Bible study on paul's letters?

I'm leading a bible study on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians's, and Colossians. The format I was given isn't working. We're supposed to read a book a week, discuss it, and that's about it. My group feels as though there's not really a direction or point doing it this way. Does anyone know of a good bible study tool (book or web) that talks about Paul's letters or these books? Any suggestions are welcome!


Thanks!

Bible study on paul's letters?
Contact Global University in Springfield Mo. and ask about the Prison Epistles.
Reply:Try here...


http://twft.com/?page=C2000





Notes are provided if you have no time to listen to the studies.
Reply:Nav Press has good Bible study books based on entire books of the Bible. They are fairly in depth, interesting and sound Biblically.





http://www.navpress.com/BibleStudies/100...
Reply:All of those are short books, so the format can work to an extent...





My suggestion is this: Produce or have each individual make their own plain paper printed copy of each book. This should be from a very easy to understand translation. Several are available online, so it would be pretty easy to copy and paste the 4-6 chapters into a word processor. I use a double spaced single column format with VERY wide margins. This format allows extensive study notes to be taken without "messing up" your printed Bible.





Have each person read the entire book looking for "big picture" items. Then go through the text sentence by sentence and ask yourself how these words interact with the words around them and how they fit into the big picture of the book.





Discussion classes are led by ASKING QUESTIONS. The goal is to have your group discover the scriptures themselves rather than having a teacher tell them what to believe about a particular text. This can be challenging for the teacher and means you have to know the material VERY WELL to be able to steer the discussion to a valid understanding without stating that yourself.
Reply:The first thing I would do is pray for guidance as I try to discuss these epistles (and any and all of the Bible, for that matter). I would ask the Lord to give me the words to say that will enlighten and encourage those who attend this Bible study.


But, the best source for studying these epistles is the epistles themselves. There are too many books out there who's authors claim to know what is "really" written within those pages of the Bible.


When in doubt, go to the source. In this case, go to the Bible itself. That is what I do as I teach His Word.
Reply:Wow. I think I'd try more for a chapter a week, not a BOOK a week!





We're currently using 'Thirty Discipleship Exercises' a little something whipped up by the Billy Graham group.
Reply:The guy at the top suggested "twft.com", but I would avoid that one if I were you. It is from "calvary chapel", and "calvary chapel" is a VERY authoritarian group that has caused a lot of abuse, emotional and sexual. They also teach a lot of false doctrines like losing your salvation, and they teach that their leaders are supposed to exercise the authority of Moses over all the people, and that's the cause of the authoritarianism.





If you want a good reliable study of the book of Romans, here is one from Matthew Henry, a very trusted name with Christians: http://mhcw.biblecommenter.com/romans/1....
Reply:They were letters right, so how about discussing the main themes in each church's letter. Maybe have the group split into the Church of Colosus, the Church of Ephesus, the Church of Phillipi, and the Church of Galatians - could that help in understanding it from their perspectives as opposed to our post-modern ideas?
Reply:Paul's letters contain extremely important letters for the building and guidence of the Body of Christ through what is known as the Church age(the present age we find ourselves in)





Henceforth, these letters are not to be taken lightly and it is therefore recommended that if possible, find your group an annointed teacher.





If this is not possible, and you feel truely called to teach, then begin a verse by verse, word by word study of these Epistles. Remember, one of the Holy Spirit's ministry is to teach, so learn to depend on Him to lead.





God bless, Pastor Bill
Reply:Study them from the point of view of how they distort the teachings of Jesus and they become very interesting.





Love and blessings Don