A couple of weeks ago, our High School Youth group spent a Wednesday evening looking at what Jesus meant when he said: “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). We thought through the different uses for salt and tried to discern what Jesus might have meant when he used “salt” to refer to […]
Preparatory thoughts: The focus of teaching and application @hwcyouth High School is centered around the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ emphasis on repenting for the kingdom of heaven is near (Matthew 4:17). How do I help teenagers to understand what Jesus means when he talks about the “kingdom of heaven”? How do I delineate […]
For the 2016-2017 school year, the high school students who participate in Youth group each Wednesday night are going to engage with Jesus’ words in Matthew 5-7 often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve spent the past 2 years going through discipleship, spiritual stages of growth, being able to both understand and […]
It’s time for the last of the historical books. Esther Esther is a story about a girl. Another book of the Bible is Ruth, which is also a story about a woman who did amazing things that have inspired folks for thousands of years. Background of Esther Cyrus was the first king of the Persian […]
Review Last week we learned that the Bible is true and trustworthy. Also, the empires, Assyria and Babylon, had taken over Israel and Judah, respectively. Ezra and Nehemiah The prophet Jeremiah (25:11) announced that the Israelites would be in exile for 70 years. A new king named Cyrus came to power. Cyrus was the first Persian […]
When I left college as a 25-year old, one of my life goals was to tackle our culture’s Bible illiteracy problem. It’s not my job to help the whole world be biblically literate, but wherever God was going to send me, I was surely going to make that a center-piece of what I did week-in and […]
Where are we in the Bible? There are two sections in the Bible: Old Testament and New Testament. We are currently in the Old Testament, which itself is divided into sections. So far we are gone through the Pentateuch (or the Torah), which are the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The […]
Review Last week we learned about all the 39 kings of Israel and Judah. What were God’s prophets (those who deliver God’s messages to the kings to return to God) doing during all this time? They kept delivering messages to the kings to return to God or there would be trouble. The LORD used Elijah […]
Let’s start at the beginning Our world is drowning in sin. Sin is: ignoring God and doing things our own way… it’s breaking God’s laws… it’s why the world is so full of fighting, death, disease… it’s why we hurt each other and why the whole world is broken. Sin started with Adam and Eve […]
Right before this new year started, I did it. I had been looking at a daily devotional resource from a Christian leader who I respected and appreciated the fruit of the Gospel in my life. The reason I was agonizing over the decision was because the devotional cost $1.99 per month. I thought, “Surely there are […]
Review Last time the story in 1 Kings discussed the consequences of King Solomon’s sins (idolatry and accumulation of horses), which was a divided kingdom. The northern 10 tribes followed a man named Jeroboam who set up two golden calf idols. The reason why Jeroboam led his people to worship idols is because he didn’t […]
I had fun this past Sunday working through the story-line of the Bible in light of the themes and trajectory of the Gospel according to John. If you missed it, you can watch or listen here. When I was at WWC, I learned so much about the story-line of the Old Testament from Mark Jalovick. […]
Review 1 and 2 Samuel We have learned about the first 3 kings of Israel: King Saul, King David, and King Solomon. They all made mistakes but each handled those mistakes differently. What happened when these three kings sinned? King Saul: made excuses King David: repented, asked God for forgiveness King Solomon: acted like nothing was […]
Hayward Wesleyan Church kicked off a long-term series on the Gospel of John. I was tasked with placing John in the unfolding narrative of the entire Bible. What role does the book of John play in God redeeming the world for his good purposes? And what are some main themes we’ll be learning in the […]
In Luke 15:3-7, Jesus tells the first in a series of three parables related to things that are lost and the joy that is found in their return: So he told them this parable: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in […]
Review King David was the previous king. David did many great things: conquered the Philistines, united the kingdom of Israel (all the tribes), built the capital city, Jerusalem, and few other things. David also did one bad thing: he stole another man’s wife and had her husband killed. After being confronted by the prophet, Nathan, […]
Last November (2015), I was called to the hospital for an emergency. It was a pastoral call. An unresponsive baby was rushed to emergency room and the family didn’t know anything yet. This child’s mother was on her way home from work and didn’t yet know that her baby was in dire straights in the […]
Quick 1 Samuel Review Saul was Israel’s first king and he didn’t do such a good job, which means he didn’t always do what God told him. In fact, Saul wanted to kill David (who was going to be the next king after Saul). 2 Samuel 2 Samuel is the 10th book of the Bible […]
This year in Followers I’ve been teaching through the stories in 1 Samuel. I’ve already discussed my experiment with this particular year, but I’ve since let the cat out of the bag: the students know explicitly that these ancient stories are from the Bible! What’s been fun this year has been teaching 1 Samuel’s stories through […]
Back in October of 2015 I completed my master’s thesis @ Wesley Seminary. It’s one of those things that resides on my computer and sits in the stacks at Indiana Wesleyan University Library, but isn’t easily exposed to the light of day. So I thought I would post some of my thesis’ content. The full thesis […]