bible805

David, great goodness and great sins, yet always a man after God’s own heart

2023-04-30 by bible805

The Bible calls David, a man “after God’s own heart.” This phrase is part of a sermon of Paul’s in Acts 13:22—where he is talking about the history of Israel, and Paul says, “After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’”

It’s a goal I think we’d like to describe all our lives and how to do that is what we will cover in this lesson.

The most encouraging characteristic about David’s life is that it wasn’t perfect—he sinned, sometimes in big ways that affected not only him but his family and nation. Yet, what made his life commendable to God was that when he sinned, he deeply repented, accepted God’s forgiveness, and moved forward in serving Him.

We can learn a lot from him as all our lives have ups and downs, times of sin and goodness as we progress to become all our Lord wants us to be—this lesson will help you in that.

Below is a downloadable PDF of the notes, then the Podcast, and Video of the lesson–PLEASE share with others who need encouragement from David’s life!

Below is a transcript of the notes.

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Samuel and Saul, the importance of listening to God & how to do it

2023-04-23 by bible805

Have you recently had someone say to you, “You aren’t listening to me?”

Most of us have. Maybe we weren’t paying attention, or maybe we didn’t want to hear what we knew someone was going to say.

Whatever the reason, not listening can get us into a lot of trouble.

The trouble is especially serious if we aren’t listening to God. If we aren’t hearing what He has to say to us.

First, in this lesson, we’ll establish the fact that God does want us to hear Him. Dallas Willard says:

Hearing God? A daring idea, some would say—presumptuous and even dangerous. But what if we were made for it? What if the human system simply will not function properly without it? [without listening to God] There are good reasons to think it will not. (from Hearing God).

To live for what we were made for, to help us function properly, to help us listen to God, and for some practical tips on how to do it better is what you’ll learn in this lesson.

Below are links to a PDF of the NOTES and Questions, the Podcast, and Video on the lesson.

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Judges & Ruth, My Way or God’s Way, how to live the best way

2023-04-15 by bible805

There is a popular song that boasts “I did it my way!”

Though it sounds appealing, is this really the best way to live?

We’re going to look at around 400 years of history when an entire nation decided to do it their way in our lesson on…..Judges & Ruth, My Way or God’s Way, how to live the Best way.

From our earliest days, we want to do things our way; e don’t want anyone else to tell us what to do.

Though we may appear to go along with rules as we get older, in our heart of hearts we often think we know what’s best for us.

But do we?

The books of Judges and Ruth give us interesting pictures from Old Testament history on what happens to individuals and people when they either—do what they want to do regardless of what God wants or trust Him no matter how difficult it might be.

Judge and Ruth are little-studied books in their entirety, but as you’ll see they are very relevant ones for our world today and for us personally.

Below is the podcast, video, and PDF of the notes, and below all is the text of lesson.

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How to Correctly Understand & Apply Bible Stories & Biblical Narratives

2023-04-06 by bible805

What is the purpose of the stories in the Bible?

If someone does something that seems a bit odd like Gideon setting out a fleece to determine God’s will or the Children of Israel walking around the walls of Jericho to conquer it—

Does that mean I should do similar things to please God?

We’ll answer these questions and more in this lesson How to Correctly Understand & Apply Bible Stories & Biblical Narratives.

We will do this first by defining and understanding genre in the Bible and that for the various genres of the Bible, narrative, poetry, prophetic literature, etc., we need to interpret and apply each of them according to the specific guidelines that rule that genre.

We’ll look at how we can make mistakes in interpretation and application if we don’t understand the genre we are reading and some specific guidelines to help us get the most out of reading the genre of Biblical narratives and stories.

Below are links to downloadable notes, the podcast, and the video of the lesson.

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The Book of Joshua, 9 Lessons on how to fight and win in the battles of life

2023-04-04 by bible805

If you are having a hard time in your Christian life, this lesson will teach you 9 lessons on how to fight and win, and the first step to winning the battles of life is to realize you are in a battle.

Many Christians today are surprised when bad things happen because they thought it was going to be easy and an unending series of blessings when they became a Christian. But the reality is very different.

The Bible describes the Christian life in this way:

This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Eph. 6:12(MSG)

Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, just as I do; and as Christ’s soldier, do not let yourself become tied up in worldly affairs, for then you cannot satisfy the one who has enlisted you in his army. 2 Timothy 2:3-7 Living Bible (TLB)

Once you realize you are in a battle, this lesson will give you 9 ways to fight and win. Knowing you are part of unceasing and often challenging spiritual battles isn’t exactly good news, but it is reality and this lesson will give you tools to realistically fight and win.

Following are the NOTES, Podcast, and Video of the lesson.

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