God is Light The apostle John wrote these words, in 1 John 1, verse 5; “This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you; That God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” God is light, He is the source of light, He is radiance, He is illumination. And that light of God is manifested in both a physical sense,…
Let Us Not Grow Weary in Well-Doing I’d like to begin with this morning by reading Galatians 6, verses 9 & 10. And as I read these two verses, I’m going to comment, and I’m going to let the scriptures themselves comment also. So then, let’s look at those two verses; They begin with an admonition, and then with some encouragement; “Let us not grow…
What does “Eucharist” mean ? How many of you are familiar with the word “Eucharist”? You’ve all heard the word used, right? Among certain religious groups, maybe one in particular, it’s one of the most often used words. But how many of you know what it means? There’s actually more than just one meaning. There’s the one literal and proper “bible meaning”, but then there’s also…
Story #1; A Gift of Love Do you enjoy receiving gifts? Most people do, don’t they? I suppose receiving a gift just tends to make you feel good. Isn’t it kind of nice to know that someone thought about you, and it made them want to do something nice for you? How much does a gift have to cost, for you to really appreciate it? A…
Story Telling; A Tool for Teaching the Word of God It has been said that one can do a lot of teaching, by telling stories. And here are four points that have been made in support, of using stories, to teach a lesson.. #1. Stories are memorable. They’re a lot more memorable than just stating a bunch of “facts”. #2. Stories engage emotion. And when your emotions…
Gossip, Whispering, and Tale-Bearing Let’s begin with a verse of scripture.. Proverbs 10, verse 19 says; “When words are many, transgression is not lacking; But whoever restrains his lips is prudent.” There’s not much doubt that too many words, can lead to problems. Especially too many of the wrong kind of words. And there’s a lot of sayings that have been “coined” in regards to that. …
Jesus The Mediator In 1 Timothy 2, and verse 4, we’re told that God “would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” But that sounds like we’re putting the cart before the horse. Don’t you have to come to the knowledge of the truth, BEFORE you can be saved? Well obviously the answer is YES! You do have to come…
Immortality.. What is it ? How do we GET it ? I’d like to talk to you about immortality; And specifically, God’s immortality, and our own immortality. It seems like almost from the beginning of time, man has searched for immortality. The fountain of youth, right? But physical immortality is impossible isn’t it? It WAS possible, for two people in the garden of God, but ever…
Victory in the Hand of Israel In a bible lesson that I recently heard, the instructor quoted Joshua 10, verse 8, which says; “And the LORD said to Joshua; Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you.” Those are some pretty comforting words aren’t they? Don’t be afraid.. “I have given them…
Episkopos and Presbuteros In the New Testament scriptures, the words Bishop and Overseer, mean the same thing. They’re synonyms. The original Greek word that they come from, is the word “Episkopos”. That’s where the word “Episcopal” comes from, as in the “Episcopal church”. And the basic meaning of the word “episkopos” is.. “a superintendent, or an overseer”. Someone who has been put in charge of…
How We Got the Bible I’d like to show you an article from a website called “Bible Archeology Report”. And this article is focused on the earliest known fragments of the written scriptures. And I’m just going to go ahead and copy and paste the article here, so that you can read it for yourself. The Earliest New Testament Manuscripts All of the books of…
Abram, Blessed by God Let’s talk about the man named Abram, who is known as “the father of the faithful”. Do you remember when Abram went out and rescued his nephew Lot, after he was captured by a band of four kings and their men, who made war with five other kings, and went through the whole country side, looting their cities, and taking the…
The Bible, The Word of God We believe the words of the bible, to be the inspired words of God Himself. But of course man hasn’t always had the “written” word of God. There was obviously a time when man had only the spoken word of God. But whether that word was spoken by God himself, as it was at various times, or if it…
Question: How do You Live IN the World, But Not be OF the World ? Today’s lesson is based on John 18:36, where Jesus said; “My kingdom is not of this world..” And then He said; “My kingdom is not of this realm.” How many of you think that living faithfully to God, is an easy thing to do? No problem at all. Is it easy to…
How Did We Get the Bible? – Part 3; The Foundation of the Word of God In our previous lesson, titled “How Did We Get The Bible – Part 2”, we left off with this verse, from Ephesians 2:19 & 20. And here’s what it says; “Now therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household…
Who do YOU say that Jesus is ? I’d like to read to you from the bible, the account of when Jesus asked his apostles, “Who do the people say that I am?” Some versions say, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” And of course that refers the Jews, who had seen Jesus, and heard Him speak, and who saw the miracles (or…
How Did We Get The Bible ? Last week I began talking about how we got the bible. And I’m specifically referring to the new testament. And I talked a lot about Catholic beliefs; How they think that THEY gave the bible to the world. But today I want to just stick to what the bible itself says, and what we can conclude from what it says….
I’d like to try to answer the question; How Did We Get The Bible? A lot of people don’t believe that the bible is even FROM God. And so they believe that men simply wrote it, trying to control others. But that’s not the aspect of the question that I’d like to deal with. What I’d like to deal with, is the fact, and the problem, that…
Jesus Hung on a Tree In a previous lesson titled “Four Trees Of God”, I talked about the cross that Jesus was crucified on, and how that cross was referred to by bible writers, as a “tree”. The word is used figuratively in the new testament, but the meaning goes back centuries. Let me remind you of a few of those verses that speak…
God Tells us about Four Specific Trees This morning I’d like to talk about four different trees. Three of them were physical trees, and one is a spiritual tree. The first tree was in a physical paradise, and it was there to give physical life. The next tree was also in the same physical paradise, and although it no doubt looked just as beautiful as the…