Bible Study Fellowship (BSF)

I have been participating in BSF for 5 weeks now and I am really enjoying it. For those of you who have not ever heard of BSF. This is a non-denominational bible study that is done all over the world. The bible study groups for men, women, children, teens and I believe they have started or thinking about starting a co-ed bible study. The bible study follows the school year, summers off. All of the bible studies do the same lesson, so if you are on vacation and you find out that there is a bible study in that area, you are welcome to join in while you are there.
This is my first year with BSF and we are studying the life of Moses.
Before, I signed up to do this I was a little nervous about the commitment, there is homework (yea, never like homework) and we meet once a week. Also, if you would like to complete the entire bible study, it will take 7 years, yikes!
You maybe wondering how I had heard of it. Well, my mom did BSF when my brother and I were little kids, I went with her a couple of times when I had a doctor's appointment and had to get out of school early.
I had always thought it was more of a denominational bible study and since I don't go to a Mennonite church anymore, I didn't think I could do the bible study.
Last year, my friend Nellie had done BSF and that's when I learned more about it. Around February, I really felt God calling me to participate in BSF, so I talked to Nellie about it and she invited me to one of the "Introduction" classes that they have. So that's what I did and now I'm doing it, I have really been learning a lot. Here are just a few things that I heard or read that I thought were pretty interesting...

"In 1836 a world census indicated that there were then three million Jews living in many countries. A century later, in 1936, in spite of severe persecutions in which many Jews were killed, particularly in Russia, a second census indicated that the Jewish world population had risen to sixteen million, an increase of thirteen million in a century. The Nazis killed six million Jews in what they called 'the final solution to the Jewish problem.' But today there are more Jews in the world than before the Nazi era. The only explanation is that the hand of God has been on this people and that He has blessed them."
(This was in reference to when the Israelites were being oppressed by the Egyptians, yet they continued to grow in number)

Did you know that pitch was used to make Moses' basket and also was used to make the Ark. Pitch means "Atonement" - a second chance.

"God uses small things to engineer great events!"

When God calls us to do something, and we give him the excuse that this is not something that we would be good at. God's response is "Good, then I will get the glory and not you!"

"God does not speak and then ask for your advice!"

The BSF leader shared a story from something that she had read:
"There was a little boy that was trying to move a huge boulder into his sandbox. He was pushing and pulling, doing a lot of grunting. His father could see him struggling and went out and asked his son, 'Why didn't you use all your strength?" The boy's response was 'I did!' The father said, 'No, because if you had, you would have come in to get your father'!
That story really struck me, why do we make things so much harder then they need to be, why can't we just call on our "Heavenly Father" for help, for strength?

I will try to keep adding more things that I learn through out this year. So until next time...