's Bible Study Leader Guide - Melissa Spoelstra

      Numbers

      Learning Contentment in a Culture of More

      Leader Guide

      Copyright © 2017 Abingdon Press

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, P.O. Box 280988, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37228-0988, or e-mailed to permissions@umpublishing.org.

      This book is printed on elemental chlorine-free paper.

      ISBN 978-1-5018-0176-1

      All Scriptures are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

      17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

      CONTENTS

      About the Author

      Introduction

      Getting Started

      Tips for Tackling Five Common Challenges

      Basic Leader Helps

      Introductory Session

      Week 1: Content in Deliverance

      Exodus 1–15

      Week 2: Content in Preparation

      Numbers 1–10

      Week 3: Content in Uncertainty

      Numbers 11–14

      Week 4: Content in Obedience

      Numbers 15–20

      Week 5: Content in Opposition

      Numbers 21–26

      Week 6: Content in Blessings

      Numbers 27–36

      Digging Deeper Week 1 Preview: The Names of God

      Video Viewer Guide Answers

      About the Author

      Melissa Spoelstra is a popular women’s conference speaker (including the Aspire Women’s Events), Bible teacher, and writer who is madly in love with Jesus and passionate about studying God’s Word and helping women of all ages seek Christ and know Him more intimately through serious Bible study. Having a degree in Bible theology, she enjoys teaching God’s Word to the body of Christ and traveling to diverse groups and churches across the nation, even to Nairobi, Kenya, for a women’s prayer conference. Melissa is the author of the Bible studies First Corinthians: Living Love When We Disagree, Joseph: The Journey to Forgiveness, Jeremiah: Daring to Hope in an Unstable World, and the parenting books Total Family Makeover: 8 Steps to Making Disciples at Home and Total Christmas Makeover: 31 Devotions to Celebrate with Purpose. She has published articles in ParentLife, Women’s Spectrum, and Just Between Us, and writes a regular blog in which she shares her musings about what God is teaching her on any given day. She lives in Dublin, Ohio, with her pastor husband, Sean, and their four kids: Zach, Abby, Sara, and Rachel.

      Follow Melissa:

      Introduction

      I’m so glad you’ve decided to study Numbers: Learning Contentment in a Culture of More. Numbers may sound like an intimidating book of the Bible, but as we open its pages we soon discover how relevant it is to our lives today. The story of the wilderness wanderers is filled with such rich truths—especially when it comes to complaining and learning contentment. Like the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness, we’ve all experienced the ache inside for more. And we’re all too familiar with our culture’s many answers—suggesting that if we had a bigger house, a better friend, a faster phone, or more stuff, then we could be content. Yet even as we attain these things we find ourselves comparing and complaining without getting any closer to filling the ache inside.

      But there’s good news: the Bible tells us that we can learn to be content. The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:11, I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. It takes intentionality as we learn to follow God’s way, but the benefits are definitely worth it. So, know that I am cheering you on, dear leader, as you shepherd a group of ladies through this study to learn the art of contentment.

      As we begin with the opening of the Israelite’s story in Exodus and quickly move into the Book of Numbers, we’ll see that God led the people of Israel out of slavery and provided for their needs in the wilderness with food, water, and guidance; yet still they grumbled. Though they came so close to the land God had promised them, they chose their own way instead of following God’s instructions; and they were unable to enter the land for forty years because of their discontent and disobedience.

      In the past I felt smug and condescending toward the wayward Israelites. After all, they wandered; they complained; they worshiped idols; they didn’t respect their leaders; they doubted God. But I’ve discovered that I don’t have to look farther than my own heart to find the very same tendencies. Like them, we often start off well but get tired along the way. Just as they did, we look at our circumstances through human eyes instead of keeping our eyes on the Provider. Often we overlook God’s long-term blessings when confronted with daily discomfort. We too are so close

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