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.
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.
Our class 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 (I) are taking quite a bit of time going through, and I’ve gotten a bit too technical in the presentation. I think we’re doing well with a better balance of background, application, and velocity in Chapter 2. 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 lesson is a detailed timeline of the last week of Jesus’ early ministry, and will likely be very controversial for those who are stuck on a traditional Good Friday crucifixion. But, I believe it is the best fitting explanation of all of the biblical data.
LOL! As you can see below, my title for the lesson was boring. This title came from my dear wife who always has a knack for spicing things up! Anyway, this lesson (intended to be just one Sunday, but ended up being three…) is what I believe is God’s challenge for our class members for the new year.
Here are the recordings of my teaching this lesson (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, so I remove those silent gaps. That results in some odd transitions, but it’s better than wasting your time. I have purchased another microphone so I can record both.)
Week 1 – Ministry (12/20/15), 31 min., 15MB
Week 2 – Leadership (1/10/16), 42 min., 21MB
Week 3 – Personal Holiness (1/17/16), 44 min., 22MB
(I apologize for the sound quality of this lesson. It’s all the fault of my sound engineer. (Me.) As mentioned above, I purchased an additional microphone to capture ambient sound (discussion from the group) and used it this week. As it turned out, I didn’t make it through all the clicks needed to start my lapel microphone so I only have audio from the new ambient microphone (which is actually pretty impressive). But there is lots of noise from the lectern that the microphone was sitting on, along with my iPad and my hands. Lesson: get something for the microphone to sit on that will isolate it from the lectern noise. And get a better app that requires far fewer clicks to get it working.)
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.
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.)
This final lesson in the (unintended) series of lessons on love focuses on Jesus’ practical and non-judgmental love for others as the ultimate example for us to follow and emulate. This was the last lesson before beginning the book study on the excellent book, Do Love, A Love Hack’s Path to Spiritual Maturity, by Andrew Rankin, available here.
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