Posts from October 2023

  DISCUSSION: In this current society, as well as the society as it existed when Hannah voiced her song, there is always a debate about the limits of big government.  Hannah’s song answers this question for us. It doesn’t matter who is ruling us in our government positions, the Lord is the true ruler; salvation is from Him, and God’s concern is often for the poor, the people at the “bottom of the heap”. Hannah’s prayer helps us to not…

  DISCUSSION: Hannah was truly a godly mother. Hannah was ridiculed daily by Peninnah for an issue she had that was not her fault. Hannah believed in the power of prayer, and the comfort it brought her. Hannah’s attitude when accused of drunkenness was that of calmness and self-control and she answered with dignity though she had been falsely accused. Hannah did not ask for vengeance on her adversary, nor did she request a son for selfish reasons. Fervently, Hannah…

  DISCUSSION      I Timothy 4.12 says, “Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in your speech, conduct, love faithfulness and purity.” Maturity is not always something you grow in to. Sometimes older people do not act in a mature way. Many young people set great examples to older people. Young people are so talented and have so much energy, what a great time of their life to…

    DISCUSSION    The famous UCLA basketball coach and motivator John Wooden once said, “Don’t measure yourself on what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your abilities.” The children of Israel had a real problem; they could not stop focusing on where they came from and where they were. There was no way that they would ever be able to get out of their current situation and see where God had planned for them…

  DISCUSSION    Isn’t it just awesome how God has strategically placed things within the Scriptures to give us a progression of how He was going to do things in the future? Just take for instance the similarities of the offering of Isaac that God had asked of Abraham, and Jesus. Both were led by their father to the place of the sacrifice, both involved their only son, the mountain on which they were to do the offering is the…

  DISCUSSION        Have you ever been at that point in your life when every force in the universe seems to be going against you? It may be that you can’t catch up on your bills, your marriage is in shambles, you are hearing rumors of lay-offs at work, you are having to sit and care for your parents, your car needs a new engine, the doctor told you that it may be cancer and, oh yeah, someone ran…

  DISCUSSION        As Jesus closes out His ministry here on Earth, he seized an opportunity to bond with His disciples. He had just sent Judas out of the room after washing their feet and was now giving them His final instructions before His arrest. He knew they were troubled; he could see it in their eyes. I don’t think they could help it. They had never been in a situation like this before, nor did they understand Jesus’…

  As David is now king over Israel, he must have been reminiscing about all the good times he had with his friend Jonathan. “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”(2 Samuel 9.1). What usually happened when a new king would take the throne, his first order of business was to kill all the family of the previous king so that no one could make a claim to…

  DISCUSSION        Out of all the good men in the life of Jesus, we read in John 3 that Nicodemus was one of two men who came to claim the body of Jesus after His death. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the council. We see him beginning to believe in Jesus, but he always did his work at night. He went to see Jesus at night, he defended Jesus at night, and he claimed His…

  DISCUSSION       Have you ever been in a place where you know you shouldn’t be? A place where the walls just reeked of temptation? A place that you know that if you do not get out of there soon there is no question you will do something you will regret? I wonder if that’s the place Joseph was when he was in Potiphar’s house. The Bible lets us know that Joseph was a handsome man, but we are not…

  DISCUSSION       One of my favorite movies of all times is “City Slickers.” This movie was a comedy about three middle aged friends who decided to go out West on the vacation of a lifetime, a cattle drive. Over the course of the movie as you see how each character develops, there is one man who finally breaks down about his life. He had made some bad choices. His marriage was in shambles and he felt as though his…

  DISCUSSION       Have you ever had one of your appliances go bad? Don’t you just hate it? Now your entire day will be spent shopping around to find the right product for the right price. Then you have to take off another day so you can meet the delivery guys when they deliver it to your home. Meanwhile, you have to make sure you remove the old appliance to make room for the new one. It isn’t until then…