So this is what has been going on since I last had an entry on this thing. We finished up Malachi, it was a good little book, it forced us to look at issues like what God considers acceptable worship, we talked a little bit about our attitude toward divorced people, as well as the faithful remnant that stood firm while everyone else was grumbling against Yahweh. I really enjoy the prophets (in particular the minor prophets) because they paint such a beautiful picture of the God we serve.
For mother's day, we looked at Hannah, and we talked about what it meant to be a mother who prays for her child, and a mother who goes through great lengths to see her son/daughter grow up into all that the Lord has for him/her. I shared some personal stories from my life about my mother and made a few ladies cry, so it was a good day!
We then started the summer and have been doing this series entitled "short stories." We first looked at Nahum, and asked 2 questions: 1) what is going on in this book? and 2) why are there two stories about Nineveh in our Scriptures, one where it ends well for Nineveh (Jonah) and one where it doesn't end so well (Nahum)? To make a long sermon short, we talked about Scripture giving a complete picture of God, that wrath and mercy are both realities of God, that God is an all consuming fire and will destroy all that is not of him, but he is a God of grace and mercy and wants people to know him and fall in love with him. Perhaps the sermon will be a later post. Second, we looked at Philemon and how what happens in that book is an outworking of the Gospel working in our lives, namely that the gospel breaks down barriers that society has set in place and puts everyone at equal footing, if it can reconcile a wealthy slave owner and a runaway slave, it can be used in reconciliation of any two people!
We just got back from camp and I will update that when I have more time! But keep an eye out! The Lord did a great thing at camp and I am excited about getting to follow up with the youth!
