Wise Guys: Welcome to the WiseGuys' Blog

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Welcome to the WiseGuys' Blog

Thought this could provide a simple go-to spot to have our group's stuff. Feel free to post things here. Details for things like special events (camping or hiking trips??), poling for future things, etc. can happen here.

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Resources

• The Bible Project: Where visual story telling meets the bible. Learn about books of the bible, as well as themes from a biblical perspective.

• How to Study a Book of the Bible by The Navigators.

• Bible.net: this is the Scripture tied in with relevant resources. This link takes you directly to Romans.

• Bible.org: another really good resource I just found for studying the scriptures. Could be the single go-to source for bible study.

• SPECK: Sin to confess; Promise to claim; Example to follow; Command to obey; Knowledge to gain.

• Smartphone Bible App for Android and iPhone.

• BibleStudyTools.com: great collection of study resources like commentaries, encyclopedias, word study dictionaries, interlinear bible (shows English and original language), and more.
• BibleGateway.com: a library of 32 different English versions of the Bible, plus a few other resources. If you get stuck on a passage, you may consider looking it up in a different version, like J.B. Phillips, or The Message.
• Biblos.com: a little difficult to navigate, but contains a bunch of great things for bible study.
• Romans by NavPress: a 20 lesson study guide on Romans.
• Romans by Thru the Bible: an incredible collection of free and for-purchase resources. Jay Vernon McGee was an great man of God.

• Vincent's Word Studies and Robertson's Word Pictures are two great tools for getting deeper into specific word meanings.

Meeting Notes

January

• Met at John's to decide on next book of bible to study

• Decided on the gospel of John

• Watch the Bible Project's overview of John (pt 1 & pt 2)

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December

• Met at Keith's to discuss plans for 2019

• Wonderful Christmas season visit

November

October

September

August

July

June

May

• Met at Mike's to discuss Amos 4

April

• Met at Chris' to discuss Amos 3

March

• Met at Rob's to discuss Amos 2

February

• Met at Dan's to discuss Amos 1

January

• Met at John & Tobyn's

• Tobyn told us that he'd be stepping out of WiseGuys and focusing on other things. He remains a member in good-standing, and welcomed back any time.

• Did an overview of the book of Amos - starting with a summary from The Bible Project on Amos.

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December

• Met at Keith's

• Had our traditional dinner (with Swedish meatballs) and hang out for Christmas.

• Confirmed that we'll be studying the book of Amos and God's heart for the marginalized.

November

• Met at Chris' friends house (where he was house sitting)

• Reviewed our study of the book 30 Days to Understanding the Bible...which took us 10 months, and we only got through about two-thirds of it ;)

• Decided we wanted to return to studying the bible, rather than a book about the bible (though it was a useful study).

October

• Met at Mike's

• Discussed the Prophetical Books

September

• Met at Dan's

• Discussed the Poetical Books - second half

August

• Met at Rob's

• Discussed the Poetical Books - first half

July

• Met at John's

• Discussed the Return Era and the Silence Era

June

• Met at Keith's

• Discussed the Kingdom Era and the Exile Era

May

• Met at Tobyn's

• The Conquest Era and the Judges Era

April

• Met at Chris'

• Covered The Exodus Era (ch 6)

• Was not able to cover ch 7 - so next month we'll attempt to cover chapters 7 & 8...and adjust accordingly going forward.

