Spend approximately one-third of your time on each section. Move on to the next section at the designated time even if you have not answered all the questions. You can focus on the questions you missed the next time you meet.
LOOK BACK
How have you experienced God this week?
What are you thankful for?
Is there anything which has been bothering you since we last met?
What have you put into practice since our last Discovery Bible reading?
Were you able to share the Discovery Bible passage or a God experience with anyone?
Pray together:
Thank God for the experiences, ask for God‘s help.
Pray that you may get to know new aspects of God and that your friendship with God would be strengthened and become deeper
LOOK UP
Read the text out loud (you may want to take a break periodically to be successful with the next two steps)
Have one person retell the passage in their own words with the group’s help.
Was there anything missed or added from the retelling of the passage?
Now see if someone can tell the whole passage in their own words.
31“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord. 33“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people. 34No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord ,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear. 2But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
If this passage is from God, what difference would it make in your life? Is there:
A behaviour to change?
A promise to claim?
An example to follow?
A command to obey?
Share with the group what you will put into practice for this week. Make sure it is a SMART goal (specific, measurable, achievalbe, realistic and timely). A template that you can use is:
By (specific time) I will (action) so that (result/application)
Who will you share this passage with this week?
Pray for each other.
+ Further Insights
Let’s be honest. Are you able to keep the Ten Commandments or are you aware of persistently breaking them? These rules may be able to fight evil, but they cannot completely eradicate it. It remains a fact that we humans are not free from evil and that we are not able to change ourselves.
That is why God spoke of a time in which there will be a new way of living. But some things need to change for that to happen:
When we humans decided against God and chose to follow the snake, we had to leave the garden and thus the close relationship with God. We have sinned against God and we cannot reverse it. But because God loves us so much, He announced that He will forgive our sins. That is the most important requirement for getting the kind of relationship the first humans had with God.
God needs to change our heart so that we are no longer under the influence of evil and can choose freely between God and the snake (evil). If we choose God and thus what is good, God’s rules will apply to us again, but if we choose to listen to the snake we will fall under the influence of evil again. But for us to be able to make such a decision, we first need to know God (get to know Him). So God spoke of a time when everyone will be able know Him personally. When we are able to have such a relationship with God, we no longer need to follow the rules of a book, instead God will write His rules directly into our hearts so that it becomes a part of us.
Then we will belong to His people and He will be our God and many things will become what God intended them to be in the first place.
