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Our mission is to obey the Word of God which is the Bible. To be a disciple of Christ, we are to follow Him. The Lord has just given the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5, which is how we should respond to the ten commandments if we want to live a praiseworthy life to God. Christ gives a picture of a person’s heart who is convicted of sin by encountering the ten commandments and is now asking for God’s help to change. In chapter 6, the Lord is showing us, now what our responding to His call looks like in daily life as we live out His words. Then He shows us how to pray. In Verse 7, He starts out by saying:

7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. 8 "So do not be like them; for your, Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (NASB)

So we asked ourselves why do we pray the Lord’s prayer as meaningless repetition? Is there more to this prayer than how we were taught in church? We believe yes, and thus could it be an outline for us to follow? For years we have broken this prayer down and spent time walking outside or praying in a quiet place to spend time on each part of the outline. As a couple, we will use this as an outline when we pray together. Great relationship building with the Lord has occurred. We want to caution that this is no formula because this is how Christ said to pray. Faith is acting on God’s word. And if you look closely at the whole prayer, it is indeed an outline, and each part of it takes time. Join Ric and Mary Joyner in their podcast for Pewsitters spending time on each part of this prayer. Let us know what you think.

Open Matthew 6:9 and read along with us.

We are still in Chapter 1 and reading about some very brave Hebrew midwives who were told by Pharaoh to kill the Hebrew children. They disobey Pharaoh. WHOA, drama and tension heat up the story! They are called to provide an explanation to Pharaoh! Have you ever faced a fear that could end your life? The midwives did. But they chose the fear of the Lord over the fear of Pharaoh. They let God handle the outcome. At Biblestudycompany.com we feel it is easy to understand the fear of the Lord. It is not a cowering fear; it is the “fear to offend Him”. In this case, the midwives were protecting God’s Children from a wicked man. When things look the darkest, God is in control and we can learn either to complain, blame or turn and worship God for His future outcome. We want to live a praiseworthy life, so we respond by choosing the fear of the Lord and worship Him with thanksgiving in the midst of our fears and trials. We are also exploring the sufferings of the Hebrews and how they got into slavery.

We finish Exodus Chapter 1 with Pharaoh brutalizing the Hebrews. In addition, we are starting to look at several tools in our approach to scripture. A tool we love to use is immersion. Simply stated, we are immersing ourselves in the lives of the Hebrews. They will react like we would if we were threatened, for example. We are no longer viewing some of the Bible as stories for children, but as real people in extraordinary situations for our instruction. By taking this approach the Bible now comes alive with richness, drama, and depth. Join us and tell us what you think in the blog or on Facebook.

Notice another interesting phenomenon. There were many silent years in the bible and then prophecy is being fulfilled by an amazing series of events converging to an outcome. This outcome was the destruction of Egypt (Genesis 15:13-15) and another was Christ coming.