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Posts Tagged ‘Bible Studies’

Join us this week as Elder Richard White leads our discussion. Saturday, April 11th, 9:30A.

Key Text: Ephesians 2:8

Objectives of Study:

1. Know: That faith is more than just belief but an experience of trust and
   certainty.
2. Feel:Your faith grow stronger through the study of the Bible and through
   a relationship with Jesus.
3. Do: Let faith be the guiding principle in your life.

Lesson Outline:

I. Finding Faith (Hab. 2:4)

Faith is more than just believing in a truth; it is living by that truth. How does your faith guide your actions every day?

Faith matures through study of the Scriptures and through personal experience. What is the basis of your faith? Why do you believe the way you do?

II. Living Faith (Hebrews 11)

Hebrews 11 often is referred to as the faith chapter. It reads like a “Hall of Fame” of the faithful: from Abel to Gideon, those of great faith are noted here. What specific traits set these people apart? How can we aspire to be like them?

Hebrews 11:6 says it is impossible to please God without faith. Why is it so hard to accept the gift of faith? What makes us waver at times?

III. Evidencing Faith (James 2:14–17)

James tells us that faith without deeds is dead. What are some ways you can let your faith be evident in your actions?

Summary:

Our faith experience should serve as our guide through life.

By studying the Bible and developing a relationship with Christ, we can let our faith manifest itself in all aspects of our lives.

Key Text: 1 Corinthians 13:13

Objectives of Study:

1. Know: That God is love and that Jesus is the greatest expression of that love.
2. Feel: The difference between human love and God’s all-encompassing,
   selfless love.
3. Do: Allow God’s love to manifest itself in our lives through Christ.

Learning Outline:

I. Needing Love (Gen. 1:26)

The Message Bible translates this text as “let us make human beings . . . reflecting our nature.” Because we reflect God’s nature, and because God is love, we should reflect this love through our actions. How can we do this in our lives?

As humans, we all have the need to love and be loved. How is God’s love different from the love of others? Can you replace one with the other? Why, or why not?

II. Experiencing Love (1 John 3)

God’s extraordinary love is highlighted throughout Scripture. Creation, the gift of the Sabbath, the plan of salvation, and the Spirit of prophecy all affirm God’s loving nature. Share specific ways you have experienced God’s unfathomable love.

The gift of eternal life is the ultimate demonstration of love. What are other examples of God’s love?

III. Reflecting Love (Matt. 22:35–40)

Our reaction to the love of God should be love for one another. This can be hard to do in a world full of sin. How can you better reflect His love?

Summary:

God is love. When we allow Christ to abide within us, this love will be revealed in our lives.

Join us on Sabbath, April 4th, 9:30A when Elder Calvin Lester will lead our discussion.

Key Concept for Spiritual Growth: God calls us to take a decisive stand with Him in the great controversy between good and evil.

Absalom, King David’s estranged son, was poised to overthrow his father and establish himself as king. The conspiracy had gained momentum, and Absalom had secured supporters throughout the kingdom. His plans were advancing rapidly, and he appeared to be destined for a successful overthrow of David’s government. At this crucial juncture an unnamed messenger arrived in Jerusalem to warn David about Absalom’s conspiracy. David acted decisively when he heard the message of warning, and his actions eventually led to the defeat of Absalom and his rebellious supporters. (See 2 Sam. 14:25–18:18.)

Christians are involved in a much greater battle, a cosmic controversy between Christ and Satan. Prophets throughout the ages have been entrusted with a message not only of warning but also of hope. This message unmasks the conspiracy of Satan and his rebel followers and calls us to take decisive action. The prophetic message that God has placed in our hands offers salvation, freedom, and deliverance. God offers us the privilege of joining His ranks as He defeats the enemy of life, but He leaves
that choice up to us.

Join us this week at 9:30A as Elder Calvin Lester leads our discussion.

Key Concept for Spiritual Growth:

A prophet is God’s human instrument to proclaim His Word. The authority of the 66 books of the Bible supersedes any other prophetic utterances.

