Godly Discipline

What do you think of when you hear the word, “discipline”? Some people read it with a negative connotation. Others read it with a positive connotation. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as, “the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience“. Discipline has it’s roots in Latin and is defined as, “instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge“. Used as a verb, it means, “to correct, chastise, punish“. Based on the definition and etymology of the word, discipline is portrayed as positive. It is necessary. God deals with the subject of discipline all throughout His Holy Word. In this article, we are going to focus on one passage, Hebrews 12.

Cancel Culture: Not a new phenomenon

I am preparing to study the Word of God tonight with our middle school kids at AWANA. Our lesson is about transformation. These kids have been studying the book of Acts this school year and their passage tonight is Acts 9:19-31. Saul encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ and it transformed his life. He even demonstrated that transformation by changing his name from Saul to Paul. We know him today as the Apostle Paul. Before encountering the resurrected Jesus Christ, Saul was a murderer. He hated Christians and persecuted them in every way possible. From this moment on, Paul preaches the Jesus he once opposed. This proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ leads us to our examination of Cancel Culture. It is not a modern phenomenon. It has been around as long as sin has been around.

Confrontation and Repentance

In a couple of weeks, our children’s Sunday School classes are going to host a rally to celebrate the fifth Sunday of this month. On fifth Sundays at our church, our adult Sunday School classes all meet up in the sanctuary for a Fifth Sunday Rally. We encourage and challenge all of the classes to reach out to the community before the next fifth Sunday and do some kind of ministry that draws in new people. We discover some creative ideas as each class shares an experience. We are going to launch the same plan among our children. After our Bible lesson, the kids are going to break up into small groups and stuff Trunk or Treat bags with information about our church and Gospel tracts. These bags will be used during our major outreach on October 31. I am so excited to see the children serve in their own capacity. Before we do the service project, we are going to study II Corinthians 7:8-12. I want to share that message with you here in this article.

The Beauty of the Word of God

This Sunday completes our first unit in our new quarter of curriculum for our Connect Groups. This unit is about how the Lord teaches us His ways through His Word. The depth and wisdom of the Word of God has not end. No matter how deeply we dig into the Word of God, we will never reach the bottom. There is no such thing as “enough Bible study” or “too much Bible study“. Our focus this week is the beauty of the Word of God. I cannot wait to teach this lesson.

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.

God, Morality, and Judgment

I am excited to prepare a Bible study for our high school kids this week during our AWANA meeting. We are coming off of Christmas break plus one week due to Covid and I am excited to be able to spend some time with the teens. They are such a good group of kids. I love their passion to learn. As we study, they always have tons of questions and during each study session, we discover answers to those questions. Some of our previous lessons were on such subjects as:

Fulfill your ministry

A couple of nights ago, we finished up our Second Timothy Bible study that we began in the Fall. I love studying the Apostle Paul’s second epistle to his protege, Timothy. I learn something new every single time I open up this epistle and study it. I have written many articles on this epistle.

Advent Sunday 3

I have really enjoyed this journey through the Sundays of Advent. I wrote the first article on the First Sunday of Advent and you can read it here. The previous Advent article was on the Second Sunday of Advent and you can read it here. I have learned a lot about the traditions of advent. I have thoroughly enjoyed walking through the Scriptures that point to the First and Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

Rescued to Worship

At Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we are on our second round of walking through the entire Bible, cover to cover, over the next three years. During our last meeting, we took a look at the calling that God placed on Moses’ life. Moses answered God’s great calling. God was in the process of preparing a spiritual leader to guide the children of Israel out of bondage and into the Promised Land. God has heard the cries of the children of Israel over the years. He has not forgotten them. He is about to move in a way that would change the course of human history. That is what we are going to take a look at this week.

Advent Sunday 2

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of advent. I wrote an article about the first Sunday of advent and you can read it here. Since I wrote about the first Sunday of advent last week, I decided to write about the second Sunday of advent here. As we consider the second Sunday of advent, we will focus mainly on four Biblical texts.