Read Psalm 100:1-3. What is the human response to the God of Creation, and why? In Genesis chapter 1, the first message of the Creation account is “God.” We already hear it in the translation: “In the beginning God” (Genesis 1:1). In the first line (Genesis 1:1), the word “God” is placed in the middle of the … Continue reading –>
Sabbath Afternoon Read for This Week’s Study: Psalm 100:1-3, Genesis 1:1-2:25, Exodus 20:8-11, Exodus 40:33, Matthew 25:14-30, Matthew 19:7-9. Memory Text: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, NKJV). The book of Genesis and, hence, the whole Bible begins with God’s acts of Creation. This fact is very important because it means that our creation marks the … Continue reading –>
THE BOOK OF THE BEGINNING Genesis is about Jesus: Jesus our Creator, Jesus our Sustainer, Jesus our Redeemer. Writing millennia after the Genesis text itself had been penned by Moses, and reaching back across those ages to the patriarch’s very words, the apostle John reveals Jesus in the Creation account: “In the beginning was the … Continue reading –>
Narrow Escape! By Saengsurin Phongchan God loves me a lot. When a friend moved away to Australia, I agreed to visit her parents every once in a while back here in Thailand. It wasn’t easy to find the parents’ house. I had to look up directions, and I learned that the house was quite some … Continue reading –>
Further Thought: “After the descent of the Holy Spirit, … [believers] rejoiced in the sweetness of communion with saints. They were tender, thoughtful, self-denying, willing to make any sacrifice for the truth’s sake. In their daily association with one another, they revealed the love that Christ had enjoined upon them. By unselfish words and deeds … Continue reading –>
Compare Hebrews 13:10-14, Mark 8:34, Matthew 10:38, Luke 14:27, and Galatians 2:20. What does it mean to go to Jesus outside the camp? The place outside the gate was the most impure of the whole camp. The carcasses of the sacrificial animals were burned there (Leviticus 4:12). Lepers were also excluded from the camp (Leviticus 13:46) and blasphemers and other criminals were executed … Continue reading –>
Compare Hebrews 13:9; Hebrews 2:9; Hebrews 4:16; and Hebrews 6:19-20. Where is grace obtained? How are our hearts strengthened? The relationship between false teachings and foods, touched on in Hebrews 13:9, probably does not refer to the distinction between clean and unclean foods. Why? First, Paul does not seem concerned in the epistle with the distinction between clean and unclean … Continue reading –>
Read Hebrews 13:7-17. What should be our relationship with our leaders? Hebrews 13:7-17 contains an exhortation to respect and obey the leaders of the congregation. It begins with an invitation to “remember” those leaders of the past who spoke the word of God to them, and it closes with a call to “obey” the leaders in the … Continue reading –>
Read Hebrews 13:4-5; Luke 16:10-18; 1 Corinthians 5:1; Ephesians 5:3-5; and Colossians 3:5. What two evils are related in these passages? Paul warns the readers against sexual immorality and greed because they were two grave threats to brotherly love. In fact, New Testament authors and ancient moralists noted a connection between them. Paul’s call to honor marriage implied the avoidance … Continue reading –>
Read Hebrews 13:1-2; Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; and 1 Peter 4:9. What was the role of hospitality in the early church? Christianity was a wandering movement that often depended on the hospitality of both Christians and non-Christians. The instruction to “not forget” to show hospitality probably does not simply refer to the failure to think about taking … Continue reading –>
