And He Died: Genesis Part 7

A genealogy is not the passage which most people would rush to for encouragement or teaching. We tend to skip over them in our reading because they are not as important to us as they were to the people of Israel. This particular genealogy has much to teach us. We can learn much from what Moses has to say in Genesis 5:1-32.

The Growth of Sin: Genesis Part 6

What happened? Things were perfect in the Garden and then Adam and Eve sinned by eating fruit which God had told them not to eat. Only one generation later, murder had crept into the human race. Cain killed his brother.

The Fall of Man: Genesis Part 5

Why are things the way they are today? Why do we see so much madness around us? Why do we see man intent on hurting and killing? What happened to God's good creation? We happened. Mankind fell. We sinned before a holy God and we are reaping the consequences.

What does God Say about Family?: Genesis Part 4

What does God say about the family? Is homosexual marriage wrong? What does God have to say about all of this?

Genesis Part 3: Made In God's Image

God made man in his image. What does that statement mean to you? Does it give you hope that you really do have some form of dignity and are not just a really smart monkey? Does it change the way you treat other human beings who may be mentally disabled?

God's Creation: Genesis parts 1 & 2

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

The Bible starts with a very simple statement of the existence of God and his work as the Creator of all things. This account has some similarities to the creation accounts of the cultures surrounding Israel but the differences are much greater. In fact, this account is a polemic against the other creation accounts. There is not war between gods which results in creation. Instead we see the all-powerful Creator speaking and giving function to creation. Verse one should be taken as a summary statement of the account instead of the first act of creation. Since it is taken this way, creatio ex nihilo of matter is not proclaimed in this account. The origin of matter was not as important to the people in the Ancient Near East as it was to the Greeks or to us. They were concerned more with who gave everything its function. Now, I am not denying creatio ex nihilo but just that it is supported in this account. It is supported in the New Testament in Colossians 1:16-17, John 1:3, and Hebrews 11:3.

How Not to Worship

Matthew 6:1-18

Is there a wrong way to worship? I believe that there is and it is all about attitude. In this passage Jesus is instructing his hearers about how they should worship God. He addressed three of the prominent forms of Jewish piety: alms, prayer, and fasting.

Worship Together

Why can we even worship? How do we have access to God? Do we even need other people? The writer to Hebrews answers these questions in Hebrews 10:19-25. His argument has been building that Jesus Christ is much better than anything in the old Mosaic Covenant. He, in fact, fulfills this covenant and initiates the New Covenant. Let's see where he goes with this argument.

Book Review: Reinventing Jesus

Reinventing Jesus by J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer, and Daniel B. Wallace. Kregel Publications, 2006.

Have you been exposed to those who are teaching that the Bible is not reliable and that we have no idea who the Jesus of history really was? There are those who would tell us as much. Two that come to mind that the popular culture might know are the Jesus Seminar and Bart Ehrman. There was even the big controversy surrounding The Da Vinci Code in recent years. The book, Reinventing Jesus, shows the reliability of Scripture especially as it regards Jesus Christ.

Worship in Heaven

Could you imagine if we could see God every time we worshiped on Sunday? That would truly be an awesome experience. I think our worship would take on a more serious and joyous nature if we actually saw God seated upon his throne every Sunday morning. Yet, John the Apostle did see worship in heaven taking place and he wrote about it for us in Revelation 4:1-5:14.

Worship: Approaching God on His Terms

A lot has changed in worship between now and the Old Testament. We no longer offer sacrifices to God. We worship in many different places spread out all over the world. Yet we worship the same God that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did so many years ago. Is there anything we can learn about worship from the Old Testament? I believe that there are principals from the Old Testament that can be carried over to today.

Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth

Wow, it's been a while since I have written.

Anyway, on with the topic at hand. What is worship? We have been exploring this topic the past few weeks at Bethel.

First, we looked at worship in John 4. Here Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well. He confronted her with the gospel and at the end of the conversation she asked a controversial statement about worship. You see, the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other. The Samaritans worshiped on their own mountain. They only followed the Pentateuch. She wanted to know where the right place to worship was, Jerusalem or Samaria. Jesus told her that the Jews were right in the argument but that the argument was moot since things were going to be changing fast. Jesus' death and resurrection would change all of this.