Bethlehem North Women's Bible Study

The Battle is the Lord's 1 Samuel 17 highlights the story of David and Goliath, where we see God at work to defend the honor of His name through David's weakness.

"Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Consider what great things he has done for you." –1 Samuel 12:24 Our lesson this week in 1 Samuel 8-15 highlights Israel's transition to a monarchy, Saul's rise to power, and his eventual rejection by God due to disobedience. We saw God sovereignly work through Israel's demand for an earthly king “like the nations” to reveal their weak faith, hard-heartedness, and their true need for a heavenly King. We were challenged to examine our own hearts, humbly repenting of sin and seeking God's forgiveness.

Amelia will help us see how the gospel brings hope and stability when life seems out of control.

In 1 Samuel 4-7, an important question is asked: “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God?” Samuel's answer comes with a promise: To stand in the presence of the LORD, you must humbly repent of your dishonoring him, put away all your idols, and serve the LORD with your whole heart . . . and he will deliver you from the Philistines--or in our case, every weight and sin which clings so closely. Today, the call of the LORD to us is the same: With all your heart, humbly destroy the idols that gravely dishonor the Lord, and serve the LORD only. By faith in Jesus, we have the grace to stand in the presence of the LORD. Hallelujah!

As we seek to become more like Christ, our marriage is an opportunity to live out the “one another” commandments from Scripture. As we do, we will grow in unity and connection together.   February 2 & 3

New Beginnings: Hannah, Eli, and Samuel (1 Samuel 1-3) God chooses the setting of barrenness and the context of dark rebellion as the opening scene to giving a promised child, who will point to the King.

Join us in examining the biblical, historical, cultural and literary context of 1-2 Samuel. Gain some new insights into studying Biblical Narrative, and see how God is fulfilling His promises and foreshadowing his Coming King.

What a privilege it is to live out our faith before the watching eyes of our children. Kelly Vranyes will share life stories of how God has used time in the word and prayer in his sanctifying work in her and her children's lives. “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart“ (Jeremiah 15:16).

Our youth ministry pastors and staff from nursery through high school will share their vision for each of their ministries and provide practical ways parents can partner with each age level at home. There will be an opportunity to submit questions.

God's People: Saints and Servants Saved by the Gospel (Romans 16) Learn from Paul's greetings in Romans 16 on how to serve one another in love for the sake of the gospel. 1. A Servant-Hearted Sister 2. Saints to Greet 3. Deceivers to Avoid 4. A Few More Greetings from a Few More Good Men a brief recap before Paul's benediction…. 5. To God Be All the Glory!

Romans 15 calls us as believers to live out Christ's example of love, living in harmony with each other, to support the spread of the gospel and glorify God. God equips us with hope and endurance through the Scriptures and by Christ's example, to glorify God together. 

God's Righteousness Lived Out: Honoring Convictions While Extending Grace In Romans 14, Paul provides categories and principles to foster unity among brothers with different consciences. He outlines that we believers, proceeding from faith, welcome and honor one another, put off passing judgment on one another in matters of conscience--because we live and die to the Lord--and instead, we pursue peace with each other, building up one another and God's kingdom of righteousness, PEACE, and joy! Whether we forsake or partake [fill in the blank!] because of our conscience, we are always to love.

Responding to God's Self-Revelation: Worshiping Through the Seasons of Life God reveals Himself to humanity so that we would rightly respond to Him in worship. Romans 12:1 expresses Paul's heart that all of life should be seen as worship. We naturally ask, so what does it look like to 'treasure Christ in all of life?' Practical help for growing as worshipers in the ordinariness of daily life.

Explore with Paul how love fulfills the Law as we live transformed lives by the power of the Spirit.

In Romans 12:9-21, we saw how God's righteousness is lived out in our everyday lives as we interact with a wide range of “one anothers.” As we behold the perfect example of genuine love in Jesus, we become more like Him.

Can we really give our kids a vision for global missions when our daily lives feel so…local? Giving a vision for global missions starts by beholding the glory of the Lord and embracing the spirit of Jesus. But it doesn't stop there. Missions is where awe becomes action. It's taking what we've seen and letting it shape how we live—becoming the voice, hands, and feet of Jesus to the nations in front of and with your kids. Join Kristin Dearth for a conversation about easy, inspiring ways to raise globally-minded kids who love Jesus deeply and follow him boldly—beginning right in your own home.

A genuine, transformed Christian life is an overflow of God's mercy. It is a life spent in loving, serving, and using your God-given gifts within the community of faith, all for the glory of Christ. This is a profound process rooted in God's mercy and centered on Christ. It is not merely a set of rules but a new way of living that reflects a change in heart and purpose. God's mercy is the deep, solid foundation that will hold us fast through every storm of life and as our lives are anchored in God's mercies, they will demonstrate the transforming mercy of God in action…. God's righteousness is displayed in our transformation.

