Category: Bible Study Fellowship (BSF)

Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), otherwise known as BSF International (www.bsfinternational.org), is a international Christian interdenominational fellowship offering structured bible study. Utilizing a four-fold approach to studying the Bible, you answer questions on a bible passage, discuss the passage in small groups, listen to a lecture on the passage, and then read comprehensive notes written by commentators on what the passage means.

Begun in 1959 by A. Wetherell Johnson, Bible Study Fellowship is the best bible study today. Fostering community and learning, BSF International is the best small group bible study and online bible study today.

Proposal for Online BSF Study

by atozmom, posted in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), Faith

To the Bible Study Fellowship Board of Directors and Director of New Start-Up Classes:

I am proposing starting an online BSF class strictly for those who are unable to attend a regular BSF class (disabled, elderly, can’t drive, rural communities, etc).  This would follow the BSF four-part model:  lecture, notes, discussion, personal study and questions but be available all online.

A BSF lecturer could videotape himself/herself (like at our class that is videotaped) and post it online.  You listen to the lecture and then can download the notes and next week’s questions.  Then in the forum you can discuss with others your findings.  This forum could be restricted to being open only on the designated meeting day.  Similarly with the notes.

I know this will challenge BSF’s paradigm and maybe financially but the I think the benefits will far-outweigh the costs.

With regards to the paradigm:  Times change.  Think of all the innovations since Jesus first walked the earth:  we’ve gone from camel and horse travel to train travel to cars and planes.  The printing press has allowed us to own a copy of God’s word.  Improvements on the printing press have allowed the Bible to be the biggest best-seller ever.  Now, you can even read the Bible on the Internet and on your phone!

Enrollment can be qualified.  For those who live in remote communities; those who attending a BSF class would be an inconvenience (flying, hiking, snowmobiling, driving over a certain number of hours, etc); disabled or elderly; those with kids in different age groups who can’t attend because they have both school-age kids and preschool age kids; those who can’t afford to pay for the gas to get to the class; and other extenuating circumstances, etc.

My story:  I had a very tiny blog.  Not many hits and few subscribers.  After my first day at BSF, I blogged about how much I loved it and was looking forward to it.  BAM!  87 hits.  So, I thought to myself I may be onto something.  I started posting my answers and my blog has skyrocketed to beyond belief.

Obviously, there is a need of some kind out there.

I have people from all over the world follow my blog.  One lady is going on a mission trip to Uganda.  She “met” a lady who lives in Uganda who is enrolled in BSF who posted on my site and now they are going to meet in Uganda!  How cool is that!

One lady who has severe health problems and is unable to attend classes at times uses my blog as her discussion time.  She swap prayer requests even.  She is just one among many who use my blog as such.  The Internet never shuts down during inclement weather.

One member whose friend lives in Hawaii would have to fly to her nearest BSF class.  When I move (our move has now been delayed), I would have to drive 6 hours to my nearest one.  Think of Alaska:  you’d have to snowmobile up there!

Funding:  I believe BSF could solicit funds specifically for such a purpose.  I for one am willing to donate to such a project.  You could have a designation added to your online giving system fairly easily to facilitate donations.  This money would go to help pay the initial start-up costs.

Someone can be trained to administer the program once it’s up and running.  This could even be a volunteer willing to post the videos, etc.

Please read some of the comments on my site about how much being able to have a discussion group 24/7 facilitates learning and ultimately growing with God means to others.  For some, it could be indescribable (I know it is for me!).

BSF Statement of Beliefs #14 (according to your website) says how BSF believes we are all called to study the Bible personally through the power of the Holy Spirit until each one is matured into God’s purpose for their life.  How better to aid in this for those who for whatever reason cannot physically make it to BSF classes?

I am asking you to please pray about this as with everything in BSF.  A pilot year could be set up to see if this idea works or not.  Limit the number of attendees and see what happens.  She what needs to be improved, changed, or scrapped all together.  A year to work out the bugs, evaluate at the end if it accomplishes BSF’s vision, and go from there.

I can only imagine the number of people who can be reached through the Internet (another invention God gave to someone).  His kingdom can grow by leaps and bounds through this measure.

Part of BSF is community.  Well, I can attest to the fact you can have a community over the Internet.  There are followers of my blog whom I consider some of my dearest friends.  They regularly offer words of sage advice that I appreciate beyond belief.  Even though I can’t see them and they can’t see me, this is vital to what my website has become.  Without them, my blog is empty.

Facebook is the second-highest ranked site (according to Alexa) in the world–a website dedicated to facilitating connections–existing only in cyberspace as this BSF class would do.

