Jesus’ first miracle

On Tuesday of this past week, we began our Good News Club at one of our local elementary schools. What a great opportunity to share the message of the Gospel in our community! Our children are being bombarded daily with all kinds of ungodliness and as Christ followers, we have a sacred calling to take the life changing message of the Gospel to these kids. I take this calling seriously and I pray that you do as well. Along with a group of volunteers from our church, Southern Calvert Baptist Church, I had the privilege of teaching Christ to over 20 children. I want to share the lesson with you here in this article.

God’s Promises for Difficult Days

I have spent most of the past two days studying the Prophet Jeremiah’s thirtieth chapter. What a passage to consider! This coming Sunday at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we are going to dive deep down into Jeremiah 30. I cannot wait. I want to share what I learned with you here in this article. I cannot believe we are about to enter the month of December. The year 2022 has one more month and then it is gone. In some ways, we are still trying to process 2020. The world has changed greatly over the past 3 years. We truly are living during difficult days. What are you doing to cope with these difficult days? Many have turned to idols, seeking satisfaction in things like drugs and alcohol. Others have turned to hedonism. None of that is working and it never will. What did the children of Israel do when facing difficult days in their history? They have the secret to success and we are going to learn that here in this chapter of the Bible.

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.

Jesus: Our Lord and Savior

I have the honor of meeting with our elementary aged kids this week during our AWANA program at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. The kids have been learning about Jesus over this past quarter. Tonight will be a review where we put several passages together and get a clear view of who Jesus is. Many people in the Western world grow up hearing something about Jesus. Some of what they hear comes from the Bible while other aspects come from popular culture. I have ministered to a tribe in Myanmar where the majority of the people had never heard the name Jesus.

Born again to holiness

I am so excited about this week’s lesson in our Connect Groups at Southern Calvert Baptist Church! In our three year journey through the Bible from cover to cover, we are finishing up Israel’s time in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land. This was a very difficult period in the history of Israel. The children of Israel were battling their sin nature just like we battle our sin nature every day of our lives. It is easy to look at them on the pages of the Old Testament and ask, “why were they like that“? Are we not the same today? I am excited about this lesson because we are going to talk about being born again. It’s a phrase that we do not use as often as we should in the Protestant world. We talk about getting “saved” but we do not mention what we are saved from, how we are saved, what it means to be saved in a literal sense. I think we try to keep it vague on purpose because when we get specific, we become accountable. When we use the phrase “born again” explanation is needed and that is a good thing. The Apostle Peter really liked the phrase “born again” and he used it often in his writings.

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.

Created for the glory of God

I am preparing our lesson for Connects Groups this week at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. Over the previous three years, our church walked through the entire Bible, cover to cover. Two weeks ago, we began the process again. Our first two lessons covered Genesis 1-2. In lesson two, we discovered that mankind was created in the image of God. This week, we are going to discover what it means to live for the glory of God. Many Bible teachers have taught many lessons over the years about the importance of each person living for the glory of God. Living for the glory of God sounds very pleasant, and it is, yet, if you think about it, what does that actually mean? Do average people understand what that means in a practical sense? How do we make this tangible? The answer is found in Psalm 96 as well as in II Corinthians 4. Let’s discover these truths together.

Our Great Creator God

It is hard to image that this time, three years ago, we began a journey of walking through the entire Bible. Last Sunday was the final lesson in that journey. This coming Sunday, we are going to start over and do it again. I am excited because every time I study the Bible, no matter how many times I have studied the passage, I always learn something new and applicable to my daily life.

We are returning to a familiar passage this coming Sunday, Genesis 1. If you have a Bible, open up Genesis 1 and let’s see what we can discover together.

Culture changing Gospel message

I have studied Acts 19 on several different occasions but this time the words seemed to jump off of the page. I’m preparing our Connect Group lesson plan for next Sunday as we continue walking through the New Testament on our 3 year journey through the entire Bible. It has been a journey and I cannot believe that this quarter will wrap up the trip. Along the way, many have confided in me that this is the first time that they have read through the entire Bible, cover to cover. I continue to meet more and more people with this testimony. That is one reason that I enjoy this Gospel Project approach to reading through the Scriptures.

Love, Faith, and Obedience go hand in hand

I am so excited to be able to meet with the high school students tonight during AWANA at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. It has been a few months since we have been able to meet. Tonight, we are going to study a few passages from the Apostle John’s first epistle. This epistle is known as the “love epistle“. John’s favorite subject is love. The interesting thing that John does is to tie love with faith and obedience. Do you ever think about love being synonymous with faith? Do you ever think about faith being synonymous with obedience?