Author: wkimandjoe

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Reviews

Reading the Bible this year has been life changing. God has opened my heart to understand more of his word. So much more makes sense to me. Through reading this book, I have become a more living person, I have more joy, I have more hope, and I give more grace. I think it is impossible to read through the Bible focusing on God’s perspective and  not be changed. It has changed my heart for God, others, and even myself.      – Jennifer

Reading through the Bible in a year has completely changed my life. I finished the Whole Bible Challenge for the first time in 2018.  Every time I tried before, I did not understand it, and it did not keep my attention. When I started with this group, I was completely intimidated. I did not think I would succeed. I took it one day at a time. There were times that I got bored or had no idea what I just read. During those times I started to feel like God was honored that I was putting in the effort. I can’t describe the the peace and inner joy I began to feel. I began to see God. I began to feel his love and excitement to spend time with me. It changed me.  I never thought I could accomplish something so precious and wonderful.      – Trista

The WBC has changed my view of God. I see Him as the focus of scriptures. I’m overwhelmed by His great love, mercy, grace, patience, faithfulness, and kindness as He pursues us. I now understand He wants to be known by us and does that by revealing Himself to us through His word. My thinking has been completely shifted by the question: “What if God’s glory was the most important thing?”     – Rachel

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Genesis Tricky Trivia Answers

  1. Who did Cain kill?  Abel
  2. Which 3 women in Genesis had a difficult time conceiving? (1 point for each women) Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel
  3. Who were Noah’s sons? (1 point for each son) Shem, Ham, and Japheth
  4. Who wrestled with God? Jacob
  5. Who was Abraham’s daughter in law? Rebecca
  6. Who was Rebecca’s brother and Jacob’s father in law? Labon
  7. Who was Isaac’s cousin? Lot
  8. Who was Benjamin’s whole brother? Joseph
  9. The people who bought Joseph and brought him to Egypt were descendants of who? Ishmael, Abraham’s older son through Hagar
  10. Which son of Jacob did Jesus come from? Judah
  11. The man in the last question fathered an ancestor of Jesus with what woman? Tamar
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Genesis Tricky Trivia Questions

Some of these are pretty difficult. See who can get the most. 

  1. Who did Cain kill?
  2. Which 3 women in Genesis had a difficult time conceiving? (1 point for each women)
  3. Who were Noah’s sons? (1 point for each son)
  4. Who wrestled with God?
  5. Who was Rebecca’s brother and Jacob’s father-in-law?
  6. Who was Abraham’s daughter-in-law?
  7. Who was Isaac’s cousin?
  8. Who was Benjamin’s whole brother?
  9. The people who bought Joseph and brought him to Egypt were descendants of who?
  10. Which son of Jacob did Jesus come from?
  11. The man in the last question fathered an ancestor of Jesus with what woman?

Answers here.

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Game

You will need the game board, the cards, dice, a penny, and sticky tabs.

Print the game board here.

Print the cards here.

  1. Roll the dice, and move the penny the number of spaces you roll.
  2. Look at who you landed on, and answer the question about them.
  3. Everyone secretly prepares their answer by writing the number (1-5) down on a sticky tab.
  4. Everyone turns their cards over on the count of 3. The answer with the most votes wins. Everyone with winning answer scores 1 point.
  5. Repeat.
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Timeline

Print the timeline here.

Print this timeline out, and you can add details as you read. It has the main characters and stories in chronological order. The orange dashed lines divide the timeline by month. You can see roughly what you read each month. The books of the Bible are in blue roughly where they occurred chronologically. The asterisks on page three show when the three exiles from Judah took place.

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December: Whole Bible Wrap Up

This lesson is for the end of December:

Print the discussion questions and project here.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How has your view of God shifted or changed this year? 
  2. What stirred your affections most?

Project:

Read Psalms 136 in NIV. 

You may recall that we have seen the word “remember” many times. God asks us to remember what He has done. We are going to take about 10-15 minutes to individually write out our own version of Psalm 136.

You…

Your love endures forever. 

You…

Your love endures forever.

Write 10-20 statements about what God did in the Bible.

Then write 10-20 statements about what God has done in your life.

Example:

You led your people through the red sea.

Your love endures forever. 

You gave me a baby to call my own at just the right time.

Your love endures forever.

Circle the 5 Bible ones and 7 personal ones that mean the most to you.

The Fun Chanting Ceremony:

Next, go around the room reading the Bible statements that you circled like this:

Person 1 reads first statement.

Everyone responds, “Your love endures forever.”

Person 1 reads second statement.

Everyone responds, “Your love endures forever.”

Then, go around the room and read the personal statements that you circled like this:

Person 1 reads first statement.

Person 2 responds, “Your love endures forever.”

Person 1 reads second statement.

Person 3 responds, “Your love endures forever.”

Person 1 reads third statement.

Person 4 responds, “Your love endures forever.”

When person 1 has read all their statements, person 2 reads hers with the others taking turns responding in the same way, 

End with these: (You can incorporate communion with these if you wish.)

