Creating the Covenant - Session 1: Creating the Covenant

Creating the Covenant

Session 1: Covenant is about the family God creates and the power of love that overcomes evil. We are broken and miss the mark. Substitutes for faithful love de...

Creating the Covenant - Session 2: Torah--Genesis

Creating the Covenant

Session 2: Covenant relationships are a metaphor for life together before God. This life is characterized by both gift and responsibility. Broken relationships ...

Creating the Covenant - Session 3: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers

Creating the Covenant

Session 3: The covenant at Sinai creates a people with instructions for living in harmony. These instructions are ever in need of reinterpretation in new situat...

Creating the Covenant - Session 4: Gospels - Matthew and Mark

Creating the Covenant

Session 4: By arranging the events of his life, death, and resurrection in distinct order, the Gospels depict Jesus as both the suffering "human one" and a new ...

Creating the Covenant - Session 5: Romans and Galatians

Creating the Covenant

Session 5: The letters of Paul substituted for his presence and represent his attempt to deal with controversies and provide guidance to churches from a pastor'...

Creating the Covenant - Session 6: Hebrews

Creating the Covenant

Session 6: Hebrews embraces the imagery of sacrifice in the Old Testament to describe Jesus' pioneering cosmic work of redemption. Replacing fear with trust, Je...

Creating the Covenant - Session 7: 1 and 2 Corinthians

Creating the Covenant

Session 7: Paul's letters to the church at Corinth address very concrete issues in a culture that honors the freedom of superiors to do as they please. Paul cou...

Creating the Covenant - Session 8: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel

Creating the Covenant

Session 8: Life in the land after Moses and Joshua is characterized by faithlessness, crisis, cries for help, and temporary rescue. The last tribal chieftain/fi...

Creating the Covenant-Session 2 Extra: The Tower of Babel and the Role of Israel

Creating the Covenant

Session 2.1: Being the "chosen people" doesn't mean all others are unchosen. It simply means that within the whole human race that God is in covenant relationsh...

Creating the Covenant - Session 3 Extra: God's Name and Moses

Creating the Covenant

Session 3.1: The language of salvation and redemption used to describe the work of Jesus in the New Testament is the same vocabulary used to describe Moses in t...

Creating the Covenant - Session 4 Extra: Parables of Jesus

Creating the Covenant

Session 4.1: Parables were contextual examples from everyday life communicating the powerful reversals of the kingdom of heaven.

Creating the Covenant - Session 6 Extra: Grace and Response

Creating the Covenant

Session 6.1: The author of Hebrews wants to impress on readers that it should be unthinkable to respond to God's favor and generosity with anything other than g...

Creating the Covenant - Session 8 Extra: The Moab Covenant

Creating the Covenant

Session 8.1: In the Torah or instruction God makes provisions for our failures to live up to the demands of the law. It shows God acting to help Israel obey. Th...

Creating the Covenant - Session 8 Extra: Interpreting the Ten Commandments

Creating the Covenant

Session 8.2: The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is to dominate Israelite life. The covenant is detailed but can be boiled down to relationality: what we do for God ...

Living the Covenant - Session 1: Ruth, Esther, Song of Songs

Living the Covenant

Session 1: In the story of Ruth, both Ruth and Boaz risk caring beyond conventional expectations, displaying faithful love with consequences for Israel's royal ...

Living the Covenant - Session 2: Luke and Acts

Living the Covenant

Session 2: Luke and Acts offer a vision of who God is and what salvation means. For the writer, Jesus is a prophet who reveals God's heart and intention to rema...

Living the Covenant - Session 3: 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings

Living the Covenant

Session 3: In these books the prophets serve as truth-tellers to Israel's kings. They stress that relationship rather than power is central to choosing what's b...

Living the Covenant - Session 4: 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus

Living the Covenant

Session 4: 1 and 2 Thessalonians are written to a community Paul loves - a community anxious about Jesus' return. 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are written to Paul'...

Living the Covenant - Session 5: Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

Living the Covenant

Session 5: Wisdom literature begins and ends with what is good for human beings in life. Starting with everyday insights gathered across time by courts scribes,...

Living the Covenant - Session 6: Philemon, Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians

Living the Covenant

Session 6: Paul says that God is able to restore hope and encourages reconciliation between Philemon and his runaway slave. Paul is a pastoral thinker and his w...

Living the Covenant - Session 7: James, Jude, 1 and 2 Peter

Living the Covenant

Session 7: These letters are written to churches suffering harassment and struggling to keep the faith when Jesus' promised return hasn't occurred. They are wri...

Living the Covenant - Session 8: Isaiah 1-39, Book of the Twelve

Living the Covenant

Session 8: The prophets express the feelings of God: God's deep love for Israel and all of humanity, but also God's deep pain, disappointment, and anger when th...

