Focal Passage: Acts 6:3-17

Bold faith always advances the kingdom of God. In fact, if the truism is true – “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” then Stephen planted by this death (Acts 7) what would be watered by the boldness of his fellow believers as the early church exploded with growth and spiritual power.

We discover Stephen in Acts 6 as the church attempted to solve the problem of how to minister to a growing number of widows who were coming the faith in Christ. Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid did not exist in the first century. Widows depended on their families and other concerned friends.  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Matthew 3:1-12 

John the Baptist could not have been a member of a local Baptist church. He was too blunt. Too abrasive. Too honest. This is not to say that our churches do not have members who are plenty blunt, abrasive and honest. It is to say that John “the baptizer” was of a different kind when it came to speaking truth. But God wanted it that way. God appointed John to bridge the gap between the Old Testament prophets (prophesiers of truth) and the Messiah, Jesus Christ (the fulfillment of truth as THE truth). 

Matthew 3:1-12 introduces us to John and the kind of God-enabled bold faith he possessed. While we may not mimic John’s prophetic “style” (you are not John the Baptist), we are called to mimic the kind of faith he displayed in serving and honoring Jesus Christ.  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: I Samuel 17:3-8, 32-37, 45-47 

The story of David and Goliath is not first and foremost a story of “how we face the giants in our lives,” although it does have practical implications for overcoming the challenges of life. It is, however, the story of how the God of the Israelites – our great Triune God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – is once again challenged by the despotic, arrogant powers of this world. 

The challenge of worldly powers against the rightful place of God as THE sovereign is as old as creation and as recent as today. It is an epoch struggle between light and dark, good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness – “against forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:10-13) It is a continual battle that takes different forms in different seasons and epochs. IT’S WAR.  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Joshua 2:1-4a, 8-14; 6:22-25

It is wrong to lie (Exodus 20:16; Colossians 3:9), or is it (Exodus 1:15-21; Joshua 2)? The life and faith of Rahab tests this question. Some would say that lying is permissible in a variety of very specific and unusual cases. It might better be called discretion. For example:

We lie to protect feelings:  “I loved your solo,” when it was terrible.

We lie to protect others (called an altruistic deception): “No,” you tell the Nazi soldiers, “we’re not hiding any Jews in our house.” Corrie ten Boom used this ‘protecting lie’ to hide and smuggle to freedom many Jews in WWII. [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Joshua 1:1-9; 16-18

We often think that the stability of God’s work and Word rests on certain people in the Church. As a pastor, I have often said, “If brother so and so goes on to glory or leaves the Church what will we do?” To a degree, the work of the Lord does depend on good and godly people. Thank God for faithful believers. 

But when Joshua took the reins of leadership after the death of Moses, God had to repeat to Joshua this massive true: “Moses my servant is dead?” Why did God remind him of what he already knew, even though Joshua had been, if you will, a pall-bearer at Moses’ funeral (Deuteronomy 34)?  [Read more…]

The taproot of righteous living for God is a righteous standing before God. Noah possessed both. He found favor with God that gave him a righteous standing before God that enabled him to live faithfully in ways that pleased God. Noah’s faith in God produced a very large boat on dry ground for the saving of his family and a new start for humanity. 

Genesis 6:5-9: A right relationship with God produces a living faith 

Genesis 6:5-9 compares the unrighteousness of the world and the fact that Noah found favor with God. Amid an unrighteous world, Noah trusted God and it was counted as righteousness. What kind of faith did Noah possess that found favor with God?  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: II Kings 6:8-12, 15-24

This is the final lesson in the series Elisha: Seeing the Hand of God at Work. And what an exciting series it’s been! The prophet Elisha’s story often parallels our Lord Jesus Christ’s. Elisha and Jesus both did hard work in their early years. Both had similar forerunners — Elijah and John the Baptist were ‘men of the wild.’ The school of the prophets led by Elisha was somewhat like Christ’s chosen apostles. Both Elisha and the Lord Jesus dealt with kings; both performed many (some very similar) miracles; both helped women struggling with life issues. The words of both were prophetic and powerful. Both were mocked. And the graves of both the crucified Jesus and the dead Elisha included a restoration to life! (Read II Kings 13:20-21.)  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: II Kings 5:1-3; 10-19a 

Today’s lesson, God’s Hand in Restoring Lives, could also be called The Gospel According to Elisha. Remember that the prophet Elisha is often referred to as a “type” of Christ: many events in Elisha’s life are similar to events in our Lord’s life. But none paint any clearer picture of the Gospel than our focal passage, 

II Kings 5:1-3; 10-19a. It’s from the story of Naaman the leper and his restorative encounter with Elisha. Three characters that are in nearly every Gospel encounter emerge in our text: the sinner, the soul-winner, and the Savior.  [Read more…]

Note: For most of our readers this lesson is for May 11, Mother’s Day. It’s appropriate to be focusing on the prophet Elisha’s encounters with one of the most courageous and faith-filled MOTHERS in the Bible. 

Focal Passage: II Kings 4:8-17, 32-37

From the series Elisha: Seeing the Hand of God at Work, this week’s lesson is entitled “God’s Hand in Meeting Other’s Needs.” 

Our focal passage, 2 Kings 4:8-17; 32-37, reveals two ways God’s hand works in meeting other’s needs:  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: II Kings 4:1-7 

Many Bible students see the prophet Elisha as a “type” of Christ — a person in the Old Testament who behaves in a way that corresponds to Jesus’ character and/or actions in the New Testament. One scholar identifies sixteen ways Elisha is a type of Christ! 

Today’s focal passage, II Kings 4:1-7, details two of them: helping widows in their grievous circumstances, and raising ‘dead’ sons to life and ‘restoring’ them to their mothers (see Luke 7:11-17).  [Read more…]