The Gospel spreads to the Gentiles

Another week means another Sunday is coming and I get another opportunity to invest the message of the Gospel in the lives of my 2nd grade Sunday School class. I love these kiddos and it is neat to see how God is working in their lives through His Word and how He is using them to get the message of the Gospel out to their generation.

So far, we have learned the following lessons since the beginning of the new year.

• Peter and John testify about Jesus
• Why is a prophet without honor? 
• Persecution: The fuel that furthers the Gospel
• Paul’s Conversion
• Paul’s Mission to the Gentiles
• Paul in Thessalonica and Berea

This coming week, we are going to see how the Gentiles receive the Gospel in Acts 10. 

Reading and Understanding the Scriptures

I am teaching two classes over the next two Wednesday nights where we will cover the topic of how to study a Biblical passage inductively and then how to make a lesson plan and teach accordingly. I am super excited to be able to lead this. For our text, I have chosen Jude’s epistle because it is short yet very powerful.

In order to understand the Scriptures, they must be interpreted in the light of the original intent of the author, God.

20 But know this first of all, that no * prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,

21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (II Peter 1)

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.

New Series: Overcoming Fear L1

This past Saturday night, we began a new study with our youth group, Generation of Purity. Many people fear because we live during difficult times. Many do not know what the future holds and therefore, worry and fear. I chose to teach the 40 minute Bible study, Breaking free from fear, written by Kay Arthur. It is a great study of the people of the Bible and how they overcame fear. I want to write this article based on lesson 1 of the study.

The Holy Spirit has come, now what?

As I sit here and prepare for tomorrow’s sermon at Good News, I decided to write out what I want to share tomorrow. I have not had much time to prepare this week since I was in charge of the English Day camp. I spent the week teaching 17 children ages 8-12 the Word of God and English. Each day as I came home I would think of the joke about the old grandfather who decided he would do everything that his 5 year old grandson did for a day. They went to the park and played. They walked to the store to buy ice cream. They played hide and seek etc. By the end of the day little Johnny was tired and grandpa was dead. Praise the Lord for a good team of young, strong workers who helped me. I could not have done it without them.

Five Rock Solid Truths for daily living

There are many things that compete for our attention today, especially during this age of technology where all the information that you may need is at the stroke of a few keys. The problem is, this access is dangerous because many of the competing modern ideas contradict each other. Some of the ideas that are promoted can be very dangerous. In this age of information, we have many, many people who are confused about life and its purpose. Because of this confusion, the disease of the 2oth and 21st Centuries is depression. As a result, the world is full of people who are just drudging through life or, worse, people who end their days because they just cannot take the pain.

I would like to present 5 rock solid truths for every person who lives on this earth.

Fix your eyes upon the Lord

As you go through the daily activities of life, do you have your eyes (your heart, your focus, your perspective) fixed on the things of God or on the quickly fading things of this earth? What are you living for, to eat, drink, and be merry because you never know how much longer you have or are you living with eternity as your perspective setter? What do you spend the majority of your time focusing on, the things that are here today and gone tomorrow or the things that will last all throughout eternity. The things of this world are fading away so if you are focused on them, you and your perspective on eternity will fade away along with them.

How do you handle the difficulties of life?

Once a person gets “saved” everything does not turn to champagne and caviar. Life is still hard. In fact, life gets even harder once you start living for the Lord because now people will watch you more closely to see how you handle difficulties since you claim to trust God in all things.

How do you handle things once you get sick and suffer through tough times? How do you handle the sickness of a child? How do you react when you see injustice or if it happens to you? These are all very real situations. What about when good friends suffer because of their kids’ mistakes and hardheadedness, how do you respond? Your response is very important and like in anything in life, the better prepared you are the better you will do.