Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 107:1-32

Questions:

1. What events from your life do you see reflected in the words of verses 1-7? How has what God has done in the past assured you of his goodness and love?
2. What events from your life do you see reflected in the words of verses 10-14? How has what God has done in the past assured you of his goodness and love?
3. What events from your life do you see reflected in the words of verses 17-20? How has what God has done in the past assured you of his goodness and love?
4. What events from your life do you see reflected in the words of verses 23-30? How has what God has done in the past assured you of his goodness and love?
5. Which of these “passages” do you find yourself going through right now? Can you find the faith to praise God for his goodness and love, even though you might not see the end of the struggles yet?

Prayer Focus: Pray for the leaders of our nation right now.  Pray that God would give them wisdom for the challenges facing our country and world.

Evening Study:

Evening: Romans 8:28-39

Questions:

1. What promise does God make in verse 28?  How does that promise line up with the Psalm that you read this morning?
2. According to verse 29, what is God’s plan for our lives?  According to verse 30, what is God doing to help us accomplish that plan?
3. How did God demonstrate that he is “for us” or in other words on our side in this according to this passage?
4. What question does Paul ask in verse 35?  What’s the answer?  How does that help you?

Prayer focus: Pray for the leaders of your school tonight.  Pray that God would give them wisdom as they deal with the struggles facing your teachers and classmates.

Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 69:1-18

Questions:

1. How did David describe what he was going through in verses 1-3?  Have you ever found yourself feeling like that?  What made you feel that way?
2. What does David say is not hidden from God in verse 5?  What guilt is there in your life that you need to acknowledge?
3. Look at verse 6.  How could those who trust in God be put to shame because of what you have done?
4. What does David ask God to do in verses 13-18?

Prayer Focus: Pray the words of this Psalm for the struggles in your life.

Evening Study:

Evening: Romans 8:12-27

Questions:

1. What spirit did we not receive from God?  What Spirit did we receive?  What obligation do we have to that Spirit?  What promise is made to those who live up to that obligation?
2. To what has creation been subjected?  How do we see that in our world today?  What hope does creation have?
3. What do we hope for?  How does hope cause us to act?
4. How does the Spirit help us as we wait hopefully?  What do those words mean for you?

Prayer focus: You’re not the only one who feels overwhelmed by the struggles of life.  There are families in our church and community that feel like they are being swallowed up in trouble.  Pray for those around you that are suffering.

Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 101

Questions:

1. Of what two things does David say he will sing in verse one?  What is the tension between those two subjects?
2. What commitment does David make in verse 2?  Can someone really make that commitment to God?
3. What things does David say he will do in verses 3-7 to live out the commitment of verse 2?  Which of these do you do pretty well at?  Which of these things do you need to do better at?

Prayer Focus: Pray that God would help you in those areas you are weak from question #3.

Evening Study:

Evening: Romans 8:1-11

Questions:

1. What promise does Paul make in verse 1?  How would it free you to work on letting God do his transforming work in you if you knew you no longer had to be afraid to be honest with Him?
2. Verse 3 says that in Christ, God not only set us free from the law of sin and death, he also condemned sin in sinful man.  What does that mean?  Why does what Jesus did for us mean we no longer have an excuse to keep on sinning?
3. How does our mindset reveal what principle is driving our actions according to verse 5?  What do you typically set your mind on?
4. What does Paul promise the indwelling Spirit will do in us?  Who does Paul say has the indwelling Spirit?  Are you giving the Spirit control of your life?

Prayer focus: Pray that God would use these Lenten devotions and your Lenten fast to help you set your mind more fully on Him.

Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 97

Questions:

1. Verse one declares that God reigns.  It’s a fairly simple statement - one we even sing from time to time ourselves.  But what implications does that claim have for your life?
2. In what ways are those who put their trust in other things put to shame?
3. What are those who love God commanded to do in verse 10?  What does it mean to do that?

Prayer Focus: Pray for our Water’s Edge and Shore services tonight.  Pray that God would draw students to our services tonight, and that he would speak His truth to them. (And more importantly perhaps, to you!)