A woman once told the following story:

One night in a dream she found herself in a room with lots of people. Suddenly there was a bright light in the room.

The light focused on her and said, “You are doing well, but go tell it to others.”

The woman woke up. She had the strongest feeling that she had been in the presence of God, and that He had told her what He wanted her to do.

“Go tell what? To whom?” she wondered.

Perplexed, she shared her dream with her pastor.

“I think maybe the Lord has someone He wants you to share Him with” was his answer. “I recently received a call from a woman who would like to study the Bible. Would you be willing to go and study it with her?”

The woman was petrified. She had tried giving Bible studies before. The whole time she had felt completely inadequate. She really didn’t want to try it again. However, she was unwilling to offer a flat No. After much hesitation she said, “I guess I’ll try.”

Each week for several weeks thereafter, she drove to the woman’s house, Bible in hand. Every time she prayed that the woman wouldn’t be home! But every time she was there and waiting. A month later the woman with the dream moved to a new area across the country. She felt very relieved to give up the Bible studies. About a year later the woman received a letter in the mail from the person to whom she had started giving Bible studies.

The letter read, “I just have been baptized! I wanted you to know immediately. I had been praying for someone to help me study the Bible when you originally called me. I know the Lord sent you! I shall never forget you. Thank you, thank you!”

For Your Consideration:

1. What if the woman with the dream had refused to begin the Bible studies?
2. Do you believe God directs happenings like this?
3. Why, or why not?

Join us this week, Saturday, February 21st, 9:30A, as Elder Richard White leads our discussion.

The work of a prophet is to deliver to the people messages from God concerning the gospel, the church, and the future.

If you were asked to give a definition of a prophet, what would you say?

A. Someone called by God
B. Someone appointed or elected by the church
C. Someone who chooses to make his or her living by prophesying

What would you say was the work of a prophet?

A. Predicting the future
B. Giving messages from God to the people
C. Interpreting God’s will to the people
D. Giving religious instruction to the people
E. All of the above

A prophet’s work never has been easy or simple. Many prophets have been martyred because they prophesied what the people did not want to hear. Sometimes prophets have been deprived of food, housing, friends, and even loved ones.

Consider This: If a prophet is someone called by God who is doing what God had asked them to do, why do you think he or she still would experience difficulty, hardship, disbelief, and rejection?

Join us next week as our guest speaker, Paul Cameron, along with Elder Richard White, leads our discussion of the Work of the Prophets.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 (New Living Translation)

19 – Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.
20 – Do not scoff at prophecies,
21 – but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good.

In the day and age in which we live, many people set themselves up as being able to predict the future. Depending on where you live, you need only to glance at the tabloids in the racks as you stand in a grocery line (or wait to pay for your purchases in almost any store) to see many of their names and their predictions. This is especially true as an old year ends and a new one begins.

1. Jeane Dixon and Nostradamus are two of the more famous prognosticators.
2. What names have you observed today that are popular or becoming popular?

Biblically based tests are given to determine whether a prophet is a true spokesperson for God or is speaking on his or her own. These tests strengthen our assurance
in God’s Word.

Join us this week as Ruben Perez, our guest class leader, will be facilitating our discussion of the following:

1. How did God communicate to His prophets?
2. What are the biblical tests of a true prophet?
3. What is conditional prophecy? Are prophets infallible?
4. Why do Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen G.White’s visions and prophetic dreams were from God?

God inspired the prophets to write in their own style and from the perspective of their own culture.

Imagine: A friend of yours approaches you with one of the following statements: “You’ll never guess what the Lord showed me this week” or “The Lord spoke to me this week and told me. . . .”

What would be your immediate reaction to this person?

1. How wonderful! Share it with us!
2. It couldn’t have been the Lord, because He doesn’t speak to us personally anymore.
3. Half believing and half skeptical.

How would you then relate to this person?

How could this expression be misconstrued?

