por Kathleen Dalton
November – A Month to Pray for the Persecuted Church
Don’t forget – Christians all over the globe are courageously declaring their faith in Jesus – and paying a higher price than most of us in America can imagine.
Books I Am Reading – “The Bible Jesus Read” – Philip Yancey
This was an easy read, and widened my eyes as I make my way through the Old Testament – Kathleen
Do I matter?
Does God care?
Why doesn’t God act?
Philip Yancey comes to the conclusion that these 3 questions, posed over and over again in the Old Testament, are answered in Jesus.
“The Old Testament is not a mysterious, outdated book. It is God’s biography, the story of his passionate encounters with his people, and the prequel to the story of Jesus. It is also the Bible that Jesus read, used, and loved. I probe seven representative books–Job, Psalms, Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, and the Prophets–and discover that the Old Testament deals in astonishing depth and detail with the same questions we face today.”
– Philip Yancey
Understanding the Bible – Booklet
Books I Have Read – “Speaking of Jesus” – J. Mack Stiles
Great book to inspire you to tell your story about how you met Jesus! You’ll get a few good ideas, and read some true stories of the author’s own experiences sharing the story of Jesus. Easy read. There’s a story in chapter 3 about a river rescue – it’s worth the price of the book!
Heaven Bible Study
Click on the link below to listen to the audio tapes of the Heaven Bible study, taught in January of 2012 at Southside Bible Church, Greenwood.
Books I Am Reading – “Be Reverent” – a Commentary on the book of Ezekiel by Warren Wiersbe
I know – it’s a commentary. You feel like yawning. But, wow! The book of Ezekiel has arrested me! Warren Wiersbe’s commentary has been great to help me get my arms around this book about our Dazzling God!
“People who forget God gradually become their own god and begin to disobey God’s Word, mistreat other people, and take God’s gifts for granted.” Wiersbe – P 107
The people of Israel in Ezekiel’s day had forgotten God. They called on other nations to help them survive, instead of trusting God. They worshipped the same idols as the pagan nations around them. They divorced. The committed adultery. They winked their eyes at others who did the same. They sacrificed their children to the fiery mouths of the idols.
Israel wanted their cake and eat it, too. They wanted to have the God of Israel blessing them and dwelling with them, but they wanted to worship idols, too. So God removed Himself, allowing them to see what life was really like without Him. (church discipline). No blessings. No temple. No worship traditions. No fellowship with Him. No word from Him. Those things were the fabric of life, and the people of Israel would find that out as captives in Babylon for 70 years.
The American church today is eerily in the same place. We love the world. We skip church for sporting events, for family get-togethers, for good weather, for bad weather, and for our children’s travelling basketball teams. We are no longer sharing the Good News of Jesus because we want to wait until we are sure we won’t offend. We depend on our jobs, our checking accounts, and our insurance to keep us safe. We leave our churches when we find another church with more of what we want. We divorce. We commit adultery. We openly hate any who tell us the truth about all of this. We accept sinful lifestyles as normal and say nothing. And we teach our children to do the same. We sacrifice our children.
We want our cake and eat it, too.
Lord, is it time for no comfortable church buildings. No fellowship. No worship experiences. No Bible teaching. No Christian friends. No blessings? Do we need the Lord to remove Himself so that we will remember He is the fabric of life? Do we need to remember God?
Ezekiel saw God. He was Dazzling! He could not be forgotten!. He will not be forgotten.
Books I Am Reading “Which None Can Shut” – Reema Goode
Such a sweet and challenging group of stories from an ordinary American woman who spreads the Good News of Jesus in an Arab country.
As a young woman in her 20’s Reema Goode came to know Christ personally after reading a small pamphlet someone had left lying around. “In an effort to meet other Christians, Reema went to a different church every Sunday she had off from work for an entire year. But when she asked about their faith, people would talk about when they’d begun attending services or how they’d become church members, deacons or Sunday school teachers. None of them seemed to know what she meant by “having a personal relationship with God”…. she wondered, where were all the Christians? Why were they so hard for her to find?” “Tuning in to the radio one day, she heard a program that seemed to give her the answer. It was Moody Bible Institute’s Stories of Great Christians, the dramatized testimonies of famous missionaries. Hearing how believers had left the comforts of home to bring the Gospel to the end of the earth made Reema wonder: Had all the Christians already gone to other countries where the message of the Bible was unknown, unavailable, or even banned?
“With what she now knew, how could she stay in America, where there were Bibles in every bookstore and complete freedom to choose Christ?”
You will be riveted with her simple stories of sharing the wonderful truths of the Bible with her neighbors in Arabia.
I definitely recommend this book for any who want to know more about reaching the Muslim community with the Gospel – or for those who need a jumpstart on telling the Gospel story right in their own neighborhood, today!
Minor Prophets – Why Do They Do It?
An Introduction to the twelve Minor Prophets of the Old Testament…and a Few Minor Prophets of Today.
In the Old Testament there were twelve Minor Prophets. They were ordinary men. Seven (7) of them were pretty much unknowns, and then there was a country boy, a man of royal lineage, an old man, a priest, and a shepherd.
They all had two things in common: a burning desire to know God, and a willingness to speak His message to people who needed to hear it.
Hosea is given a wrenching assignment from the Lord – marry a prostitute!
Joel remembers a horrifying locust plague, and urges Israel to wake up to an even greater plague about to descend on them. He jumps off from there and speaks of a time of repentance and pardon coming far off into the future.
Amos speaks words of warning of judgment sure to come, and a just as sure grace to follow.
Obadiah assured the Israelites that their enemies would also face a judgment day.
Jonah ran away from God, but couldn’t resist in the end.
Micah hid promises of a coming Messiah in his poetic words.
Nahum prophesied to the same people Jonah did. Except, in Jonah’s day the Ninevites, repented. In Nahum’s day they deserved, and eventually got, God’s judgment.
Habakkuk has questions for God.
Zephaniah uncovers lies which have been believed…lies which have led a whole nation away from God’s ways.
Haggai , along with Zechariah, spurs a struggling group of survivors to reach for the heights – and to put their faith in the hugeness of God, even though they can only accomplish a little.
And Malachi blasts the religious rulers, the priests, for their part in driving the people of God away from looking for their Messiah.
All of these men willingly obeyed God, even though for some of them it meant ridicule and suffering. The only reason we call these twelve “minor” is that they wrote short books. Their messages were just as “major” as the “Major Prophets” (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel).
The twelve Minor Prophets were all ordinary men obeying God…but why did they do it? And are there any “Minor Prophets” today?
Bible Studies by Kathleen Dalton 