Evening Study:

Evening: Romans 7:13-25

Questions:

1. Yesterday we read about how the idea of something being forbidden creates the desire to do that thing.  If the law has that kind of unintended consequence, why would God give the Law?  Certainly it didn’t catch him by surprise.
2. Why doesn’t Paul understand what he does?  Do you understand what he’s talking about?  Have you ever found yourself living that way?
3. To really be living the life that Paul describes, you must agree that the Law is good.  Have you arrived at the place in your life where you really do believe that God’s plan for you is best?
4. These verses sound pretty hopeless, but in verse 25, Paul sees a ray of hope.  What is it?  Who can make a difference in the way he is living?

Prayer focus: Pray today that God would help you see a ray of hope as you seek to live out this Brand New Life.

Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 89:1-18

Questions:

1. What did Ethan say that he will declare in verse 2?  How does that declaration encourage you?
2. In what ways has God established his faithfulness in the heavens?
3. How is God’s reign established in justice and righteousness (v 14)?
4. What do you think Ethan means when he says that our shield belongs to the Lord (v 18)?

Prayer Focus: I hope this doesn’t sound selfish, but Pastor Phil and I are attending a conference at Olivet the next couple days.  Would you pray that God would speak to us through these special sessions?

Evening Study:

Evening: Romans 7:1-12

Questions:

1. When does Paul say we are released from our obligation to the Law?  Why does Paul say we have died, through Jesus, to the Law?
2. How does Paul say we now serve God?  How do you think that is different from the old way of the written code?
3. Paul says God’s law serves to open our eyes to the reality of sin.  What does the law point out in your life that needs changing?
4. How does the knowledge that something is forbidden create the desire to do that thing?  Why do you think humans react to something forbidden like that?

Prayer focus: Pray for those who are wrapping up their High School careers this semester.  Pray that God would help our Seniors to finish this school year strong and would provide them direction for the next steps in their life.

Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 66

Questions:

1. What do you think the Psalmist means when he or she writes “make [God's] praise glorious”?  How can you do that this morning as you attend worship?
2. According to verse 3, what motivates this kind of worship?  What deeds has God done in your life that motivate your worship?
3. The deeds that the Psalmist recounts in verses 10-12 hardly sound praiseworthy.  Yet verse 10 says that these hardships were God’s way of refining his people.  How can you see the good God is doing even when the times are bad?
4. According to verse 18, when would God not have heard the Psalmist’s prayers?  What sins are you cherishing in your heart that need to be repented so that you are ready to worship God this morning?

Prayer Focus: Pray that God would help you to see the good that he is doing even when times are bad, so that you might recognize the refining process by which he is shaping you into the person he created you to become.

Evening Study:

Evening: Galatians 4:21-5:1

Questions:

1. In this passage, Paul contrasts Abraham’s two sons - Ishmael, his son with the slave woman, and Isaac, his son with is wife Sarah.  The contrast is between trying to live life on our own terms, or trusting in God’s promise.  How do we tend to make our own way in the world rather than trusting what God provides?
2. How does trying to earn our own relationship with God tend to lead to a life of slavery rather than freedom?
3. What command does Paul give in verse 1?  How are we in danger of finding ourselves burdened again by slavery?

Prayer focus: Pray for members of your family or friends who still haven’t found freedom in Christ.  Pray that God would help you to share the good news with them.

Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 90

Questions:

(Once again take some extra time this morning to let this Psalm come alive in your reading.  Learn to hear it on it’s own terms, not just in terms of the questions others pose to it.)

1. Read this Psalm out loud at least three times.
2. What word or phrase really jumps out at you?
3. How does that word or phrase apply to your life right now?  What are you going through that would cause that phrase to stand out?
4. What is God trying to say to you through this Psalm?

Prayer Focus: Spend some time today getting ready for worship tomorrow.  Ask that God would create a hunger and thirst for his presence in you.

Evening Study:

Evening: Romans 6:12-23

Questions:

1. Look carefully at verse 13. As whom should we offer ourselves to God?  As what should we offer the parts of our bodies to God?  How does what God did for us motivate us to make this kind of commitment to him?
2. According to verse 14, what will no longer be our master?  What does that mean?
3. What do you think it means to be a slave to righteousness?  How would your life be different if you learned to live that kind of life?
4. Paul says that the wages of sin are death.  In what ways is that statement true?

