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What does it mean to have a genuine experience of God?
Part of the Good Book Guides series.
“Have you had an experience of God?” It’s a question that provokes mixed reactions.
The word “experience” may set alarm bells ringing for some Christians, as they imagine the word means supernatural encounters, strange visions, voices or other revelations.
But the Bible, God’s final, complete revelation, reveals a different, yet no less marvellous experience of God. The wonderful truths of the Gospel, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit give Christians a unique experience of God, seen and felt in many ways: A love for Christ and for others; peace in place of anxiety and joy in all circumstances; a passion for doing good; and a deep sense of fulfilment and freedom.
These studies stem from the conviction that a deeper understanding of God’s gospel leads us to a genuine, life-transforming experience of the living God in Christ, which leaves us hungry to know Him more, and serve Him more faithfully. Work through them yourself, with a friend, your partner or in a Bible-study group to discover the riches that are yours in Christ.
Introduction
Why study Experiencing God
1. Experiencing God, experiencing Christ - Colossians 1 v 24 – 2 v 10
2. Experiencing God, experiencing love - Luke 7 v 36-50
3. Experiencing God, experiencing peace - Mark 4 v 35 – 5 v 43
4. Experiencing God, experiencing joy - Philippians 1 v 12-30 and 4 v 4-13
5. Experiencing God, experiencing passion - Titus 2 v 11 – 3 v 8
6. Experiencing God, experiencing rest - Acts 16 v 11-34
Leader's Guide
| Contributors | Tim Chester |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9781906334437 |
| Format | Paperback |
| First published | June 2010 |
| Dimensions | 140mm x 210mm x 3.8mm |
| Weight | 0.09 kg |
| Print size | 9.0pt |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 64 |
| No. of studies | 6 |
| Publisher | The Good Book Company |
The Good Book Guides have been developed to ensure that each session not only seeks to uncover the meaning of the passage and see how it fits into the big picture of the Bible, but also leads people to apply what they have learnt to their lives. Flexible and practical, the Good Book Guides are ideal for small groups, or individual study.
"The format is very user-friendly and the content is rich and accessible."
- Justin Taylor, Gospel Coalition blogger and Vice-President of Editorial, Crossway
"God-centered, application-oriented, and driven by the text throughout, this resource is a gift to God’s church."
- Matt Smethurst, Gospel Coalition reviewer and Master of Divinity student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Here at Covenant Life Church, we have greatly benefitted from the small group resources from The Good Book Company. Many small groups in our family life ministry have used "Colossians: Confident Christianity" in their study of scripture. Additionally, our youth ministry has used "Romans 1-5: God and You" in their small groups. Both resources were very easy to use, helped the reader engage directly with the scriptures, and had a wonderful pastoral emphasis demonstrated in all the questions.
- Dave Brewer, Youth Pastor at Covenant Life Church, Maryland
I love this small group study guide series from The Good Book Company. Christians are regularly told they should spend more time studying God’s Word, but sometimes there’s not a clear plan for how to do this. These study guides provide practical, step-by-step guidance on working through books of the Bible, along with wonderful questions that encourage reflection and application. I hope churches and Christian ministries will take advantage of this wonderful resource.
The aim of the The Good Book Company is to be biblical, relevant and accessible, and nothing embodies that ethos more than their Good Book Guides. Each guide provides a framework for your group to dig into the text of Scripture for itself while providing enough of a steer to keep you on track plus useful pointers towards application. The result is a great combination of fidelity to Scripture and ease of use.
The Good Book Guides are an immensely precious resource for the church. A careful blend of helpful context and clearly-worded, searching questions which aim to help readers to uncover the meaning of the text and apply it in responsible ways. I think these small group studies are the best available and pray that they will continue to prove helpful to local churches across the world!
There's a lot of good about this book. The studies are well chosen, the questions are thought provoking, the study notes are clear and stick carefully to the truth. But I humbly feel it could have been so much better.
Too often the notes go straight to "the right answer" for a situation, without the idea of prayerfully evaluating the actual situation.
Example 1 "What should we do when we are agitated or anxious? - Obey the words of Jesus in Mark 5 v 36: Don't be afraid; just believe". a) Not every imperative that Jesus spoke is a command to all Christians; we need to know the context before we apply his words to ourselves. b) Agitation or anxiety could be a health issue; see also example 2. c) Did Jesus really mean his words to Jairus (whose daughter has just died) as a command to be obeyed? More likely IMHO it was a gracious invitation, perhaps with a hand on the shoulder.
Example 2 "How should we encourage someone who is going through a period of despondency? - It may be right to confront [...] to show them that they are valuing other things above Christ." This is terrible advice to give to untrained people (my trained friends share that concern). The idea of a health cause should at least be mentioned, otherwise harm could be done.
But my main disappointment is that the book pulls the punch promised by its title. The study notes continually intellectualise, with a focus on gaining more knowledge and doing/saying the right things, almost to the exclusion of actual experience.
Of course knowing and obeying and bearing witness to the truth are important, they are essential. But they aren't the same as experiencing God. If they were, the Pharisees wouldn't have had a problem.
One study is on Philippians but it leaves out Paul's heart cry "I want to know the Messiah and the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings!" On a good day that's where I am too, and I think Paul expressed what experiencing God was about, better than these notes do.
This study material has prove to be a stimulating course. Whilst being a simple and accessible presentation it opened up thoughts and discussions across the group. The style enabled us to rotate the leadership for each of our meetings.
I do therefore recommend this book as house group material.
We used this study to complement sermon series on the character of God. The studies often used quite odd passages to draw out the themes. The passages used had a lot to teach but weren't completely aligned with the topic. I wouldn't recommend this study which is a shame because most of the studies in this series have been of a consistent standard.
