Class Lesson November 28, 2010

Hey Gang,

Last week's lesson on Living Life in Light of Eternity opened some eyes, mine especially, to seeing and watching out for the problem of $-Greed-$. Gordan Gekko told us that greed is is a good thing. 

 Greed is Good

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But very quickly we saw from our lesson that greed and the Christian life cannot coexist. It was interesting to learn how greed could be influencing my understanding of retirement and my planning for it. We learned that if your plans for the future focus on self and not on God and others - then you are no different than the rich fool Jesus spoke of in His parable. The most effective way to overcome greed is to begin using what we have for the benefit of others. How does one live life in light of eternity? By making the kingdom of God the focus of our life - if we do, He promises to do two things:

1. Provide all things necessary for life and body. (Luke 12:31)
2. Give us the kingdom or all things necessary for the soul. (Luke 12:32)

This week we explore the importance of the church to the Christian Life. Now, did you know that the number of Americans that don't go to church has mushroomed from 39 million to 75 million since 1991? It raises a question, could people be interested in the Christian faith but get turned off by Christianity? How could that happen? A lot of people confuse religion with God and  end up walking away from them both. Listen, the point isn't Christianity. The point is being a Christian. What are we missing about this? And what about the people that do attend church? Many times people that attend church do so out of a sense of duty or simply because they think that they are supposed to. When it comes to church what do you think God has in mind? These are just some of the questions we'll explore this week.

This weeks lesson is entitled Life Together and it focuses on the true and vital importance of the church and the fact that when it's done right, peoples lives are changed. How can we be a part of this amazing process. There are 3-progressive points this week: Identify - Experience - and Commit to the Church! We will go back to the very beginning of the church in Acts 2:41-47 and see a real alter call! Then we'll look at Hebrews 10:23-25 to see the importance of our commitment to our church. Something we might need to consider this week is whether we are really "doing church" as God intended or have we simply reshaped the whole experience to fit our comfortable lifestyles? There are people throughout the world today that are risking their very lives to attend a bible study in secret because they are desperate and hungry to know and worship God! Why will you attend this week?

Guess what? It's beginning to look a lot like - Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope to see you on Sunday.

In His Love,

David & Susan

Class Lesson November 21, 2010

Hey Gang,

Last week was a great start to our final 4 lessons on "Making The Case For The Christian Life" and we learned a lot from Malcolm Tucker's visit to Mayberry on a Sunday afternoon. 

Malcolm Tucker in Mayberry on Sunday

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"You people are living in another world" I love that line and it does happen to be biblical. We saw from the episode that the Christian life is about personal relationships: with God and with others. When Jesus was asked to summarize His religion, He said that it was simply to love God and our neighbor. Are there rules that Christians are expected to abide by - yes, but the rules should never be the focus of the Christian life - they do exist, and for good reason.

The Christian life involves a number of different aspects, I gave you 4 last Sunday:

1. Fellowship with God
2. Our relationship with others
3. Obedience to God's commands
4. Discipline

Last week we had to answer the question of why we believe that the Christian Life is a better way to live. Can you answer that question now?

Great, because this week we venture into a topic that might be closer to each of us than we would like to admit. We are talking about $-Greed-$ and the Christian Life. Can they co-exist? Some say greed is good, some say it makes you miss what's truly important. Should I feel guilty for enjoying life here on earth, is that bad? What if I worry about money, is this a bad thing? Is it wrong to horde what I have earned and accumulated over the years? How do I balance wise planning for the future and generous living now?  Our lesson this week is entitled - "Life in Light of Eternity."

Wow...I don't know about you, but I can relate to all of these questions.  This week takes us through the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:13 - 21, where we are told to see what life is not and how this kind of life is a lose-lose situation. Then we are shown a win-win situation through the life of Paul in Philippians 1:21-26. This will be a good topic to discuss - be ready!

GUESS WHAT? 

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The 2nd Half of Marriage Class will be hosting its first Christmas Party Friday, December 10th at the home of Larand & Monica Spencer. The festivities begin at 6:30pm (confirmed) and we'll be passing around a sign-up sheet for appetizers and desserts. Don't forget to bring your White Elephant gifts - 2 gifts per couple. This is always a hoot!

Hope to see you all on Sunday, have a blessed rest of the week.

