© Copyright 2008 by Ronda Sturgill Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 Interna- tional Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by per- mission of NavPress Publishing Group. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-nd/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. The following restrictions apply to this study: It may not be sold. It may not be modified. It may not be distributed outside of PWOCI without permission of the copyright holders. Contact Ronda Sturgill at www.FindingHopeInHim.com for permission or information. Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................4 Introduction: Handbook .............................................................................................5 Lesson One: From Drab to Fab ................................................................................8 Lesson Two: Our Hearts .........................................................................................15 Lesson Three: Our Attitudes .....................................................................................31 Lesson Four: Our Faces ...........................................................................................47 Lesson Five: Our Wardrobes ...................................................................................61 Lesson Six: Our Bodies ..........................................................................................74 Lesson Seven: Our Homes .........................................................................................92 Lesson Eight: Our World .........................................................................................110 About the Author ...................................................................................123 Extreme Makeover — Heart Edition • 3 Acknowledgements God spoke to Moses: Tell the Israelites that they are to set aside offerings for me. Receive the offerings from everyone who is willing to give. ~Exodus 25:1,2 The Message The call to write a Bible study runs deep. It’s almost as if I feel a compulsion. I simply must do it and until I do, nothing else seems to matter to me. Writing is all I think about. I view this Bible study as an offering; inspired by the Holy Spirit, penned by faith and presented to God for Him to do with as He wishes. As I present this offering to the Lord, I want to recognize each and every person who so willingly gave of their time and talents to help me see it through to it’s completion. Without the assistance of numerous people, this Bible study would simply not exist. I first want to thank Christine Wood, my friend, mentor and editor. Christine is the one who helped me take an abstract concept and develop it into a tangible Bible study. Her Biblical wisdom combined with the depth of her knowledge of adult education be- came the foundation upon which this study is built. Thank you for the countless hours you spent pouring yourself into developing me as a curriculum developer. I want to thank my prayer team, without whose consistent and faithful prayers I could not have finished. They often became my Aaron’s and Hurs, holding my arms up when I became too weak to hold them up myself. Abby Auclair, Mary Stewart, Leslie Moore and Margaret Franklin, thank you so very much! I love you! As this study neared its completion, I looked for people to read through it with a fresh set of eyes. Thank you Abby Auclair, Mary Stewart and Rachel Reno. Your comments, edits and suggestions were greatly appreciated. To my younger, post-modern friends Christy Crabtree and Lindy Rosal, thank you for sharing your twenty-something thoughts with me. And for the brainstorming session at Panera Bread with Audra Fruge and Dawn Willis, that was great! THANK YOU ALL — YOU’RE THE BEST! To Melinda Hemphill and Tracy Hathaway who copy-edited and formatted the study, thank you. To Maria Currey, thank you for your continual encouragement. Lastly, I want to say thank you to my wonderful husband Tim, whose wisdom is threaded throughout this entire study. Without his support, I could not have even be- gun to pen this offering to God. You are my book end! With Much Gratitude to All, Ronda 4 • Extreme Makeover — Heart Edition Handbook Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition is a Look, Learn and Live Bi- ble study that focuses on changing ourselves from the inside out. Just as making a small change to a room can bring about big benefits to our homes, making small changes in our hearts can bring about big benefits to our lives. This study will wake us up to discover the abundant life Jesus came to give us. Through the Look, Learn and Live series, I hope to give you a fresh understanding of Scripture that will allow God to trans- form your life. This study will present information to you in much the same way Jesus presented information to the people of His time. Je- sus often spoke in parables and stories that connected His eve- ryday physical world with the spiritual world. He often used terms and expressions that people could understand so they could make these connections for themselves. Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition uses the same technique. You’ll find terms and expressions throughout this study that are familiar to our culture that will help us make the connec- tion between our physical world and our spiritual world. This study will also build a bridge that spans the present into the future by teaching us how to live out those connections in new situations. Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition will teach you by involving you in the learning process. Since we learn best by doing, you will be actively engaged in the various tasks and activities that are included in each lesson. During the course of each lesson you will gain • Cultural and spiritual relevance of the topic • Skills for applying the topic to your situation • Skills for applying the topic to new and different situations Handbook Extreme Makeover — Heart Edition • 5 The Look, Learn and Live Bible study consists of seven main segments: Each lesson will begin with a Waking Up segment. This seg- ment will involve an activity that will prepare you for the les- son to follow. For some lessons, there will be an activity for you to do at home. For others, the Waking Up activity will be done in class. Your leader will give you directions as to how to com- plete the activity if it is to be done in class. Follow the direc- tions that are included in each Waking Up section before mov- ing onto the Look section. The Look segment will introduce you to the topic we will study each week and invite you to clarify where you are, at present, in terms of the new topic; where you will begin your study; and what your present perception of the topic includes. In order to establish relevancy to your own life, questions will be asked af- ter the Look segment that will allow you to personalize this information. In the Learn segment, you will discover, through private study, what the Bible says about the lesson topic. In the Learn segment, you will be invited to grapple with new content by meeting it head on. You will have the opportunity to work over, struggle with, contest and actually recreate it to fit your world. My goal as an author is not to just give you a lot of new infor- mation but to intentionally guide you into self-discovery and to recognize the relevance of Scripture to your own unique situa- tion. Here you will learn how to make the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds in which we live. After learning how the topic fits into your present world, the Live segment will invite you to apply what you have learned to new and different situations. This segment will facilitate the integration of the topic into new and different situations through the use of projection and imagination. 6 • Extreme Makeover — Heart Edition Handbook In this segment you will be faced with the following questions: How will I apply this new information to my life? How might I experience a makeover that will enable me to have the abun- dant life God makes available to us through Scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit? This section will present material that will help you to wrap up what you have discovered and learned previously in the lesson. I encourage you to use this section for reflection by basically asking yourself two questions: 1. What is the most important concept I learned in this lesson? 2. How can I apply this concept to my life? Case Study — The Life With Others segment will always present a case study. This is to be completed during class time in a small group. The case study will be about military women who face similar struggles as you do. At the end of the case study, you will be asked several questions. These ques- tions will require that you recall what you learned in the lesson and to imagine what integrating the new content into the lives of the person in the case study would look like. As you learn how to integrate the new content into their lives, you will learn how to integrate it into yours. The Trend Talk activity is an optional activity for those who would like to take their learning a step further. This segment will provide an optional activity that can be done outside the classroom at any time during the week. These activities can be done individually, however, as we journey through our lessons, we will begin to develop close relationships with those who are in our class. Not only will God use class time to form authentic relationships, He will also use time we spend together outside of the classroom. Completing these activities in pairs or in small groups will add more fun to the activity. Upon returning to the next class, you’ll have an opportunity to share with the others what you experienced, if you completed the Trend Talk activity.