March

• Met at Mike's

• Covered The Creation Era (ch 4) and The Patriarch Era (ch 5)

February 6

• Met at Dan's

• Covered Structure of the Bible (ch 1) and Geography of the OT (ch 2) of 30 Days to Understanding the Bible (by Max Anders) -- to make up for missing last month

• Dan covered The Historical Books (ch 3)

January 10

• Bible study cancelled twice due to snow and ice. Rob and Kim ate all the stuffed peppers John made for the guys ;)

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December 6

• Met at Keith's to celebrate Christmas and discuss next year's bible study plans

November 7

• Met at Chris' to discuss 2 Peter 3

October 3

• Met at Mike's to discuss 2 Peter 2 - part 2

September 6

• Met at Rob's to discuss 2 Peter 2

August 1

• Met at John's to discuss 2 Peter 1 (didn't really get to do that at Chris' last month)

July 11

• Met at Chris' to discuss 2 Peter 1

June 7

• Met at Keith's to discuss 1 Peter 5

May 2

• Met at Dan's to discuss 1 Peter 4

April 5

• Met at Mike's to discuss 1 Peter 3

• Mike (Sharron?) had a great soup prepared for us

• Discussed the implications of always having a reason for the hope in you - and to be prepared to suffer for doing good.

• Mike shared great pictures and stories about his trip to Israel

March 7

• Met at John and Tobyn's to discuss 1 Peter 2

• Enjoyed nourishing rounds of Papa Murphy's pizza ;)

• Discussed the implication of being living stones (vs 4), and how during the construction of the temple, all stones were worked on at the quarry - and apparently no chisel struck a stone at the temple. The parallel has been suggested that as we are living stones, God is shaping us here in the quarry, and the work will be complete as we are built into His holy temple.

• Also talked about what it's like to live as aliens and strangers (vs 11) this side of heaven. When we are charged to support our leaders (vs 13), at what point is it okay to rebel against authority (Nazi Germany, etc.)

February 1

• Met at Dan's to discuss 1 Peter 1

• (I was not at this meeting, so feel free to forward notes to add...if anyone reads this blog ;)

January 11

• Snow flurries with freezing rain caused us to re-schedule our first gathering of the year by a week.

• Dinner at Tobyn's - with a pasta a sauce selection that would make the Olive Garden drool ;)

• Planned our next year's calendar for hosts and bible study topics (for the most part)

• Discussed overview of 1 Peter

• Shared prayer requests and personal goals for 2016

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December 8

• Dinner at Keith's

• Changed date from 12/7 to accommodate John's trip to MA to visit his family

• Keith got a great picture of the group...first one since our beach retreat 2 years ago last November in Lincoln City

• Shared prayer requests and prayed for each other

November 2

• Ate at Big Al's in Beaverton

• Missing Dan, Keith and Chris (...who planned this social time at Big Al's ;)

• Talked about bowling, but never did; just talked

October 5

• Dinner at Chris'

• Welcomed Tobyn back from the Nat'l Parks

• Planned next Bible study series to be 1 Peter & 2 Peter

• Prayed for each other

September 8

• Dinner at Mike's

• Discussed 1 Corinthians 16

• Planned next letter for Bible study

August

• Most everyone was on vacation, so we cancelled this month

July 6

• Dinner at John's

• Discussed 1 Corinthians 15

June 1

• Discussed 1 Corinthians 14

•Summary from Keith to the group:

To your comment about v. 34, v. 35, we did talk about these for some time and the general consensus was that women can speak in church and don't have to wait to ask husbands on way home about questions in Bible. Yes, it is black and white in Scripture that is says "no" to these things and yes it is important to be careful about saying we can do the exact opposite of what's in Scripture but in this case the consideration, at least, to do so seems warranted. It's hard to condense a solid 15 minutes of discussion into a few words but it did seem to us (JG, Mike, me) that it may be that there was so much turbulence in the church of Corinth at that time with confusions of people speaking in tongues with no interpretation (most of 1C14 was devoted to that subject) that having these couple additional verses inserted by Paul was useful at that time.

JG also pointed out (paraphrasing here) that these verses taken by themselves may not have had a high enough level of building love and relationships to warrant carrying forward as a prime directive. I submitted that it would be hard for me to imagine Jesus laying down these rules. Ephesians 5:22-33 seems a more balanced and complete thought than the v. 34/35 extraction as it stand alone. Between the three of us, we were unable to come up with an example of a marriage of v. 34/35 working harmoniously and successfully although, for that record, did not reject that it would be a abject failure either. One more thing, it's hard to imagine the woman of Proverb 31:10-31 not speaking in church.

