In Ezekiel 37, we learnt that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of life. He is the one who brings life to the dead, who makes things out of nothing. He creates ex nihilo. He creates and recreates in new creation. Genesis 1:2 talk about God and the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the earth. The Spirit of God is active and present in creation. The Holy Spirit is the one who creates and makes all things, together with the Father and the Son.
This is the Doctrine of Inseparable Operations, where we see that the Godhead acts as one. The roles that they play are distinct and different. We know the third person of the Trinity by knowing the second person of the Trinity and how He relates to the third person.
What do you know about the Holy Spirit? Do we know the Spirit?
Where in the Bible do you see the Spirit at work?
But where in the Old Testament do we see the Spirit?
The Father, Son and Spirit are known throughout Scripture. God’s word informs us of each person of the Godhead. The verb form of the word Spirit is “spirare” which means to breathe and come forth form.
But, who is this person of the Spirit that we meant to experience? What does it mean that He is the Spirit of life? In this series, we will learn more about the Holy Spirit, and to start us off, we will be looking at what the Old Testament says, in Ezekiel 37.
Despair may not be a word that we use that commonly these days, as we often jump to speaking of depression. But despair conveys something of the fact that life’s storms have not passed and there is still something lingering.
Many of us know something of this, of how the despair of life comes at us from every direction. Most of the despair that we experience is also common to most of humankind — heartbreak, terrible health conditions. But in this text, we see despair of a rather unique kind. This is a despair that seems to cut off ultimate hope at its legs, and is a sort of divinely associated despair.
Church disappointment. We can think about it at a personal level. We may think that we can find acceptance, community, intimacy. We come, thinking that we can experience something of God’s grace lived out among God’s people, and people living out the truth that we are justified by faith alone, not works. But, then, what about works? Are we free to live in any way we want?
The disappointing church is a reflection of our sin.
If we look at 2 Timothy 4, we will see something of the discouragements of Paul’s own life and ministry, things that tugged at his heart and he might have been disappointed by. As we read it, we hope that you will give yourself permission to feel the same disappointment with the church but not to stay there and also see how he deals with it.
At the heart of the question “Is God’s Word trustworthy” is another related question – is God trustworthy? Does He mean what he says? Will He intend to do what He promises? Can He deliver results?
What exactly does our world need?
This whole account in Judges 19 is told in plain language and that can be so jarring for us. It is a shocking tale of grotesque morality presented in plain prose.
It poses a question for us: How normal is evil? Do we know that we have normalised evil around us, such that we look at what is evil, wicked, cruel, shameful and bat not an eyelid?
Does your worldview have a category for evil? Or is everything a matter of choice, lifestyle, social structures and forces?
This is the first of six studies that will focus on some common questions that people might have. This study will focus on doubt, and it important that we start here because arguably, doubt undergirds the rest of the studies.
Not only is doubt pervasive, but doubt left unaddressed is a dangerous thing. It festers and spreads.
The goal of this study is simple — that we, like Thomas, may believe that Jesus is the Christ. John himself tells us plainly
This section of Romans 8 can be familiar to us as “cheerleading” verses, verses we turn to to psyche ourselves up. But as we end this study in Romans 8, how can we see how the Spirit works, and how is this an encouragement for us?
This section of Romans deals with something we will all go through in life — suffering. What kind of suffering is Paul talking about here? He will focus on creation and man. And both these sufferings have deep root in the beginning of the Bible.
If we do not understand today’s passage, we will not be able to journey through the sufferings of this life with a sense of purpose.
What does it mean that the Spirit works in us? This set of verses will flesh that out for us! We will see that adoption change our identity.
In Romans 8:9, Paul moves from the previous group that he is addressing to another group, “you”. Who are they and how are they different from the people he was speaking to before? How does Paul continue to unpack and flesh out the ideas that he had spoken off in previous verses?
Romans 8 deals with many important truths in the Christian life. And Paul is incredibly passionate about the gospel here. It is our prayer that we will love the gospel as Paul does, and know and live it out as he did.
So, hasn’t God’s plans and purposes already come true? Nehemiah left Jerusalem because his work was done (Neh 13:6). It has been 12 years since the work began (Neh 1:1).
But God’s work is not yet done.
What is the joy of the Lord? Can this joy be sustained? Nehemiah 12 will help us to see how we can have joy in God.
By this point in the book, the walls are up, they heard God’s word and they have also expressed themselves in covenant. Now, they are to see what comes next. It is the holy city where God gathers them for worship in service for His purposes.
In reading this covenant, the people of God renewed their covenant and laid out specific affirmations and denials. What can we learn about God’s character and from the people’s response?
Is there a prayer of confession in your church service? A prayer of confession in the corporate worship service is important. God’s people come together to also confess their sins.
By the end of this study, we hope that you are convinced that confession is important, and to make it a part of your own discipline. As we read this passage, we want to consider how we approach a holy God as a sinful people, and see this as a biblical model for confession of sin.
What else happened after the wall was rebuilt? In this section of the book of Nehemiah, we see how God’s people also gathered themselves to worship God as a nation.
In our passage tonight, we see the beginnings of a reformation, rather than a revival. Here, God’s people recover the things that they are supposed to do because they understand.
In the previous chapter, the wall has been rebuilt. But this is not the end of the story. In fact, it only marks half of the book of Nehemiah. What then, is the rest of the book going to be about?
