Posts from 2022 (Page 12)

  DISCUSSION                                                                           Could you imagine what it was like to be Adam and Eve?  You are living in paradise and you have God meeting with you and talking with you on a minute by minute basis.  It is the closest thing to heaven that this world has ever and will ever be.  Yet in Genesis 3, all that changed.  The world that Adam and Eve were living in would forever be…

  DISCUSSION                                              We have all been there haven’t we; alone, depressed, feeling that the whole world is against us.  We are even tempted with the feeling that even God has abandoned us.  We have prayed and received no reply, we have searched and found no answers and we have cried and gotten no comfort.  It is these types of feelings that remind me of why passages like this were written.                …

  DISCUSSION                         “ And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,   in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” -Isaiah 32:17-18             Did you know that there is an effect of your righteousness?  Isaiah notes that effect will “peace…quietness and trust forever”, but what exactly is righteousness?  W.E. Vines’ Greek dictionary of righteousness is… “the character or quality…

  DISCUSSION                                                                     How do you define God? There are several terms that we could use such as Great, Awesome, Love, Light, Perfect, yet none of them fully give a description of the God that we serve.  Although it is comprehensive, Isaiah gives a great description of God.  “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not…

  DISCUSSION                                   In Isaiah 38, King Hezekiah had grown sick and was at the point of death.  God has already told him to get his house in order because he was not going to recover from this sickness.  It is then that we see a prayer that the King utters, literally on his death bed.  This prayer is recorded in Isaiah 38.3 … “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before…

  DISCUSSION                                           As you read through the book of Psalms, you will inevitably come to a word with which you are not familiar.  The word “Selah” is found seventy-one times within the book of Psalms.  As for its definition, no one can be completely sure; although it does seem to be a musical term.  Many people believe this to be a musical term that signifies a place in the psalm that requires a…

  DISCUSSION                                                   In Isaiah 44-48 it seems God is trying to get His people to understand just how ridiculous their idolatry has become.  The items that they have been worshipping have all been made by human hands.  How can a deity claim any power over humanity if it was fashioned by the hands of a human?  The answer is clear; it shouldn’t have any power over man at all.  Yet it did, but only…

  DISCUSSION                             Isaiah’s words continue to be those of gloom and doom, due to the wickedness of the nation and the impending punishment to come at the hands of the Babylonians.  God does offer a ray of hope to those that will be able to return afterward.  “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with…

  DISCUSSION                                                                              The book of Hosea has to be studied while understanding the religion of the Canaanites.  Israel was coming back to Palestine being inhabited for over a thousand years.  They learned farming from the people that they did not drive out of the land.  However, Canaanite farming was integrally woven with their spiritual beliefs.  El, Baal, and Dagon were very popular deities in the Canaanite religion along with the female counterparts…

  DISCUSSION                                                                              So often in life, we are looking for our purpose.  We ask questions like, “Why am I here?” or “What does God want from me?”  Imagine if you’re Hosea.  You’re God’s prophet.  You’ve seen and heard stories of so many prophets before you and the great things they’ve done.  You wonder what God’s great purpose will be for you.  Then, God tells you, “Go, and take yourself a wife of…

  DISCUSSION                                                            King Hezekiah is one of the bright spots in a list of evil people who served as king.  As he begins his rule, one of the first things he commands to be done is to carry the filth out of the Holy Place of God.  The filth he was referring to was the pagan cult objects that had been placed by his predecessors in the sanctuary of the Temple.  This was such an…

  DISCUSSION                                                               The greatest gift that we have today is the complete will of God revealed to us on the printed pages of our Bibles.  The Bible contains the greatest love story that has and will ever be told.  It tells of the love that God has with His creation; our humanity.  Yet just as all good love stories, this one has a tragedy as well.  The tragedy happened during the fall of man in…