Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

Lesson Helps for the Week of March 20, 1955
C.Y.P.U. TOPIC
March 20, 1955
METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY
"Character Study"
Rev. Kenneth Smith
Here is a suggested plan for your
Young People's Meeting this week.
1. Pick three people from your group
to select their favorite psalm. If you ask
them just before the meeting, it will
give them time to select the one they
love the most. Begin the meeting then
with a praise service, asking each one of
these folks to tell why they like the
psalm they have chosen.
2. Following the praise service, take
some time for prayer. Ask the group if
there are any specific matters for which
they
would like prayer; and then call on
about four or five to pray, remembering
these requests.
3. Since the meeting
centers on the
subject of Bible study, have one of the
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group prepared to read Psalm 119
104 giving special note to the benefits
which God promises to those who study
the Bible.
4. Now tonight you are going to try a
different type of Bible study. It is called
a "Character Study." A character study
is no more than just what the subject
describes: it is an analysis of a person
in scripture with the purpose of learning
from his life. I Corinthians 10:11 says:
"Now all these things happened unto
them for ensamples; and they are writ
ten for our admonition, upon whom the
come."
ends of the world are So it is evi
dent that God intends us to do "charac
ter" studies that we might learn from
them how we can be more effective in
living for the glory
of Christ.
In actually doing a character study,
one should write down what he can find
on the following items:
a. His conversion.
b. His call to service.
c. His strong points, (faith, prayer,
etc.)
d. His weak points, (sins, failures,
etc.)
e. His accomplishments.
f. His influence.
g. What to follow in his life.
h. What to avoid in his life.
i. What God said about him.
5. The person whose life we are going
to analize is Cornelius as described in
Acts 10. By following the above outline,
we will try to discover the elements in
Cornelius that made him the man he
was; and by so doing, we will be able to
tell if we measure up to his character.
If we see something
wonderful in his
life, it will give us something to try to
March 2, 1955
develop in ourselves with God's help.
a. See that each one of the group has
a copy of this list of items for which to
look. Perhaps a blackboard could have
the list so that everyone could see them.
b. Have each person go into another
part of the room and actually work out
the answers from his Bible. The leader
should see that paper and pencils are
supplied, and he should also remind each
one to note also the verse or verses from
which he took his answers.
c. Set a time limit. After explaining
what is to be done, the leader should al
low about 20 or 25 minutes for work on
the study. Some will probably not finish;
but it will be enough time to let them
discover "how" to do a character study.
The leader should do the study prior to
the time of the meeting in order to be
able to help any who may have some
questions.
d. Give a two-minute warning before
saying:
"Time's up!"; and then have
the group gather together again to dis
cuss what they found. The leader may
call upon different ones to answer the
different items, and this will promote
everyone's having a part in the meeting.
There may be certain items which are
not found described in Cornelius' life;
but in studying other characters they
may be found. No doubt there will be
plenty of discussion; and though the
group wants to keep on sharing their
discoveries, the leader should by all
means close the meeting on time.
6. In closing the meeting, the leader
might suggest that each one keep this
list of items for doing a Character Study
and occasionally give variety to his de
votional life by choosing
a person in
scripture and analyzing him. (It would
be well to note the directions for all
the study-plans described during the
meetings in March. These plans are in
valuable in keeping your devotional time
keen and refreshing.) In most cases, it
will be impossible to find in one passage
all that one would like to know about
characters in scripture, like David, Ab
raham, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and
Peter. Thus, you will need a concordance
to look up all the passages in which
these persons are mentioned, record
them, and then consider each passage
systematically. Keeping your findings in
a notebook would be of great help to
you in the future when you wish to re
call what you found. If these suggestions
are stressed by the leader, then this
meeting will have lasting
results as
another approach has been given to
JUNIOR
help unfold the riches of God's Word.
TOPIC
March 20, 1955
by Mrs. Philip W. Martin
DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST
Scripture Text: Mark 15:12-25
Memory Verse: "All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned eveiy
one to his own way; and the Lord hath
all."
laid on him the iniquity of us
Isaiah 53:6
Psalms:
Memory Psalm for March, Psalm 130 :
1-5, page 325
Psalm 69:1-4, page 166
Psalm 22, pages 46, 47 (use several
verses from Psalm 22 for it is the
psalm from which Jesus quoted
while on the cross.)
We are continuing our sad story from
last week about the trials and death of
Jesus Christ. We learned that in the
middle of the night Judas pretended to
be a friend of Jesus by giving Him a
kiss, but this kiss was only a sign to a
lot of soldiers that this was Jesus whom
they were seeking to kill. Judas be
trayed Jesus with a kiss. We cannot, in
our short time, tell all that happened
from the time Judas betrayed Jesus un
til Jesus was nailed to the cross.
The Jewish rulers were wanting Jesus
put to death because He claimed to be
God. So Jesus was taken to the high
priest
the highest ruler of the Jewish
synagogue who should have rejoiced to
see the Saviour. Peter followed the
crowd and went in by the fire to keep
warm. Before a man could be con
demned to die there had to be the same
charge brought against him by at least
two witnesses. The people
'
inside could
not agree about the reason why they
had taken Jesus prisoner. Several people
charged Him with things that were not
so. Some people remembered things Je
sus had said and twisted His words
around to mean something entirely dif
ferent from what Jesus meant. Through
all this Jesus did not talk back. The
high priest stood up
He had nothing to say
and asked Him if
about the false
charges. Still Jesus answered nothing.
But when the high priest asked Jesus,
"Art thou the Christ, the Son of the
Blessed"
then Jesus Spoke. In all His
trials Jesus spoke only when there came
up a question as to whether He is God
or not. The Jews did not want to believe
that Jesus is God so the high priest rent
his clothes and said that because Jesus
said He is the Saviour, therefore He
must die. Then they began to hit Jesus
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