Only God can forgive sins

As I sit and prepare our Connect Group lesson for this coming Sunday, I’m simply amazed at how clear the Word of God is! The more I studied, the clearer things become. This week, we are going to study Luke 5. Our main passage is verses seventeen through twenty-six. In the first eleven verses, Jesus teaches by the seashore. He calls Peter and his coworkers to follow Him and become His disciples. As He gives the calling, He performs a miracle. Peter and his coworkers are amazed and answer the call to follow Jesus. After this amazing moment, as Peter and his coworkers are following Jesus, another miracle takes place. Jesus heals a man suffering from leprosy. These events cause Jesus to become very popular and people want to hear Him teach. This is where we will pick up this week as we study.

Advent Sunday 4

The fourth Sunday of Advent has some great readings from the Scriptures. Each Sunday of Advent deals with Old and New Testament references to the First and Second Advent. I have really enjoyed writing about the first three Sundays of Advent and you can read those articles by clicking on the following links:

The Dangers of a Critical Spirit

I have the privilege tonight to meet up with our young teens during our AWANA program. I love meeting up with these kids and studying the Scriptures. I am very proud of them for all of the hard work that they put in memorizing Scripture. I wish I would have begun memorizing Scripture at that age. I am grateful to be part of the team that ministers to these young men and women. They are going to do great things for the Lord! This week, we are going to study and interesting passage of Scripture to learn the difference between serving others and criticizing others. It is very easy to criticize others. Stepping up and serving those in need is much more difficult. Many more people will sit around and criticize rather than help. Few step up, roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty, and help others. This is true in daily life outside the church. Unfortunately, it’s also true within the organization of the church. We are always going to be faced with the choice of criticizing or helping. I heard an old adage years ago that has stuck with me ever since.

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.

Evangelism and Equipping

I had the blessing last night of meeting with our middle schoolers during AWANA. We began studying the Gospel of Luke. This man named Luke is only mentioned by name three times in the Scriptures. The name Luke means “light-giving“. It comes from the Latin name “Lucanus“. Luke was a trained medical doctor. He would have received what we call a “classical” education. Dr. Luke was taught how to do research and to pay attention to the details. Dr. Luke put his research training and love of details to use and blessed all of humanity as a result. I will expound on that a little later on in this article. Before we jump into the Gospel of Luke, I would like to examine the final command that Jesus gave to His disciples before ascending into heaven.

The Road to Emmaus

Have you ever wondered what Jesus did during the 40 day period between the resurrection and His ascension? I had often wondered that until I studied Luke 24. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, He taught the Scriptures to any person who would listen. He invested the Scriptures into the lives of His disciples. Jesus submitted to the authority of the Word of God and that is why His teaching had power and authority, unlike the scribes and the Pharisees. Did you think that Jesus just went around making up His own teachings and teaching His own stuff off the cuff? I always thought that until I started really studying His life and His teachings. Here are a few brief examples:

Evidence of the Resurrection

Last Sunday during our Connect Groups at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we studied the crucifixion of Christ. This week, we are going to focus on the Resurrection of Christ. This is the most significant event in all of human history. Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins and offer forgiveness of sins to us. His resurrection from the dead is our sin nature’s death blow. But, in order to experience the power of the resurrection, we need faith. This lesson is about how the disciples see the evidence of the resurrection and believe. The same is true for us today.

Jesus on the Cross: Our Forgiveness made possible

Since March, here at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we have been studying the life and ministry of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. Every Sunday morning, we meet at 9AM in what we call “Connect Groups”. We connect with each other around the Word of God as we seek to connect with God through His Holy Word. Our church is using the Gospel Project produced by Lifeway. This project walks us through the entire Bible over a 3 year period. As we study, we are not simply seeking to gain information about Jesus. We seek to encounter Jesus and experience the transformation that only He can bring to a person’s life.

Do you value people over things?

I am working on my lesson for our Connect Groups that will meet this coming Sunday at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. As a church, we have been walking through the entire Bible over the previous two and a half years. I am so excited to see how all of the things that we have been learning are all coming together in the person of Jesus Christ. This week, our journey takes us to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12. What do you value in this life? What do you spend the majority of your time doing? What do you invest your time and energy into the most? For many humans, we invest our precious time and energy into acquiring wealth and possessions. In and of themselves, wealth and possessions are not a bad thing. Money is simply a tool in the hands of God that He uses to reveal our priorities. We all have a choice; we can use the precious gift of time to invest in temporary things, like wealth and possessions or, we can use the precious gift of time to invest in eternal things, like the souls of our fellow human beings. Jesus challenges us to pick one or the other because we cannot do both. In other words, we cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve wealth accumulation and God both at the same time. We will give lip service to one and really devote ourselves to the other. This is what Jesus addresses in Luke 12.

The Confession, Call, and Conviction of a Disciple of Christ

What unique summer we have had so far! Many of our church activities are on hold because of the Corona Virus. As a result, most of our small group Bible studies have transferred over to video chat. Studying the Bible with people face to face is such a blessing and, unfortunately, we are not able to do that right now. But, in spite of all the changes, we are still walking through the Gospel of Luke. Two and a half years ago, we began the journey of walking through the entire Bible, cover to cover. We are currently in the Gospels. Our focus has been the Gospel of Luke, although we have incorporated other Gospel passages as well. This week, we are going to focus on Luke 9. I want to share what we are learning with you here in this article.