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!...
