Finding Hope Through Discovery in Bible Study

    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...

The Rhythms of Rest   August 28, 2021 Larry R Evans   I’ve outlined today’s study into four sections: 1.       Wholeness Before Brokenness 2.      A Brokenness that Leads to Wholeness 3.      Remaining Whole in a Broken World 4.      The Dawning of a New World of Wholeness    Introduction   During the past few days, the news has drawn our attention to a place called Afghanistan.    For over 20 years we have seen how nations have fought to regain power over the land occupied by the Taliban. In part, the obsession came with an attitude of revenge. It sought retaliation for what happened on 9/11.    A discussion about this tragedy can easily drift into political debates. Today, we need to be concerned with a much greater issue.    Note how Abraham Joshua Heschel describes it. There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own ...