Mary’s Song of Praise

This week, I was preparing for our Connect Group lesson at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. We are walking through the Bible over a three year period and, after two years, we have finished the Old Testament and now we are going to begin the New Testament. Our study of the New Testament begins with the Gospels. We are going to focus on the Gospel of Luke. The lesson for this week does not focus on Mary’s song of praise, but, I want to write about it because it really moved me. Depending on the denomination, Christians generally have two views of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

People of faith vs. People of the flesh

I am preparing to teach my Connect Group this coming Sunday and wanted to share some of my insights with you here. We have been walking through the book of Genesis week by week. This lesson will cover parts of Genesis 25 and Genesis 26. As a class, we have been tracing the Promised Messiah from Genesis 3 all the way through the book of Genesis. We will follow this thread all throughout the Old Testament. This week’s lesson will focus on the two categories of people God places all of mankind in for life and eternity. Abraham’s son, Isaac, received God’s eternal calling from his father. Isaac has two sons, Esau, and Jacob. Even though they were both raised in the same family, one of the boys inherited the faith of his fathers while the other chose to live like on of his forefathers, Cain, and be mastered by his sin nature. This lesson will shed some light on what the Apostle Paul wrote in his epistle to the Roman church.

Genuine Faith removes Idols

As I have been spending time in the Word of God today, studying to learn more of who God is and what I am really like, I discovered an important Truth that I would like to share with you here in this article. I am preparing to teach this message on Wednesday to my staff. This school year, we are learning about Abraham as we teach these truths to the children at Treasure Trust Club. It is so neat to see the children begin to understand how to begin a real relationship with God, the way that Abraham did. It is also neat to see how we learn to walk with God the exact same way that Abraham did. This lesson covers the topic of faith and idols. I recently taught a lesson on faith and fear, about how they cannot coexist in the same place. One will drive out the other. The same is true with faith and idols. When they clash, one will drive out the other. In this article, we are going to examine Abraham’s faith and his battle with his sin nature. If we are ever going to have success in our battle with our sin nature, we must learn how to spot the idols in our lives because, these idols give power to our sin nature. Faith in Christ removes our sin nature’s power. Idols cause us to empower our sin nature that continues to dwell in us. Let’s take a look at Abraham’s example and see what we can learn about faith, idols, and the work of God in our lives. 

The Importance of OBEDIENCE

God’s Sovereignty and Man’s responsibility in salvation

Over the past couple of days, I have been debating with a brother in Christ who follows reformed theology. In common terms, he is a 5 point Calvinist. I have asked him, like I ask anyone with whom I debate, to take off theological glasses and view the Word of God as is, letting the Scriptures speak for themselves. I have written on the subject of “Predestination” and you can read it here.

In this article, I would like to explain, using the Scriptures, that God calls us to be reconciled with Him and in order to be reconciled, we must respond to God’s call by bowing our knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. When this happens, we are born again into the family of God.

Worship, Love, and Obedience

During our last lesson on Abraham, we learned how the same Gospel that we believe and preach today is the same Gospel that was preached to Abraham about 4,000 years ago. This week, we are going to focus on Abraham’s obedience in Genesis 22. Abraham has a test in Genesis 16 that he failed miserably because of his sin nature. He needed God to intervene so that he would be able to obey. God did intervene in Genesis 17 and changed Abraham from the inside out. In Genesis 22, God tests Abraham and in the midst of this test, we discover what Genuine Worship and True Love are. In fact, in this chapter, this is the fist time that the word “love” is used in the Bible. It is also the first time that “worship” is used in the Bible.

The Tower of Babel

For 2016, our church is teaching through the entire Bible, in all of our worship services and all of our Sunday School classes. I am so excited to teach the children through the Bible, learning that it is all about Jesus.

This week, our goal is to focus on Genesis 11, the story of the Tower of Babel. I have previously taught on Noah and the Great Flood. God’s solution for mankind’s sin problem is the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. The story of the Bible is God’s story to rescue mankind from his sin nature. The story of Noah and the Great Flood is a story of God rescuing people through covenant. It was a foreshadowing of the New Covenant, God’s ultimate form of rescue. This story is going to reveal man’s continued need to be rescued.

Covenant Lesson 6: the Oneness of Covenant

As we continue our study of Covenant, we have arrived to one of my favorite lessons, the lesson about the Oneness of covenant. In covenant, 2 become 1. This lesson will demonstrate what it means for 2 to become 1 in covenant. If you have been following this series, here is a quick review of what we have learned so far over the course of the past 6 weeks.

1. Covenant Lesson 1
2. Covenant Lesson 2
3. Covenant Lesson 3
4. Covenant Lesson 4
5. Covenant Lesson 5

Covenant Lesson 5: Passing between the pieces of flesh

I am preparing to teach the next lesson on Covenant to my Monday night Bible study. So far, we have covered 4 lessons from this great study, a study much needed in our modern churches. If you have not been following from the beginning, the previous 4 lessons are here:

1. Covenant Lesson 1
2. Covenant Lesson 2
3. Covenant Lesson 3
4. Covenant Lesson 4

Covenant Lesson 4: A solomn binding agreement

It is hard to believe that we are already 4 lessons into our study of the subject of covenant. The past 3 weeks have been a great time of fellowship around the Word of God. It has also been a very challenging time as the Word of God has examined our hearts and lives.

1. Covenant Lesson 1
2. Covenant Lesson 2
3. Covenant Lesson 3