The whole book of Malachi is a back-and-forth conversation God had with Israel. We’ll call it a spiritual argument. Argument One: God: “I have loved you,” says the Lord.  The People: “How have you loved us?’ Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you” in the Hebrew means, “I have loved you, I do love you, and I will […] The post The Prophets Speak-Malachi appeared first on Teays Valley Church of God ..read more

John 14:12-17 12  I tell you the truth, anyone who has FAITH in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even GREATER THINGS than these, because I am going to the Father. 13  And I will do WHATEVER YOU ASK IN MY NAME, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14  You may ask […] The post Greater Things From Us appeared first on Teays Valley Church of God ..read more

Samuel’s story began with the backstory of his mother’s faith. She had been unable to conceive and longed to have children. The depth of her anguish over her situation, her desperate prayer and her devotion to God are detailed in I Samuel 1. She was so committed to God that she vowed when she would […] The post Samuel, An Activated Faith appeared first on Teays Valley Church of God ..read more

On our tour of Hebrews 11, we have studied several people who were highlighted by the writer as models of faith. Many of them activated their faith in a pivotal or critical moment in time in their life or in a crucial moment in the lives of God’s people. We know part of their stories, […] The post David, An Activated Faith appeared first on Teays Valley Church of God ..read more

Judges 10:6-10  6 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. (That’s a lot of gods!) And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, (the one, true […] The post Jephthah, An Activated Faith appeared first on Teays Valley Church of God ..read more

Judges 4 and 5 tell the story of a man named Barak. He was a military commander who lived during yet another time when Israel was being disciplined by God for doing evil. He allowed Israel to fall into the hands of King Jabin of Canaan. Jabin’s army was well-equipped to continue the oppression. They had 900 chariots, and I assume they had horses and weaponry to go with them. Judges 4:3 says they cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years. Israel finally cried out to God for help. As God did several other times, He raised up a deliverer named Barak, only Barak didn’t act alone. Deborah was a ..read more

Judges 13:1-5-Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. 2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. 5 ..read more

Hebrews 11:31-By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. Rahab wasn’t Jewish.  Rahab was an outsider, a Gentile. She didn’t have history with God’s people. Worse, she was entrenched in the pagan worship of the Canaanites. And then there is the matter of her occupation. She was actually identified by her occupation in our Hebrews 11:31 verse. By faith the prostitute Rahab… Why would the writer of Hebrews want to bring her prostitution front and center?  No one else was listed that way. No one else was defined by their ..read more

Hebrews 11:30-“By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.” The Battle of Jericho is probably the best-known battle story in the Bible. It’s prominent because it was the first in a series of battles that the Israelites won that enabled them to take the Promised Land. It is also a standout because in the natural, as the Israelites looked at the walled city of Jericho, it was a totally impossible situation. They didn’t have the manpower or know-how to take the walls down.  If the walls didn’t come down, they couldn’t get in to take the city, an ..read more

During a time when the Hebrew people were being oppressed and impoverished by the Midianites, the angel of the LORD came to visit Gideon. This heavenly messenger appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” He didn’t feel very mighty. He was subject to the same conditions as everyone else. He was living in poverty. He was under the Midianite oppression. He didn’t look much like a mighty warrior. Listen, God sees more than we see. God saw what He was about to make of Gideon, and God was going to give Gideon an opportunity to see it for himself. Gideon didn’t realize at f ..read more