Living the Covenant - Session 1 Extras: Ruth and Esther

Living the Covenant

Session 1.1: In the court tales of Esther Jewish characters are given power and access to rulers because of their gifts, intelligence, virtue, or beauty. They a...

Living the Covenant - Session 3 Extra: David and the Promise of Leadership

Living the Covenant

Session 3.1: The whole narrative of Samuel and Kings tells the tragic story of failed leadership and the consequences for the covenant people. Compassion and lo...

Living the Covenant - Session 3 Extra: Exile and Hope

Living the Covenant

Session 3.2: In the failure and consequences of the monarchy arises a hope that the scriptural texts themselves provide for a people in exile and those of us wh...

Living the Covenant - Session 5 Extra: Different Kinds of Proverbs

Living the Covenant

Session 5.1: Proverbs. Through brief, often vivid metaphorical sayings this crafted speech is honed and handed down. They are simple sayings that reflect the sa...

Living the Covenant - Session 5 Extra: Woman Wisdom and the Wise Wife

Living the Covenant

Session 5.2: The sages say that the way we respond to life is through poetry. They are simple sayings that reflect the sages' view that God formed the world by ...

Living the Covenant - Session 7 Extra: The Book of James Speaks About the Tongue

Living the Covenant

Session 7.1: James is very practical. Key takeaways from the book of James about how we should behave and live are related to partiality in the church and sland...

Living the Covenant - Session 7 Extra: James and Paul

Living the Covenant

Session 7.2: When Paul talks about faith he is talking about a total orientation of the self toward God and that necessarily includes what you do with your life...

Living the Covenant - Session 8 Extra: Defining a Prophet

Living the Covenant

Session 8.1: In ancient Israel there were men who functioned as spokespersons for God. Some functioned as royal prophets in the court of the king. They had acce...

Living the Covenant - Session 8 Extra: Isaiah and Amos

Living the Covenant

Session 8.2: Isaiah has a bone to pick with the king around a variety of issues. The king is God's person and so the king is accountable to God for the state of...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 1: John 1, 2 and 3 John

Trusting the Covenant

Session 1: Jesus meets his followers in whatever ways they need with new and abundant life. Jesus draws people back into community and promises the Holy Spirit ...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 2: Psalms

Trusting the Covenant

Session 2: Psalms are songs, poems, and prayers to and about God. The psalms give voice to our conflicts, confessions, and cries for God's rescuing help. The Ps...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 3: Job

Trusting the Covenant

Session 3: Job stages difficult human questions such as, "Why do human beings worship God?", "Why do people suffer?", "what is God's role in suffering?", "Does ...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 4: Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel

Trusting the Covenant

Session 4: Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel offer three different perspectives on the same catastrophic event: the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 5: Isaiah 40-66

Trusting the Covenant

Session 5: The story of how Israel gained and lost the land becomes a treasure that they carry with them into exile. The poetry in these passages is written to ...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 6: 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah

Trusting the Covenant

Session 6: The people returning home from exile in successive waves must rebuild their whole way of life. Ezra and Nehemiah look at the practical need for city ...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 7: Apocalyptic Daniel

Trusting the Covenant

Session 7: By using vivid symbols and imagery, the court tales and visions of Daniel stress that God is ultimately controls human events. The identity of faithf...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 8: Revelation

Trusting the Covenant

Session 8: Revelation is a book written for poor people struggling under great duress. It uses vivid, terrifying images to express God's unswerving faithfulness...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 9: Closing

Trusting the Covenant

Session 9: One of the most important lessons from this study is that our covenant relationships with God can be repaired when things go wrong. God's ultimate gr...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 1 Extra: Incarnation and Abundant Love

Trusting the Covenant

Session 1.1: Comparing John to other Gospels, Mark is the story of the suffering servant, Matthew is the teaching gospel, Luke is the prophet emphasizing social...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 2 Extra: Psalms in Worship That Tell Our Story

Trusting the Covenant

Session 2.1: Psalms are songs meant to be sung in community. They are exercises of community. Psalms intercede and invite God into our community. Psalms retell ...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 7 Extra: Exile and Return to Worship

Trusting the Covenant

Session 7.1: Those who come home from exile in Babylon in the first wave of returnees must also welcome those who would come in succeeding waves. They experienc...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 7 Extra: Contemporary Communities and Daniel

Trusting the Covenant

Session 7.2: The powerful read their fate in the book of Daniel. Those in power are called to an exercise of authority in justice and compassion. We see in Dani...

Trusting the Covenant - Session 8 Extra: One Like a Human Being and Jesus

Trusting the Covenant

Session 8.1: The saving figure in Daniel-the fourth in the fiery furnace, the one like a "son of man," was probably modeled on the angel Michael. The hope is th...

Covenant Bible Study Preview

Covenant Bible Study guides small groups through a comprehensive, in-depth study of the whole Bible over twenty-four sessions broken into three eight-session mo...