Community is what you make of it.  BSF is what you make of it.  I think a BSF online could thrive.  And grow.  But still remain true to BSF’s and Ms. Johnson’s vision.

I have been praying about this ever since the idea popped in my head.  I only ask you all do the same.

Thanks for listening, considering, and praying with regards to this proposal.

Do the End Times Really Matter?

by atozmom, posted in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), Faith

In BSF, our leader talks a lot about the end times, the Apocalypse, the second coming, and signs in the Bible.  I tend to tune out when she does.  Why?

No one knows when Jesus is coming again.  Period.  The Bible is very, very vague.  We know it’s going to happen.  Yet man has this need to predict the future (something only God can do) so man tries to tell us, “The End is Near!”

Here’s my view:  If I’m ready for the Second Coming and so is my family, does it really matter when it happens?  Sure, it’d be great to be here when Jesus comes again.  But if He doesn’t, I’ll see Him soon enough in Heaven.  So why worry about it?  The Bible tells us not to worry about anything.

I’m glad that Isaiah told us to expect the Messiah and Revelation reveals what’s going to happen once Jesus does return.  It gives me hope when the world is in chaos.

Yet, I don’t dwell on it.  I don’t sit around worrying.  I try to take my life day by day and strive to be like Jesus.  I’ve learned even planning for the future can sometimes fall apart as quick as a stock market fall.

We don’t have TV in my home.  I get all my news off the Internet and lately I’ve barely been reading it.  I just can’t stand it.  One, I think it has become a bit of an idol in my life (the Computer in general) so I’m trying to limit my time on the Internet.  And two, I can barely stand reading the tragedies around the world, the idiocy of our government, and celebrities who have nothing better to do than ruin their lives and their families.  It drives me insane and I got enough of that in my life already!

So when my BSF leader asks if we’re paying attention to the signs, my reply, “No.  I’m not.  I got other things going on.”

I believe in my heart Jesus will come again.  I don’t really think it will happen in my lifetime but if it does I’ll be ready.  Through my daily life and not through any other special preparation or worry.

Any other thoughts?

Homiletics

by atozmom, posted in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), Faith

What is homiletics?  I was stumped too at first.  So I took the seminar offered by BSF a while back.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, homiletics is the art of preaching.  BSF defines homiletics as analyzing and studying the Bible passage in preparation for teaching this to others.

In essence, you figure out what the passage is saying and then narrow it down into the main thesis of the passage and then apply application questions to those whom you are speaking too.

Come to find out, I was doing Homiletics all along; I just wasn’t writing it down.  My summary is basically the content of the whole passage and my conclusions is the thesis or what I got out of it–what the passage says to me.

I think some are intimidated by homiletics (the name alone does it for most people–blame the Greeks) but it’s really not that bad. It’s just what the passage is saying and what it means to the Biblical world and how it can be applied today.

I would wager most of us do at least some of form of an informal homiletics when we do our questions.  You have to to get an answer and be able to explain it to others.  I’ve ran into a couple of people who thought themselves better because they ‘did’ homiletics every week.

I wish BSF would change their final question because at first I thought it was just for the leaders and we weren’t supposed to do homiletics.  That’s what the question says, right?  “For Group and Administration Leaders.”  Well, that’s not me, I thought.  It seems unnecessarily restrictive when put this way.

No one explained homiletics to me or the last question.  We never talked about the last question in our small group or in lecture or in the notes even (I never heard the word even mentioned until the seminar came up and I had to attend it to find out what it was).  So why have it on the “Discussion Questions” if its never going to be discussed?

Homiletics is for everyone–not just the leaders.  You don’t have to be an expert in the Bible or have been in BSF for multiple years to do homiletics as I believe BSF implies.

As most of you know, the BSF process was never explained to me. I was just thrown in, handed the questions, and wished good luck.  I think Homiletics needs to be explained on the first day.  I think everything needs to be explained much better.  I think BSF assumes attendees know it all or you’ve been attending for a while.

I think we all need to go over this stuff every year so we’re all on the same page.  For an organization who adheres to their way of doing things stronger than super glue, you think they’d be sticklers on such things.

This year in Isaiah we’ve talked a lot about control–a lesson I think BSF could learn from.  I think BSF needs to loosen their grip a bit and let God use the tools of the modern age to bring more to Him.

BSF does not exist without the generosity of those giving and supporting what they do.  Still, I’m left wondering how many calls they do get from those desperate for Christ who are turned away because “we don’t do that here.”

