As the Women’s Ministry Director of our church, I am even more interested than ever in women’s Bible studies. I was intrigued, then, when I heard that Thomas Nelson publishers recently published a series of Bible studies for women from women under the InScribed imprint. The InScribed Studies for Women tackle topics relevant to women’s issues, including marital issues, infertility, abuse, being the preacher’s kid, confusion about who God is, and more.
The first four studies published under the InScribed imprint are:
- Living So That: Making Faith-Filled Choices in the Midst of a Messy Life by Wendy Blight
- Leaving Ordinary: Encounter God Through Extraordinary Prayer by Donna Gaines
- Dive Deeper: Finding Deep Faith Beyond Shallow Religion by Jenifer Jernigan, and
- Amazed and Confused: When God’s Actions Collide with Our Expectations by Heather Zempel
These are not your ordinary Bible studies, folks! Sure, there are end of chapter questions, and places for you to write notes, but these studies read like a book. A book that you want to read. Remember my SMART Goals for 2014? I wanted to read twelve books that were good for me, and twelve books just for fun… while these studies are good for me, they are also fun.
Living So That starts with John 3:16, “For God so loved the word that he gave his one and only Son, [So] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The last chapter, Let Your Light Shine So That… will challenges readers to examine their hearts and the reason behind living a life that exemplifies Christ.
Leaving Ordinary details how the articles of the tabernacle are a foreshadow of Christ. I especially like the “Praying Through the Tabernacle” section.
Dive Deeper encourages you DIVE deeper into Scripture. DIVE stands for Define. Investigate. Visualize. Embrace. If you appreciate the SOAP method for Bible study, you’ll appreciate the DIVE method, as well.
Amazed and Confusedbegins with the declaration that God is not nice, and asserts that, ‘If we fail to to make the distinction between “God is nice” and “God is love,” we will also fail to grasp the beauty of the gospel… This study will resonate with anyone who’s ever come face to face with the realization God’s actions are not always what we expected, and sometimes that just stinks in the moment.
This is a collection of studies by women inspired by Proverbs 3:3, leading women not just to survive, but to thrive.
Which is really timely, considering our pastors have spent quite some time this year exhorting our entire congregation to thrive.
Thriving isn’t always easy. Especially when life situations threaten to dry us out. These studies speak to current life situations from the perspective of Scripture.
I’m excited to be able to share these studies with the women of our church. I can’t wait to see more from the InScribed Studies for Women line!
