Introduction: Seasons are something that I have been trying to avoid!
How is that? When I was young I lived in Michigan. We had four
seasons there. As soon as I could, I moved to the south where we
mostly skip the winter season. As I get old, I’m telling myself that
I’m pushing back the final season of life. So far it is mostly
working! Our new series of lessons is about the seasons of a family.
Let’s explore what the Bible has to teach us on that subject!
- Moving Towards Order
- Read Genesis 1:1. Why would God start His message to
humans this way? - What does this say about the heavens and the earth?
(They had a beginning, God was there at the
beginning, and He created them.) - What does this say about God? (That He is superior to
the heavens and the earth because He created them.) - Read Hebrews 11:3 and Psalms 33:9. How did God create the
universe? (By speaking!) - When I was a child, they taught me how to print my
name using a pencil and paper. When I was in high
school, they taught me how I could form those same
letters by pushing the key on a typewriter. A great
improvement! When I first started my law practice I
would dictate what I wanted to write and someone else
would type it up. Another leap forward! Early in the
computer revolution I started using voice dictation.
That was even better when it worked properly. What
does voice command for creation tell us about God
when we compare it to the way we create? - What were the building blocks of God’s creation?
(Nothing. The text in Hebrews tells us that God made
the “seen” out of the “unseen.” Humans make new
stuff out of existing stuff.) - How can we understand God’s awesome power? (Hebrews
11:3 – by faith.) - Read Genesis 1:2. Should this modify our thinking about
something being created out of nothing? How do we
reconcile this with Hebrews? (We see that something (but
not much) existed here. We could understand this to mean
that God previously created what was present, or we could
understand the “something out of nothing” to mean the
final product was nothing like the formless, empty, watery
deep.) - How is this very issue such a challenge for
evolutionists? (Evolutionists are hard pressed to
explain how something could evolve from nothing.
Either “stuff” has always existed, raising the
question of how it got here, or the supernatural
exists which can create something out of nothing.
Evolutionists, for this reason, generally start
their explanation of origins with stuff already
sitting around.) - Read Genesis 1:3-5. What is happening in terms of order?
(The earth is moving from disorder to order. Not only is
God speaking light and separating it from darkness, but
God begins a unit of time and calls it the first of many.) - Read Genesis 8:22. What does this tell us about God’s plan
and order? (God created order. He believes in order. His
order is a constant.) - Life Order
- Read Psalms 71:6-8. How dependent are we when first born?
(This is the sad thing about abortion. The very people who
are supposed to be protecting the helpless, the mother and
her doctor, are killing them.) - Read Psalms 71:9. How is being old like being very young?
(Once again, you become defenseless. The Psalmist asks God
for His protection.) - Is it an amazing coincidence that our society has a
special interest in killing the old and the unborn?
(Read Psalms 71:11. This reflects the fact that
selfish and cowardly people do this because they
think they can.) - Read Psalms 71:14-15. What does God give us even when we
are weak? (He gives us hope and salvation.) - Read Matthew 10:26-28. Where does real power lie? (In
eternal life. Cowards may kill the weak, but true power
lies in the gift of eternal life.) - Read Proverbs 4:10-13. What can we do to have better
seasons of life? (This chapter in Proverbs teaches that if
we accept the guidance of wise parents, and make wisdom
part of our life, then we will be protected from
problems.) - Read Proverbs 4:7-9. What else will wisdom do in our life?
(Not just protect us, but it will exalt us.) - What kind of wisdom is this? (The wisdom that comes
from God.) - Interruptions
- Read Job 1:1. Is this a fellow who is being wise? (Read
Job 1:2-3. We see that following God’s ways made him rich
and famous.) - Read Job 1:8-12. Does this violate the normal rules of the
universe? (We know the rest of the story, Job suffers
terribly. His experience violates the normal rules of
obedience and blessings.) - Read Job 42:12-16. What does this tell us about the normal
rules? - Read Acts 8:1-3. Do you think that Saul believed that he
was doing God’s will? - Read Acts 9:1-4. What is going through Saul’s mind?
- Read Acts 9:5-6 and Acts 9:15-17. How has Saul’s life been
interrupted? - Will Saul (later named Paul) end up, after the
interruption, with a life like that of Job? (The
statement about how much Saul must suffer, coupled
with our knowledge of his life, tell us that the
answer is “no.”) - Why is that?
- In both the life of Saul and the life of Job there is a
supernatural interruption. Do both interruptions have the
same purpose? - Has your life been interrupted? Do you think it was
supernatural, or merely a failure on your part to
follow God’s rules of the universe? - Modifications
- We have seen so far that our God plans for order. There
is order in the world around us, and there is a natural
order to our life. However, sometimes the order of our
life gets interrupted. That can arise from the natural
consequences of our failure to follow God’s rules, or it
can arise from a supernatural intervention. Read Mark
4:24-25. In what other ways can the path of our life be
changed? (The measure that we use for others will be
applied to us! If we are generous to others, God will be
generous to us. If we are stingy with others, God will be
stingy with us.) - Read Mark 4:26-28. When we discussed God being generous or
stingy with us, are we talking only about money? What do
the verses that we just read suggest? (The context of
these verses is growing the Kingdom of God. I suspect that
money is not the primary topic of the “generous/stingy”
verses. Rather, I suspect it has to do with our talents.) - How does our gospel work extend beyond our immediate
efforts? (God blesses and increases it even when we
are sleeping!) - Many years ago, when I was thinking about
“retirement,” my plan was to buy a bus, convert it to
a motorhome, and then travel from church to church
teaching and preaching. I thought that I would enjoy
doing that and it would bless others. How would you
guess that writing this lesson compares to that plan?
(My calculation is that the “bus plan” would allow me
to reach 400 people a month – given the average size
of churches. This lesson reaches tens of thousands
of people a month.) - What gospel work can you do that continues
while you sleep? - Friend, what part do you play in God’s order? If you are
not sure, why not ask the Holy Spirit, right now, to show
you what God has in mind? - Next week: The Choices We Make.
