This significant study has taken much more research than most, and I believe the results were worth it. In this study, we look at the seven religious feasts that God instructed the Jews to celebrate each year. A very very important feature of this study focuses on the Messiah’s past and future fulfillment of each feast exactly at the right time and precisely in the proper way. I spent a great deal of time reconciling the general feast calendar with the scriptural statements about Jesus’ last week before His death in order to establish a detailed most likely calendar of that particular week in history.
There are three takeaways from this study:
Nearly all of the writers of the NT had lived these annual rituals since they had been born. Knowing the background and meaning of the feasts will dramatically expand our understanding of what they wrote.
Seeing God’s careful precision with which He designed and fulfilled the feasts over thousands of years should encourage us to know He can and will be with us at ever point of need in our lives, as well.
Knowing more about the Jewish religion can better equip us to tell our Jewish friends about their Messiah.
There are three written resources: the usual teaching outline (but much more detailed than usual): The Jewish Feasts, a table with the annual feast calendar along with meanings and a surprise addition on the right side: Feasts Calendar, and my proposed calendar of Jesus’ last week of earthly ministry: Passover calendar.
In addition, here are the audio podcasts of my presentation of the second and fourth lesson to my Bible Study class. AAC format usable in iTunes and with iPods. (Blame my audio engineer for the absence of the other two. BTW, I’m my audio engineer.)
I’ve read some great books, but Do Love, by Andrew Rankin, is one of the most important books I’ve ever read. It is a book that will change your life. It is changing mine. It will change your small group. I led my Bible study group of 30 through this book last fall, and it is dramatically changing the way we love one another. But the message of the book is not limited to or even primarily intended for the individual or small group. This is a book that would change a church, and most importantly, could change The Church.
There are lots of books that talk about love and many that even talk about the importance of Christians loving others. But the author leads you through clear and practical examples of our failure to love others, Jesus’ central focus on loving others above everything else that we’re so apt to put in front of it, our need for love, and how to practically, meaningfully, and consistently love others. It is this focus on a lifestyle of practically loving one another through meaningful actions for the good of another that uniquely sets this book apart from any other I have ever read.
Amazingly, given the author’s credentials, Do Love is written in a very popular, easy to read style and is filled with practical, real-world, and often too close to home examples. But at the same time it is a thoroughly biblical treatment of the love Jesus commended and commanded throughout His ministry. Dr. Rankin even gives those who appreciate formal theology an entire chapter dedicated to a proper systematic theological treatment of love, which he smartly highlights as optional for those less inclined.
On a related side note: In over 30 years of teaching Bible studies, this is only the second time I have ever taken a group through a book study. My concern is always, “are we studying the Bible or just doing a book review?” But Do Love worked perfectly as the basis for a 10-week Bible study series because of its clear biblical focus. The author provides a study guide in the back of the book that has both a biblical passage to begin the session and numerous questions to help drive discussion. And it was very interesting reading for the class members each week, so they came prepared to discuss the content. Honestly, I used very few of the discussion questions from the study guide because the material itself drove the discussion and naturally led to though-provoking questions and dialog. And if attendance is any indication, the study was well-received, as we had the highest and most consistent attendance during those 10 weeks that we have ever had.
All that being said, Do Love is not a “feel good” book. There are times reading Do Love when you may feel very unloving. I certainly did. And you may recognize that your group, your church, and overall The Church are not doing very well practicing the great commandment. That became very clear to me, too. Do Love may, in fact, be an indictment of The Church today and our shared departure from our “first love.” But that is only the beginning. After being challenged with that reality, the rest of the book drives and equips you to practical, consistent, tangible love for others in a way that will change your world, and that could change the world.
A powerful and moving look into God’s hand in our lives during difficult times, one that’s sometimes hard to face. But we need to face our worst times in the light of God’s Word and His indescribable love for us. Get ready to have deep emotions stirred, but also, I pray, hope and a new perspective on those worst times in our lives.
Zip file containing two lessons identifying first our desperate need for Messiah and then exposing His work on the Cross and how it addressed each of our needs. More serious and theological. The second lesson was one of the more meaningful of all of the lessons I’ve taught.
News: Kathryn Scarlett Bingham. Due 4/21/07. Born 2/22/07. 3 lbs. 11 oz. Mother and daughter both doing very well.
We shared with very few people the extent of the challenges we faced with this pregnancy. But the high (low) points include being given a better than 50% chance of major birth defects, ruptured amniotic sac and therefore extremely low fluid levels with constant leaking, and multiple emergency hospital visits, being sent home from one being told to prepare for an imminent miscarriage. The summary prognosis at that time was less than 10% chance we would ever deliver a live baby, and if we did, a less than 5% chance she would be normal.
Each time, the doctors’ recommendations would begin with, “Well, you’ve already told us that you will not terminate this pregnancy, so that takes care of option number one. …”
We rented a fetal heart monitor so that we wouldn’t have to go to the doctor or hospital each time Trenna started bleeding heavily – to check and see if this was finally the time the doctors told us would come.
Many people were praying for us, and God gave us grace that carried us through. In December, something happened that no one can explain. Our perinatologist, the lead physician at the largest baby factory in the US, told Trenna, “This looks like a completely different pregnancy.” From that time on both he and her OB would say things like, “You are a walking miracle,” “You are proof of the power of prayer,” and last week from the perinatologist, “You rank up there among my most amazing cases!”
