True, Biblical Friendship

What comes to mind when you hear the word, “friendship“? We all have images that come to mind, based on our life experiences. What about Biblical friendship, what does that look like? I want to answer that in this article. I am teaching this lesson tonight at Southern Calvert Baptist Church during our AWANA program. I get to work with the high school students tonight. We are going to dig in to this subject and I wanted to think through it with you here before teaching tonight. According to the etymology of this word, “friendship” means the quality of being attached to another for the good of that person. We tend to think of friendship as being a relationship with another person who makes me happy. The original intent of the word is a relationship for the benefit of the other person. Isn’t it interesting how words and concept change over time? The original intent of friendship is closely related to the Biblical description of friendship. Let’s dive in and see what we can discover.

God is sovereign over persecution

What do you think of when you hear the word “persecution“? If you are like I am, you probably have a negative feeling when you read the word persecution. I know that I do. I do not want to face persecution and I am sure that you do not either. As we examine Acts 12, I want us to view persecution from God’s perspective. Once we do this, I think we will have a different opinion of the idea of persecution. I know that sounds strange. I feel strange just writing it.

As a church, we have been walking through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation over a 3 year period. It has been quite a journey! We have traced God’s perfect plan of salvation for all mankind all the way through the Scriptures. We are currently in the book of Acts. We have seen the birth of the church and we have walked with the members of the early church as the ministry has grown. Persecution was a way of life for the early church. They did not seek out persecution, they simply lived out their faith, proclaimed the Gospel, and made disciples.

Be a good steward of the grace of God!

The year 2021 is here! Some of us are very excited. Others are very nervous. Whether things go back to normal or things continue to get stranger and stranger, as followers of Jesus Christ, our marching orders still remain the same. The grace of God has been manifested to us. Jesus is full of grace and He manifested grace to us when we took on human form and dwelled among us. If we are followers of Jesus Christ, not only has the grace of God been manifested to us, the grace of God has also been entrusted to us. Our job is to be a good steward of the manifold grace of God. How do we do that in a practical way? The Apostle Peter does a great job in his first epistle (letter) explaining this to us in a very practical way. I would like to dig down into I Peter 4:10-11.

Faith to walk on water

I am so excited to prepare this lesson for our Connect Groups at Southern Calvert Baptist Church because, we are officially meeting in person again on site at the church!!! Last week was our first official, in person meeting of our Connect Groups since March. For the past five and a half months, we have been meeting via video chat. Praise God for technology and the ability to continue to study the Word together but, there is nothing like an in person, face to face Bible study.

Jesus’ Call to Discipleship

Here are Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we are continuing our journey through the entire Bible over a three year period. Currently, we are in year three and we are studying the Gospel of Luke. We spent two years walking through the Old Testament tracing the promise of the coming Messiah and how God worked in human history to fulfill that promise. Almost two thousand years ago, several Jewish people who had spent their lives looking forward to the coming of the Messiah were blessed to be an integral part of the fulfilled Promise. These people all had several things in common. They were all good students of the Word of God. They had all surrendered to the will of God in their lives. In other words, they all had a relationship with God, based on the fact that they were looking forward to the coming Messiah to be their Savior.

We have THE WORD of God

I am preparing to teach during our AWANA program this evening and the theme for the night is the Word of God. The Bible is a unique book in human history. It is the very hear of God, communicated to us in a language that we can understand so that we can discover what God wants from us. Many people have asked throughout the ages, “what does God want from me”? Many others have tried to answer that question. The definitive answer is found in the pages of the Holy Bible. Parts of the Bible were written by different men over a 1,600 year period time. These people lived on different continents and came from vastly different cultures. Yet, the central message of the Bible is the same. Other parts of the Bible were written by God, Himself.

Jesus’ Trial

I have been teaching through the Gospel of Mark in an online Bible study that meets once a week. Mark has been racing through the stories to get to the cross. In Mark 15, we take a look at the trial of Christ. In a couple of the previous lessons, we covered:

• The Second Coming of Christ
• Peter’s Denial of Christ

Peter’s Denial of Christ

I have been teaching through the Gospel of Mark in a weekly Bible study with a group of men. We are now in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. Today’s lesson is on Peter’s denial of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the outlook is bleak for Christ and for Peter, there is a ray of hope in this section. The ray of hope is for Peter. As you read, remember, you are Peter and I am Peter. We all have the capability of acting like Peter. The good news is that there is still hope for you and for me. Our text is Mark 14:41-72.

The teachings of the Pharisees vs. The teachings of Christ

I am so excited about being able to teach this chapter of Scripture this coming Monday to my preschool teachers. We have already walked through 7 chapters of the Gospel of Mark. It has been life changing to experience the life and ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I just think that it is so neat for people who have been in church for most of their lives jump into the Gospel passages and study them inductively for the first time. If you know me, you know that I love to study and teach the Bible inductively. I believe it is the Biblical way. We see the idea of questions being asked by the teacher and students responding to those questions with the Biblical text. The best example is the Apostle Paul. In his epistles, he asks questions and then anticipates the answer, or, he gives the Biblical answer and then anticipates your next question based on the previous, Biblical answer. We also see this method used by him in Acts. The verb “to reason” from the Scriptures is used 10 different times in Acts. In order to understand this concept, we must understand the meaning of the verb “to reason” as used in the Biblical text. It means to converse in the form of question and answer. The teacher asks the questions and the students respond with answers from the text. This is not a lecture or a sermon. This is not an argument over the meaning of words and phrases. This is a form of inductive Bible study, a method that means “going into the text to find the answers”. This method places the speaker and the audience under the authority of the text. Now that we chased that little rabbit, let’s move our attention back to Mark 8 and see what we can discover. But, before we begin, if you have not been following the series, you can read the previous lessons here:

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.