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Please visit The United Methodist Publishing House and click on Disciple
| UNDER THE TREE OF LIFE This completes the four-phase DISCIPLE Bible study. You must complete Disciple I before taking this class. UNDER THE TREE OF LIFE is for adult and youth graduates of DISCIPLE: BECOMING DISCIPLES THROUGH BIBLE STUDY. The image of the tree of life frames the biblical story: In Genesis, in the midst of a garden, but off limits. In Revelation, on either side of the river of the water of life, with fruit to eat and leaves for the healing of the nations. Present through the whole study is the sense of living toward completion — toward the climax of the message and the promise, extravagantly pictured in the Revelation. |
The fourth phase of DISCIPLE concentrates on:
Present through the whole study is the sense of living toward completion – toward the climax
of the message and the promise, extravagantly pictured in the Revelation.
Proverbs offers wisdom as "a tree of life to those who lay hold of her" (3:18). Here Judaism
offers an image DISCIPLE graduates will understand. Picture the long parchment scroll from
which Scripture is read. It is wound on two wooden rollers. Each of the rollers is called a "tree
of life" – an eloquent image for the life-bearing Scriptures.
Worship plays a central role in the book of Revelation. Through video, UNDER THE TREE OF
LIFE participants will experience the book of Revelation as worship. The video provides an
interactive, sensory experience. Viewers will participate by reading, singing, listening, praying,
lamenting-and will be immersed in the words, images, colors, and music of Revelation that
declare triumphantly that the God who is at the beginning is the God who is at the end. This
video worship experience proclaims that the book of Revelation is a message to embrace and
a hope to anticipate. It climaxes the journey DISCIPLE participants have made from Creation
to the New Jerusalem.
• The Revelation video is intended to move DISCIPLE participants beyond the usual
understanding of the book of Revelation-to come to see
• that God is in control even if the world seems out of control
• that the book of Revelation addresses the church today as it did the early church
• that worship of God is Revelation's answer to a church that has accommodated to the
culture and a society whose allegiance is to idols
• that a comfortable church may be unable to recognize the significance of God's victory
• that in any authentic experience of worship the worshiper is confronted by God
- The Writings in the Old Testament Unlike Torah and the Prophets, the collection of
books called the Writings does not have a unifying theme; in fact the books differ one
from the other in both form and content. The Writings appeal to the heart more than
the head and address both community and individual life. Narrative books in the
Writings cover the period of Israel's Exile and return. Ruth, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles,
Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel. Books of poetry and wisdom include Job, Psalms,
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations. (Old Testament wisdom has
its New Testament counterpart in the letter of James.) - The New Testament Scriptures The Gospel of John; 1,2,3 John; James; Jude; and
Revelation. John's Gospel was written for Jews who were in agony over division within
the house of Israel. At the core of that division was relationship with Jesus Christ that
brought reorientation to the community.
- One of the functions of Scripture is to give us a vocabulary. The book of Revelation
provides a vocabulary of imagery for making sense of experience and learning to live
with what is painful and what is hopeful. Revelation is a picture of completion, a picture
of the fulfillment of God's time. We read Revelation in order to know the end of the
story.
- The Psalms as Israel's hymnbook and prayer book. This leads naturally to an
emphasis on worship in the study.
Present through the whole study is the sense of living toward completion – toward the climax
of the message and the promise, extravagantly pictured in the Revelation.
Proverbs offers wisdom as "a tree of life to those who lay hold of her" (3:18). Here Judaism
offers an image DISCIPLE graduates will understand. Picture the long parchment scroll from
which Scripture is read. It is wound on two wooden rollers. Each of the rollers is called a "tree
of life" – an eloquent image for the life-bearing Scriptures.
Worship plays a central role in the book of Revelation. Through video, UNDER THE TREE OF
LIFE participants will experience the book of Revelation as worship. The video provides an
interactive, sensory experience. Viewers will participate by reading, singing, listening, praying,
lamenting-and will be immersed in the words, images, colors, and music of Revelation that
declare triumphantly that the God who is at the beginning is the God who is at the end. This
video worship experience proclaims that the book of Revelation is a message to embrace and
a hope to anticipate. It climaxes the journey DISCIPLE participants have made from Creation
to the New Jerusalem.
• The Revelation video is intended to move DISCIPLE participants beyond the usual
understanding of the book of Revelation-to come to see
• that God is in control even if the world seems out of control
• that the book of Revelation addresses the church today as it did the early church
• that worship of God is Revelation's answer to a church that has accommodated to the
culture and a society whose allegiance is to idols
• that a comfortable church may be unable to recognize the significance of God's victory
• that in any authentic experience of worship the worshiper is confronted by God
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