What Does Righteousness Mean?

by atozmom, posted in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), Book Reviews, Faith

Our BSF lecture focused on righteousness and our third principle stated, “God’s way of salvation is the only way to turn from sin and turn to righteousness.”

Well, I was stumped.  I had always thought of righteousness as being right.  But this obviously isn’t the case in this sense so I decided to find out what I was missing.

Webster’s says righteousness is “acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin; morally right or justifiable; or arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality”

The synonym listed is moral.

So in my upbringing I had missed the “God” in the sense of the word.

In the statement above, God’s salvation allows us to be righteous (or free from guilt).  Jesus erased our sins. And being righteous means to act in accordance with God’s law–to continually strive to be like Jesus.

God is righteous because He is free from sin.  Isaiah 46:12-13: God says “…you who are far from righteousness, I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed.”

I made the mistake of going to Sam’s Club again (I really need to stay away from that place.  I think I would be a fiend if I went to the Bible BookStore as regularly) and I bought Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary by J.D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney.  I had seen it before but decided to wait–until I looked up righteousness and it had the definition I had been seeking!  So, I bought it!

This Dictionary says righteousness is “any conformity to a standard, whether that standard has to do with inner character of a person or the objective standard of accepted law….Lord God always acts in righteousness because He always has a right relationship with people.”

This also explains righteousness in terms of Jesus.  Fascinating stuff and I’d highly recommend it.  I can’t wait to dive more into it.

In essence, being righteous is being like Jesus or being like God.

A History of Israel, Assyria, and Babylonia

by atozmom, posted in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF)

I have realized while doing Lesson 9 of Bible Study Fellowship that the history of what is going on between these nations needs to be understood in order to understand the lesson better.  So, I’ve gathered my Internet resources and put them together for those of you who are interested.

In the late 7th century BC (when Isaiah was prophesizing), the kingdom of Judah was a client state of the powerful Assyrian empire.  In the last decades of the century, Assyria was overthrown by Babylon, which at the time was an Assyrian province.  Most of us know Babylon as a powerful country in its own right and as we have seen was founded by Nimrod.  Egypt throws it’s two cents in the mix:  fearing the sudden rise of Babylon, Egypt seizes control of Assyrian territory up to the Euphrates River in Syria.  Babylon counter attacks this move and during this time, Josiah, the King of Judah was killed around 609 BC.  Judah is now a Babylonian client but the stage is set for a future alliance with Egypt. Babylonian captivity occurs in 586 BC.

Most of this is taken from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity

In 609 BC, Babylon defeats Egypt at the battle of Carchemish, usurping Assyria as the dominant power in the region.  Jerusalem was then conquered by Babylon in 586 BC when the main exile begins.  The Book of Daniel is the only record of Israel’s time in Babylon.  In 539 BC, Persia replaces Babylon as the new dominant world power.  Unlike Babylon, Persia believes in resettlement, which allowed the Jews to return to their land and re-build the Temple.

Most of this is taken from:  http://www.essortment.com/all/historybabylon_rzyf.htm

As we’ve learned, Judah/Israel is a tiny country compared to its neighbors and it is constantly jockeying for position.  It switches alliances to whomever promises the best deal at the time (very common in history), whether or not God says so or not.  Judah is petrified of being conquered and rightly so.  It is struggling to maintain its autonomy.

However, it seems to me Judah’s defeat was inevitable.  From my previous posted map, you can see Judah was surrounded.  In order to stay alive, it had to have help from its neighbors or miracles from God.  God kept Judah alive as long as possible by providing them with miraculous military defeats until He decided no more and allowed His people to be conquered.  The fact Judah did survive as long as it did is a miracle from God and only by his decree.  Otherwise, Judah would have disappeared long before.

Bible Study Fellowship–Isaiah

by atozmom, posted in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), Faith

Yesterday was our first day of Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), studying the book of Isaiah.  I’m excited to begin.  This is my first year.

So, I began the questions this morning and I hope I get better as I go along.  I had to leave 4b blank because I am unsure how Isaiah 1:1-9 relates to dealing with a past hurt.  The passage is about how God is angry at his children because they have rebelled and speaks nothing of forgiveness or restoration.  It only mentions how his people are stupid and how there will be chosen survivors.

Maybe it’ll come to me in the coming days.

I loved the lecture, especially Principle #1: God uses committed people to impact culture today.  I’d like to think I’m one of these.

It’s also good to be reminded that you were born with a purpose in mind.  I know this instinctively but it’s good to bring it back up especially when someone else says so.