Welcome! I am so excited to offer Living in the Dust as a summer Bible study beginning May 25, 2021. I will be teaching live at the Remedy in Maryville,TN as well as online as a Facebook group with video teachings, 5-day/wk homework, and daily discussion posts. You can register here to join the mailing list and continue to receive updated information. There will be a $20 fee for materials which will be applied towards running our registered 501C3 non-profit, Impartial Christian Ministries. Payments can be made upon registration to @Audrey-Lupisella via Venmo or paypal.me/audreylupisella via PayPal. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions at impartialcm@gmail.com.

Introducing Living in the Dust

Blessings and welcome to Living in the Dust! This study is the product of three years of research, studying in Israel, and writing. As I studied and lived in the land of the Redeemer, I began to understand the culture, history, and language of Israel in the first century. Through these experiences, I realized I could understand him and his teachings with far more clarity than before. My goal is that through this study, I can introduce you to the real space, time, and culture of our Great Rabbi.

You see, while I loved Jesus and worshiped him for what he did as my Savior, I couldn’t really understand him. For years I devoured the Bible but skimmed the gospels because they never made much sense. I had a blurry picture of a teacher who called his people back to God and came to die so through him the world might live. The details of who this teacher was and what his words actually meant escaped me. I don’t like blurry pictures, so I avoided spending much time in the gospel narratives.  

However, my first visit to Israel in October 2017 changed all of that. Between walking the land and hearing the explanations of my teacher, I began to find detail and clarity in the gospels. From that point on, the hunger to know more overwhelmed me. God made a way to temporarily move my family to Israel so I could continue to dig into the Hebraic roots of Christianity.

Living in the Dust is the fruit of the digging.

My hope and prayer is that through your time and efforts in this study you might have some of your own blurry pictures brought into focus. I pray that you might be wholly discontent with knowing about this Jesus but be filled with passion to know him deeply.

This study specifically looks at Jesus through first century Jewish eyes. We are going to study the history, culture, social context, and biblical languages in hopes that we might better understand Jesus through the context into which he was born.

We are going to study and put in some work. There is a lot of Scripture involved in this study. While we clearly do not have the time to do an extensive study of all four gospels, my hope is to give you a broad scope of Jesus’ life using pieces from all four gospels. The majority of the study will be out of Luke, simply because it holds the most detail in the most chronological way; but we will certainly pull from Matthew, Mark, and John as well. My goal is to give you “tools” to put in your “Bible-study toolbox” that prepare you for comprehensive, fulfilling personal lifetime study.

Living in the Dust is created in a three-part format. Each of the ten weeks will begin with a video teaching, followed by five days of homework, and end with group discussion of your homework (discussion questions are in bold). There are also two extra challenges for those of you want to participate in some of the practices that were deeply ingrained in Jesus’s life and teachings: the B’rakah challenge and the memory work challenge. Those are explained on the next two pages. 

As for Bible translations, I will consistently use the ESV translation unless otherwise noted. It is not a problem if you choose to read a different translation, just note that some of the specific words I point out may be different in your translation. It is always good to read multiple translations for a well-rounded picture of the text!

Please begin each part of your study with prayer, asking for God to impart knowledge and understanding upon you and your fellow group members. Also, please feel free to take this study alone, though you will obviously miss out on the group discussion which often challenges and promotes greater understanding. We will then end the study together with an additional video and communion.

Though we have much to accomplish, I promise if you persevere you will finish this study with an understanding of Jesus Messiah like you’ve never had before. He is utterly captivating and well worth the perseverance. I pray that God will bless your efforts, open your ears to the freedom of His gospel, and challenge you to become more like your Rabbi.

Heavenly Father, I beg you to give your blessing of knowledge and passion to your child for this journey through your Word. I pray that you will bless your beloved’s efforts with much fruit.

In your most Holy Name, Amen.

Stay dusty Beloved,

Audrey Lupisella