I am so excited about our Ephesians Bible Study that will begin next Monday, October 1st! Just reading through it this week, the words seemed to leap off the page! I can’t wait to see what God teaches us as we spend time with Him in Ephesians this fall.
What?
As you can tell from the title, after looking at Galatians and Ephesians more closely, I decided to go with just Ephesians this time around.
When?
It will be a nine week study from October 1st-November 30th. Then we’ll take December and maybe some of January off. The readings will go Monday-Friday. You can use your weekends to catch up if you need to or for deeper study of ideas you learned throughout the week.
How?
We’ll use the SOAP method of Bible study this time around. SOAP stands for:
- Scripture – You read just a few verses each day and write/type them out.
- Observation -You write down any observations you have about the verses. Who is being spoken to? What is going on? What is the tone? Anything that jumps out to you from the reading.
- Application – How can you apply what you observed and learned to your life today?
- Prayer – Write out/say a prayer to God about what you learned. If applicable, you may even pray back to him the verses you read that day.
We will only be doing a few verses a day, so the study won’t take more than the usual 15 minutes unless you have more time to spend each day. I know you may be reluctant to write it all out, but I encourage you to try it for the first week at least. I heard about the SOAP method from another site and have been using it in my quiet time lately. It’s amazing how much God has opened my eyes to ideas I missed before. I challenge you to at least try it.
Materials?
- Your Bible – I have my favorite physical one, but I often use the one on my iPhone, too.
- A Notebook and Pen – I just opted to use my journal, since I like all of my writing in one place.
- OR if you’re not into physically writing it all out check out this site SOAP.com. There you can do your SOAP online or even download an App. Awesome!
Where?
We’ll meet in the OverACup facebook group linked on the “Online Bible Study” tab above or here. I’ll tell you more on Friday about how we’ll interact on facebook to work at keeping each other more accountable this time, and I’ll post the readings for the whole nine weeks.
If you aren’t already a member of the OverACup facebook group, please click on either of the links and click “Join Group.” We’d love to have you doing this Bible study along with us.
Who?
Anyone is welcome! Please invite your family and friends. Anyone you feel would be blessed with an online accountability group like this.
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” ~ Prov. 27:17
I don’t know about you, but I need others in community and accountability like this. Right now, I really don’t have the time to attend a Ladies Bible study, so you all are my Bible study group. Please join us and become part of the community online as we help encourage each other to spend time with God daily.
I can’t wait to begin this study of Ephesians with you on October 1st! I know God has a lot he wants to reveal to us through this book. Know as you consider this study that you are being covered in prayer.
God Bless,
t.
I am excited to do this one! Have you used the SOAP App? I will check it out this evening!!
I hadn’t so I just checked it out. You have to go through the link on their site. I had trouble registering through the link (but that may have just been my internet connection), so I registered through their site on my computer. Then logged in from my phone by clicking on the link provided on the site.
I was really pleased! It was so easy to add a verse (you don’t even have to type it all in if you don’t want to), then you can key in your observation, application, and prayer.
Since the app is only available through their site and not the app store, I ended up clicking on the arrow/box tab in the bottom center of my internet window, then clicked “Add to Home Screen.”
That essentially made it as good as an app from the app store. I’m definitly going to keep it on my phone, so I can still SOAP even away from my journal.