God's Righteousness in Future Restoration | Romans 11 | Kïrsten Christianson Here in chapter 11, Paul proves God's righteous plan for future restoration with an argument that shows the intricacy, reveals at least some of the mystery, and underscores God's sovereignty in his election plan for his people. Paul's intention in writing this passage was to show us that God is righteous in all things--including in his plan of salvation for the Gentiles and the Jews--and that we can and should completely trust him to accomplish his perfect will for each and every one of us.

Mary was completely paralyzed with polio at 15 months of age, not expected to live, and endured 18 years of surgeries, but God had a plan! The LORD is our redeemer of the past, present, and future as he uses the weak to confound the wise for his glory!

Mary was completely paralyzed with polio at 15 months of age, not expected to live, and endured 18 years of surgeries, but God had a plan! The LORD is our redeemer of the past, present, and future as he uses the weak to confound the wise for his glory!

God's Righteousness Rejected at Present: The Reason, the Remedy, and the Result As Paul continues to defend God's righteousness in election, in Romans 9:30-10:21 he zeroes in on the human responsibility to respond to God's offer of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Believing in Jesus and confessing him as Lord are essential for salvation. We have a present responsibility to respond to God's offer of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. While God's election is sovereign, He also calls people to put their faith in Christ for salvation. We also see the importance of praying (10:1) and sharing the gospel: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

In Romans 9 we see God's unconditional election clearly revealed in the Bible, and we are stirred to humility, worship, gratitude, and hope as we reflect on our own salvation and prayerfully seek the salvation of others.

Paul's anguish over unbelieving Israel was made more painful when he thought of all the unique privileges and blessings that they possessed. The question hanging in the air is “Has God's word failed? Can we trust God?” In Romans 9:1-13, Paul launches into the basis of election: an explanation of the doctrines of unconditional election and divine sovereignty over human willing. Paul argues for God's faithfulness in His sovereign election of Israel. He aims to vindicate God's righteousness.  God's word has NOT failed! Our faithful God has kept, is keeping and WILL keep his promises!

To kick off a new season of MOMS, Pam Larson unpacked our theme for the year: Behold and Become. 

At some point, every Bible reader needs to wrestle with the problem of Israel's unbelief. If God failed to deliver on the big, saving promises he made to his people Israel, who's to say he'll be faithful to the big, saving promises he's made to us? Paul wrestles with this question after writing his most famous promise-filled chapter of all. And his answer is at once surprising and precisely what we should have expected all along. Surprising faithfulness: what else would we expect from a God like ours!

No Separation: God's Everlasting, Amazing Love in Christ Our assurance: God is FOR us not against us! NO CONDEMNATION! More assurance: God's love is FOR us forever! NO SEPARATION! God's forever love is FOR us because of what Jesus has done for us.

We can rest assured! God's plans work for good as he conforms us to the image of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Live in the Spirit! The Spirit will help us! We have such great assurance in God's plans & purposes! Pray! We have assurance that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are working through our prayers. Be Conformed to Christ! Embrace God's plans for our past, present & future.  

There is GLORY to be revealed! As Christians, we do suffer, but not without HOPE of a far greater, future glory. That sure hope of a glorious future strengthens us to patiently persevere through the trials we are faced with now.

Paul reminds us that it is by the Spirit you have been freed from your sinful flesh, found as adopted sons of God whom you now call Abba! Father!, and have been made co-heirs with Christ by the fellowship of his suffering for the fruit of eternal glory with him.

Our passage this week takes up the issue mentioned at the end of Romans 8:4— how does this new walk, walking according to the Spirit, come about? We looked at three ways set out in Romans 8:5–11: We walk by the Spirit as we set our mind on the Spirit.  We walk by the Spirit if (and only if) God's Spirit dwells in us. We walk by the Spirit in hope of the resurrection power of the Spirit.

In Romans 8:1-4, we have the glorious proclamation that IF we are in Christ, we are no longer under condemnation, but have liberation in Christ, propitiation through Christ's sacrificial death for sin, and sanctification through the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit's power in our lives.

Romans is a detailed explanation of the heart of the gospel and how it works in our lives. Apart from God and his grace, we are utterly without hope. In this episode Pam Larson reviews Romans 1–7 to open our study series on Romans 8, examining various aspects of the gospel much like a jeweler would examine the facets of a beautiful diamond set off by the dark black velvet background ... the bad news that none of us are righteous and all are under God's wrath apart from Jesus and his work on the cross. How do believers relate to the law? The law is holy, righteous, and good! But it can't make us holy, or righteous, or good. The great news coming in Romans 8 is that God has done “what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” (Romans 8:3). God redeems us by sending his Son to fulfill the law. We have been set free from the law and walk in the new way of the Spirit.

