The Scriptures lead us to Christ

I am excited to spend some time this evening with our T&T kids during AWANA. They have been learning about the importance of the Word of God. Tonight, we are going to focus on how the Scriptures lead us to faith in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul explains the vital role of the Scriptures when it comes to placing our faith in Jesus Christ.

14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
15 and that from childhood you have known the Sacred Writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (II Timothy 3)

The Sacred Writings is a reference to the Holy Scriptures. Timothy’s mother and grandmother taught him the Scriptures from his early childhood. The Scriptures opened Timothy’s mind and led him to place his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. This echos something very similar that Jesus told the Pharisees.

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?

Patriotism and the Gospel

Did the title get your attention? I hope that it did. I have recently seen a lot of information coming from pastors, good God-fearing men, who claim that the idea of patriotism is not Biblical. Do you agree with that statement? I sure don’t because I see the exact opposite taught in the Scriptures.

Christ’s Crucifixion Prophesied

I am teaching through the book of Mark and we have arrived at the crucifixion of Christ. We are going to look at Psalm 22, a psalm written 1,000 years before Christ, and about 500 years before the act of crucifixion was known in the Middle East. In other words, the psalmist is written about a torturous device that he knew nothing about.

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)

Pharaoh’s response to God’s Great Calling

In the last article, we looked at Moses’ response to God’s Great Calling. He heard the calling and entered into a personal relationship with God. Then, Moses was taught by God, what he should say, to whom, and why. Moses had the privilege of joining in on God’s plan for the ages; he called people who were enslaved and oppressed to enter into a personal relationship with God and begin to worship and serve Him. This Creator God will set them free from their slavery and oppression so that they can have a relationship with Him seen through their worship and service. Moses’ sin nature caused him to be afraid and make excuses but, God taught him how to overcome his fear. God also taught Moses the importance of being part of a team. In this lesson, we are going to focus on a different reaction to God’s Great Calling. This lesson’s subject is Pharaoh. He has an opportunity to interact with the God of the universe, just as Moses did, yet, his response is far different from the response that Moses manifested. Our text for this lesson is Exodus 7. Take a moment to read the passage in its entirety and then we can discuss.

Striving to live a disciplined life

It has been a lot of fun teaching through II Thessalonians. I have taught this book many times and, each time I teach through it, I learn new things about God and new things about myself.

If you have been following this series, you are aware of the previous lessons and what they teach. If you have not been following the series, take a moment to play a little catch up by reading the following articles.

1. The importance of communication
2. Genuine faith endures persecution
3. Concerning the Day of the Lord
4. The Church and the Day of the Lord 
5. Praying for your disciples

The previous lesson focused on prayer, specifically, praying for your disciples, that they would grow in their knowledge of the Word of God, that they would grow in their faith, that they would grow in their love, and that they would continue making more disciples. 

How insistent should I be when calling people to repentance?

This is an article written by my good friend and brother in Christ, Alexei Tentiuc. It was originally written in Romanian and I have translated it into English so that you may be just as blessed by it as I was.

Question:

How insistent should I be in calling people to repent in order to accept Christ as Lord and Savior?

The Importance of OBEDIENCE

Free to serve, not to sin

I am preaching at our church in a couple of weeks and I want to share the message here in article form so that I can think through the message, and maybe even get some feedback to tweak it before I share it with our church. If you have ever heard a Christian share his or her personal testimony then you have probably heard the phrase “I was set free” or “I have been set free”. Freedom has a broad context when it comes to the Christian walk. One way that we are set free is from our slavery to sin. We no longer have to obey our sin nature. Another way that we are set free is from the dead works of religion that hinder us from drawing closer to God instead of helping us get closer to Him. Both are crucial.