Jesus: Our Lord and Savior

I have the honor of meeting with our elementary aged kids this week during our AWANA program at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. The kids have been learning about Jesus over this past quarter. Tonight will be a review where we put several passages together and get a clear view of who Jesus is. Many people in the Western world grow up hearing something about Jesus. Some of what they hear comes from the Bible while other aspects come from popular culture. I have ministered to a tribe in Myanmar where the majority of the people had never heard the name Jesus.

Love, Faith, and Obedience go hand in hand

I am so excited to be able to meet with the high school students tonight during AWANA at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. It has been a few months since we have been able to meet. Tonight, we are going to study a few passages from the Apostle John’s first epistle. This epistle is known as the “love epistle“. John’s favorite subject is love. The interesting thing that John does is to tie love with faith and obedience. Do you ever think about love being synonymous with faith? Do you ever think about faith being synonymous with obedience?

Embracing the Gospel in deceptive times

In the past few years, we have a new term in our vocabulary. You probably hear and read it daily. It is the phrase, “fake news“. It’s a new term but the idea behind it has been around since sin entered the world. The Apostle Paul had to confront fake news almost 2,000 years ago in his second epistle to the church in Corinth. This week, at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we are going to study II Corinthians 11 where we will discover how the Apostle Paul dealt with the fake news of his day. This lesson will give us much insight into how we can confront fake news today. People have always been easily deceived and our enemy, the Devil, loves to use fake news tactics to deceive us today, especially when it comes to spiritual teachings. As I mentioned earlier, fake news has been around forever. There is a pattern to fake news and we will discover that pattern as we examine Paul’s letter.

Searching for Peace, Faith, and Love?

What thoughts come to your mind when you hear or read the words peace, faith, and love? I am sure that if you asked 100 different people you would get 100 different answers. Most of us are searching for peace. All of us want to experience love. It’s human nature. Songs have been written about peace and love. Movies have been made about peace and love. Books and poems have been composed about peace and love. Everyone seems to be looking for these two things yet, so few seem to be able to find them. God knows that we are all searching for peace and love because He created us to be that way. That is why it is important to turn to the Word of God while we are on our quest for peace and love. In this article, I would like to focus on two chapters from the Gospel of John, chapters 20 and 21.

Forgiveness, Love, Service, and Salvation

I am getting ready to teach during our AWANA class tonight at church. The subject of our study is Luke 23. We are going to focus on the crucifixion of Christ and the fact that will suffering unjustly, Jesus was still ready to offer to His enemies:

1. Forgiveness
2. Love
3. Service
4. Salvation

Agape Love in Action

I spent most of yesterday and part of today preparing this lesson for Sunday School at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. Over the past couple of months, we have been learning spiritual truths from the New Testament Epistles. Here are some of those lessons:

• Our enduring identity in Christ (I Peter 2)
• Grow to maturity in your faith (I Corinthians)
• Justified by faith to be Sanctified by faith (Galatians 1)
• The daily impact of the resurrection (video: Romans 6)

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 Fruit of the Spirit is love

I am excited about this summer series that I am beginning to teach this Sunday during our children’s worship service called theROC. ROC stands for Reaching Others for Christ. Our kids are learning to know God through His Word, how to walk with God by faith, and how to share that faith with the people around them. It has been neat to see the way that the Word of God has changed the hearts and minds of these kids.

This summer, we are going to study the fruit of the Spirit. I love how fruit is singular. The fruit of the Spirit is love. The rest of the attributes mentioned after love are the characteristics of love. Our goal this summer is to study this fruit and its characteristics to learn what love looks like and how we can attain it and live by it. Our main passage for the summer is Galatians 5:19-23. Now that you have had a chance to read the passage, let’s see what we learn.