Focal Passage: I Thessalonians 5:4-15 

In this study we are going to look at how we are to live life together as believers in Christ. We will look at the lives of those who are no longer with us and those that remain here on earth.  We will be looking at the fact we all have experienced the same grace and the same eternal promise in the Lord Jesus Christ. We will also look at what makes us Christians so uniquely different from the rest of the world.

Paul is writing to the Christians in Thessalonica. He had established this church on his second missionary journey. It was a bitter sweet beginning. The gospel message was well received there, but there had arisen some strong opposition as well. The tensions became so violent that they had to eventually sneak Paul out of the city to keep him from being killed. 

Paul desperately wanted to return, but circumstances prevented it. So, Paul felt the need to send Timothy back to see how the church was doing. Paul wanted to make sure no false teachers had infiltrated their number.   [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16 

A call from Christ unto salvation when accepted is immediately met with a call for service — service to the One who saved us by obeying His teachings and living a life worthy of the calling we have received. And, service to one another in love to help grow and encourage each other.  

We all have weaknesses just as we all have strengths. And each of us has each at varying degrees. Some have more weaknesses than they do strengths. But some have more strengths than they do weaknesses. But in the body of Christ, the church, that discrepancy is leveled out.  The holes are filled and the gaps are closed.

Just as our human bodies have many different parts and organs, so does the body of Christ, the church. We have arms, legs, ears, eyes, organs and each has a specific function to perform. Each is uniquely different but shares a common purpose.  [Read more…]

Psalm 34:1-3, 8-10, 15-18 

There can be no debate about the fact that worship is essential in the lives of all those who believe in God and are called according to His purpose. But not all believers understand the importance of it, nor how or why it should be practiced. If you were to ask, you would probably receive as many different definitions for worship as the number of people you asked. That is because there is no dogmatic definition nor practice in how we do it.  

The ways we worship are as unique and diversified as each individual doing it. But we can generalize its definition into a common understanding of what it is. When we worship God, we actively recognize God as our Creator, Savior and King. 

Worship is how we tell God we love Him. Worship is, as the Apostle Paul says, our “reasonable service” (Romans 12:1) of gratitude for all God has done for us. It is the act of creating an intimate space between you and God, allowing Him to speak directly to your heart in such a way you are drawn nearer to Him.  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Colossians 1:9-14; 21-29 

There are a lot of discussion these days on how to go about fulfilling the Great Commission. If we break it down, we find it has two parts. One, we are to make disciples. In other words, we are to help others find salvation through Jesus Christ. Secondly, after making disciples, we are to teach them everything Jesus commands us to do.  

The first part we are vigorous to engage in. Not surprising, that’s the part that determines our eternal destiny. 

But the second part is equally important. No, our eternal destiny is not in question, but our effectiveness in our understanding and relationship to God most certainly is.  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Matthew 28:18-20;  II Corinthians 5:16-21 

Everyone living today who has accepted the free gift of grace and found salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ has done so through the testimony of others. None of us experienced the physical presence of Jesus as the disciples did. We didn’t see first-hand the miracles He performed. None of us heard Him speak or walked by His side.  

Everything we know and everything we believe about Jesus we learned from someone else.  That is not to say that Jesus was not in it because He most certainly was. But He was working through someone else as He spoke to our hearts.

Someone might say that they came to accept Christ just by reading the Bible and not by someone’s preaching or testimony. But even in Scripture, God used men to make His revelation known. This was just not by happenstance, but by design.  [Read more…]

Focal Passage: I Peter 2:1-12 

In this study we will be discussing the church. When the word church is used, most peoples mind immediately goes to a building, a place, a structure that is inanimate made with brick and mortar.  But in Scripture, the church is a living, growing, maturing, entity.  Its body is comprised of all who believe in and follow its head the Lord Jesus Christ.  

For the Jew this was a whole new concept but still familiar to their way of thinking. You see the temple in Jerusalem had become the focal point of all their spiritual worship with the synagogues being a representation of the temple in every community. It was a tangible place, a destination, to which people go to worship God. It was a visible, materially built structure. It had no life of its own. It was considered Holy only because God inhabited it in worship.   [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Luke 24:44-53 

As Luke begins to draw his gospel account and letter to Theophilus to an end, he reiterates the fact that Jesus was the Christ by reminding his readers, and Theophilus, of Jesus’ words to His disciples.

That everything had now been fulfilled that had been promised in Scripture. That He was the long-awaited Messiah of God who fulfilled everything that was written about Him in the Law of Moses (the first five books of the Old Testament; the Torah, (God’s revelation of Himself and His instructions to His people); the Prophets (the history, major and minor prophets, and God’s interactions with His people and His restorative actions); and the Psalms (the writings).  In other words, the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament. [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Luke 23:32-49 

In our study this week we come to the most tragic and cataclysmic event in human history. 

One might say this world has seen a lot of tragedy, wars, earthquakes and natural disasters, famine, pestilence and plagues.

Some would argue that the pandemic our world experienced surely ranks among one of the most tragic events mankind has ever faced because of its global impact on humanity. But of all the tragedies faced by man, none were more significant than the one when Jesus died on the cross. 

Jesus, the Son of God, God incarnate, the creator of heaven and earth was put to death — killed by His own creation. The details of how He suffered and died are indeed tragic in and of themselves, but the reactions of those seeing it only magnified the humiliation and inhumanness. [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Luke 9:18-26 

Luke’s account of Jesus’ mission and ministry varies a little from the other accounts in the Gospels. While the other Gospels follow a chronological path of events, Luke takes a slightly different approach. We see him more interested in the theology than the chronology. 

So, some of his accounts may not appear to follow in linear progression. He presents the same events with same details but not always in the same order. Luke was more focused on helping Theophilus and his readers understand who Jesus was, rather than giving them a historical perspective of what Jesus did. [Read more…]

Focal Passage: Luke 6:17-23, 27-31 

As we begin to unwrap Luke 6:17-23 we have to acknowledge the similitude between this passage, which scholars refer to as, “The Sermon on the Plain”, to Matthew 5, which is referred to as, “The Sermon on the Mount”.  

There are many similarities, but there are many differences as well. One such difference is topographical references given in each. In Matthew 5:1, it says Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down. In Luke 6:17, it says that Jesus went down and stood on a level place. Whether it is one account given from two different perspectives or two different accounts all together is still being debated among expositors. [Read more…]