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.

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer, a beautiful tradition that began in our country when President Harry S. Truman proclaimed a National Day of Prayer to be observed on July 4, 1952. Each year since that date, Americans have observed the day in their own way. The observance moved to the first Thursday in May by President Ronald Reagan and has been proclaimed each year since.

Battlefield of the Mind

I am preparing a sermon that I will soon preach at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. I’m actually going to have a trial run today with some teens at our home school Co-Op at our church. We are all engaged in a daily battle over what occupies our thoughts because whatever occupies our thoughts will determine our actions. To whom do you surrender? That is an important question because the answer to that question will determine whom you worship. We were all created to worship God but, if we do not worship God, we will worship something or someone else.

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.

Jesus heals blind Bartimaeus

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending our church’s ministry to one of our local public elementary schools. The ministry is called, “Good News Club“. We meet weekly with over 20 elementary students and study the eternal Word of God. Over the past 4 weeks, we have been learning about the miracles performed by Jesus, recorded in the Gospel of John. We have learned about how Jesus turned water into wine and the reason behind it. We learned about Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus and the miracle of being born again. Then we covered Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well and how He forgave her sins. After that, we learned how Jesus healed the royal official’s son and transformed an entire family. Finally, yesterday, we covered Jesus’ encounter with blind Bartimaeus. The story of blind Bartimaeus is not found in the Gospel of John. The Gospel writer Mark mentions this encounter in Mark 10. Chapter 10 in the Gospel of Mark is all about faith. The word “faith” means being convinced of the Truth of reality based on the Word of God. A synonym for faith is “trust“. Another word that could be used for faith is, “surrender“. Faith literally means trusting the Word of God and surrendering to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In the Gospel of John, the author informs us of why Jesus performed all of these miracles.

God Promises to Restore His People

It’s already 2023! Can you believe it? It is hard for me to believe. I am excited about our Connect Group lesson this coming Sunday at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. This past Sunday, we looked at the book of Ezra and discovered how one person can change an entire society of a generation. Daniel was that one person. The pagan King Cyrus was another person who caused an entire society to be transformed. Daniel brought the scroll of Jeremiah to Babylon and he shared that book of the Bible with King Cyrus. That pagan king was moved by the Word of God. He surrendered to God and used his position in society to serve the Lord. King Cyrus set two major things in motion that changed an entire generation of Jews. He set an example of obedience to the Lord that the Jews followed. Cyrus read the Word and decided to submit to the Lord in obedience. The Jews also began to read the Word of God again and obey. They traveled back to Israel, a trip funded by King Cyrus, and rebuilt the Temple, also funded by King Cyrus.

The Word of God transforms a family

Today, our church will head to a local elementary school to impart the Holy Word of God with public school children. We have a “Good News Club” that meets weekly. We are studying the miracles of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Each week, we focus on a different miracle performed by Jesus to learn why He performed the miracle and what the results were. In our first meeting, we studied the miracle of turning the water into wine at the wedding of Cana of Galilee. During the first lesson, we began to memorize John 3:16. The key to this verse is “faith“. In fact, the Gospel writer John, explains why Jesus performed His miracles and why he (John) chose to compile them in his Gospel.

Jesus’ first miracle

On Tuesday of this past week, we began our Good News Club at one of our local elementary schools. What a great opportunity to share the message of the Gospel in our community! Our children are being bombarded daily with all kinds of ungodliness and as Christ followers, we have a sacred calling to take the life changing message of the Gospel to these kids. I take this calling seriously and I pray that you do as well. Along with a group of volunteers from our church, Southern Calvert Baptist Church, I had the privilege of teaching Christ to over 20 children. I want to share the lesson with you here in this article.

God’s Promises for Difficult Days

I have spent most of the past two days studying the Prophet Jeremiah’s thirtieth chapter. What a passage to consider! This coming Sunday at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we are going to dive deep down into Jeremiah 30. I cannot wait. I want to share what I learned with you here in this article. I cannot believe we are about to enter the month of December. The year 2022 has one more month and then it is gone. In some ways, we are still trying to process 2020. The world has changed greatly over the past 3 years. We truly are living during difficult days. What are you doing to cope with these difficult days? Many have turned to idols, seeking satisfaction in things like drugs and alcohol. Others have turned to hedonism. None of that is working and it never will. What did the children of Israel do when facing difficult days in their history? They have the secret to success and we are going to learn that here in this chapter of the Bible.