God uses different means to confront us in our lives. I think that it is true that God meets us where we are. In our passage today of Joel, God confronts his people with a word of warning through his prophet Joel. As we read through this passage, it’s a big-time warning, not just a gentle reminder. Joel warns about a day of the Lord, about a day of confrontation that is near.
Two kinds of Prophets form a major portion of the Old Testament – the four Major Prophets (so called because they are long books) and the 12 Minor Prophets (so called because they are short books). Joel is one of the Minor Prophets.
Written after the exile of the Israelites in Babylon, what does this short book hold for us today?
As we come to a new series in Joel, we must recognize that we study God’s Word in tumultuous times. It is therefore fitting for us to start on a new study on the book of Joel which deals with calamity and crisis, allowing us to understand why disaster may happen in the life of God’s people. And in our studies, we pray that we may be comforted and strengthened, as we consider how God’s people should respond in a time of crisis and calamity?
What would you call “glorious”? Some of us would think of creation (e.g. mountains, sunset and sunrise) or architectural wonders (e.g. Sydney Opera House. Others might associate with food or skills, or think of sports teams or the title “GOAT” attributed to sports persons.
But what does is mean in this Psalm? How is God glorious?
In this Psalm, the psalmist cries out to God and focuses on His unchanging nature. How does this attribute of God serve as his encouragement?
We live in a broken world and we often have to choose between imperfect options. Often, many of our options involve some form of loss. So in these situations, what we need most if wisdom to pursue the course of action that would be most honoring to God and to all the stakeholders involved. In God’s grace, He helps us choose Him and choose the things that glorify Him the most.
In each situation, there are two kinds of wisdom at play – firstly, the wisdom of God and secondly, the wisdom that God’s people strive towards. This study of Psalm 104 will focus on the first kind of wisdom. We hope that in such a time as this, God’s revelation of Himself in His Word will be a source of hope and encouragement to all of us as we come to it together.
Psalm 104 is a creation psalm. It shows us the wisdom of God as it is seen throughout creation.
God’s silence is a perturbing matter. In philosophy of religion, it is often cited as evidence that God does not really exist, or at the very least, He does not seem to want to make Himself known. After all, if He really wanted to reveal Himself to us, couldn’t He simply appear to everyone? Or at least speak directly to each individual in an unmistakable act of communication?
As we study Psalm 51, we can rejoice over the sea of God’s mercy. This is a Psalm of confession and repentance by Israel’s great king, and as we read this psalm, we see also the God that he addresses this psalm to.
Psalm 33 highlights the strength and the might of God, or the power of God. Before we go on, let’s take note of the literary structure. Psalm 33 has a chaistic structure, which is a mirrored setup (ABCDCBA) and the goal is to bring the readers to the centre of the structure.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led us to feel new levels of anxiety and fear we didn’t know we could feel. People have been pushed out of the security of knowing what will happen next to not knowing what will happen. Knowing God makes all the difference in a situation like this. If we find ourselves wrestling and poring over Scripture to ask, “is this true?”, that’s how we fight for faith. But if we stare at Netflix and the news and our immediate circumstances and not wrestling with who God is or what He desires then in normal times you won’t be much better. We’re being forced to confront what we really believe. We’ll see God as more mighty and glorious and beautiful than we’ve ever seen Him.
This is the last study in our Lent series, and we will be taking a look at the appearances of Jesus to His disciples following His resurrection.
This is the second study in out Lent series. As we read the passage today, let us keep in mind that this text is written so that we may believe in Christ. It has been written so that we may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that we may have life in his name!
In this season of Lent, we will be working through the final chapters of John’s gospel, looking at the events before, during and after Jesus’ death. The first verse of John 19 takes us straight into the events that take place just before Jesus is crucified, as Pilate took Jesus and flogged him (John 19:1).
In this study, we come to the last few verses of the book of Exodus. We can compare this to an epic: one of those long, fantasy stories that stretch for multiple books, like The Lord of the Rings series. Like an epic, the story of Exodus has a scale of the story that eclipses our individual lives, revealing more and more what God is doing in this world.
That’s an important point for us to remember, when we consider the final verses of Exodus. So often, we tend to think that our own lives are the measure by which we see the world. God sees so much more than we do, and in Exodus, He wants to remind us that our lives are not just our own, but we are part of a larger narrative.
As we near the end of our study in Exodus, we come also to the point where the construction of the Tabernacle nears its end.
Through the book of Exodus so far, we’ve seen God rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt (Exo 1-12) and lead them through the wilderness and the Red Sea to the foot of Mt Sinai (Exo 13-19). They were no longer slaves; they were free. Their identity had changed – from slaves to a people belonging to the LORD. But what did that mean? Who were they now, and what would they do with this freedom?
Speaking to Moses on Mt Sinai, God gave the Israelites a pattern for constructing the tabernacle and the priestly garments (Exo 25:9). Eventually, they would bring these with them and settle in the Promised Land. In Exo 39:33-43, they had just finished building the tabernacle and have yet to continue their journey.
It is not usual to do a bible study on records, so today’s passage may be strange to us. However, our conviction is that all of God’s word is useful for teaching, even this record of the tabernacle. Let us thus consider a few things: What can we learn from this? How do we worship?
The way and manner and attitude in which we worship a holy God has everything to do with how we obey. Let us consider how are we obeying as we worship, and what does our worship say about our obedience. If we hear God’s word and we walk away unchanged in actions, then we have wasted our time. We need to know how to apply and obey!
What we hope to see from this section of Scripture is that we can read God’s word and be encouraged by it. We tell our friends that God is faithful, because that is our assurance. When they hear this, they want to know how God is faithful, but sometimes we don’t know how to answer. What we want to do tonight is look at God’s faithfulness in this passage.
These 6 verses in Exo 34:29-35 have value not only in the narrative in Exodus, but in order to fully understand it, we will need to also read a New Testament passage in 2 Cor 3. We need the NT to understand the OT fully, and vice versa. The Bible is to be read as one coherent whole.
When was the last time you were really hurt? How long did you take to forgive this person? In this study, we’re going to see how God responds to being wronged and spurned by a people that He set His affections towards.
