Today is the last day of 2023! Are you ready for the new year ahead?
Thank you so much for being a part of Grounded in the Bible. I hope the studies we’ve done over the past year have been as meaningful to you as they have been to me. I’m excited for a new year together!
Once again, I want to take this opportunity to review 2023’s studies and give a preview of what you can look forward to in 2024. I do this so that those who joined later in the year can see anything they missed and to give you a glimpse of what’s been on my mind for moving forward.
Here are some things you can look forward to in 2024:
Courses:
Through multiple people and teachings, I’ve been reminded that God doesn’t have me writing Grounded in the Bible and creating courses to make money. I am doing it to be obedient to God and to help others grow in their faith. With that in mind, I’ve reduced the price of my Bible reading course permanently to only $5! I don’t want to make it free, because I believe you will be more invested in completing the course if you have some “skin in the game.” But this should make the course more accessible to all.
I’m starting to work on a new course that God has been leading me toward on the Biblical response to the LGBTQ+ community. It’s still in the early stages, and I don’t have a timeline for it yet, but I figure if God is pushing me in this direction, I should probably listen.
Once that course is released, I would like to work on either the second course in the Bible Reading series or create a first course in a Prayer series. Both of these are so fundamental to growth in the Christian life.
Bible studies:
We will start the year by finishing our Studies in Genesis series. We’ve worked through the story of Abraham, but we still have Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph to study.
Within the Studies in Genesis series, we will also look deeper at a couple characteristics of God: God is Faithful and God is a Provider.
After the Genesis series is complete, I’m leaning toward doing a study on the “one anothers” that we see in Scripture, although that could change by the time we get there.
Along the way, we will continue some of our standard series, including Witness Wednesday, Songs of Scripture, and Characteristics of God in the Psalms.
I received a journal for Christmas to start doing some verse mapping. As each verse map is complete, I will post it for paid subscribers. This will be a new paid subscriber feature.
Substack App/Notes:
Substack has a great app that helps you easily see the posts from the newsletters you subscribe to without fighting through all the emails in your inbox.
I frequently “restack” posts from other Christian writers that may be of interest to you and provide a brief comment on my thoughts on the article.
I also occasionally will add a “note” with thoughts from my own personal devotional and prayer time.
The app is a great way to connect with other Christian writers and with me! I encourage you to check it out!
And now for a quick review of the studies we’ve completed in 2023. If you are new or joined later in the year, you can go back and review any of these studies at any time. The studies I will list here do not include the standard series that we revisited throughout the year, including the Characteristics of God, Witness Wednesday, and Songs of Scripture.
The first series study of the year that we started in February was on the Sacraments: Baptism and Communion.
Then starting in June we started our Bible Essentials series on Stories in Genesis.
Most recently in December, we completed our Advent series on Prophecies about Jesus.
Throughout the year, I also wrote a handful of Spontaneous Ponderings posts that are specifically for my paid subscribers. Topics included:
You can receive Spontaneous Ponderings posts in the future by becoming a paid subscriber! Honestly, sometimes I think my most impactful writing comes in my Spontaneous Ponderings posts because those are the things that God is teaching me in my own walk.
New this coming year, I’m also offering a LIFETIME paid membership to those who join at the Founding Member level. For the price of two years of paid membership, you can have membership for a lifetime!
If you missed any of the studies that we completed in 2023, they are available now for you to review. The great thing about the Bible is that the truths we find never go out of date!
I look forward to walking through 2024 with you!
Karen