{"id":5380,"date":"2016-07-21T14:10:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T20:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/?p=5380"},"modified":"2020-09-23T16:00:08","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T22:00:08","slug":"id-probably-held-a-bible-in-my-hands-but-never-read-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/21\/id-probably-held-a-bible-in-my-hands-but-never-read-it\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019d probably held a Bible in my hands, but never read it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"group_study\"<\/a>Ever wondered how other churches bring in non-believers to study the Bible? Here’s what a church in Derby, England has done for many years. The church hosts \u201cJust Looking\u201d groups for those who are open to learning more about the Bible. In 2012, our first blog post<\/a> was a story about these groups. The church had been running them for a number of years and it continues to do so.<\/p>\n

The participants of the \u201cJust Looking\u201d groups gather in a non-threatening location (i.e., not a church), for a relaxing and informal time of learning. The leaders have been using The Stranger<\/em><\/a> for several years to guide the course. Those who attend come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but all have one thing in common: they do not possess a clear understanding of the Bible’s message.<\/p>\n

Laura* shared that, before she had been invited to the group, \u201cI hadn\u2019t had any thoughts about the Bible. I\u2019d heard of the Bible. I\u2019d probably held one in my hands, but never read it. I didn\u2019t know what it was. Didn\u2019t really have any thoughts at all about the Bible.\u201c<\/p>\n

Amir was a young Muslim who attended the group: \u201cI thought [Christianity] was a religion similar to Islam. I thought they all led to God.\u201d<\/p>\n

William wasn’t even interested in attending. Now an elderly man, he’d lived his whole life apart from God’s Word. It was his wife who nagged him to come till he finally conceded. \u201cI told her, ‘I\u2019ll go along, see what it\u2019s like. If I don\u2019t like it, I\u2019ll leave.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The three, along with many others, sat through a 16-week creation-to-the-cross explanation of the gospel. At the beginning, they were told that the Bible was like a jigsaw puzzle. Each week, they gathered together to study the Bible, adding another piece to their jigsaw puzzle of biblical understanding. The casual atmosphere of the groups, led by leaders who were friendly and willing to answer questions, helped the participants feel at ease.<\/p>\n

Amir found the study helped make it easy for him to understand the Bible’s message. He’d had questions and now, as they studied each week, he found those questions being answered, even before he voiced them.<\/p>\n

William felt both joy and regret upon completion of the study. \u201cWhen we were done, I realized how much I\u2019d missed out on not reading the Bible earlier in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laura’s trademark smile widens as she relates her perspective. \u201cThe course has changed my life, really. If I hadn\u2019t been in the course, I wouldn\u2019t have heard what I heard and wouldn\u2019t have understood why Jesus came.\u201d<\/p>\n

How wonderful to see how God has blessed the faithful efforts of this church. These three testimonies are just a handful of the many who have come to put their trust in Jesus for salvation.<\/p>\n

Watch Laura, Amir and William as they share their testimonies. (Note: The audio quality is as received.)<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/xLIp0Ao3kf8<\/p>\n

(*Names changed as per GoodSeed policy.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever wondered how other churches bring in non-believers to study the Bible? Here’s what a church in Derby, England has done for many years. The church hosts \u201cJust Looking\u201d groups for those who are open to learning more about the Bible. In 2012, our first blog post was a story about these groups. The church … Continue reading “I\u2019d probably held a Bible in my hands, but never read it”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guide-a-study","category-testimonies","category-the-stranger-on-the-road-to-emmaus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5380"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5385,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions\/5385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}