“Have you ever felt torn? Had your call questioned? Ever struggled to accept God’s grace? These among others are the real questions that this course will work in challenging you, your congregation or small group.” I must admit, I have never engaged in a course as extensive and detailed as this one. Any group courses engaged in before lacked as much detail and exposure. I write this review with the total bias of liking expository teaching and yet again, LOGOS has come up trumps in scratching this itch. When LOGOS gave me the opportunity to review this, I engaged with a low bar of expectation and to my surprise it has caught me off guard. Little did I think of application to my own life, newly wed, in a foreign country and changing career! In reality it has been well timed and inspiring. Although the Bible often depicts Abraham as an exalted figure, his journey of faith resembles our own. Along with the glory of his victories, the Bible fully describes the scandalous details of his failures. It does not hide Abraham’s shortcomings; instead, it recounts these examples of failure so that we might have hope. Grigoni, M. R., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Abraham: Following God’s Promise. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software. Each chapter is laid out extremely well and clearly so your group get familiar very quickly with what’s coming up in each section. • ‎Setting the Stage • ‎A Closer Look • ‎Throughout the Bible • ‎Beyond the Bible • ‎Application • ‎Further Reading “‎Beyond the Bible” is a very intriguing part where you discover how the Jewish faith struggles with explaining the story, or interesting historical information. Interwoven with this is “Quick Bit”, with a sort of “did you know” style which is quite refreshing. The hand-outs, slides and leader guide are very well written and finished. The harmony across all the material is excellent and will keep the group focusing on each Lesson objective without wandering. The Leaders Guide In providing Small Group Resources and Sermon Resources, this Leader’s Guide is designed to be used in conjunction with Abraham: Following God’s Promises. Here, you’ll find eight Small Group Lesson Plans and Teaching Slideshows that correspond to the eight chapters of the commentary text. You’ll also find eight Sermon Outlines and Teaching Slideshows that tailor the commentary text to a preaching context. When used together, these resources will aid individuals, small groups, and congregations to delve deeper, together, into the life of Abraham and the lessons we can learn from his efforts to follow God’s promise. Grigoni, M. R., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Abraham: Following God’s Promise: Leader’s Guide. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software. Along with the content of the main textbook you get a Preaching Themes section which allows you to queue the video and flesh out the text more and give you a chance to close in on the learning objective. Conclusion: In conclusion, I highly recommend this course. Well written and in depth and will leave you and your group changed, inspired and understanding the “father of many nations” a lot more. For the pessimists out there who would push me for one negative I’d have to dig very deep to satisfy your insatiable demands, it would be this: The authors’ language can sometimes appear a bit too academic for their own good in the use of their wording in analysing God’s Word: “The writer seems deliberately to prolong the tension of both Abraham and the reader in his depiction of the last moments before God interrupted the action and called the test to a halt” Grigoni, M. R., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Abraham: Following God’s Promise (Ge 21:1–22:24). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software. Again I have to say, it’s one of the best study group courses I have done and you would greatly benefit from it. © 2013 faithireland.com (faithireland.wordpress.com)