Our study through the book of James continues into chapter 4 with good momentum and incredibly practical and challenging content from the text. Here are the notes divided into sections.
Here we are at the beginning of another year! This lesson is a break from our James study, though the topic flows directly from our discussion from the first two verses in James 4, and we will actually land right back in James 4 for our conclusion. God had given me this topic back in October for our annual New Year’s lesson, and I had been thinking about it since late 2015.
Lately there has been a lot of talk about “casual Christianity” in church and among our leadership. The more I think about it, the more concerned I am that I and many others are practically living exactly that type of Christian walk, and aren’t even aware of it.
It is because of that possibility that this study compares Jesus’ “greatest commandment” and our lives to see if we are living up to His expectation of us – and our commitment to Him.
Our study through the book of James continues into chapter 3 with an appropriate balance and reasonable speed. You’ll notice that my study notes changed format with this study. My Bible program of 20+ years finally broke with the latest MacOS update, so I had to (hurriedly) buy and get up to speed on the excellent, but incredibly pricey Logos. Here are the notes divided into sections.
In our class times together, passages and themes from the book of James kept coming up and we decided it would be cool to change our tack a bit and do a Bible book study instead of our typical topical studies. I’m not sure they’re still glad they did because we are (I am) taking quite a bit of time going through, and I’ve gotten a bit too technical in the presentation. You’ll notice as we get close to the end of chapter 1 that I started doing better with that, and I think we’re doing quite well with a better balance of background, application, and velocity in Chapter 2 (next post). Here are the notes divided into four sections along with a bonus (no extra charge!) simple worksheet that I created for my kids since we are studying it with them in parallel.
James Introduction (Pt. 1 of 2) – March 13, 2016 – AAC, 42 min., 21MB
BTW, if you’re interested in the discussion in the introduction about the actual name of the author of the book of James, you should also listen to the first eight or nine minutes of the Palm Sunday lesson, since that topic came up at the beginning of our time together that next week.
James Introduction (Pt. 2 of 2) – March 27, 2017 – AAC, 39 min., 19MB
This study came from four different sources that are closely related in their practical truths. I was reading something and came across this quote:
“Bad habits are easy to make, but hard to live with. Good habits are hard to make, but easy to live with.”
And somehow God took that thought and reminded me of one of my favorite Andy Stanley sermon series, Destinations: The Principle of the Path. And when I started thinking about that, I remembered a recent sermon by one of our teaching pastors where he talked about the process of how our thoughts become attitudes and actions, and how those actions become habits, and how those habits will determine our lives. And then I remembered some great wisdom from Andy Andrews that really helps make it all practical.
I began thinking about all four principles and realized there is an important reminder / warning for us at any age and place in life that we be careful with our minds, intentionally choose what is influencing our decisions, and make sure the destinations that are set by our current paths are where we want to end up.
Here are the recordings of my teaching this series (AAC format playable in most browsers, iTunes, and iDevices):
(My new lapel microphone does a much better job getting my audio, but a much poorer job picking up audio from the group, and this lesson had a huge amount of wonderful discussion that ended up being large chunks of silence on the recording, so I had to remove it. That results in some odd transitions, but it’s better than wasting the listeners’ time. I may have to start running two separate recordings to capture both well.)
This (rather lengthy) series grew out of the previous study on the Shemitah and Blood Moon Tetrad. During one of our discussion times in class, one of the members asked, “If this stuff is possibly true, what should we do about it? How should we prepare?” And that question of how we could be ready for the possible return of Christ drove us to the Scripture to answer that question. There are five overarching questions that came out of trying to discover how to be ready.
What are the signs of the end?
How to be ready?
What do you do when told to deny Christ?
Should we be preppers?
What should we do if our government tells us we can’t obey God?
Here are the (again, rather lengthy – 25 pages!) notes from the study, but be warned that even as lengthy as they are, there are many important things that do not come out clearly in the notes, but are clear in the audio recordings. So, please listen to them if you can. Especially if you’re trying to deal seriously with any of these very timely questions.
Also, as quickly becomes clear in the audio recordings, you will understand many of the references much better if you join us and read the book, Killing Christians, by Tom Doyle. This lesson series is in no way a book study, but that book certainly illuminates many of the topics we discuss and provides relevant background examples, and is otherwise a fantastic book every Christ-follower should read.
Further, the book, Do Love, by Andrew Rankin provides great background for the practical application of how we should be living in the light of the Scriptures we study here.
For most children, their father will be one of the two greatest influences in their entire lives. Whether that influence is positive or maximized depends upon choices the father makes.
This lesson looks at the impact a father can have on his children by having a great lifelong influence.
(Yes, the lesson had at least two more sections I was planning to add, but decided to go to another topic before finishing it.)
This lesson is a multi-week study of Colossians 3:12-14. It is a wonderful passage that focuses on how to get along together, a truly needful message for the church today. The eight virtues Paul lists in the passage are: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, forgiveness, and love.
This is an expository look at Titus 2:1-10, where Paul tells Titus how he should be instructing the new believers in Crete to live and behave. There are six groups of people he highlights: older men, older women, younger women, younger men, ministers, and employees.
I updated the PDF in August of 2013 when I noticed some mistakes. For all of the thousands who have downloaded it, please get the updated version.
This is a refresh of a study we did a number of years ago, timed for the tax deadline in the US. It is made up of a number of diagnostic questions, most of which are not matters of sin, but could indicate that something is out of line in the area of finance, and that one may not be experiencing God’s best for their lives. The central theme is one of trust in God.
Be the First to Comment