Consider This: We are told that prophets are inspired by the Holy Spirit.

1. How does the Holy Spirit speak to people today?
2. What methods does He use?

Join us this week as Elder Calvin Lester leads our discussion.

Join us, January 24th as Elder Dave Waddington leads our discussion and study.

It was suicide, not war. And the 300 Spartan soldiers knew they were going to their deaths. But a glorious death was what a Spartan was bred for from the age of seven. And so the elite hoplite warriors calmly followed their king to the narrow pass of Thermopylae to die.

Herodotus tells us that the Persians sent a spy to observe the Spartans on the eve before battle. The hoplite warriors combed out their long hair andrubbed oil into their skin, anointing themselves for death. King Xerxes laughed when he heard this, ridiculing them for being feminine and for their vastly inferior numbers. He expected a quick and easy victory.

But three days later Xerxes was no longer laughing. Ten thousand Immortals, the elite corps of the Persian army, were cut into pieces against the Spartan phalanx, with only two or three Spartan deaths in the first day of battle. The next day met with similar results. A wall of Persian corpses began to pile so high that the morale of his army began to suffer, despite his superior numbers.

After three days of battle, Xerxes learned of a goat path that led around the Greek lines. Herodotus says that when Leonidas, the Spartan leader, heard Xerxes was coming around to attack him from behind, he ordered the bulk of the force to retreat to Athens, allowing them valuable time to prepare for a naval battle against Persia. With only a remnant of the original force, the small army shrank even smaller, comprised of the Spartans, seven hundred Thespians, and the Spartan slaves.

The Persian army came at the remnant from both sides, raining arrows down on them until all died. But the sacrifice made by the 300 and their allies kept the deadly Persian calvary from sweeping down on the retreating Greek force. Though the Greeks lost the battle, it signified the beginning of the end of the Persian Empire. – - www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki Battle_of_Thermopylae

Consider This:

A remnant is defined as a small group that remains or is left over. In the last days, God will have a remnant of believers. Based on the account above:

1. How would you define the characteristics of a remnant?
2. What qualities did the Spartans show in battle that the remnant must have in spiritual warfare?

Join us, January 24th as Elder Dave Waddington leads our discussion and study.

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all” (1 Corinthians 12:4–6, NKJV).

South Korean soprano Sumi Jo was born with a heart full of music. No surprise when you consider that her mother listened to soprano arias during her pregnancy, for she dreamed of having a daughter who would one day grow up to be a great singer.

In 1988 that dream came true. The great conductor Herbert von Karajan heard Sumi Jo debut, calling her, “a voice from heaven.”

The last time heaven gave a concert on earth, it took place at night before an audience of shepherds more than two thousand years ago. Unfortunately no one today, not even a music expert like the late Mr. von Karajan, has heard heaven sing since then. But one need only listen to Sumi Jo’s Prayers to get an idea of just what it must have been like to be in that field of shepherds.

Listening to the vocal purity and the ease with which she hits those high notes, you may find it surprising to know that Sumi Jo started singing as a mezzo soprano, with a much smaller range of notes. She most likely would have remained one if not for the intervention of a very special teacher, who told Sumi that she was a coloratura soprano, capable of singing impossibly high notes and complicated trills. Sumi could sing only a high C at the time. But after three years of hard study, Sumi Jo taught herself to sing 12 more notes beyond that, increasing her range by an octave and a half.

Gifted people take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. Sumi Jo’s voice is one in a million. But in a church of fifteen million members, each one of us is like the only one to God. Each is special and gifted in His eyes. It is up to us to use for Him what He has given us.

Consider This:

Just as God has given the gift of prophecy to the church, He gives us talents and spiritual gifts to consecrate to Him for use to spread His truth.

1. What are your spiritual gifts?
2. How are you being called to use those gifts for Him?
3. Like Sumi Jo, we may not be aware of the true range of our gifts. How has God used teachers or mentors to help you reach your true potential in Him?

