Bible study
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Think of the Church Family
Two sermons. Two very different reactions. A number of years ago, I was at another congregation where we hosted a wonderful Gospel Meeting dealing with the family. The elders had agreed that we had a lot of families in need of help and a series of lessons could only help that. Our speaker did a wonderful job and there was no way anyone with a family left without more tools to do better and more encouragement to keep going. After the final service, one of our older ladies–who was a widow–saw me walking by and, instead of saying something about how helpful this had been or how grateful she was…
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Biblical Anger Management
It sometimes seems that there are a lot of reasons to be angry at the moment, and I’m not even talking about the political sphere. Sure, that provides plenty of reasons in isolation, but as people whose citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20-21), that shouldn’t even be the most important aspect of life to Christians. Nevertheless, even within the kingdom, there are problems that are often infuriating. Personal and congregational evangelism both come with significant challenges that can be frustrating on personal and congregational levels. There seems to be an increasing number of congregations more willing to err both to the right and to the left, which can be maddening…
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An Ancient Empire, A Former President, and Some Recent Concerns
If you are familiar with Daniel (the book and the man), you know that his enemies looked for a way to get rid of him. The plan they devised was to get the king to issue an order that would prohibit the worship of any god other than the king himself for thirty days. Those who violated that decree were to be cast into a den of lions. The thinking was that Daniel’s enemies knew that he regularly worshiped the one and only true God and that this practice would/should result in them no longer having to deal with him. They also knew something else. In that empire (the Medo-Persian…
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My Love for Psalm 1
After months of studying the Psalms, I continue to go back to Psalm 1 as one of my all time favorites. I love the simplicity, the teaching, the clear images presented that clearly show us the contrast between the righteous and the wicked. It could be clearly stated Psalm one sets the tone for all of the other Psalms found in this book. In my simple way, let me share with you what can be gleaned from this Psalm. The first two verses teach us how we so easily can be seduced by sin. David begins by telling us the blessing we can have if we are careful with what…
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Digital Bible School Launches Today!
For quite some time now, Leah and I have been working on something new. While we don’t have (and probably never will have) all the kinks worked out, it’s launch day for Digital Bible School, and we are excited! In reality, we have already done some of this work in the past. On our old family YouTube channel, I did some videos called “Adam’s Bible Corner,” where I taught through books of the Bible. And, on Leah’s channel, she released a series of videos on the 15 periods of Bible history (that is outstanding, by the way). But Digital Bible School is meant to be more systematic. Each week (we…
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Restoration is Ongoing
[NOTE: Today’s post is the full script of a sermon I preached at Central recently. Since it is written more in “essay” form, I thought it might encourage our readers. –Adam] Tonight’s lesson is a little different in style. Even my notes look different. Typically, when I write a sermon, there is an introduction, body–with 3 or 4 points–and a conclusion. This lesson, though, is written more in essay style and, I hope, you will see why. I want to say that the idea for this lesson is not original to me, but the content is. The idea comes from a small portion of a lesson that Kirk Brothers gave…
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The Whole Counsel of God
I’m going to do something with this article that I don’t normally do. I’m not good at it, and it rarely works out when I try to do it. Nevertheless, I have a purpose in making the attempt this time, despite the weighty obstacle that this is for me. I’m going to try to do math. First, some context: I am in the process of reading the whole Bible in two and a half months. I know, I know – that’s a ton of reading (don’t worry, we’ll come back to that statement). Again, however, I have a purpose in doing so. For our fall quarter, I am teaching a…
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It’s the Word
“Our church isn’t growing. We need a new preacher.” “The kids aren’t interested. We need to have more fun.” “That church draws all the people. We need to do what they do.” “My life is in shambles. I need to find a podcast to help.” Or… you need to remember that the power of God is in the Word. If your preacher is preaching the truth from the Word of God, you don’t need a new preacher. You need to appreciate that he is sharing the truth. If some kids aren’t interested, you need to remind the children and their families that fun won’t get them to heaven–following the Word…
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The “Big Beautiful Bill” and the Bible
I have thoughts on the massive bill, known either as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” or more simply as the “Big Beautiful Bill” that has been winding its way through the legislative process in Washington, DC. But I won’t share any of those thoughts with you here or on my social media feeds. Why? Am I a coward? No, it’s actually for a much more fundamental reason, and it’s a reason that has to do with how we consume Scripture as well. We live in an age where information is basically endless. Through traditional media, digital media, and social media, you could read, listen to, or watch information continually and…
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Is It a Story or Reality? Is It a Character or a Person?
It’s that time of year again. Time for Bible Camps, Summer Youth Series, and Vacation Bible Schools. We look forward to this time when we can have extra events for our young people – from little ones all the way up to teens. It’s that time when we try really hard to peak the interest of all of those young people who attend various programs we have for them at our various congregations. It seems like it grows and grows every year to be bigger and better than the year before. I love seeing the enthusiasm while these events are going on – especially VBS. I certainly am not trying…