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.

The power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

I’m so excited to prepare this lesson on the power of the Gospel for our upcoming Connect Group at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. As I write this article, I am in the process of recovering from Covid19. Praise the Lord that Jehovah Rapha, the Great Physician, is alive and well, no matter what we face in this life. I think that the lesson this week is fitting. I have experienced the power of the Gospel in my life over and over again, including this very week. Have you experienced the power of the Gospel in your life?

Receiving Spiritual Sight

As we continue to walk through the Bible, and specifically the New Testament, we are discovering that Jesus came to rescue us from our age old enemy, our sin nature. In the previous lesson, we discovered that Jesus leads us to faith to rescue us from our sin nature and that faith is manifested in our obedience. They go hand in hand.

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.

The Gospel: The Power of God

I had the honor of teaching our Journey Kids during AWANA last night at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. These are all high school students who are trying to figure out what life is all about. They have millions of voices via the internet and mass media pulling them in all different directions. Praise the Lord that they are involved in a weekly Bible study that helps ground them in reality. Last night, we began a study on the book of Romans. What an amazing book of the Bible!!! I would like to share some of the insights that we learned last night during our study time.

Mephibosheth and God’s Kindness

Over the past few weeks at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we have been looking at the life of David. The Bible teaches us that David was a man after God’s own heart. What are the characteristics of David that make him a man after God’s own heart? He had a teachable spirit and a servant’s heart. David experienced the grace of God and he wanted to extend that grace to the people around him. David lived for the glory of God. David was not a perfect man. He had a sin nature like all of us have. David made mistakes, like all of us do. David, as we will see in our next lesson, when confronted with his sins, was quick to confess and repent. He was the polar opposite of King Saul.

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

I will never leave you, nor forsake you

The title of this message comes from the Word of God.

“The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)

The author of the book of Hebrews uses this quote in his message about the sufficiency of Christ as the Redeemer of all mankind.

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,” (Hebrews 13:5)

Our Salvation in Christ

On Wednesday nights at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, my wife leads a small group Bible study on the Peter’s first epistle. Last night, we covered lesson two which was a chapter study on I Peter 1. In order to get caught up to speed on I Peter 1, I need to give you some context. Peter is writing to believers, people who have chosen to bow to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and follow Him for the rest of their lives. This decision to follow Christ has cost them everything. They are heavily persecuted for their faith, to the point where they are on the run, fleeing to new areas to escape. Peter tells us his reason for writing in I Peter 5:12:

The Lifestyle of a Child of God

It has been amazing teaching through the New Testament this quarter in our Sunday School classes. We started the year off with walking through the book of Acts. Since the beginning of this new quarter, we have been studying the epistles in the New Testament. God has much to teach His church in these epistles and we have learned a lot. Some of our previous lessons include: