Resources from December 2022
Worship and War
Matthew 2:1-12 2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be…
The Trinity Is Central to Our Faith
Section 1: God Week 3: God Exists As Trinity Day 5: The Trinity Is Central to Our Faith Rev. 20-22 We sometimes treat the Trinity as a throwaway doctrine. We believe it to be true, but we don’t think about it very often. That’s a shame, because when we understand the doctrine of the Trinity, we realize it explains a lot about our faith. We believe, for example, God became man to die as a sacrifice for our sin in…
The Trinity Transcends All Comparisons
Section 1: God Week 3: God Exists As Trinity Day 4: The Trinity Transcends All Comparisons Matt. 28:16-20, 2 Cor. 13:14, Eph. 3:14-19 It’s hard for us to fully get our minds around the doctrine of the Trinity. That’s why we sometimes resort to analogies. We hope they will give us a clearer picture of what it means to say God is three in one. Popular analogies include the three-leaf clover; a tree, which is made up of three parts…
There Is Only One God
Section 1: God Week 3: God Exists As Trinity Day 3: There Is Only One God Deut. 6:4-9 When we say there are three persons in the Trinity and each person is God, it sounds a lot like we’re saying there are three Gods. But the Bible is clear that there is only one God. Deut. 6:4-5, for example, declares: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Each member of the Trinity is fully God, yet…
Each Person in the Trinity Is God
Section 1: God Week 3: God Exists As Trinity Day 2: Each Person in the Trinity Is God John 1:1-5, Acts 5:1-15 The Father, Son, & Holy Spirit Are Each God The early Church faced a number of challenges over the issue of whether each member of the Trinity was fully God. There was never really any debate about whether the Father was God. However, that was not the case with the Son. Arianism, for example, claimed the Son was…
God Exists as Three Persons
Section 1: God Week 3: God Exists As Trinity Day 1: God Exists As Three Persons Matt. 3:13-17 The Father, Son, & Holy Spirit Are Distinct from One Another At first this might seem like an unnecessary point to make because the Bible clearly refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So we obviously have three persons…right? There are those, however, who say the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit aren’t distinct from one another. The Father, Son, and Holy…
God Is Unchanging
Section 1: God Week 2: God Is Good Day 5: God Is Unchanging James 1:16-18 Our lives are constantly changing. One day you love your house. The next day… not so much. One day you can’t wait to get to work. The next… you’re thinking about changing careers. You’re born with thick, luxurious hair. Now… you’re trying to figure out how to get the last three strands to cover your otherwise bald head. Change is a fact of life. Change…
God’s Holiness and Love Don’t Conflict
Section 1: God Week 2: God Is Good Day 4: God’s Holiness and Love Don’t Conflict Rom. 3:21-26 Yesterday’s reading closed by asking you to list some of the evil things going on in the world right now. Sadly, there are many you could have chosen. Mass shootings. Children being abused. Human trafficking. Whatever you included in your list, you were likely horrified and angered as you thought about those events. How would we feel if God, however, just shrugged…
God Is Holy
Section 1: God Week 2: God Is Good Day 3: God Is Holy Ps. 99 We’ve seen that a key aspect of God’s goodness is his love. We briefly discussed the fact that God’s love is eternal and he always seeks our welfare even though we don’t deserve it. We also noted that his capacity for love greatly exceeds our own. Today we want to take a look at another key aspect of God’s goodness – his holiness. Because He…
God’s Love for Us Is Undeserved
Section 1: God Week 2: God Is Good Day 2: God’s Love for Us Is Undeserved Eph. 2:1-10 God’s love for us expresses itself in different ways in different contexts. Whatever the context, though, because love involves giving of oneself for the benefit of another person, God always selflessly seeks our good. The clearest example of that was Christ’s willingness to leave all the prerogatives of heaven to become human and die on the cross. He didn’t have to do…
God Is Love
Section 1: God Week 2: God Is Good Day 1: God Is Love 1 John 4:7-12 For many of us, love is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of God’s goodness. But love can be a tricky thing to define because of the way it’s portrayed in our culture today. God’s Love Is More Than an Emotion A prime example of that is my 16-year-old niece who I friended on Facebook. BIG mistake. Nearly every post…
God Is All-Powerful
Section 1: God Week 1: God Is Great Day 4: God Is All-Powerful Eph. 3:14-20 Theologians like to say God is omnipotent. That’s just a fancy way of saying God is all-powerful. Oddly, when we say that, we don’t actually mean he can do absolutely everything. There are, in fact, certain things God can’t do. He cannot lie, for example (Titus 1:2). He cannot be tempted (James 1:13). He cannot sin in any way. God Is Able to Do Anything…
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