I would like to begin by thanking Edie, our web designer for “christening” our blog for us. She writes the same way she works – with much enthusiasm! There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm around Disciplers these days with so many new challenges, changes, and evidences of fruit from our labors. Speaking of “enthusiasm”, did you know that it comes from the Greek word “enthousiasmos” derived from the adjective “entheos” which means “having the god within”. The word “enthusiasm” first appeared in English in 1603 with the meaning “possession by a god”. I know that here at Disciplers, God is the center and source of our enthusiasm and I am daily grateful for that in my fellow workers.

Years ago when I was serving in Disciplers under Pearl Hamilton, our founder, I taught our class every week while she was ill, suffering from acute leukemia. During those months, I visited Pearl every day and she would inevitably ask me how my preparation for the lecture was going. Then would come her big question, “Are you excited yet?” Pearl was always filled with enthusiasm (God within) when she taught and she knew that I needed that also. Ever since those days, whenever I have taught God’s word, I have always prayed for enthusiasm. I also pray for enthusiasm for all of our Disciplers classes as men, women, and children study and grow as Disciples of Jesus Christ.

One of the things I am enthusiastic about these days is editing and preparing many of our older lessons for download. Pearl began writing Disciplers lessons back in 1987 and some of those early lessons have never been edited. Of course, we do not want to change Pearl’s wonderful lessons in any way, but many have typographical and formatting errors. Furthermore, when Pearl wrote she was also working full time as Director of Women’s Ministries at Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Southern California. Writing lessons and teaching Bible study were not part of her job description. Her writing and teaching were done on her own time. In those early years, because of Pearl’s heavy schedule, sometimes the lesson notes we received each week would not be much more than an outline. (But we were always richly blessed by her lectures!) And although Pearl worked hard to fill in the sparse areas of those lessons before she died, some of her lessons have been sadly incomplete. We are busy at prayer and work to fill in where God leads in order to provide you with more complete lessons. James, Galatians, and Hebrews have been updated and are ready for download. I hope that those of you who have previously used these lessons in your classes will check out the edited studies. Presently we are working on the Judges and Ruth lessons and would appreciate your enthusiastic prayers as the Lord leads us in this endeavor.  

~Suzie

I couldn't be happier to introduce you to our new updated website. We have been hard at work over the summer making big changes to improve the user friendliness of our site and hopefully you will notice the changes! Our studies are still available to you for free and now have the option of being immediately downloaded with a click of your mouse. We are also adding youth lessons to coincide with the adult lessons. Now the whole family can study the same book of the Bible together!

DOWNLOADABLE BIBLE STUDIES
Our biggest improvement is the opportunity to download Bible studies with a click of your mouse! We are diligently working on making this feature available for all 21 studies we have to offer. At the moment over half of the studies have this option and are denoted with a green download button next to the study. Simply click the download button to get started. If you would like a study that does not have this option, send us a note via the CONTACT US page and we will gladly email or mail (USPS) you the study.

YOUTH BIBLE STUDIES
Another exciting NEW venture for us has been to add youth lessons that coincide with the adult lessons. The youth lessons are geared for older elementary to middle school age kids. These lessons are terrific for families that want to study the Bible as a family! James will be available for download by the 1st of November, Acts should be available by the end of the year, and Judges and Ruth by Summer 2014. You can read more about our youth lessons by clicking the RESOURCES tab at the top of the page.

NEW LOOK
You might also notice we have a new logo. Our new logo is chalked full of meaning. The base of the logo is an open Bible because a closed Bible never does anyone any good! The tree represents a tiny mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32)  that has grown into a mighty tree through the foundation of the word of God. The branches represent  our joyful call to the great commission (Matthew 28:19)  to go out and share the message of Christ with others and the green "heart" leaves are the healthy spiritual life that produces fruit for the glory of God.

Now that you know what we have been up to - we urge you to take a look around, grab a friend and a cup of coffee and sit and study the word of God with us. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions and look forward to growing in Christ with you. 

~ Edie Guess