Prayer focus: Pray for tomorrow’s worship services.  Pray especially for Pastor Phil that God would use him to speak His Word to you, and pray that you would have eyes that see and ears that hear.

Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 91

Questions:

1. What promise does the Psalmist make to the one who dwells in the shelter of the Most High? Verse two says that our refuge is the God in whom we trust.  Why is trust so necessary to find refuge in God?
2. Of all the promises God makes in this Psalm, what is the most important to you right now?
3. In verse 14, why does God say he will rescue us?  What does it mean to acknowledge God’s name?

Prayer Focus: Pray for the poor of our world who lack access to the basic necessities for healthy life, and pray for those who are working to make a difference in this problem.

Evening Study:

Evening: Romans 6:1-11

Questions:

1. What would make someone think that grace gives us the freedom to sin without fear?  How does Paul respond to this idea?
2. Why does Paul say we were buried with Christ through baptism into his death?
3. Why was our old self crucified with Christ?  What does that mean?
4. What does Paul challenge us to do in verse 11?  What does that verse mean?  What would your brand new life look like if you obeyed?

Prayer focus: Pray today for those whose lives have been turned upside down and placed in danger by violence and war.  Pray also for those who are working to alleviate the suffering caused by war and violence.

Morning Study:

Text: Psalm 85

Questions:

1. In verses 1-3, what does the Psalmist say that God has done for Israel? What does he ask God to do in verse 4?  What’s the difference between forgiveness and restoration?  Have you asked God to do both in your life?
2. What does the Psalmist ask God to do in verse 6?  What does he ask in verse 7?  How would getting a fresh vision of God’s unfailing love and free salvation bring about revival?
3. In verses 10-11, the Psalmist says the place where salvation springs up is where righteousness and peace kiss, where faithfulness of people meets up with the justice of God.  How can we bring together human faithfulness and divine justice?

Prayer Focus: Pray that the union of human faithfulness and divine justice will happen in our world, and in your life.  Ask God to show you how to be faithful and how to pursue his justice.

Evening Study:

Evening: Jeremiah 10:11-24

Questions:

1. What is the difference from the gods of verse 1 and God of verse 2?  Where are you placing your trust?
2. According to verses 14-15, why is the idolmaker embarassed by his idols? According to verse 16, how is God different?
3. According to verse 21, what is the cause for the people’s distress?
4. What does Jeremiah pray for in verses 23-24?  What would that prayer mean in your life?

Prayer focus: Spend some time really thinking through what Jeremiah’s prayer means, and pray it for your own life.

Morning Study:

(Tonight’s the last night of our revival with Dr. Norman Wilson.  If you haven’t made it to a service yet, tonight’s your night.  Be there!  And if you have made it to a service, come back tonight. It’s going to be good!)

Text: Psalm 82

Questions:

1. What verdict does God issue in verse 2? What could possibly make someone to come down on the side of the unjust and wicked?  What things do we consider more important in others than whether or not they do the right thing?
2. Whose cause does God want us to side with according to verse 3 and 4?  How can we do that?
3. Verse 5 says ignorance can cause instability.  How is that true?  How do we make sure we’re not ignorant of the important things?
4. How is an awareness of our own mortality an important first step toward overcoming that ignorance?

Prayer Focus: Pray for the children in our community and in our world.  Pray that God would help protect them from the dangers they face and would provide what they need to grow strong and to learn.

Evening Study:

Evening: Jeremiah 8:18-9:6

Questions:

1. In verse 21, Jeremiah says that he is mourning for his fellow Isrealites who are mourning. If we are going to be agents of God’s grace in our world, why is it important that we be able to empathize like that?
2. In verse 22, Jeremiah cries out for a “balm” or “medicine” in Gilead, for someone to heal his people. The Church has always understood that Jesus is the balm that Jeremiah was crying out for.  In what ways is Jesus the cure to heal humanity’s sicknesses.
3. In verses 3-5, Jeremiah mourns for the culture of deceitfulness that has arisen in Judah.  In what ways do we live in a culture of deceit?
4. How does deceit get in the way of acknowledging God?

Prayer focus: Pray this evening for the elderly in our church and our world.  Pray that God would meet their needs and help us to value them and honor their contribution to our world.