Posted in Bible, Bible Basics, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, History, Old Testament, Ruth, Ruth, tagged Bible, Bible Basics, Bible Study, History, Old Testament, Ruth on July 13, 2010|
Attached is the first worksheet for our study of the book of Ruth. Feel free to join us in the virtual Bible study as we go through the Book of Ruth chapter by chapter and verse by verse. The remaining worksheet pages along with study notes from our teaching will be available by password, so contact me to get your password, so you can follow along.
Take time now to be rooted and grounded in the Word of God.
Posted in Devotional, Proverbs, Righteousness, Walking with God, tagged Devotional, Path of Righteousness, Proverb 4, Proverbs, Walking with God on July 2, 2010|
Do you ever wonder how you could walk more closely with God? Proverbs 4:20-27 gives us some valuable insights on the subject:
Do not be discouraged beloved, the power to do all of these things and more lies in the Holy Spirit which has been freely given to those who call Jesus “Lord”. We have all things that pertain to life and godliness. Just step out! Ask God to show you how to take the first step towards greater intimacy with Him.
May the LORD bless you and keep you. May He hedge you in and protect you from harm.
Posted in Bible, Bible Basics, Books of the Bible, Old Testament, tagged Bible, Bible Basics, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, Old Testament on June 29, 2010|
If you were brave enough to take the Bible Basics – Quiz 1 yesterday, here is the key:
1. Old Testament & New Testament
2. Law, History, Wisdom & Poetry, Major Prophets, & Minor Prophets
3. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy
4. 66
5. 39
6. It has one coherent message of God’s plan for salvation.
7. Hebrew
8. 2/3
9. Numbers
10. Proverbs
Posted in Bible, Bible Basics, Books of the Bible, Old Testament, Uncategorized, tagged Bible Basics, Bible Quiz, Books of the Bible, Old Testament on June 28, 2010|
You probably saw it coming. Teachers have a deep-seated need to give quizzes and tests. Here is your first quiz on Bible basics. You don’t have to send me your score, but try to take the test first without looking at the earlier blog posts just to see how you can do. I will post answers tomorrow, so you can get that reinforcement you need.
1. What are the two major divisions of the Bible?
2. What are the divisions of the Old Testament?
3. What are the books of the Law?
4. How many books are there in the Bible?
5. How many books are in the Old Testament?
6. What is true of the Bible despite its many different books written by different authors at different times?
7. In what language was the Old Testament written?
8. What fractional part of the Bible does the Old Testament make up?
9. What book in the Old Testament talks about the wanderings of the Israelites?
10. What book in the Old Testament is sometimes called the book of wisdom?
Answers will be in tomorrow’s post.
Posted in Bible, Bible Basics, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, General Epistles, Hebrews, James, New Testament, Revelation, tagged Bible Study, Books of the Bible, General Epistles, New Testament, Revelation on June 22, 2010|
The Bible, as we have discussed is divided into two parts: Old Testament and New Testament. There are 66 books in the Bible with 40 different authors, but one consistent message – God’s plan to save sinful man. In the New Testament, there are 27 books which are divided into the following sections: Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), Early Church History (Acts), Letters from Paul (Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon), General Epistles (Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2, & 3 John and Jude), and Revelation.
The Epistles are listed below each with a brief description or its content or focus.
Hebrews (Illustrates the superiority of Christ over the old covenant. The author of Hebrews is unknown, but many believe it was Paul. The audience was the Hebrew believers.)
James (Anyone who has studied the book of James knows that it pulls no punches. In this epistle to the Jewish believers, James lays out clearly what it means to live a life of faith and to evaluate one’s own faith honestly in light of scripture.)
1 Peter (Letter from Peter to all Christians that discusses the issues of holiness, submission and suffering.)
2 Peter (Letter from Peter to all Christians to warn against the danger of false teachers and exhorts the believers to grow in the true knowledge of Christ.)
1 John (Letter from John to all Christians. The key themes found in this book are love in Christ and fellowship with God.)
2 John (Letter from John to the Elect Lady while John was in Ephesus. The letter reminds the reader to walk in love and beware of false teachers.)
3 John (Letter from John to Gaius. The letter thanks Gaius for his support of the gospel and criticizes Diotrephes for his pride.)
Jude (The final letter in the General Epistles written by Jude to all Christians. The letter warns against heresy and false teachers and exhorts believers to contend earnestly for the faith.)
The final book of the Bible is the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Revelation (This books includes things which have been, which are and which are yet to be. It gives hope to those who suffer persecution and provides a vision of Christ’s return. It also gives good insights and images of what it is like in heaven.)
Psalm 119:11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!
Posted in Bible Basics, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, New Testament, Paul's Epistles, tagged Bible, Bible Basics, Bible Study, New Testament, Paul's Epistles on June 17, 2010|
In the last post, we began the discussion of Paul’s Epistles. There were too many to do all in one post, so here’s the rest of the group with a brief description of the highlights of each:
1 Thessalonians (Written during Paul’s second missionary journey to the church in Thessalonica. One of the main themes is an exhortation to holiness for believers in light of the LORD’s imminent return.)
2 Thessalonians (Also written during Paul’s second missionary journey and to the church in Thessalonica. Christ’s return is a theme as is encouragement of believers.)
