Week Two Wrap-Up

Well, last week I told you that I was going to try and keep the video length down and here we sit at 42 minutes—clearly when the topic is God’s Word, brevity is tough for me! I’ll keep working on it, but in the meantime remember you can always break it up into a couple of 20 minutes segments. Even videos can flex, right?

On another note, I’ve had a number of requests to make the videos more accessible for people who are hearing impaired. I’m thrilled to be able to tell you that my dear friend Mary Ann is transcribing the video segments. We currently have Week One available, so let us know if that would help you.

Finally, here are the questions to get our discussion rolling this week:

• How do you know when you’re starting to “play God”? What biblical check points do you have to compare your thinking and actions with God’s ways?

• What do you do when you don’t know what the next step is?

• What’s your biggest takeaway this week?

Looking forward to hearing from you this week!

Week One Wrap-Up

I can’t begin to tell you what an honor it is for me to study alongside of each and every one of you! As I’ve watched registrations come in and emails and posts, I have been overwhelmed by the goodness of God and am so excited to study His good Word with you.

I need to tell you that this week’s video is a little longer than I typically shoot for since I needed to cover some class basics. I try to keep the comments at about 20 minutes, but sometimes when you get talking about God’s Word . . . well, it can be hard to stop!

I promised you a link to the Dr. Kurt Wise MP3 set in the video, so here is that:
http://goo.gl/GMaae
I’m loving Kurt’s scientific look at creation and so is my 14-year old!

Finally, I always like to post the questions here, too, just in case you’re having any video difficulties. Remember, you don’t have to limit your comments to these questions, they are just to get the ball rolling.

• Given the tendency of fallen man to suppress truth, how does that affect Christians as we live and engage culture? How can we be salt and light in a largely amoral society?

• How does understanding the fallen nature of man impact your worldview and how you behave and interact with people?

• What’s been your biggest takeaway this week?

Looking forward to your voice in the discussion!

A Quick Intro to Blogging

Glad to see you’ve made it to the blog site! I think you’ll find that posting and discussing online is even easier than you’d think, so this is your chance to jump in and try it out before our class officially gets underway.

Would love to hear a little about you so we can all get to know one another. Here are a couple of questions to get us started:

• What’s your name and where are you from?

• Have you done an online study before?

• What’s one memorable fact about you?

Don’t be shy in trying this out! If you have trouble, let me know and we’ll work through any problems prior to our start date.

Remember in your posts to only share what you’re comfortable sharing and always, always, always err on the side of grace when interacting with classmates. We can’t read tone or body language on a blog, so give others the benefit of the doubt and always be looking to build up and not tear down.

I have been overjoyed at the tone and kindness in the past blog studies I’ve hosted and have every reason to believe that sweet spirit will continue here!

So looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Welcome to Cookies on the Lower Shelf: Old Testament

One of my great passions is helping people see how God’s Word fits together from beginning to end and there is nothing I love more than walking through the Bible book by sweet book!

In just 10-weeks this fall, we’ll cover Genesis–Ruth. After that (for those who endure!) we’ll finish the Old Testament in another 10 weeks. Don’t let the volume of material scare you off. This is a flexible study, so the homework will flex to meet your pace of life. Add to that I’m a huge fan of audio Bibles and redeeming the time through our ears which will help make soaking in God’s Word both pleasurable and doable!

In case you’re new to online study, I’ve explained below the basics of how our online class will work. Can’t wait to get started!

Many blessings,

pam

The Basics:
Register any time. Purchase the book. Watch the Intro video. (If you’re an early-adopter, you’re going to have to wait a couple of days on this!)

Click here to register

We’ll have a couple of simple questions for you to interact with, mainly so you can try out “posting.” (Hey, if you want to try out posting right now, knock yourself out and put your home state or country in the comment section by scrolling down and clicking on “Leave a reply”!)

Weekly:
• Each week complete your Lesson prior to watching the Wrap-Up Video for the Lesson.

• Watch for an e-mail notifying you that the Wrap-Up Video has posted and click through to view at your convenience.

• After you watch the Wrap-Up Video, post your comments and responses on the blog wall right below the video.

It’s that simple!

Blog Posting Tips:
• Don’t say anything you wouldn’t want someone to say to you.

• Don’t post anything that might embarrass your family or friends. We want this to be a safe place where we can share authentically but it is still a public forum.

• Always err on the side of grace.

This is the eighth online study that I’ve led. During that time we’ve had to delete a grand total of one cranky post but we’ve had a myriad of thoughtful and uplifting commenters. I’m very encouraged by this track record and expect nothing less from our time together. Still, we want to reiterate the need for grace because it only takes one unkind poster to poison the pot and scare others off.