We’ll consider the issue of purity first by using the life of Joseph, then going to see what the New Testament says!
Relationships fill up so much of our life and energy. But as Christians, how does our faith change our relationships? How does our faith affect how we think about dating, marriage and our singleness?
If you’ve grown up in Christian circles, you’ve probably heard the phrase “don’t be unequally yoked”. The idea of a yoke is agricultural language which we may be unfamiliar with. At the same time, the principle behind it, sometimes reduced to “only date Christians” can sound jarring and even rude.
In this study, we want to understand what it means to be unequally yoked in our relationships, and on the other hand, why it is important to be equally yoked. We want to begin by exploring what it means to be a faithful Christian as this is an important foundation and principle to establish before we go on.
We continue our series that on relationships and we will look at what the Bible says about singles and marrieds in today’s study. We will split 1 Corinthians into two sections, with two underlying arguments. Before we go on, just a note — today’s text is like a tree with many weird branches, and we could be trapped and caught in the branches. But we press on and ask God for His help to understand.
In the previous study, we began our series and tried to lay out the prerequisite to know God’s good design for gender. Genesis 1-2 depicts the male and female as two equal yet distinct holy persons reflecting the image of God. We saw how our anthropology is meant to reflect God. Our genders aren’t just statements in themselves, but is meant to point to God.
In this study, we are going to consider the issue of dating. Now, the Bible doesn’t speak of modern “dating”, because this is a new historical idea. But nevertheless, we can still glean some important and helpful principles from His Word!
This is our new series on the Bible, relationships and love. As young adults, relationships, love and marriage are things that we think or worry about, watch shows about and talk to people about. Today, our culture is obsessed with love and relationships. We see it on social media and in entertainment and as we consume more and more of this content, our view of love and relationships and marriages become shaped more by the world than by God’s Word. This series hopes to tackle this central area of life for young people. We will engage with a variety of issues that single, dating and married people face and we will come out of what the culture tells us to ask, what does God’s Word have to say?
The title of our series comes from a quote from John Calvin which reads: “I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul;” for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.”
This series has been helping us to see that real human emotions that we struggle with is dealt with in the psalms. Today, we are dealing with a psalm that deals with panic. Panic can be defined as “a sudden overpowering fright” or again “a sudden unreasoning terror often accompanied by mass flight”.
This psalm doesn’t seem to go anywhere. He begins by crying out to God but seems to just stay here, in his cries. He seems to stay in his sorrow and emotion. What do we do with this? When we read something like this, we want it to go somewhere. We want a resolution.
But here, the Bible gives us a picture of a psalmist who is mourning and in pain, and just stays there. It is ok. It could be hard for us because we may want to know what to do. But this study is teaching us how we can mourn and seek God out in a way that honours Him and is good, even in our sorrow.
What is shame? The Webster dictionary defines shame as the painful emotion caused by a consciousness of guilt or shortcoming or impropriety. It can also be defined as a feeling of embarrassment or humiliation that arises in relation to the perception of having done something dishonorable, immoral, or improper.
But what can we do about it? Today’s psalm will show us how the psalmist address it.
Have you been in situations where you were hit by debilitating anxiety? Maybe it's the thought of starting your career off in an economic recession where businesses are less willing to take risks. Or perhaps you’ve been working for awhile and you’re seeing your investments nosedive in value. For others, you could be worried about what to with your money after working for a while. Today’s psalm gives us a real picture of what it’s like for a Christian to work through anxiety.
Spiritual dryness and indifference is a state we find ourselves in many times. Where we feel “sian” about most things in life and especially life as a Christian. We find little joy and enthusiasm in our Mondays to Fridays, weekends are too short to be any form of respite, and maybe even our life in church is troublesome and messy. Our ministry wears us down rather than lift up our souls as we serve God.
