The Glory of God – a Bible study series
Over the last week we’ve been looking at the centrality of the glory of God – and we’ve been tracing through how this gives shape to a whole range of different areas of Christian life. See parts one, two and three of the table.
And the importance of the glory of God is one of those things that people will gladly affirm at an intellectual level (“oh yes, of course we should do all things for the glory of God”). Organisations may also affirm this in their vision / mission statements (“this church exists to blah blah blah … for the glory of God”).
However there is a huge difference between such affirmations – and hearts that see, and love, and are jealous for, the glory of God.
How do we get people to that point? I think it is by showing people something of the glory of God – and praying that they might see it and love it. It is, in the end, God who reveals his glory to people, shining the knowledge of his glory into our hearts. And they see his glory primarily in the face of Christ. Paul says,
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV)
And so here is a link to a seven-week topical Bible study series I wrote for MSG (My Small Group) over the last few months. What these studies try to do is show something of the importance of God’s glory to himself, its centrality to everything God has been doing, and the loveliness and terror of God’s glory.
The glory of God (download page for PDF file)
These are topical Bible studies, and generally they aim at breadth and depth by firstly doing a quick overview of a range of Bible passages, before drilling down into one passage. Towards the end of each study discussion questions allow people can explore the implications of what they’ve seen. But most importantly, the studies have a front and a back – the back being a table that builds from week to week, helping the group trace out the implications of the glory of God for the Christian life.
There are seven studies:
- The glory of God in creation
- The glory of God in the Old Testament
- The glory of God’s presence
- The glory of God in his judgment
- The glory of God in Jesus
- How do we glorify God?
- The glory of God into all of eternity
If I had more time, I would have written more… there are definitely other areas worth exploring. But as they stand, I hope you find these studies as life changing as we found it!
[ PS: last day at ND today... ]
Thanks for uploading these resources, Andrew. I just wanted to let you know that our bible study group is using the materials you uploaded on Christian Affections – it looks really good. Thanks again, brother. Jonny Lam – FOCUS, UNSW
Thanks Jonny! I hope you guys have found it encouraging.
One person told me that they couldn\’t get to the file properly. And so here is a workaround: I have also uploaded it into my Dropbox public folder. You can dowload it from here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1411506/The%20Glory%20of%20God%20studies%20-%20all.pdf
Hi Andrew! I found this topic and your site/blog when doing a web search for a Bible study about the glory of God! I was excited to find this resource, but I cannot download from either the first link you posted or the one in the comment from November 26 2009. Can you help?
Thanks and God bless – Greg
OK I have fixed it now! Thanks for pointing that out.
Ah, I am having similar troubles with downloading this file and the affections studies. Sorry for being late to the party – all these posts just showed up in my rss reader at once.
arrrgh live spaces!! :( okay, thanks for the heads up, and I’ve now fixed it…