Join us this week as we explore this study futher.

Key Concept for Spiritual Growth: Just as prophets served as mediators between God and His people, we, too, may serve God no matter how flawed we are.

Pearls are an accident of nature. Shells stunted in growth and shaped irregularly are most likely to produce pearls. For a pearl to form, an irritant must first enter the mollusk when the valves of the shell are open for breathing and eating. This irritant is less likely to be a grain of sand than to be a shell-boring parasite, decaying plant debris, molluskan egg, small crab, stray piece of food, or even small fish. The mollusk protects itself by depositing nacreous matter that coats the irritant in layers. Over time this imperfection becomes a pearl.

— www.fao.org/docrep/field/003/AB726E/AB726E11.htm

Read the rest of this entry »

For I say unto you, among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).

No greater prophet than John? That would include, apparently, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, even Moses. Yet, according to Jesus, John was the greatest of them all? How fascinating, especially because, unlike Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Moses—John the Baptist had no writings in the Bible, and yet John was a greater prophet than all those who, at least before him, did!

The point? The prophetic gift wasn’t limited only to the prophets whose writing became Scripture. No, the prophetic gift included those whose work for the Lord involved something other than writing books of the Bible.

The whole question of the prophetic gift and of inspiration in general, has been a source of discussion and debate throughout church history. How were the prophets inspired? How do inspiration and revelation work? How much, if any, of culture and personal views appear in the writings of the prophets? If these questions still generate discussion within Christendom after centuries of debate, we’re hardly going to solve them all this quarter. But we sure will do our best to try.

Issues regarding the nature of the prophetic gift and inspiration have been especially important to Seventh-day Adventists. In the book of Revelation, God promised that there will be a special manifestation of the prophetic gift at the time of the end (Rev. 12:17; 19:10; 22:8, 9). Seventh-day Adventists believe that the gift of prophecy has been manifested in the ministry of Mrs. Ellen G. White (1827–1915).

For seven decades she gave messages of counsel and warning to our church; and though she died in 1915, her books, full of spiritual insights and counsel, have been a source of tremendous blessing to countless millions whose lives have been, and continue to be, spiritually and theologically enriched through them. We truly have been given a gift.

Yet, questions remain. What is the role of the prophetic gift? If we claim the Bible as our final authority, what authority (if any) should the Spirit of Prophecy have? How should these writings be interpreted? Though this gift has been a blessing, in what ways has it been misused?

More than three decades have gone by since we last studied in Sabbath School the topic of the gift of prophecy. Since then the church has grown from 2.5 million members to more than 15 million (as of this writing). And though questions about the Spirit of Prophecy (along with the prophetic gift in general) remain unanswered, we believe we’ve been given more than enough reasons to believe in this special manifestation of prophecy among us.

However, the real focus of this lesson isn’t just on the gift but on the Gift-Giver. As we study the question of inspiration and revelation, we’ll learn about the Lord who loves this world so much He gave of Himself, in the person of Jesus, as the sacrifice for our sins. Though God, though sinless, though the Creator Himself, He became a human being, and in that humanity took upon Himself the punishment for our evil as the only way that we, as sinners, could stand pardoned and justified before Him.

That’s the God we serve, and that’s the God we seek to reveal in this quarter’s lessons.

Gerhard Pfandl, a native of Austria, has been associate director of the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference since 1999.

Key Thought: To show that the Godhead anticipated the Fall and that a plan was crafted to solve the problem of sin long before it arose.

~ ~ ~

Human beings were given moral freedom, something not found in any of the other creatures that God had created here on earth. Once God endowed them with this freedom, it was
theirs, and He could not take it away from them without radically altering their very nature and being. They could use this freedom either to respond positively by rendering to Him, in love and gratitude, faithful obedience, or they could use that freedom and reject the gift
of life and disobey the Lord. (After all, if humans didn’t have the option to disobey, they really wouldn’t be free.)