Unfortunately, no one was moved to speak in tongues to help elucidate the conundrum. That would have been a first in Wise Guys. Prayers were mentioned for all absent and for Kim and Natalie too.

May 4

• In honor of almost Cinco de Mayo, we enjoyed a celebratory dinner at Chris' house of Mexican food

• In that this was the first time we had been able to be together with Chris in many months, we spent most of the evening talking about what had been happening in our lives

• We were joined in conversation by Steve Ristow via cell phone; he called us from Alaska

• We prayed for Steve, Tobyn, and the rest of the bible study group

• We'll catch bible study next time ;)

April 6

• Dinner at Tobyn's

• Discussed 1 Corinthians 13

• Prayed for Tobyn as he heads out to work as a seasonal park ranger in Yellowstone at Old Faithful on May 3 through the end of September

March 2

• Dinner at Rob's

• Discussed 1 Corinthians 12

February 2

• Dinner at Mike's

• Celebrated with Steve during his last WiseGuys' visit - as he and his family will soon be heading to serve as missionaries to a small tribal community southeast of Homer Alaska.

January 13

• Dinner at Dan's

• Spent time in 1 Corinthians 11

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December 8 (not December 1 ;)

• Dinner at Keith's - our normal Christmas haunt

• Spent time in I Corinthians 10

November 3

• Dinner at Dan's

• Spent time discussing I Corinthians 9

October 6

• Dinner at Mike's

• Spent time studying and talking about I Corinthians 8

September 9

• "Breakfast" at Chris'

• Spent time studying and talking about I Corinthians 7

August 4

• Dinner at John's was a seafood fest with the best ice cream ever for dessert--Hazelnut with Salted Caramel from Tillamook

• As seems to be the pattern during our August gathering, we spent more time socializing and getting caught up about what was happening with families and vacations; no time discussing 1 Cor 7

• Good time in prayer at the end as we look to wrapping up summer at our next get together

July 7

• We ended up cancelling WiseGuys this week because we didn't have a quorum.

• Dan, Rob and John met together for a bite at Storr's Smokehouse in Newberg, then got frozen custard at Jac's down the road.

• Planning to get together in August to do 1 Cor 7.

June 2

• Dinner at Keith's with outdoor dining near the bees

• 1 Corinthians 6

• Discussed the charge to "honor God with your bodies." Some felt it simply was tied to the earlier comment to "Flee from sexual immorality"; others wondered if there was more to be discovered.

May 5

• Dinner with Rob at St. Vincent's Hospital

• 1 Corinthians 5

• We switched from having study at Steve's so we could support Rob as Kim was in the hospital with early labor.

April 7

• Dinner at Mike's

• 1 Corinthians 4

March 3

• Dinner and study at Rob's

• 1 Corinthians 3

February 3

• Tobyn had a BBQ chicken dinner fit for The Colonel!

• Studied some of Paul's background in a read-through of select passages throughout the NT

• Saw how God used lots of short stays in earlier churches to prepare Paul for Corinth

• Discussed the value of knowing nothing "except Jesus Christ and Him crucified"

• Discussed the principle of wisdom - and what that means for us in decision making.

• Spent time at the end of the evening praying for each other

January 7

• Finally made it to Keith's for a belated celebration, and to study 1 Corinthians 1

• As typical, the fare was fenominal ;)

• Explored the topic of spiritual gifts

• Discussed the culture of Corinth, and the implication of God choosing the "lowly"

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December

• threat of an ice storm cancelled plans for the 12/9 gathering at Keith's

• will reschedule the 1 Corinthians 1 study for January

November

• met at Dan's

• meal by Mike

• reviewed an overview of 1 Corinthians - with lots of good questions about what the book may hold for future discussions

October

• had our Periodically Annual WiseGuys' Beach Retreat in Lincoln City in place of meeting for Bible study.

