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.

Naturalism is vanity

This coming Wednesday evening, I have the privilege of teaching our high school kids during AWANA at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. I get to meet with the Journey kids about once a month and study the Bible. The last time that we met, we studied a lesson on Apologetics. The Apostle Peter encourages us in his first epistle to be ready at all times to make a defense of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. I was greatly encouraged to see how sharp these teens are when it comes to understanding the Scriptures and applying what they learn.

Wisdom Books of the Bible

I am meeting with our AWANA kiddos tonight to study the Word of God. I love that I get a chance to impact our future leaders on a weekly basis. They have a hunger for the Word of God and because of that hunger, we meet and study the Bible. We do not study about the Bible. We actually open up the Word of God and dig in to the Biblical text.

Solomon’s Prayer

At Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we are continuing to walk through the Bible, book by book, over a three year period. We are covering I Kings 8 this week. This is when King Solomon dedicates the Temple to the Lord. His prayer is a beautiful prayer and that is what we are going to study this week. As we observe this prayer, I want us to keep in mind the outline of the Lord’s Prayer. One version of the Lord’s Prayer is found in the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 6.

9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]

God’s mercy and grace produce genuine worship

Last week during our Connect Group at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we took a look at the contrast between King Saul and David. King Saul was a man who trusted in himself. The prophet Jeremiah teaches that a man who trusts in himself is like a bush planted in the desert on top of a rock that is covered in salt. The results are catastrophic. King Saul’s life was one disaster after another. The Lord allowed King Saul to rule for over 40 years as punishment to the children of Israel because they rebelled against the Lord and asked for a king so that they could be just like the pagans. David, the future King of Israel was a man who trusted in the Lord. The prophet Jeremiah also teaches that a man who trusts in the Lord is like tree planted next to the water, with roots that extend deep and tap into the underground water supply. Even when drought comes, the tree continues to produce fruit. David lived a fruitful life for the Lord. God allows us to choose our actions but, He has already announced the consequences of those actions.

Four things that keep us from experiencing genuine Christian community

If you have never studied the book of Ecclesiastes then I would encourage you to read it. When you do, you must be very careful not to miss the main point of the book. As a reader of any literature, you must use the rules of composition to help you understand the idea that the author wants to get across. If you do not use these rules, then you may miss the main point. Ecclesiastes is not a book that you just want to read. It is a book that you need to study so that you can understand what King Solomon wanted to get across.