Infusion Bible eStudies are downloadable small group studies that can be read online, printed, or emailed. Each study includes a leader guide and a study guide and is suitable for a one-hour group Bible study.
Listen...to the words of the Scripture, and in them discover God's message for you today.
Look...at a brief verbal snapshot from the scrapbook of contemporary life and discover its connection both to you and to the Scripture passage.
Live...inside the Scripture to discover its context and message; then allow the Scripture to come alive in you and cause you to live out your faith in new and more-effective ways.
Read an excerpt from this study below.
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As I write this lesson, I have just returned from taking our older son, Aaron, back to college in Georgia (which is a long way from South Dakota). The trip was not as bad as it was last year, when I felt like someone had clubbed me in the chest with a heavy object, so real was the pain that accompanied sending a child off to college to live so far from home. This year it was more like…well, no, the pain actually felt just as bad; but I have started to get used to it—a little.
I cannot imagine the anguish Abraham must have felt when he had to turn his son out into the desert and tell him and his mother that they were no longer welcome in his home. Thousands of years later, hurt and grief still grip us when we read of Hagar and Ishmael’s expulsion from Abraham’s household. This is not the way God intends for our families to function!
Yet, even in the midst of such pain, God did not abandon Ishmael. God created a path for Ishmael and for all who are like him. It was and is a path that includes divine love and care.