In His Love,

David & Susan 

Class Lesson November 14, 2010

Hey Gang,

Another great discussion last week as we journeyed with Indiana Jones to the true meaning of biblical faith. Remember the question: "It's time to ask yourself - what do you believe?" Indiana had three challenges to his faith:

1. Only the penitent man will pass - kneel before God.
2. Proceed in the footsteps of the Word.                         
3. Path of God is a leap of faith - you must Believe.

I would venture to say that we all face these challenges to our faith each and every day and that we too should understand that "only the penitent man will pass," and that our humble journey of faith should always be in the footsteps of God's Word. The path of God is a leap of faith and we must believe in order to proceed. You want a life adventure better than an Indiana Jones movie - then surrender your life completely to Christ and see what adventure or journey He will take you on!  It will be more than you could ever have imagined - why, you'll be able to tell a mountain to move from here to there and it will happen! Nothing will be impossible!

We learned that our salvation comes only through a personal faith and commitment in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. When we exercise personal faith, God declares us righteous just like He did Abraham. The life of faith is like a long-distance race in which believers are runners. Such a race requires learning from other believers, both living and dead. Our steady focus  throughout the journey must be on Jesus.

This week we begin a case for the Christian Life, itself - is it really any better? When people think of the Christian Life they sometimes think of it as only a set of prohibitions: "Why don't Baptists have sex standing up? Because it might lead to dancing." Fortunately this is a joke, but sometimes even Christians have gotten carried away with rules. Some will say, "I see miserable Christians and contented non-Christians all the time." Well, maybe we need to look a little more closely at the people and their life to recognize true contentment. And then there are those who ask, "If you take eternal life out of the picture, how's the Christian life any better?" Well, because eternity for the Christian starts now - God is with me all the time and I can depend on His power each day of my life. And then there are some who will even agree, "I think the Christian life is the best way, but I'm just not sure how to explain that to others." We understand what God wants by proceeding in the footsteps of the Word, (I've heard that before) believing it and then acting on it - You remember, Trust & Obey! 

This week we'll journey, no let's adventure through John 14 and 15 to see Jesus, Himself explain how the Christian life is better. The hope is that you'll be able to answer if and when someone asked you why you choose to live the Christian life. Your greatest apologetic is explaining to them what living in a relationship with God is all about.

Hope you have a blessed week and we'll see you on Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan 

Operation Thanksgiving in Afghanistan

Hey Gang,

The Care Packages are on their way to Afghanistan! What a wonderful way to give thanks at thanksgiving - to our troops! Monica & Larand Spencer were our project leaders and what a great job they did pulling everything together and getting everything packaged and sent - Great Job! Monica also took some great pictures of the project that I've posted below.

I'm listing the names of the soldiers again for you to continue to keep in your prayers as our Care Packages arrive: Richard Padgett, Jordan Mayural, Jose Ruiz, Miguel Romero, Korey Ehinger, Jason Haight, Erin Patton, Joshua Hensell, Ryan Grigg, Robin Yerger, Michael Suarez, Jonnathan Burke, Vinvent Lopez, John Jackson, Donald McCutchan, Michael Snell, Robert Wilson, Nathan Baker.

Please continue to pray for each soldiers safety while in Afghanistan and their safe return home. Please pray that God will bless and touch each one in a special way through this thanksgiving gift from our class and that God will be glorified. Please pray that God will lead us to help someone else in a special way and give thanks to God for letting us be a part of His care and grace.

Below are the pictures from the project:

What a great opportunity to give thanks to our troops for serving our country!

I want to thank each of you that helped and participated in our class project - it was a great success and blessing!

In His Love,

David & Susan 

Class Lesson November 7, 2010

Hey Gang,

Last week was a really good discussion on Jesus being the only way to God and your only way to salvation. He is our Savior and Lord! This is the basis for our faith and what we claim to believe. 

This week we are going to look directly into what faith really is - both the faith that saves and the faith that remains loyal to Christ. The former addresses what happens the moment a person believes in Christ and is based on passages from Romans 4:1-3, 23-25 and 10:9-13; and the latter concerns what kind of lifestyle God expects from those who have received Jesus as God's Son and Messiah, and is based in the Book of Hebrews 12:1-2.

Hebrews 11 summarizes faith actions of many God followers. The "large cloud of witnesses" named in Hebrews 12:1 refers to these men and women of faith. From Abel to Noah to Sarah to Rahab, they were described as living "by faith." All were imperfect people yet God used them in mighty ways because of their choices to express faith. We can learn how to do faith from these and other faithful-to-God Christians.

