Bible Studies by Kathleen Dalton
Simple Question & Answer Bible Studies
Are you studying with us through Psalm 119? Great! This is Week #7: Psalm 119:49-56 “Memories”.
Your memories of God’s might will serve you well all your life, and into the next. Write them down and every once in awhile re-read them. When you grow old and your memory dims, have someone remind you of them. God Himself is our hope and our joy and our every breath. Think often of what He has done.
That’s really the only question worth starting with. It opens up the door to all the other important questions:
Are we here just by ourselves with no help at all?
Is there really a God in heaven Who is watching? SomeOne Who started it all?
And if so, has He spoken to us?
Has He given us any clues as to Who He is and What He is like? Does He want to speak to us?
Does He want us to speak to Him?
Does He want to have a relationship with us?
And if He has spoken, has He spoken clearly? Can we understand what He has spoken?
If God has not spoken, then we’re on our own, and we just have to do the best with what we receive in this life.
But if God has spoken….if He has spoken….then run as fast as you can to get a copy of His Words. Sell all you have to get just a chance to read them. Read all of His words…don’t miss a thing!
The first 4 verses of this chapter talk about the “latter times”. What are the “latter times”?
a. Has it already happened?
b. Are we living in it right now?
c. Could it start any time soon?
d. Should we be looking for it?
e. Is this the same as “end of the age”?
f. Is this the same as the “day of the LORD”, or the “day of Christ”
g. Is this the same as “the last days”?
Click HERE to view or download the entire 1st Timothy study.
I read a quote by a man named Richard Feynman – a brilliant scientist who helped create the atom bomb. He said: “It doesn’t seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil – which is the view religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.” -Richard Feynman (quote taken from “The Language God Talks”, by Herman Wouk)
I think what he’s trying to say is that our world is just too big and complicated and beautiful to be all about God. He’s just not that important.
In my opinion, Mr. Feynman is wrong. God is bigger and more complicated and far more beautiful than tiny little mankind, or our puny little planet or our unimportant little solar system, or our insignificant, miniscule dwelling place of space and time.
Instead, all of this – time, space, animals, planets, atoms – is about us finding out Who He is, How to be right with Him, and How to know Him.
Our life is a love story.
In Song of Solomon, through the imagery of the Shulamite looking forward to the day her King will come for her, we picture the fulfillment of life’s love story – the part we’re all waiting for…and maybe a little afraid of – when time and space collapse under the plan of God, and we finally see our King face-to-face. When the King comes, it is the culmination of our incredible love story…but the stage, it seems to me, is far too small for the drama.
The Third Letter of John. John is still defending and fighting for the truth of the Gospel in this letter – his 3rd letter to be included at the end of the New Testament.
But his words are very personal and practical….not theoretical. “Yes, you need to speak out against lies….but also, you need to passionately support the spreading of the truth.”
Are you studying with us through Psalm 119? Great! This is Week #6: Psalm 119:41-48 “Salvation”
At some point in our lives, each of us comes to the point that we feel an unrelenting guilt for our sins. This guilt can’t be pushed to the back burner any more. We know we have fallen way short of what the God of the Universe planned for us. We know, deep inside us, that we cannot save ourselves. We long, achingly, for SomeOne to step in and make us right again.
That SomeOne is Jesus – and the way we know He is offering to save us is when we hear Him say it. He says it, over and over again, in His Word – the Bible. We simply have to hear it.
Then, when we hear it, He goes to work. He shows us what it means. He causes great shame to undo our pride. He lets us see what great steps He took to rescue us. He brings us to the precipice of forever, and gives us a choice.
Zephaniah – “Lies We Have Believed”
Here are 3 lies we have believed:
“The LORD will do Nothing, either Good or Bad.”
(He is kind and loving and overlooks evil. He hasn’t done anything so far, has he?)
“All we Need is Self-confidence”.
(The LORD wants us to believe in ourselves.)
“The Future is What We Make It”.
(The LORD helps those who help themselves. Our actions determine our happiness.)
Zephaniah may not have had our century in mind when he wrote this book, but the LORD did….
Here’s the simple truth, before I go into detail:
God does not want women to exercize authority over men
in the context of the life of a church.
Could there be exceptions to this? Sure. If no man will step up and do what needs to be done, God may just raise up a woman. In the Old Testament, Deborah was moved by God to lead the nation of Israel. She obeyed God, but even in doing so she was 100% aware that this was not the way it should have been done. Men had dropped the ball. It was shameful that a woman would have to pick it up.
Why would God require such a thing, though? Can’t women be just as educated as men? Aren’t women just as capable as men of leading? Making decisions? Foreseeing difficulties and protecting people from them? Being kind and understanding, yet firm? Don’t mothers show these characteristics as they raise children? Don’t women in the business world (at least in our day and age) have positions of responsibility equal to or even better than men? Why would a woman be able to lead in the “real” world, but not in the church family?
These are legitimate questions, to my mind. So, here are some scriptures, and a few of my thoughts:
Week #5 of the Psalm 119 study. Psalm 119:33-40. “Finish Strong”
“Do not quit until the end, keep on until you have done all that the Lord has sent you to do. When you have reached that time when the Lord takes you home; that is the end of your ministry.” – Ray Steadman
The advice in Proverbs is sometimes hard to follow – it might “go against the grain” occasionally. But one thing is guaranteed. When followed, God’s wisdom is always “sweet”. In other words, you can’t go wrong taking this advice. It always brings peace inside and gives you hope for the future.
When something is going wrong in your life, it is so sweet to know what God would have you do, and then to be able to look forward to the future.
Bible Studies by Kathleen Dalton