Finding Hope Through Discovery in Bible Study

  Living God’s Love (The Stranger in Your Gates) Part II   Scheduled for October 30, 2021 Shared in Class November 13, 2021     The late Charles Colson often asked, “What is Christianity?”  He said about half of those he asked responded with, “A relationship with Jesus.”  Would you agree?  What does that relationship look like?   Colson went on and answered his question this way,   “ That is wrong. The gospel cannot be merely a private transaction. God didn ’ t break through history, through time and space, to come as a babe, be incarnated, and suffer on the cross just so you can come to him and say,  ‘ Oh, I accept Jesus and now I can live happily ever after. ’  That ’ s not why he came. . .. Jesus came as a radical to turn the world upside down. When we believe it is just about Jesus and yourself, we miss the whole point … . Christianity is a way of seeing all of life and reality through God ’ s eyes. ”  (David...

  Living God’s Love Part I   October 23, 2021 Larry R Evans   Introduction   A boy was flying a kite on a misty day.  The kite was invisible in the fog.  A passerby wondered what fun there could be flying a kite that could not be seen, to which the boy replied, “I cannot see it, but something is tugging on it.”  Living God’s love is something like flying a kite on a misty day. We can’t see Him, but we feel him tugging on our hearts. Living with God’s presence is what it takes to give life meaning and purpose. Knowing God becomes our north star, the foundation, the One who guides and keeps tugging at our hearts. Given a chance, He changes the way we see ourselves and others. When that happens, when we allow it to happen, we begin to think differently and to relate with others and with God in different ways.    This week’s study could easily be focused on the characteristics of God’s love. That would certainly be time well spent. Toda...

    Larry R Evans September 25, 2021   Introduction   Last week in our Vancouver church, Pastor Bryson shared an excellent sermon about rest.  His key text was Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you  rest . (NIV) The  Message  paraphrased it this way, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me.  Get away with me   and you'll recover your life . I'll show you how to take  a real rest . The words of Jesus were in contrast with the prevailing thoughts of the Romans then and Secularism today. Stoicism, for example, taught that thoughts mattered most while feelings should not be expressed.  Epicureanism taught that  the purpose of life was to experience tranquility.  This was accomplished by making sure that a person had more pleasure than pain. The purpose of life was then to have fun, to have pleasure.  What mattered most with this approac...

Called to Be Restless and The Sabbath of the Soul   September 11, 2021   Larry R Evans   Introduction   We live in a time of anxiety, a time of unrest.  Every wind of doctrine (religious and political) is blowing in the wind. One headline on the Internet reads:  “The Covid Vaccine has 666 Written All Over It…and Why that Doesn’t Matter According to Revelation.”    In the Washington Post is this headline:  “ On social media, vaccine misinformation mixes with extreme faith .”   It then says, “ In an insular world on the social media app TikTok, young Christians act out biblically inspired scenes in which they are forced to take a vaccine for the  coronavirus , only to end up splattered in fake blood and on the brink of death.”   But the spread of disease is only one trauma facing us today. Other countries are concerned too.  One headline stated: “Deutsche Bank Warns of Inflation”   Of course, 20 years ago...