Three of our North Church women share about their experience in a Titus 2 multigenerational community, encouraging one another to hope in God through many different seasons and circumstances.

Suffering is hard and fear is real, but suffering also brings surprising gifts to those who know Jesus.

We have been set free from the law and walk in the new way of the Spirit. The law is holy, righteous, and good, but it can't make us holy, righteous, or good. Even though we struggle in the fight against sin (which is powerful), thanks to Jesus, his grace is stronger. The focus shifts from the power of sin (Romans 6) to the powerlessness of the law. (Romans 7) 1–Romans 7:1–6 | Two husbands  2–Romans 7:7–11 | Story #1: Is the law sin? 3–Romans 7:12-13 | The law and sin  4–Romans 7:14–25 | Story #2: The Struggle and the Deliverer

This week in Romans 6:12–23, Paul reminds us that because of what Christ did, we are not slaves to sin and our passions anymore. Instead, we have a new master, a master Paul calls Obedience, Righteousness, and finally, God. And what a gracious master God is!  Under this new master, we have become obedient from the heart, we devote ourselves to righteousness, and we bear the fruit of sanctification by living unto God—for eternity. When we believe God, this is our reality, and Paul entreats us to live out of that reality. Sinclair Ferguson says it this way, “This is how we want to grasp Roman 6, not so that we understand it up here (gestures to head), and it is a challenge to grasp it up here, but so that it will create in (us) gospel instincts, affections, and emotions that are driven by the fact that we live the whole of our lives in union with Jesus Christ.”

Paul offers a sustained argument debunking the outrageous idea that by saying that “when sin increased, grace abounded all the more,” he was suggesting that we should “continue in sin that grace may abound.” His chief argument is that the old, sinning, self has died giving rise to a new righteous life. Sinning is incompatible with this new life. It's actually the transformation of sinners into righteous people that really highlights God's grace.  Such is God's grace. Not only did he declare you righteous in Jesus, his amazing grace daily transforms you from the sin-ravaged, fearful of death old self into the image of Jesus. This grace is yours if you come to Jesus in faith; his grace is great enough to transform you no matter how great your sins.

YouTube & Podbean DESCRIPTION:   Paul uses a “how much more” logic to show us how much better the free gift of righteousness is than the sin that necessitated it.    We have a better Man than ourselves. We are not saved by our understanding of the law or our ability to keep it, but by Christ's act of obedience at the cross.   In Christ we have a better work than Adam's. It is not our work of righteousness, or Adam's work of sin, that defines us. It is Christ's work alone that defines the believer in Jesus. We have a better gift. The gift of grace given to us in Christ's righteous obedience reaps for us an eternal reward, impacting our future forever! Salvation has a better scope than we originally realized. It is for every tribe, tongue and nation on the earth—everyone who believes in Christ. Embrace the scope of this gift by offering it to those outside the church doors (as well as those inside).   ------- Please note that at about 5:20 in the video, Kristin accidentally misspeaks, saying that some liberal scholars suggest that Paul was a mythical figure. She intended to follow up her previous correct statement that “Paul regards Adam as a historical person,” with the contrast of some liberal scholars who suggest that *Adam* was a mythical figure.   

In Romans 5:1–11, we learned that justification leads to a restored personal relationship with God. In Jesus, we are reconciled and can rejoice in our past redemption, even our present sufferings and our future in glory. Our past is redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Our present is increasingly becoming more like Jesus, and our future is secure. * Remember and rejoice in all that Jesus has done for you. He died for you while you were still a sinner, declared you righteous, has given you peace with God. Reconciliation leads to rejoicing! * Recognize and relish your present position: once his enemies, now his friends, given access to grace, joy even in suffering. Reconciliation leads to hope and rejoicing! * Rest in grace and be reassured in your hope for future joy and glory. Reconciliation leads to eternal rejoicing!

This week Paul offered Father Abraham as an example of how to obtain righteousness with God—through Christ by faith alone. We learned that Abraham's faith was counted to him as righteousness BEFORE he was circumcised. God made a promise to and covenant with Abraham to redeem the world—both the circumcised AND the uncircumcised—and it would be carried out by Abraham believing God and his promises, not by his own keeping the law. When we are under grace, believing God, then our sin is forgiven and our faith is counted to us as righteousness. Abraham's faith was/is the model and the pointer to God's plan for his people.

A jeweler puts a diamond on a black velvet background in order to highlight the stunning beauty of the diamond shining all the more brightly against the dark background. The gospel is the same way—it shines at its brightest when seen against the backdrop of the condemnation of sin and death that we deserve. Knowing our desperate condition—that we are under God's wrath and hopeless without a Rescuer— makes God's saving grace in the death of Jesus the sweetest news ever. This week in Romans 3:21-31, we encountered the heart of the gospel. Because Jesus died in our place, those who trust in him are counted as righteous. And God, the Just and the Justifier, is satisfied. He can pardon us completely, so that when he looks at us, he sees the beautiful robe of righteousness that Jesus purchased for us (Isaiah 61:10).   

