If you are like most employees, you have (or had when you were working) some sort of evaluation of your work. Have you ever heard of an evaluation of your religious life? In law school it is common for the only student evaluation to be the final exam. Many view the Christian life like that. When Jesus comes, you get to find out if you passed! Our study this week is about evaluating our relationship with God and how we might improve it. Let’s dive in!...
My father was a great man. He was smart, loving, successful, and took our family to church every Sabbath. His father, my paternal grandfather, died before I was born. That made me want to learn more about my grandfather. It was frustrating. My father never said anything good about him and my grandmother was of no help. One night, when my now-aged father and I were on a porch swing at my home, I asked him if he could tell me anything positive about his father. He thought for a while and revealed that my grandfather had built two churches and pastored them. I was thrilled and shocked that I had never known this before. Are there things about our heavenly Father that would thrill us and shock us to learn? Let’s dive into our study about knowing God better!...
When my wife and I were first married, she taught in a church school. Her work allowed me to be a full-time law school student. The chairman of the school board invited us to his home for dinner, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn more about him. My initial reaction was not positive. He expressed opinions on everything. Not just an opinion, but that his opinion was correct. I thought, “How can he be so full of himself and so wrong on so many things?” Then it occurred to me that the reason I resented his many opinions is that they disagreed with my many opinions! His pride was matched by my pride! And, really, what did I know? I was just a young man at the beginning of my adult life. Are we all guilty of pride? Let’s dive into our study of the Bible and see what we can learn to avoid being proud!...
When I was a student at Andrews University, I was a member of the Student Senate. I had a friend in the Senate whose views were similar to mine. I would call us both “rebels.” He went on to have a great career in the U.S. State Department and I’ve always worked with Christians and conservatives. State Department employees have a reputation for being politically liberal. These days my friend’s political views are radically different from mine. How did that happen to two boys who started out with the same views? The obvious explanation is that through time we were influenced by those around us. This is one of the great truths of life: we are changed by what we behold. See 2 Corinthians 3:18. How much time do you spend watching television compared to reading the Bible? Do you need to be changed? Let’s plunge into our study of the role of the Bible in shaping our lives!...
This year marks the 30-year anniversary of my son’s posting my Bible studies on the Internet. Beginning in 1975, while I was a law student, I was part of a rotation that taught the adult Sabbath School lesson at church. Since about 1980, I have taught a Bible study each week at church. Each new church I joined graciously invited me to teach. Writing these Bible studies and teaching them to a live class forced me to study the Bible regularly. That turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of my life! Space does not allow me to explain all the ways studying and writing Bible studies has blessed me. First, I think it has sharpened my intellect. Second, I am positive that Bible teaching has made me a better lawyer. Third, and most important, it has helped me better understand God. Let’s dive into our study of the Bible and see whether we can find proof that Bible study will improve your life!...
If prayer is supposed to be a conversation with God, He must think I’m a really lousy conversationalist. I have a habit of mindlessly repeating phrases like, “Please, Lord, help.” Or “Thank you, Lord.” Part of my problem is that Jesus said, “Pray then like this” and gave us the Lord’s Prayer. See, Matthew 6:9-13. If Jesus is giving us a model for prayer, does that mean prayer should follow a set pattern? If so, how do we keep prayer from becoming mindless repetition? How do we avoid boring conversations with God? What does He want when we pray to Him? Is He looking for an interesting conversation? Or is He looking for something else? This week’s and next week’s lessons are on prayer. Next week we focus on the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s dive into our study of the Bible and begin our journey to find what we can learn about prayer!...
Are you ready to learn more about communicating with God? Last week we studied several Bible passages about prayer, including Jesus’ warning in Matthew 6 about praying in public for the purpose of impressing others. He also warned about using “empty phrases” and many words in prayer on the mistaken assumption that “more is more” when it comes to prayer. Jesus also told us that God knows what we need before we ask. Our Lord moves next in Matthew 6 to discussing the Lord’s Prayer. Come with me on a deep dive into Jesus’ model for prayer!...
A dear friend who worked with me on many cases routinely spent lunch time walking and talking with me about the Bible. He was a Catholic who, as he jokingly put it, “read his Bible.” Later in life, he ran into several set-backs. His wife decided not to accompany him to a new and important legal job. Not long afterward, he lost his new job. Then he was told that he was dying of cancer. I visited him shortly before he died. He told me that he knew that I would want to talk with him about his faith, but it was something he did not want to discuss. And then he died. He was not the first person I have known who had great faith, but seemed to give it up in the face of adversity and death. Keeping our faith is critically important. Let’s plunge into our study of the Bible to see what we can learn about keeping faith!...
Do you like to discuss sin? How about your sins? Most people I know do not like a visit from a church representative to discuss their sins. When you discuss sin with other Christians, do you focus on the personal disadvantages of sinning - up to and including the loss of eternal life? My study of the Lord’s Prayer leads me to think Jesus gives us a different approach. Matthew 6:9-10 addresses two goals. First, giving glory to God. Second, having God’s will done on earth just as it is done in heaven. God gave us His Ten Commandments to guide us in living a good life. A life that avoids major problems. While our loving God cares about us living well, the ultimate benefit of a life well-lived is the glory that it brings to God. Let’s explore the law, sin, and what God has already done about it!...
Both John the Baptist and Jesus seemed to lead with the message that their listeners should “repent.” What does it mean to repent? When we studied the Lord’s Prayer, we found that Jesus recommends that we pray for our needs before we ask forgiveness for our sins. If Jesus does not place forgiveness first in His model prayer, why is repentance the lead message for both John and Jesus? Is repentance about more than sin? Let’s dive into the Bible to see what we can learn about the full meaning of repentance!...