Psalm 103 is bursting with praise and worship of the LORD. The psalmist urges his whole being to bless the LORD by remembering all his benefits, and in doing so, his heart wells up in praise to God. Today, we too have all his benefits through Christ.
Do you struggle with the sort of low feeling that sticks like a heavy mood. As we look to Psalm 77 for the answer, we also want to consider, what might prayer look like, if the very idea of God deepens our sadness? What sorts of questions does God invite us to ask? What sort of people are God’s people?
John Calvin has described the book of the Psalms as one that is the “anatomy of the soul”, “for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.”
In this passage, through Psalm 69, we learn how in pain, we are not to remain emotionally detached, but to cry out to God. The psalmist also shows us how not to sink in despair, but to hope in God; not to be self-reliant, but to make desperate lament to God; and, not to be self-absorbed but to delight in God’s salvation.
This is the last of the oracles in this series from Isaiah 13-23, on lessons from the nations. This series has included ten oracles to the nations, that all revolve around the ongoing rise of Assyria in this part of the world: from chapter 13 to 20 in which, Isaiah speaks oracles of how God rules decisively over the nations including the big boys in the region, Babylon, Assyria, and over Philistia, Moab, Samaria, Cush and Egypt.
Overall, Tyre, Egypt and Babylon all struggled against Assyria, making it appropriate that Isaiah addresses Tyre at the end of this section. God has already addressed Egypt and Babylon in this section. Tyre too, is no safe haven for God’s people to look to for security.
We’re in a study in section of Isaiah where God pronounces judgment on the nations around Israel — reminding us that God is a great sovereign God over the nations, not just Israel and Judah. In our previous study, we were led through the first half of the oracle and prophecy to Judah, the southern Kingdom of Israel (which is also the seat of the David’s throne, to which God had promised an eternal dynasty).
Where is our security found today? Maybe we don’t feel the direct threat of a physical invasion, but a good place to start is where is our comfort found? What do we do to protect that comfort? What is our heart condition as we try to protect or maintain our comforts?
Today, we will see how God is sovereign and is our greatest security. In Christ, God redeems us from our own efforts to secure eternal security. We only need to repent and trust in his salvation. Apart from God, only death ensues.
We think that the work of our hands amount to something and something of the work of our hands remain. But when all is said and done, what remains?
In today’s study, we will look at three oracles, to Babylon, Edom and Arabia.
Before we make a start into the questions, let’s consider the geopolitical context. Geographically, we have Assyria to the North, several nations and cities, including Ashdod, Israel, Assyria, in the sort of middle, and Egypt and Cush to the South. Historically, these events occur from 714 to 711.
The context for this passage can be set along the lines of geography and history. Geographically, we find Egypt to the south, Assyria to the north, and Judah in between. History tells us that Judah had previously fled from the attacking arms of Israel and Syria into the arms of Assyria – like “running from two mice to take refuge with the cat” (Oswalt). But in the context of this chapter, the cat has snacked on the two mice and it remains hungry. And there’s only 1 mouse left. So we have Assyria (the great cat) to the North, and Egypt the new cat (and the old slavemaster from the time of Joseph and Moses) to the South. Which cat will Judah take refuge in this time?
Today’s text takes us to the oracle to Cush. In this passage, the prophet turns away from the other nations that were addressed earlier. Cush turns to diplomacy in a time of crisis and yet, God says that He is working in world events. Isaiah 18:6-7 tells us the result, first in verse 6, and the other in verse 7.
Today’s study is titled, what has your attention? When you wake up in the morning what do you think of first? For me, it is often what needs to be done at work. Emails that need to be replied, meetings to attend and fires to put out. Maybe it’s your finances, your hobbies or your relationships. In the crisis that COVID-19 and other geopolitical conflicts have brought, we have more and more things and people vying for our attention. Whatever has our attention frames our days and our lives. What had Israel’s attention in a time of crisis? We will see that this was not God. The passage today will invite us to examine what we are focused on and how God might view that.