I will never leave you, nor forsake you

The title of this message comes from the Word of God.

“The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)

The author of the book of Hebrews uses this quote in his message about the sufficiency of Christ as the Redeemer of all mankind.

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,” (Hebrews 13:5)

The purpose of Communion

I am getting ready to lead my weekly staff Bible study and I want to write out the lesson here, giving me an opportunity to think through what I want to teach. Currently, we are studying the Biblical Names of God. Our current Name for God is Jehovah-jireh. Today, I am taking a break to study the topic of the Lord’s Supper. I am afraid that there is much confusion in our church today on why we take communion and what its purpose is. I would like to clarify that from the Word of God. I do not want to share what I have been “taught”, think, feel, or believe. Instead, I want to examine the Scriptures to see what God actually teaches on the subject. There are many different misconceptions today because so few actually study the topic as described in the Word. They just hear others teach on the subject and take the second hand knowledge at face value. In order to better understand this topic, take a moment to read I Corinthians 11. I included the entire chapter because the context is very important. When teaching on the Lord’s Supper, many teachers just start with verse 23. We need to see the entire context to understand what the Apostle Paul had in mind when writing about communion.

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

Covenant Lesson 3: Exchanging the weapons and belt

I am preparing to teach the third lesson in our series on “covenant”. This is a crucial study for any follower of Jesus Christ. Once we understand the idea of covenant, we discover that God has His part and that we have our part to uphold, if we choose to enter into the New Covenant with God through Jesus Christ. Salvation is a free gift based on the grace of God. We receive salvation when we enter into the New Covenant. When we enter into the New Covenant, we agree to uphold our end of the bargain, or covenant, if you will. This lesson is going to focus on what our responsibilities are as covenant partners with Christ under the New Covenant. If you are just joining this series, here are some links to the previous lessons:

1. Covenant Lesson 1
2. Covenant Lesson 2

Covenant, Lesson 2: Exchanging the Old-self for the New-self

Well, it’s Monday once again and I am EXCITED because I have a small group Bible study that meets on Monday evenings. We are walking through the Precept Upon Precept course entitled “Covenant”. If I could only teach one study for the rest of my life, I would choose this one. It is so eye opening and the explanation of Christianity becomes so clear. The Old and New Testaments tie together beautifully. I get excited just thinking about it.

Last week we covered Lesson 1, learning that the idea of covenant originated with God. We also learned that there are two types of covenant, ones between God and man and ones between man and man. The covenants between man and man are always extremely conditional. The weaker comes to the stronger and sets the conditions. The benefactor is the one who sets the conditions, the weaker. The covenants between God and man are much different. In these covenants, the stronger comes to the weaker. The stronger sets the conditions for the benefit of the weaker. It only makes sense to enter into covenant with God. There are few conditions and many benefits. Yet, we tend to want to make agreements with people instead, even though there are many conditions and very few actual benefits. Many people do not want to enter into covenant with God because they do not know the Truth about who God is and what He wants.

Covenant Lesson 1

I am preparing to teach lesson 1 from the Precept Bible study entitled “Covenant“. This is one of my favorite Bible studies to teach and study with others. It is such an eye opening experience. We will discover how the three major covenants in the Bible, Abrahamic, Old, and New Covenants all fit together. By understanding the subject of covenant, the Old Testament comes alive in a way previously unseen. I am excited to begin this journey with these students and I want to share what I will be teaching here.

The seriousness of entering into covenant with God

In the last article we looked at Christian baptism, its importance, the process leading to baptism, and why it was instituted by God. In this article I would like to take a look at the connection between covenant and the Lord’s Supper (the Eucharist). By looking at these 2 Biblical elements, we will learn just how serious choosing to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior really is. Choosing to become a Christian is not like signing up for fire insurance to get out of hell if you find yourself there one day.