This is our pastor’s next article for the Stone County Gazette, partly in response to the recent shootings in Aurora, Colorado. “If God was such a loving God, how could He allow…” You fill in the blank or the perpetrated evil. Such a question presumes that God should run the universe according to our […]
3 John
July 24, 2012 by
Author: The Apostle John The nearly identical style, structure, and length of 3 John to 2 John, and closely related material to 1 John, shows them to have the same author. Date: 90-95 AD Purpose: To encourage Gaius, to expose Diotrephes, and to recommend Demetrius to Gaius. Read 3 John 1:1 – What meaning […]
Mary Magdalene
July 22, 2012 by
The Christian Faith operates from a worldview that we honor the saints of old. You can’t read through any significant part of the Bible without hearing the refrain, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” To know their God means you need to know those Old Testament saints and their stories. The great faith chapter […]
Revelation, Lesson 6: Heavenly Worship, Part 1
July 19, 2012 by
Chapters 4-5: Heavenly Worship, Part 1 We now find the Spirit giving John a glimpse of heavenly worship. The “things that are,” which he sees, include many worship scenes. John sees the throne room, depicting a reality that is both present and eternal. He sees an array of heavenly beings (angels) and saints worshiping the […]
2nd John
July 18, 2012 by
Author: the Apostle John Date: 90-95 AD Read 2 John 1:1-3 – What does the term “elder” mean in this context? “Elect Lady” John uses the term “elect lady” to refer to a local congregation. We see this further affirmed by a greeting from a sister community in verse 13. What we should take […]
St. Mary Magdalene, July 22nd
July 17, 2012 by
Whenever the New Testament Gospels name the women who followed Jesus, St. Mary Magdalene is listed first (John 19:25 is the only exception), perhaps because she was the first to see the risen Savior alive. Luke 8:2 reports that Jesus had cured her of being possessed by seven demons. Through the centuries, she has often […]
Revelation, Lesson 5: Chapters 2-3
July 16, 2012 by
Chapters 2-3: The Seven Churches Now seeming to revel in the number 7, Jesus gives John a short letter to deliver to the “angel” of each of the seven congregations. But more than that, we have the seven letters organized into a seven-part pattern. This is seven on top of seven. As we learned earlier, […]
Ephesians 1:3-14: Predestination
July 15, 2012 by
Today, we hear about a difficult truth in Scripture: Predestination. Predestination is God choosing someone for salvation, even before He created the world. At first blush, that’s sound crazy, doesn’t it? And so, to learn God’s truths about predestination, we must bind our human reason and let God’s divine Word shape our understanding. For if […]
1 John, Lesson 4: Conclusion
July 3, 2012 by
Eternal Life, Prayer, and Sin Read 1 John 4:13 – Who has eternal life? – What does believing in the name of the Son of God mean? Read 1 John 5:14-15 In 1 John 5:13-15, John moves from the greater to the lesser. If God has given us eternal life in Christ, then […]
2 Samuel 12:11-25: Prayer as the First Resort
July 1, 2012 by
You’re forgiven. So, now what; what do you do now? That’ worth asking, for the Christian life doesn’t end with forgiveness. That’s where it begins. So, what do you do now? And so we ponder our Old Testament reading. But that reading begins where we usually end the story of King David and Bathsheba. Earlier, […]