Leader: You shed your blood so we could be forgiven.

All: We remember.

(Pause and drink from the cup.)

Leader: You put on flesh and allowed it to be torn.

All: We remember.

(Pause and eat the bread.)

Leader: You defeated death and rose from the grave.

All: We remember.

Leader: Pray 

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November: Acts and the Letters

This lesson is for the end of November:

Print the discussion questions here.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Paul’s conversion was pretty dramatic. Have you ever experienced a moment when God clearly spoke to you and you changed direction (not necessarily your conversion to Christianity)? What did God say? 
  2. Not everyone can recall an experience that seems dramatic. If you are drawing a blank, when were you the most sure that God was directing you? 
  3. Paul had to admit that he was wrong about what he believed in order to embrace Jesus. Have you ever had to re-think what you believed in order to follow Jesus more closely? 
  4. What does fulfilling the “Great Commission” look like in your life? What have you learned about how to share Jesus with people?
  5. What do you think God’s experience was as He witnessed and participated in fellowship with those first believers? 
  6. As you read Acts and the letters, what themes stood out to you? Was there anything that was discussed more often than you would have expected? Was there anything that surprised you? 
  7. Those early believers did not have the Bible in its entirety to cling to. What do you think they clung to as they faced severe persecution? (Possible answers: memorized scripture, scrolls passed from town to town, the Holy Spirit in them, EACH OTHER, etc.)
  8. God used the Romans to build roads in preparation for the gospel to be spread, and God used the persecution of the church in Jerusalem to spread the gospel quickly. What do you think He is using in our time to spread the gospel? 

Here is some interesting information regarding the gospel being spread to all nations:

http://blog.youversion.com/category/bible-translation/

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October: Jesus!

This lesson is for the end of October:

Print the discussion questions here.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is the most crowded situation you have ever been in? What do you think it was like for Jesus and his disciples to be followed by crowds all the time?
  2. Do you remember when you first believed? Why did you believe? What led to that decision?
  3. When you think about the interactions Jesus had with individuals, can you think of a specific relationship (even if it was only a one time interaction) that revealed something about God? Example: He listened to the woman who touched his robe as she told her whole story. (Mark 5:33 NIV) We can see from this that He wants to hear our story. He is a good listener. Not to busy to to hear us out. 
  4. In the video, Kim mentioned that all who received Jesus’ attention knew they were not okay. They recognized their need for Him. In what way do you need Jesus today? 
  5. Do you see any other common threads in the people who received Jesus’ time and attention? 
  6. Why do you think Jesus went off to “a quiet place” to pray so often? 
  7. In what ways does Jesus seem different from the God of the OT? How does Jesus reframe your view of God? 
  8. Kim talked about the emotions that Jesus experienced. Are you surprised that Jesus, who is God, had so many emotional reactions to things? What does this teach us about emotions?
  9. Jesus talked a lot about his followers loving each other, and how that would reveal God to the world. He prayed about this too. Have you ever witnessed Christians loving each other in a way that helped you understand God more? Tell us about it.
  10. How can we actively love each other more in this group?
  11. In the list below, look at what Jesus said; can you see what He was claiming or what story from the OT He was making a claim about? (If you have a dry erase board, you can make a chart like I did here.)
        • “I am the stairway between heaven and earth” –John 1:51
        • “Must be born again”-John 3:3
        • “As Moses lifted up the snake” –John 3:14
        • “The water I give…” –John 4:13, 14
        • “I Am the Messiah” –Matthew 16:15-17; Matthew 26:63-64
        • “He has anointed…” –Luke 4:18 (see Isaiah 61:1)
        • Claims power to forgive sin –Matthew 9:1-8
        • Heals on Sabbath –Mark 3:1-6
        • “Destroy this temple, and I will and I will raise it again in three days” –John 2:19
        • “Gentiles will eat at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” –Matthew 8:11
        • “Just as Jonah was in the whale ….3 days” –Matthew 12:40
        • “Someone greater than Solomon” -Matthew 12:42
        • “Only work…to believe in me” –John 6:29
        • “I am the bread” –John 6:35
        • At the transfiguration, God said “listen to him” –Matthew 17:5
        • “Before Abraham was born, I AM” –John 8:58
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Half Way Day!

You’ve made it half way through the Bible! It is fun to have a “Half Way Day” celebration. You can have a “half” themed party. I put some ideas here, but you can get creative and come up with some of your own. 

  1. Potluck dinner with everything “half” themed. For example, someone can bring half of a casserole or rolls that have all been cut in half.
  2. Pizza that is half meat half vegetable. 
  3. Black and white cookies. 
  4. Once I bought a half sheet cake and had them put this on it:

Congra

You ma

Half

Then I asked for a whole sheet piece of cardboard, and set the half sheet on the whole sheet. I cut the right end off, and it looked like a half of a cake that used to say “Congratulations, you made it HALF WAY!”

Everyone thought it was cute.

If you come up with any ideas for Half Way themed decorations, please let me know. I would love so see a picture of your celebration. Send it to WholeBibleChallenge@gmail.com