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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Humanity has always seemed to value people differently based on race, social class, religious background, and gender. The caste system of India, nearly four hundred years of slavery in the Americas, and the recent treatment of women in the Taliban era of Afghanistan are examples of this tendency to devalue certain members of the human race.
In first-century Judea, it was accepted practice to treat people in vastly different ways based on ethnicity and gender. Even the Temple in Jerusalem was arranged to reinforce distinctions based on race, gender, and priestly status.
In the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman, we see how Jesus refused to allow ethnic hatred, male chauvinism, intolerant moralism, and even uncomprehending colleagues to inhibit his mission. By ministering to the Samaritan woman, Jesus began an inter-ethnic ministry that became all-inclusive of the human race. As the apostle Paul has written, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all...are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).