The Beauty of the Word of God

This Sunday completes our first unit in our new quarter of curriculum for our Connect Groups. This unit is about how the Lord teaches us His ways through His Word. The depth and wisdom of the Word of God has not end. No matter how deeply we dig into the Word of God, we will never reach the bottom. There is no such thing as “enough Bible study” or “too much Bible study“. Our focus this week is the beauty of the Word of God. I cannot wait to teach this lesson.

Fulfill your ministry

A couple of nights ago, we finished up our Second Timothy Bible study that we began in the Fall. I love studying the Apostle Paul’s second epistle to his protege, Timothy. I learn something new every single time I open up this epistle and study it. I have written many articles on this epistle.

Difficult Days are here

I was encouraged by our lesson on the Apostle Paul’s second epistle to his best disciple, Timothy. It was a sobering lesson because of the nature of it. I believe that it is a necessary lesson for our modern world. Our time was spent studying chapter three of the epistle. Chapter three has a shocking beginning.

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.

The POWER of the Word of God

Last night I had the privilege of teaching the Apostle Paul’s second epistle to his beloved disciple, Timothy. The lesson was based on chapter two. The previous lesson was also based on chapter two on the importance of entrusting the Word of God to faithful people. Second Timothy is a treatise on discipleship. According to Paul in his famous epistle to the Romans, he declared:

Entrust the Gospel to faithful people

Last night, I had the privilege of studying the second chapter of the Apostle Paul’s second epistle to his beloved disciple, Timothy. The previous lesson was from chapter one and the theme was about retaining the standard of the Gospel. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are challenged to reach out to others and help them up to the standard of the Gospel. We live in a society that encourages us to lower the standard to the lowest common denominator. This is a disastrous ideology because it kills incentive. Instead, we are to attain the standard of the Gospel and give a hand up to others so that they can attain the standard as well. In this lesson, we are going to discover the secret to entrusting the Gospel to faithful people who will also retain the standard of the Gospel as they teach others to do the same. Here is just a quick testimony from one of the students who attended last night’s lesson.

Retain the Standard

My wife and I are teaching a Bible study on Saint Paul’s second epistle (letter) to his beloved disciple, Timothy. This is Paul’s final letter. He has served the Lord faithfully for many years. He has made many disciples and seen many new churches planted. He has run his race and he is finishing well. Not all of his disciples were faithful to the high calling of following Jesus Christ. Many had turned away from Paul in some of his most difficult times. Timothy, on the other hand, has stood beside his mentor faithfully. The entire epistle teaches followers of Christ how to guard the treasure of the Gospel. Chapter one teaches that part of guarding the treasure of the Gospel is maintaining the standard of the Gospel. We live in an age where we are constantly told to lower the bar to the lowest common denominator. We see this in our public schools with the no child left behind policy.

Does God forbid women from teaching men?

I have been reading a lot of bad interpretations of I Timothy 2 lately and just wanted to clarify some things. I have written on this subject before and encourage you to read more about it here.

A pastor’s calling

As I prepare for our teacher training meeting with our Sunday School teachers this Sunday, I was impressed by the depth and clarity of the lesson that we are going to study and then teach to our classes. This lesson is about the calling of a pastor and the results of a pastor living out his calling. In a specific sense, this lesson is for shepherds. All followers of Jesus Christ have been called to be leaders because we have all been given the Great Commission to “make disciples” of all the nations. Having made the above statement, I would like to clarify the fact that not everyone is a shepherd. God calls and appoints shepherds/pastors in the church to teach/lead/equip the members to make disciples. So, this lesson is profitable for every single person who calls himself or herself a follower of Jesus Christ (Christian, disciple etc.), even though these commands are given specifically to pastors, the pastor is going to use these commands to equip every man, woman, and child in the church to be discipled and to make disciples. Our previous Sunday School lesson was about Agape Love in Action.

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ

We are getting ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the moment when God became man and stepped into human history. The theological term used is “incarnation”. God became flesh. He became like His creation. God came to His creation to be a servant. Jesus Christ came in the flesh to set an example to follow. In order to follow His example, we have to surrender the leadership of our lives over to Him. This is the lesson that the Apostle Paul worked really hard to teach the church in Philippi. In order to understand this concept, we are going to turn to Philippians 2.

In verse five of chapter two, Paul commands the Philippians to have the same mind/attitude that Jesus Christ had while He walked this earth. Let’s find out what that attitude was and see the manifestation of that mind in the daily life of a follower of Jesus Christ.