To be honest, I’ve never wanted to be a miracle patient.
Trenna was leaking nearly constantly, reminding her over and over that things weren’t OK. Certainly she bore the heaviest load. Each visit to the hospital showed just enough fluid for the baby to develop, but not enough to do any further investigation about the birth defect – so we could at least know what we were facing. We finally just decided that God was doing a work in us that required complete patience to the end. We would find out in His time. But the perinatologist assured us that he saw no “soft markers” of any kind in the high resolution sonograms that would indicate any concern of birth defect.
Every time she would go in for a visit with either doctor, the first thing out of their mouths would be, “I can’t believe you’re still pregnant.” When we hit 20 weeks, Trenna’s OB talked with us for the first time about the possibility of having a live baby – a discussion he never expected to have. He told us the next hurdle was to make it to 30 weeks, after which the baby could come at any time and have a great chance of survival.
That date would be critical, because it came just about a week before I was to leave for a two and a half week long mission trip literally on the other side of the planet. Knowing that we would be clear by the time I left was a big relief.
Once we made it to 30 weeks there was one final step. The baby needed to flip and assume crash position. When there is little fluid it was unlikely to be possible for the baby, and therefore the doctor started talking to Trenna about a c-section. Trenna really really did not want to have a c-section, so we and many others began praying about that. Wednesday 2/21 was Trenna’s visit to the perinatologist to see if the baby had flipped. She was very disappointed to learn that it hadn’t. It looked inevitable that she would have to have a c-section.
One of the things I’m learning about God is that He not only loves to do the impossible, He often does it in impossible ways. The next step in this story is a great example.
I called Trenna from Cambodia that evening (her time) and she was discouraged. Later she began feeling like she had the flu or something. She tried to sleep, but couldn’t. And the leaking increased dramatically. She called her OB office and found that her OB was the one on call. He called her and told her to wait until morning and come in if she didn’t feel any better. At about 5AM or so she began wondering if she was in labor. She called her friend Lisa a little before 6AM, who told her she had better go to the hospital just in case. She called her friend Elmarie and asked her to take her to the hospital and for her husband Pieter to pick up the girls.
Immediately Trenna began to feel very strong and painful contractions. Elmarie picked her up and they began the drive (in AM rush hour traffic) to the hospital. Trenna was curled up in a ball in the passenger seat having strong contractions every two minutes. Dear Elmarie sped, ran stop lights, and went through packed intersections honking to get there, but they finally made it at 7AM.
At first, the nurses weren’t very concerned. They had her try to fill out paperwork. One commented, “You seem to be in a lot of pain.” Finally, a nurse checked her and then shouted, “She’s fully dilated!” Finally some action! Trenna caught her to tell her that the baby was breach. Then things really started to fly!
Trenna’s OB’s shift ended at 7AM, too, and he was nearly to his car when they paged him. Although he didn’t have to, he returned and met her in the OR, ready to do an emergency c-section at 7:20. Before he had time to do anything, he realized the baby was coming out – breach – and there wasn’t time to do anything about it. (Neither had there been time to give Trenna any pain medicine of any kind. Not even a Tylenol!!!) He told her to push, and three minutes later Kathryn Scarlett Bingham was born.
No c-section. Breach. Our OB. We couldn’t have imagined and never could have planned the sequence of events that had to happen to make it possible, but God knew, and He orchestrated it to the minute.
Trenna recovered nearly immediately and was released Friday afternoon. She’s doing great!
I returned from the mission trip early and surprised Trenna Saturday evening.
When Scarlett was born, the doctors noted three new “soft markers” that could indicate the birth defect. Even after all of this, we still weren’t free of that possibility. They did the blood test and told us we would know by early the next week.
God had given us a promise years ago that applied to this situation, as well. During all of this time we had clung to the promise by faith, and God had given us hope through it. For some reason, the last few days of waiting nearly did me in. I guess being severely jet-lagged didn’t help, but I just could not seem to bring my thoughts and anxiety captive. It was a very very difficult few days.
But Trenna did much better.
Finally, early Wednesday evening, we received the call from the hospital. The test results came back and indicated everything was normal! It was the most important and greatest news I have ever received!!!
We are going to celebrate what God has done and have already had many opportunities to encourage others about God’s faithfulness and His ability to do the impossible. I pray that our experience will prove God’s power and reality to those who don’t believe. I pray that our experience will open up new doors of ministry to those who are in similar dark times and need encouragement and faith. I pray that our experience will renew my walk with God, my commitment to live by faith, and my effectiveness in ministry.
I’ve said it to a few in private, but need to note again that this situation has been the most difficult thing I have ever been through, but I am thankful to God for it because of the work that He has done in my heart through it. I would never have gotten to where I am today spiritually any other way.
Thanks to all who have prayed for us.
All glory to our mighty and merciful God!
Related topics include: Nuchal translucency AFP Down Syndrome Trisomy 21
This extensive study was written in 1997 for our premarital Bible study with the large crop of engaged students in our college class at Elmcrest Baptist Church in Abilene, TX, where we led the college ministry. It covers just about all of the marriage-relevant passages in the Bible and hits on all of the important topics couples need to consider before they get married. It also includes a number of book reviews that tap wisdom from the best available Christian authors, as well. A lot of the content can easily be repurposed for use with married couples. Originally, we called the study, “Before You Say, ‘I do.'”
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