Resources

Tools:

For You + Others

This series is designed to help you understand the message of James in. away that is accessible and effective for you to engage with and grow from. Use the options below as you choose:

Option One: Discuss the sermon using these “forever” questions:
Discuss the following with your LifeGroup, with a buddy or in a journal throughout this series, The Daily, Christ-Centered Life:

1. What do you resonate with from this week’s sermon?
Ex: Where you find yourself nodding and saying “This is exactly how I feel”.

2. What do you resist about what was said in this week’s sermon?
Ex: Where do you find yourself frustrated, disagreeing with or observing that’s not how it works in your life? What values, attitudes, beliefs and/or actions are challenged by what I’ve learned?
How can you reconcile this resistance? What causes it?
What data could you seek out to help you as you rumble with this tension?

For both the resonate and resist questions, we want to be discerning in our agreement with truth. So for both questions 1 + 2, ask these questions:

Pray for a discerning, humble, teachable spirit.
Where else does Scripture support this view/idea as truth?
Does Scripture ever oppose this view/idea? Where?
What help/resource/person could you seek out to help rumble with any tension you find?

3. Based on the sermon this week, Who is God + what has He done?

4. Based on the sermon this week, Who am I + what should I do?

Option Two: Feed your Faith using James + these 8 Fs

It’s our heartbeat to teach methods of study that are accessible and effective for you to engage with and grow from the study of scripture. Many of these will be familiar as they were used to study Philippians, too. These Fs can help you study James, too!

Grab a notebook with your Bible, invite a friend (or two), and feed your faith throughout this series using these weekly activities designed to help you synthesize and integrate the message of James into your everyday life.

Spiritual Growth Tool:

Woodlands in the Word & Prayer: August 8-12

Click the image above to see the Bible reading and prayer prompts!

Week of August 7

Focus on a theme. Choose a theme or idea repeated throughout James (patience in trials, genuine faith, prayer, wisdom etc…). Write out each reference to this theme from James in the order they occur. Make observations on each mention by asking the following questions:

What does this occurrence add to the meaning of the idea/theme? (Is it a comparison? an example? a smaller aspect? a general statement about the topic?)
How does each mention fit within its immediate context? What does it add to the overall flow of the book?
Are there other scriptures that mention your topic that could weigh in?

After making some observations, reflect on how these ideas affect your everyday life. What might need to change or stay the same as a result of your deeper study? What are some “principles for life” that arise out of your study?

James Manuscript

Print these resources

Memory Verse:

On your smartphone, long press this image to download and set as your background image (if it doesn’t download the current verse, try clearing out your cache).

Sunday’s Sermon:

RESOURCES FOR DISCUSSING & DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL GROWTH PLANS

Why grow spiritually?

John 17:16-18 is part of what Jesus prays for his followers. Read it together. Discuss what “sanctify” means and the means God sees for doing that work.
Read Psalm 19:7-11. Talk through some of the phrases of what the Word of God is and does. How have you seen these in your own life? How has God’s Word led to your spiritual growth?
“Your habits don’t change God’s love for you. But God’s love for you should change your habits.” – Justin Earley
Agree or disagree? Why?
“Bible reading and prayer are grace-empowered habits and Spirit-empowered disciplines. These are a means God has given for drinking at the fountain of life. They don’t earn the enjoyment. They receive it. They are not payments for pleasure; they are pipelines.” – John Piper
Discuss the idea that these habits are pipelines to God instead of payments to God. How do we guard against these disciplines becoming legalistic? See Ephesians 2:4-9.

What is it?

Bible + Prayer time – learn more here!
Use the “how it could look” section to start the brainstorm of what your own spiritual growth plan could look like. These strategies have come from other Woodlanders on their own path to deeper friendship with God.
By no means do you need to do all of these strategies (in fact, don’t!), but rather use these strategies as suggestions – pick and choose from each category or maybe one strategy sparks an idea for you to build your own.
This is an intentional, thought-through, written-out plan for your spiritual growth this year, which means it will be unique to your season and stage. Give yourself lots of grace while fervently praying that God’s Spirit would grow you this year!

How it Could Look:

Connecting to the Word

- Reading Woodlands in the Word 3-5x a week. Start small if you are new to this habit, but start!
- Listening to the Bible with an app while doing mindless chores or on a commute to work or school. While your hands are busy, tune your mind to the things of Jesus.
- Sometimes using a devotional is a good way to start the habit of being in Scripture regularly. New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp is an excellent one. Have your Bible open as you read to follow the Scriptural foundation for the day’s ponderings.
- Use the Woodlands Kids reading plan to read the Bible together as a family. Choose a time when you can be consistent (bedtime, around the breakfast table, commute to school, etc).
- Pick a verse for the week/month/season. Write it out on post-it notes or on 3×5 cards and place those cards in as many places as you can (on the mirror, by the kitchen sink, above the stove, on your dash, set it as your phone’s wallpaper, use the first letter of each word as your password, etc). Read, meditate, pray through your selection as often as you can.

Connecting in Prayer

- Spend time pondering and praying through what you’ve read in the Word that day. Many have linked this time praying through the Word with a walk.
- Set an alarm to pause and pray throughout your day. Pray through a list of people, requests, concerns, for missionaries, for your church, advancement of the Gospel…
- Choose a psalm to memorize. As a method for memorizing, read and pray through the lines at specified times (when you wake up, when you go to bed as you brush your teeth, before you eat your lunch, etc.).
- Pray through the 5 prompts from the What’s Happening @ Woodlands newsletter updates. (If you aren’t getting those updates yet, text UPDATES to 888-225-7675)
- Use prompts that are already set to spur you to pray for things you might not regularly pray for (31 Days of Prayer cards from The Daily Grace Co., The Joshua Project’s Unreached of the Day app, Compassion International prompts for kids, etc)

Pursuing Christ Together

- Commit to your spiritual growth plan with a friend or two and keep each other accountable (with lots of grace) on a weekly basis through text or in-person.
- Make time regularly to share what you are learning in your time in the Word with your Life Group, accountability group or other friends following Jesus (maybe during your regular meeting, through text, or using Marco Polo).
- Join a Men’s or Women’s class that is studying a specific book of the Bible or topic.
- Talk with others about what has helped them grow (people you serve with, your life group, a staff member, family members). Who can you share a helpful practice you have with?
- Leverage your family in your spiritual growth. Engage with your kids so that your spouse can get individual time with God. Serve together. Use the Dinnertime Discussions published weekly on the Woodlands app to process the sermon as a family. Read Scripture and talk about it together.