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Bible Study

In Bible Study, Blog, Genesis on
May 9, 2022

King of Righteousness, King of Peace

I love a good mysterious movie. A movie where you don’t fully understand the plot or the characters until it reaches the climax. A movie that keeps you guessing until the very end. One in particular that I very much enjoyed was The Murder on the Orient Express, a film that is based on a novel of the same name written by Agatha Christie. As you can imagine, the story focuses on the murder of a man on a train, and the great Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates the crime and interviews numerous train passengers with mysterious backgrounds. If you’ve never read the book or watched the movie, I won’t spoil it for you, but the climax of the story when Poirot solves the murder is thrilling!

The Bible has its share of mysterious characters. People that pop in and pop out of the storyline that we know very little about. Men and women that seem so unlikely that we at times wonder if they even really existed. One of the most mysterious characters in all the Bible is a man named Melchizedek, a king who lived during the time of Abraham.

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In Bible Study, Blog, Luke on
April 25, 2022

Jesus Draws Near to the Burdened

I do not watch horror movies. I know that some of you are probably flabbergasted that I haven’t and will never watch anything that falls in your favorite movie genre, but I just don’t enjoy horror films. I don’t like the jump scares. I don’t like to be kept up all night worrying that someone or something is going to kill me. And since most horror movies feature some demonic character, I don’t like focusing on these creatures that are very evil and very real.

I think a lot of people can forget that demons are real beings because we don’t typically see obvious examples or evidence of demon possession in today’s world. But they are real, and they have possessed many real people. During His ministry, Jesus encountered many people who were possessed by demons. One of them was a particularly burdened soul who dwelled in the Gentile region of the Gerasenes.

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In Bible Study, Blog, John on
April 10, 2022

Washing Feet

Take a moment and think of the person you would consider your worst enemy. The person you hate (or at least strongly dislike) with every fiber of your being. Perhaps this is someone who has betrayed you in the past. Perhaps this is someone who gets on your nerves and pushes all your buttons. Perhaps this is someone who is meanspirited and rude or condescending and arrogant.

You got that person in your head? Good. Now imagine doing something really nice for them. Like REALLY nice. Like shoveling snow from their driveway in the middle of winter. Like buying them a fancy dinner from their favorite restaurant of all time. Like giving them a genuine compliment on their appearance or their work.

Could you do it? Could you actually sacrifice your time, effort, money, and/or pride to do a nice thing for someone who wouldn’t think twice about turning on you and throwing you under the bus? If most of us are being honest with ourselves, we wouldn’t go through with it. We wouldn’t want to waste our time and resources on someone who will never show us any kindness or respect in return.

Thankfully, Jesus is a lot more humble and loving than we naturally are.

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In Bible Study, Blog, Psalm on
March 27, 2022

Truly Blessed

The word “blessed” has become somewhat of a cliche in our society. Its meaning has become synonymous with social media posts of beautiful family portraits, expensive vacations, and amazing opportunities, all with the caption of #blessed. When someone says they are #blessed, they are usually referring to all the good things in their life that they have earned or received.

But what if you don’t have these good things? What if your family situation isn’t that beautiful? What if you’re struggling financially, living paycheck to paycheck, never able to go anywhere special or do anything nice? What if you feel like everyone is moving on and moving up in their lives, except you? Does this mean that you’re somehow #notblessed, that God doesn’t care about you enough to give you some of these good things?

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In Bible Study, Blog, Numbers on
March 14, 2022

Lifted Up

We are a forgetful people.

Unlike our omniscient God, we forget things all the time, and human beings have been like this since the very beginning. Adam and Eve forgot God’s command about the tree in the middle of the garden and ate its fruit. The kings of Israel and Judah forgot that they served the one true God of the universe and led their nations to worship foreign idols. The Jews forgot what the Scriptures had taught them about the coming Messiah and rejected Jesus when He claimed to be the prophesied one. The early churches forgot the teachings of the apostles and quickly fell back into their old sinful ways. Today, we forget even the smallest of tasks like watering our plants, switching the laundry, or checking for mail.

There’s always a consequence for forgetfulness. When we don’t water our plants, they wither and die. When we don’t switch the laundry, our wet clothes get musty and smelly. When we don’t check for mail, we can miss our bills or even have a package stolen (and also annoy our postal worker). Israel was known for being quite forgetful, and they endured some pretty harsh consequences for their forgetfulness—one of these consequences being the deadly bite of fiery serpents.

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