Resources for Starting Over Participants

STARTING OVER BOOKS

Copies of the “Starting Over; Building a New Life” book are available at The Journey building on Sundays and throughout the week. If you don’t have one, just let us know you would like a copy. They are available to those who attend The Journey for free.

If you are not part of The Journey or attend somewhere else, copies of the book are available on Amazon for $7.50 per copy.

Click here to order from Amazon

Quiet time resources

One of the most important things to establish in your life is a personal time that you spend with God each day. Many people call this a quiet time. It consists of setting aside a time to read and reflect on God’s Word and communicate with God through prayer.

Each week, The Journey develops a simple Grow Plan. That allows our church family to read through the same parts of Scripture together and be able to discuss what God is showing us during our Grow Groups. You can find the weekly grow plan on our website and also on our Facebook page and Community group. It provides you with a short summary of the themes you will find in each week’s readings, some thought-provoking questions to help you consider how to put what you read into practice, ideas for additional reading, and some things to focus on in prayer.

“how to” guides

Having a quiet time may be new to you. To help, we’ve included here some simple guides that can teach you how to pray and read your Bible.

“how to”pray

1. Choose a quiet place where you can pray each day.

2. Choose a specific time when you can pray each day.

3. During your quiet time, this is a simple method you can use to guide your prayer time:

Praise – acknowledge and thank God for who He is and all He has done!

Repent – confess & turn from any sin in your life, including resentments, wrong attitudes, or actions that have damaged your relationships with other people.

Ask – share with the Lord what is on your heart.  Ask Hm to provide those things you need.  Ask Him to protect you spiritually and to help you grow.

Yield – take time to listen to what the Lord has to say to you and obey His leading.  Prayer is about more than talking to God.  It is about listening to Him and allowing Him to change you.

4. Pray to God throughout the day, not only in your quiet time. Talk to Him wherever you go and whenever things arise that you need to take to the Lord.  God is real and we can carry on a constant conversation with Him.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.” – 1 John 5:14-15

“how to”READ THE BIBLE

1. Choose a version of the Bible that you can understand. NIV and NLT are two easy-to- understand translations.

2. Choose a quiet place where you can sit to read each day.

3. Choose a specific time when you can read each day.

4. Choose a reading plan. You might read through 1 book at a time, follow a yearly reading plan, or follow the weekly GROW Plan that is on the website, Facebook, and in The Journey bulletin each Sunday.

5. Take a moment to pray before you read. Ask the Lord to help you understand and put into practice what you read.

6. As you read, ask yourself these questions:

What is the Bible saying in this passage?

What am I to believe?

What am I to do?

The Bible is not like other books.  It contains God’s Word and it calls for a response.  You may often sense God speaking things to your heart as you read. Therefore, it is important to read with an open heart, seeking to discover what you are to believe about God and how you are to respond to him.   

7. Choose a reading partner or small group that will study the Bible with you. This allows you to talk about what you are learning together and ask questions of others. Grow Groups here at The Journey are a good way to start following Jesus with others.

Starting Over TEaching Video Link

help for physical and financial needs

There is a simple phone number that you can dial, 2-1-1, that can help you connect with all kinds of community resources - emergency shelter, housing, food, utility assistance, and more. You can also talk with your discipleship partner about places where you could get assistance. Discipleship partners are well acquainted with many community agencies or could help you search for options if they are not already aware of one that exists.