In the book of Deuteronomy, the last of the five books of Moses that make up the Pentateuch, Moses preaches a final series of sermons to the people about to enter the Promised Land. There is a lot to talk about, but in this lesson, we’ll discuss three areas: 1. How we should love 2.How we should give 3.How we should define ourselves and how it influences all we do A few thoughts from the lesson include that we should love as a reflection of God’s love for us; that love results in extravagant joyful giving (in a passage you are sure to find quite surprising from what you’ve previously heard abo ..read more

We’re in the book of Numbers as we read through the Bible and it is a pivotal book we can learn from, not only in what happened to the Children of Israel in this book but also what we can learn from it on how to deal with challenging situations. Ray Steadman said about Numbers: “If you read the Old Testament as nothing but a history of ancient events concerning people who have long since disappeared, it will be the dullest, most boring reading you can find. However, if you read it as a picture of what is happening in your life, vividly displayed in terms of these people of old, you will find f ..read more

Every sport, hobby, or special interest has insider terms and history and the more you know the back story of them the more you’ll understand and enjoy the activity. The Bible is no different—the more you understand the foundational items in the first 5 books of the Bible, what we call the Pentateuch, the more the rest of the Bible will make sense. This is especially true in what you’ll see about what it will tell you about the foreshadowing of Jesus’ life and  completion of our salvation in the Old Testament. We’ll talk about some of them in this lesson today that is longer and more comp ..read more

When most people get into the books of Old Testament Law, especially in Leviticus and Numbers, with all the odd and obscure laws and regulations, they bail out. And why shouldn’t they? What do these laws and regulations have to do with us today? We will answer all these questions and more in this lesson as we consider the importance of the messages in them and deal honestly with the reality that anything that is worth learning often involves challenging times to do that well. We will then look at the topic of Typology and how the foreshadowing of lessons in the Old Testament is fulfilled in th ..read more

Have you ever felt stuck, trapped, not where you want to be or expected you’d be at this time in your life? The last few years for many have been times of lockdowns, isolation, disruptions of all sorts. Current challenges aside, at any time of life we can become trapped, emotionally, physically, or spiritually. The book of Exodus and the life of Moses can encourage, inspire, and give us freedom and hope as we’ll see in our lesson today, EXODUS, A new beginning for Moses, Israel, and us. This lesson covers not only the basic events in Exodus, but it has a bonus video on The Faces of the Pharaoh ..read more

With this week’s lesson we move from studying one person’s life, Abraham, to how God transforms his people into the nation of Israel, who God will use as His representatives on earth, the ones who will write His Word, demonstrate His worship, and eventually be the family that bears the Savior of the world, Jesus. The Patriarchs of this family, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, along with Joseph had a huge responsibility and as we look at their lives it is a good opportunity to consider questions about what did God Sovereignly determine in their lives and what were they responsible for. The lesson goe ..read more

In Genesis, with the life of Abraham, we have a big shift, where God moves from working with all of humanity to a focus on ONE man, who will become the founder of the Jewish nation. Ultimately three major religions in our world today claim him as their founder: the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions. As such, he is held in great veneration by all and in Christianity referred to as one of the first “heroes of the faith.” And though we do want to honor him, we also need to clarify that description of him and here is why—In reality, there is only ONE true hero of the faith throughout the Bib ..read more

One of the great answers we discovered the first video of this series is the assurance that Life after death is a great promise to those who believe in Jesus. Yet that assurance brings up another question that we will answer in this lesson which is: “What about those who have never heard of Jesus?” We have two more questions in this series,  “Why do innocent people suffer?” And along with that one “How can we comfort those (including ourselves) who suffer?” To go to the blog, notes, and questions: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Em --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/yv ..read more

I truly believe that getting to know your Bible well by reading it in Chronological Order is THE MOST important thing you can do in the coming year and every year, not only for yourself, but for those you care for in your small groups, classes, or other ministry groups. However, even though I feel deeply about this and have created many resources for it, I realized I hadn’t been very clear on exactly what I’ve done, the resources I have, and how I can help you in this vital area. The podcast here is a description of the resources I have available to help you both do it for yourself and to teac ..read more

We need a GPS, a global positioning system to help us live a life that pleases God. A GPS in our car or phone can give us directions because it is linked to a system of satellites orbiting the earth that can pinpoint where we are within 1 centimeter of accuracy. We might be lost or not know how to get from place to place where we are on earth. But a GPS system, far above us, can see the big picture and correctly guide us. The book of Proverbs gives us the view of what our behavior from God’s viewpoint should be like that we need when we get lost in the weeds of daily decisions. In this lesson ..read more