1 Timothy (The first of the “pastoral” epistles, those letter written by Paul to individuals who were pastors of churches. This letter is written to Timothy during Paul’s first imprisonment. It is a guide to leadership of a church and it addresses the issues of false teachers, public prayer, the role of women, and the qualifications for elders and deacons.)
2 Timothy (The second of the “pastoral” epistles, this is also written to Timothy, but it is written during Paul’s second imprisonment, near the time of his death. Its purpose is to encourage Timothy in his ministry to be faithful even through adversity and hardships.)
Titus (This is the third of the “pastoral epistles”, and it was written to Titus while Paul was in prison in Rome. It gives the qualifications for elders and gives Titus instructions for dealing with different groups in the church.)
Philemon (This is a letter from Paul to Philemon, a believer, regarding his runaway slave, Onesimus. Paul asks Philemon to forgive Onesimus and receive him for Paul’s sake.)
Posted in Bible Basics, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, New Testament, Paul's Epistles, tagged Bible, Bible Basics, Bible Study, New Testament, Paul's Epistles on June 15, 2010|
The Bible, as discussed previously is divided into two main sections, the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament is divided into 5 sections: the Gospels, Early Church history, Paul’s Epistles, General Epistles and the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul’s Epistles and a brief description of their content are as follows:
Romans (Written to the Roman Christians. The main topics discussed are the law and God’s plan for salvation through faith. It also contains many important exhortations for believers including chapter 8, verse 28.)
1 Corinthians (Written to the church in Corinth to address issues that were going on in the church that involved division in the body and immorality. An important discussion of love is found in chapter 13).
2 Corinthians (Written to the church in Corinth. In this book Paul defends his call as an apostle, and he addresses deceivers.)
Galatians (Written to the churches in Galatia. A major theme is grace and liberty in Christ and a rejection of the legalism that was affecting the churches in Galatia. A well-known list of the fruits of the spirit is found in 5:22-23)
Ephesians (Written to the church in Ephesus. Important discussion of what God had done for the believer in chapter 1 and where the believer was before being saved by faith in Christ in chapter 2. Chapter 6 is the well-known discussion of the armor of God and the importance of prayer.)
Philippians (Written to the Church in Philippi while Paul was in prison in Rome. One of Paul’s “prison” epistles. Focuses on Paul’s love for the Philippians. There are no corrections or rebukes in this book. He exhorts them to godly living.)
Colossians (Written to the Church in Colosse while Paul was imprisoned in Rome. Major emphasis is on the preeminence of Christ in all things. Paul was responding to false teachers that were deceiving believers.)
to be continued . . .
Posted in Bible Basics, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, New Testament, tagged Bible Study, Books of the Bible, New Testament on June 8, 2010|
The Bible, as we have been discussing, is made up of 2 testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is important to remember that between the last prophet of the Old Testament (Malachi) and the coming of John the Baptist, the forerunner for the Messiah, Jesus, there were 400 years. These are sometimes called the silent years because during them, God was silent. He did not speak through any prophets, dreams or visions that are recorded for us.
The New Testament is also divided into sections which are:
There are only 27 books in the New Testament compared to the 39 in the Old. There are 9 or 10* authors compared to 30 authors of the Old Testament. It was also written over a much shorter period of time than the Old Testament.
*Paul is believed by some, but not all, to be the author of Hebrews.
Posted in Bible Basics, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, Old Testament, tagged Bible Study, Books of the Bible, Minor Prophets, Old Testament on June 7, 2010| 2 Comments »
In this 6th post in the series of “Bible Basics”, we continue coverage of the books of the Old Testament and their groupings. The following is a summary of what has been covered previously:
The Bible has 2 testaments: The Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament has 39 books divided into 5 sections: The Law, The History, The Poetry & Wisdom, The Major Prophets and The Minor Prophets.
The Law consists of: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The History consists of: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
The Books of Poetry and Wisdom consist of: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.
The Major Prophets consist of: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel.
The final grouping of books in the Old Testament is the Minor Prophets which includes:
Posted in Devotional, God, Pilgrimage, Psalms, tagged Devotional, God, pilgrim, pilgrimage, Psalms on June 1, 2010| 1 Comment »
Psalm 84, verse 5 says, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.” We looked at the first part of verse 5 of Psalm 84 in the last post. We examined what it means for a man’s strength to be in God. The second part of the verse is really the part that drew my attention as I was reading. I began to think about what it means for one’s heart to be set on pilgrimage.
Usually, my heart is set on permanence. I want to have a home, “to put down roots” in a community, to be part of something. At first glance, permanence seems to be the opposite of what the “blessed man” seeks after. That led me to explore the term “pilgrimage”.
“Pilgrimage” according to the dictionary is “a journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion” or “any long journey, especially one undertaken as a quest or for a votive (dedicated in accordance with a vow) purpose, as to pay homage.”
The word “pilgrimage” packs a lot of meaning:
What does the Psalmist mean when he uses “pilgrimage’ here?
I think this idea of a heart set on pilgrimage requires more consideration and mediation. I know that it speaks to traveling light and not being at home here in the world. One who is on a pilgrimage has his primary focus on the object of his devotion. As I live my life, my pilgrimage, I need to keep my primary focus on God, the object of my devotion, the one to whom I made the vow to be a bond servant.
I invite you to share any additional thoughts you might have regarding what it means to have your heart set on pilgrimage. The blog is a two-way communication. Send me a post!
Rooted and Grounded 