Email Jesus: Course 4: God's Promises and the Beatitudes

By Richard Davidson

Email Jesus is a forty-day Bible study for use at Lent or at any other desired time of the year. Its uniqueness lies in its delivery of daily reflections on Bible passages and exchanges of comments on those reflections by email, allowing participation from anywhere in the world. This format also allows complete time and location flexibility while one is participating in the course. Each morning of the course, every participant receives a daily lesson reflection and has the opportunity to email back his or her comments on it. Participants are encouraged to respond with personal viewpoints on each passage rather than academic theology. This volume is Course 4. It covers Bible passages where God promises something to us. There are both positive promises to guide our direction in life and promises of solace to console us when we face difficulties. Jesus points out and confirms many of these promises in his teachings. In the Sermon on the Mount he adds the Beatitudes, which are another form of promise to guide our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Davidson
• Release date: Dec 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465949912

Book preview

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

In preparation for the Lenten season of 2006, several members of Northbrook United Methodist Church in Northbrook, Illinois, U.S.A. discussed the use of forty daily study topics with the exchange of information among course participants by e-mail. The advantages of this type of Lenten Study would include informality and schedule flexibility due to one’s being able to participate from either home or office. An additional advantage would be the ability to include course participants who were not members or associates of the church that originated the study. This approach was implemented with great success, with participants from many states in the U.S.A. plus Canada and England.

To date, six years of the Lenten Study have been completed. It is planned to be an ongoing experience. I am publishing these materials because many churches have requested guideline information for organizing their own similar studies. Each year’s curriculum will be issued as a separate volume so that churches wishing to use these materials may select the subjects they wish to cover in any sequence. Note that while the original application of this intense form of Bible study was an annual Lenten format, it can be used as an all-year curriculum with multiple course segments. Watch for additional course volumes in the future.

CHAPTER 2 - ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Editor thanks the several Pastors at Northbrook United Methodist Church in Northbrook, Illinois who have supported this effort by the laity and the many people who have participated in it. The first course was conceived and developed by Lou Quinlan and Dan Lloyd. Subsequent courses were developed by Dick Davidson. As you will note from the course instructions that follow this section, the day-by-day logistics of the course are handled by a Course Administrator. At Northbrook United Methodist Church the burden of that position fell to Michael Gail for the first two years and to Karen Wells thereafter. The selection of a dependable and resourceful Course Administrator is the key to successful implementation of the course.

CHAPTER 3 - COURSE PREPARATION

Preparation for this course begins long before the start of Lent (or of the nominal start date for the course if it is used at an alternate time of the year).

Approximately two months before the nominal start date, the Course Administrator should start sending out requests for people to sign up for the study. There are two categories of participants. You will need forty Reflectors each of whom will write a personal interpretation of one daily Bible passage. The effort required from these people is minimized by asking for only one interpretation which is usually limited to a single page or two at the most, so individuals should not be worried about the level of responsibility involved in being a Reflector. While the number of Reflectors is limited to forty,