September

• met at Steve's

• discussed Romans 16, and finished the book

• (I travelling for work, so didn't attend; let me know what's missing!)

August

• met at Rob's

• had pizza and ice cream - a great summer treat!

• discussed Romans 15...with some challenging thoughts on how tolerance might fit in with how we treat our neighbor, and what it looks like to live to please others as Christ did.

• confirmed 1 Corinthians for our next book to study...which is currently planned to start in October.

July 1

• met at John's

• enjoyed a seafood feast fit for WiseGuys

• didn't get to study Romans 15, but talked about summer plans - and plans for the next bible study...which looks like it might be 1 Corinthians

June 4

• met at Keith's

• as anticipated, many cows had been sacrificed for the event

• studied Romans 14

May 13

• met at Chris'

• ate like the usual kings Chris treats us like

• studied Romans 13

April 8

• met at Mike's

• had something delicious - but it's been so long since we had the meal, that I've forgotten ;(

• felt that we had studied Romans 10 sufficiently (if that's possible), so went on to study chapter 11

• still talking about doing something together for a guys' weekend away, but haven't yet agreed on a date

March 4

• met at John and Tobyn's

• enjoyed an Italian feast...in honor of John's recent return from Italy

• studied most of Romans 10 (tho may need to finish up a bit next time)

• spend time learning about Tobyn's upcoming ministry at Lake Powel. See blog entry for details on praying to Tobyn

February 4

• met at Rob's

• studied second half of Romans 9

January 14

• met at Dan's

• spent time sharing about personal issues

• spent time praying for eachother

• studied about 1/2 of Romans 9

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December 3

• met at Keith's

• enjoyed Christmas potluck

• studied Romans 8

November 7

• met at Chris'

• had breakfast for supper - what a GREAT idea!

• studied Romans 7

October 8

• met at Dan's

• had an authentic Italian pasta dinner - yum (thanks Susan...and Dan ;)

• studied Romans 6

• Dan, the consummate host, remembered it was Rob's birthday on 10/10, and had delicious birthday dessert!

September 10

• met at Mike's

• had a great pasta dinner

• dug deep into Romans 5 - very good discussions on reconciliation, and implications of the gospel

August 13

• didn't have enough for a quorum, so we celebrated John's 50th...which happened to be on the 13th

• Rob and Kim Felton (she brought pie, so we let her join us ;) , as well as Keith celebrated with a cedar plank salmon bbq; Dan joined after most of the food was gone ;)

• watched for shooting stars late into the evening on this last night of the Perseid meteor shower for 2012

July 9

• met at Chris'

• discussed Romans 4

• ate like kings on his back deck

• obviously July didn't work out for a camping/beach trip. Is looking at some time in September.

June 4

• met at Steve's

• discussed Romans 3

• got a call from Tobyn right at the start of discussion time...great timing T! We all got to say a quick hello

• Chris is still thinking about a guys' weekend beach trip for July; he's working to coordinate dates

May 8

• met at Keith's in his backyard

• enjoyed a little fruit of the vine and bronto steaks

• discussed Romans 2

• Chris mentioned that he may turn his time of hosting in July into a campout

• Tobyn mentioned he'd like to host at Yellowstone in August ;)

• closed in prayer for the group

April 2

• met at Steve's

• watched some basketball game

• discussed Romans 1

• Keith mentioned he might need to change next meeting date

• prayed for the group

March 5

• met at Rob's

• decided WiseGuys' blog was helpful

• ate kidney bean chili ;)

• discussed overview of Romans

• planned to study Romans 1 in March

• prayed for the group

2012 ••• February 6

• met at John's

• reviewed Bible study option & methods

• decided to study Romans

• planned to take 18-24 months

• Tobyn shared his testimony

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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Welcome to the WiseGuys' Blog

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