God—foreseeing that horrible possibility of disobedience—acted accordingly. Thus, the plan of salvation was conceived in the divine mind long before humans were created and before evil and sin actually appeared, a plan that centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Join us this week as Elder Dave Waddington leads our discussion.

In choosing to reject God’s way, Adam sentenced the whole of creation, of which he had been prince, to hopeless, abysmal darkness. The entrance of sin turned Paradise upside down. Instead of intimacy, harmony, happiness, and abundant, joyful life, now there is separation, dissension, shame, fear, misery, and death. We cannot save ourselves, and this sentence would have been eternal, except that God has promised a way out, the only way out, by taking our sentence upon Himself. Discuss evidence of the hopelessness of sin and our only hope in Christ our Savior.

For illustration, Smash an egg into a pan and display the result. This is what sin has done to our world—utterly destroyed it. Can anyone in the room make the egg whole again? Discuss what it would take to restore the egg to its original condition. What do we need to be restored to wholeness?

Join us next week, October 18th, when Elder Dave Waddington will ask and discuss these and other questions of relevance, such as:

1. God gave one request to Adam and Eve: avoid the tree (Gen. 2:15–17). How did their disobedience erect a barrier between humans and God?
2. God didn’t angrily accuse Adam and Eve of their wrongdoing (Gen. 3:8–13). How would you use this example in your life when explaining God’s love versus His wrath to someone outside the Christian faith?
3. Sin damages our minds and perceptions (Rom. 8:7). When we live in sin, it is like being in a pit without light. Compare this with the idea that Jesus is the Light of the world. How does sin affect our perception of Christ’s free gift of salvation? Why must we as sinners grasp this gift by faith?
4. Examine characteristics of the obedient and how they were led closer to God. Why is obedience so important?

Through our discussion, we will contemplate and consider that even though things look grim in the Garden, God gives us opportunity to choose allegiance to Him over allegiance to the enemy of souls.

Join us! Let’s explore and discover God’s will for our lives, together.

No matter how much Lucifer had, no matter how exalted he was, it wasn’t enough. He wanted more. Thus began the “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thess. 2:7), the origin of sin in God’s universe.

The origin of evil within this perfect being will remain a mystery, because there was no reason for it. If it could be explained, it could be justified. It began with the first small step that Lucifer took in cherishing a particular emotion and desire. The conflicting emotions within Lucifer, together with the misuse of his God-given freedom, resulted in a cosmic conflict, a full-fledged rebellion against God in
which suffering and death have impacted innumerable creatures. Today each one of us is living with the results of this conflict.

But don’t despair. In preparation for this week’s study, find a picture of a beautiful garden and a picture of disaster and violence. Contrast the scenes. What were the steps that led Satan from Paradise into the horrors of war against
God?

Join us this week as Elder Joe Luste facilitates our study.

Have you ever experienced a dramatic change in perspective? In 1543,astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published a theory that would transform how humans viewed themselves and their place in the universe.

Copernicus used mathematics and astronomical studies to disprove the belief that the earth was the center of the universe, around which all planets and stars orbited. Instead, he argued, the earth is just one of a number of planets that travel around the sun. Today we know that earth is an infinitesimal speck in the vast, unfathomably huge universe. But for the religious and intellectual leaders of the sixteenth century, Copernicus had advanced an unwelcome theory that required a shocking change in perspective. It was not something easy for people to grasp, and it took awhile before his position became accepted. Old and set ideas are not easy for anyone to give up, no matter how wrong they are!

Radical changes in perspective are rarely comfortable. In Isaiah 6 the prophet encounters the unfathomable vastness of God’s majesty, and it becomes a defining moment in his life; his perspective of God, himself, and his mission changes in an instant.

Have you had an encounter with God? This week, we’ll take a few moments to consider how our knowledge of God changes our perspective, priorities, and understanding of our place in the universe. We’ll think about how our views, as Christians, radically differ from those who believe that we live in a godless universe and that our existence here is purely by chance!

Join us for this vital discussion.