In our class times together, passages and themes from the book of James kept coming up and we decided it would be cool to change our tack a bit and do a Bible book study instead of our typical topical studies. I’m not sure they’re still glad they did because we are (I am) taking quite a bit of time going through, and I’ve gotten a bit too technical in the presentation. You’ll notice as we get close to the end of chapter 1 that I started doing better with that, and I think we’re doing quite well with a better balance of background, application, and velocity in Chapter 2 (next post). Here are the notes divided into four sections along with a bonus (no extra charge!) simple worksheet that I created for my kids since we are studying it with them in parallel.
James Introduction (Pt. 1 of 2) – March 13, 2016 – AAC, 42 min., 21MB
BTW, if you’re interested in the discussion in the introduction about the actual name of the author of the book of James, you should also listen to the first eight or nine minutes of the Palm Sunday lesson, since that topic came up at the beginning of our time together that next week.
James Introduction (Pt. 2 of 2) – March 27, 2017 – AAC, 39 min., 19MB
This lesson was written for the men of our class while the ladies were away celebrating Mother’s Day. It highlights mistakes made by the first three kings of Israel and how we can both see ourselves in those mistakes and how we can avoid them. Not to end on a negative note, the fourth king considered is Hezekiah and how we can follow his example of trust in God even when we face the impossible.
Four lessons on specific character qualities. So far, we’ve covered Wisdom, Discretion, Gratefulness, Integrity, Humility. The lessons are designed not only to challenge and equip adults, but also to give them some ideas how to develop the character qualities in their children.