With their help, we as Christians can examine our relationship to God to determine if we have been living in a way that pleases God - by faith. Here's where many are today - "I've got an intellectual understanding about God, but I'm not sure of the next step."  Or maybe this is you, "I've got faith, and that's enough!" Or maybe you just don't know how to bridge the gap from faith being an intellectual exercise to faith being a way of life. Well, I think this lesson is pretty important because: first we need to have more than a mere knowledge - we need biblical faith, second, the power of faith is in its object. Because our faith is in Christ, we know that we have the power of the Almighty behind our faith. Third, faith involves all of me, not just my intellect, it's a lifestyle and I need to fully understand this.

This week's lesson is entitled "Making Sense of Faith" and is the last lesson in our series on The Case for Jesus, next week we will begin the final series on "The Case for the Christian Life."

I hope to see each of you this Sunday as we continue in our understanding and defense of our faith.

Have a blessed week!

In His Love,

David & Susan 

Class Lesson October 31st

Hey Gang,

A special thanks to Scott Ballew for teaching for me last Sunday! I missed everyone and I can't wait to jump back in to our series on making "The Case for Jesus." This middle part of our overall series on "Apologetics" began by getting each of us to realize and understand the seriousness of sin and the fact that everyone has sinned. The following week we talked about the common notion of trying to improve ourselves enough that God would find us as acceptable and allow us into heaven as a reward for our good behavior. But wait, Paul told us that no one is good, no...not even one! Jesus answered the rich young ruler when addressed as Good Teacher, "Why do you call me good, no one is good except God." So is it not true that good people go to heaven? Well, the interesting thing about that is this ... if you ask most good people if when they die will they go to heaven, the most common response is "I hope so." What kind of hope is that? We learned that "Good" will never be good enough and that this kind of hope is nothing more than an unachievable effort to earn God's favor - you can't win! Why? Because you don't get it, and you clearly don't understand the case for Jesus if this is where you are. 

So, last week our lesson explored just what makes Jesus so different from  any other teacher or founder of a religion in history. Well, we learned that Jesus was unique in that He rose from the dead, never to die again - different than any other religious person in history. We learned that His teachings and miracles demonstrated that He was more than just another teacher or prophet. And did you know that there is no reliable historical data out there today that  shows that any founders of the world's major religions ever claimed to be God, but Jesus did! Why? Because He is God! And what could be more different than that. 

This week we explore the apologetic that Jesus is the only way to God.  Now, many people our age realize that Christianity is important, but also feel that other religions are important too. Some think that it sounds a little intolerant to say that Jesus is the only way to God. Why couldn't there be other ways and expressions that lead to the same God? What about those people that have never heard of Jesus, but are following a moral path that they believe leads to God? We will look at three answers to this question: first, we will read the most well-known verse in the Bible - John 3:16-18 to see the importance of Jesus being God's One Son. Secondly, we will read John 14:6-11 to explore how Jesus described Himself as the One Way to God. And our third answer will come through Paul's letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 2:3-6) where he warns Timothy that there will be many false teachers out there that will try to say that there are other ways, but that there is only One God, One Son and One Way - sounds pretty consistent to me...there must have been a plan. 

You know we were very fortunate to have Dr. Phil in the class a couple of weeks ago, but guess who I've got coming in this week?

 OPRAH WINFREY

We are going to see what she has to say about this question of Jesus being the only way - should be interesting. 

Class News:

This Saturday our class is participating in the church's Trunk or Treat event.

We have four cars assigned and each family should be getting a letter from the church with specifics about the event. We are all suppose to be at the church at 5:30 on Saturday with our candy - those of you that are using your trunks will be given parking assignments in your letter. Remember that afterward we are having a coffee and dessert social at "The Man Cave" better known as the Dewald's home! Be sure and let Traci and Joe know that you're coming for a headcount and directions to their home. 

Also, we are in the final week of collection and preparation for our class project: Operation Thanksgiving in Afghanistan. All of you should have received Monica and Larand's email this week, so be sure to show-up Sunday and help us wrapped up this special gift of thanks from our class to 18 soldiers serving in Afghanistan for our country. This is a busy week ahead for everyone and I pray that it's a blessed one as well.