The Jileks share some of the observations they've made over the years as college student ministers, providing some helpful considerations for parenting kids through the college transition, as well as how this impacts the parenting of little ones — all while keeping our eyes on Jesus, knowing that He holds our kids and is the author and sustainer of their faith.

No one gets a pass. Not the flagrantly immoral and not the private idolater. This is Paul's argument so far: God judges each person—Jew or Gentile—according to his works. The standard for judging those works is God's righteousness, explicitly stated in his laws. Both Jews and Gentiles have failed to keep God's righteous standard.  What should we do when we hear a word like this? Paul already told us. Stop our mouths. Make no more excuses. Hear the oracles of God as his mercy to us. Conviction over sin is such a gift. If you feel conviction, rejoice! That is a sign of life in you. God is so kind to expose the ugly hypocrisy in our hearts so that we can repent of it and be free of it.  But next week we'll see that following this universally devastating revelation of God's wrath on all unrighteousness comes the glorious revelation of a righteousness APART from the law. Your works will never measure up to the righteous standard of God's law. But there is another way… the way of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation from his just wrath, and it is the best news you could ever hear.

In God's mysterious grace, the starting point for hope is to face our desperate, hopeless condition. Our problem is the stain of sin, which we can never scrub away. Sin of exchanging the glory of God for a love of ourselves—that terrible exchange, which trickles down into a hundred other fruits of wickedness. But there was another exchange. The holy, almighty God we rejected, He made another exchange. The righteous Judge took all the eternal wrath and punishment that our sins deserve, and He poured it out, not on us, but on His beautiful, perfect Son. And the one Man who always treasured the glory of God–His perfect record is draped over us, if we receive Him. Our sin for Christ's righteousness. This is the breath-taking exchange of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake, he [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin [Jesus], so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

This week we heard the "Overture to Romans” (Paul's introduction in Romans 1:1–17). As in a musical before the curtain rises, the overture sets the mood and introduces motifs that are developed later in the play, and you hear familiar melodies from each scene or episode.

Dr. Naselli gives us a powerfully rich "jet tour" of the book of Romans. Slides from his presentation are available here.

Start the new year by considering how we can feast on the life of Jesus by thirsting for prayer and consuming God's Word. We come to him so that we may have life!   You can access Kristin's recommended resources here.

Judges concludes with a deeply sobering illustration of what the kingdom of this world is like. While the author doesn't shrink from revealing the horrors of what humanity becomes when they reject God as king, he nonetheless ends his history of the judges on a hopeful note. He invites us to look through the gloom of “those days” to a new day when “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his [King], and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15). That day is coming! And it comes courtesy of a willing Savior—and now enthroned King—whose Father sent him out the doors of heaven into the arms of a worthless mob intent on doing him harm. While we “worthless fellows” blindly stumbled around seeking other saviors, Jesus quietly laid down his life for ours. Now freed from sin's tyranny, previously “worthless fellows” have become citizens of Heaven's kingdom, anticipating the day when all the earth does what is “right” in God's eyes.

Feelings of inadequacy, fear of failure, indecision, and guilt often rob us of joy and effectiveness. Why are these pitfalls so prevalent today, even in the church? How can we as Christian women avoid them and approach life with contagious confidence?

Sometimes, in order to repent and worship God, we have to take a long hard look at what life apart from him looks like. This week in Judges 17 and 18, we saw the ironic and devastating effects of Israel's rejection of the one true God: “There was no king in Israel, and everyone did right in their own eyes.” The fruit: relational manipulation, deceit, generational sin, the perversion of the priesthood, and death. The proud, thieving son is robbed, betrayed, exposed, and abandoned. Israel is lost.  So, what to do? Learn from Israel, examine our own hearts, repent of specific idolatries, and gratefully worship the one true God!

Samson's story captured our attention with daring exploits, romantic betrayal, and a last-minute plot twist. It's clear, however, that Samson is not the hero of the tale. He walked contrary to God's ways and took God's gifts for granted. His life offers warnings about the dangers of compromise and presuming on the Lord's kindness. Our covenant-keeping God is the real hero of Samson's story. God strengthened Samson for his acts of Philistine judgment. God disciplined his people and Samson, allowing them to see how blind and enslaved they had become. Then, in a display of great mercy, God began to deliver them from the Philistines. That story of mercy parallels every believer's story. God sent his son to deliver his people from the power of sin and death. Jesus is our greater judge and champion. He said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Whether the metaphor works because Jesus broke the power of sin that would lock us into hell or because the gates represent the strength of evil powers that issue from it, Jesus declared that the final victory belongs to him. What a Savior!