See you Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan 

     

Class Lesson October 24th

Hey Gang,

Dr. Phil gave us some good advice Sunday, on how to deal with adult children that make fuzzy moral choices and don't want our advice. Our guests on the show were parents of an adult daughter that made a choice against their wishes to live with her boyfriend outside of marriage. The daughter at the time believed that it was the right thing to do, after all, the boy said he loved her and wanted to marry her, but it turned out terribly bad. Now the daughter feels guilty, used, and ashamed, but also angry at her parents and blames them for letting her live with this boy. 

What was Dr. Phil's advice?

To the daughter, he said, first and foremost you are not alone - everyone makes mistakes. Secondly, you have to stop blaming your parents - you made a grown-up decision and you are facing a grown-up consequence for that decision.

When the audience was asked what else they thought the parents could have done, they felt that it was important that the daughter be given scriptural reasons for why this was wrong and that she understand that God is the standard by which we should measure all choices made. When God's Word is not the standard for our choices, then all choices seem fine. Parents need to reinforce that God is the standard for right and wrong in all matters of life and it would help to live it as well. Lessons caught as well as taught - "I rather see a sermon than hear one, any day."

We learned that Jesus Christ was the daughter's only answer to her situation. She needed to surrender to Him, repent and receive His forgiveness. Her guilt was actually a sign that God was already working in her life and that through His forgiveness she could start a purposeful life over again. Her sin is no different than ours, for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  It's important for us to understand that our efforts to improve ourselves in order to be good enough for God is not what it's all about. You will never earn God's acceptance! Goodness is replaced with forgiveness and righteousness.

This lesson spoke to three basic issues with why good is never going to be good enough and the age old question of whether good people go to heaven. 

1. Evil Rationalized - Isaiah 5:20-23 "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil..." This is where we all are and we all fall short of God's standard in different areas of our lives. Paul says to us in Romans 3:12 "there is none who does good, no, not one..." We talked about how our society has fallen into "Moral Confusion" about what's really right and wrong, many times under the false idea of Tolerance.
2. Righteousness Realized - Romans 3:21-26 "...This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." This is where we all want to be..."justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."  But something has to happen many times for us to realize true righteousness...stay with me.
3. Holiness Recognized - Isaiah 6:1-5. Isaiah is called up into the very presence of God and is overwhelmed by God's sovereignty. It makes him feel dirty beyond anything but simple expression, helplessly weak and feeling that he is doomed. He says, "Woe to me! I cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Wow...this is how we get to a realized righteousness through the recognition of God's holiness.  This is what the daughter was experiencing and feeling with Dr. Phil - she felt convicted. What does it take for us to experience that right mix of fear and devotion to God?

Do good people go to heaven? No, because no one is good except God alone, but forgiven people do - forgiveness made possible by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ - this is the case for Jesus. This righteousness has nothing to do with who we are, but everything to do with Who God is. One of the most powerful evidences (apologetics) that God is real is the way He changes human beings. Don't settle for your unreliable standards. Apply God's standard of holiness to every part of your life - today!

This week I will be out, Susan will be there, and we will have a guest teacher, but I have laid out the lesson for the week and it's a great one as we continue to make the case for Jesus. This week answers the question: What's so different about Jesus?

Take a look at all of the light bulbs in the header above, they all look similar don't they? But only one actually gives light. The others either have no power source or simply are not real. In a similar way, some people want to say that all religious leaders are essentially the same and lead to the same God. But in real life, only Jesus has the power and identity to actually give light.

Many don't deny that Jesus is an important religious teacher, but how is He any different from other great religious leaders in history? Take a stroll this week through the Bible and see how Jesus' teachings (John 6:66-69), miracles (John 9:17, 24-25, 31-33, 35-38) and resurrection (John 20:27-29) all give evidence that He is God.

Hey everyone, guess what...Jim and Esther Best are back! Be sure to say hello and welcome them to our class this Sunday. We missed all of you that were out Sunday!

Don't forget about our class project: Operation Thanksgiving in Afghanistan. We took up a collection Sunday and we will collect again over the next two Sundays for the project. See Larand and Monica Spencer for details. Also, we are set for Trunk or Treat night October 30th and our coffee and dessert social after the event - put it on your calendar! I heard a rumor that Joe Dewald might open the "Man Cave" for the social. Also, there is a special prize for the class that has the highest participation for Trunk or Treat - sounds like a challenge to me.

Hope everyone has a blessed week and I'll see you in two weeks.

In His Love,

David & Susan