Category: Bible Study Blogs

Last weekend we took our youth to a one-day youth conference in Elizabethtown, Ky. at Elizabethtown Baptist Church.

At the conference our youth attended four breakout sessions in which they were taught about grace and God’s unconditional love for us. These breakout sessions covered Grace in Dating, Grace in Suffering, Grace in Family Life, Grace in School/Work, and the Theology of Grace. There our youth were able to fellowship with other youth from churches from Kentucky and Alabama. We ended the day with a group prayer time in which we prayed for all the churches that attended the event, missions that our churches are connected to, and the sick and lost people in each of our lives. It was a great experience for our youth and we are hoping to have another event like this in the near future.

When I was brought on as youth pastor I had one objective- be clear about the gospel! This is the most vital thing I could do for the life of our church. Zealous for the the clarity of the gospel I spent several weeks unpacking the truth that is the power of God unto salvation.

As I concluded that series I wanted the students to have a clear and informed understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I began a series entitled: Who is this Jesus? This series is a verse by verse teaching of the Gospel According to Mark. The author leaves no room for curiosity as to whom the book will be about. Verse one states clearly, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” How about that! Already, in verse one the reader has a phenomenal understanding of who Jesus is. He is the Christ, the Son of God. Furthermore, the book will be the gospel or “good news” of this man named Jesus. My prayer is that I will be faithful to the text in giving the students a correct picture of Jesus.

Up to Date

Tonight we continued our study of the Gospel of Mark as we looked at Mark 1:21-28. The author recounts an event in the life of  Jesus that would be any horror movie to shame. Jesus is confronted in the synagogue by a man with an unclean spirit. A clearer contrast could not be found: Jesus the Son of God, who had just had the Spirit of God descend like a dove upon Him in verse 10 was confronted by a man with a “unclean” spirit. Nothing could be considered more ungodly than something “unclean” (just read the Old Testament). So, this is the setting: Jesus astonishing the congregation huddled in the synagogue with his authoritative teaching when an unclean spirit cries out. “What have you to do with  us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God.” (Mark 1:24) The spirit knew Jesus to the extent that the spirit declares what Jesus will do: destroy demons. The spirit knew that the Kingdom had come and that Jesus would ultimately wipe them out.

Jesus responds with one powerful sentence, ” Be silent, and come out of him!” (Mark 1:25) Then something remarkable follows- the unclean spirit leaves the man. What did Jesus do to remove the unclean spirit? Did he use a special potion? Did he use a particular prop? No, Jesus only spoke a command and the spirit obeyed. Jesus’ word was his action. We see this same concept when He called Simon, Andrew, James,  and John. Jesus says, “Follow me,” then the immediate response of the disciples was the drop their nets and follow Jesus. This shows us the utterly unique authority of Jesus! He speaks as to act and everything must obey! What an amazing Lord!

If Jesus is authoritative it means that we must do what he says. Furthermore, it is good for us to do what he says. What an amazing concept: it is what we must do and it is the best thing for us! Amen! So, trust in the Jesus who has authority above all! What is sin, pain, family problems, and addictions to the one who speaks and even the unclean spirits obey! Go to Jesus, it is what we must do and it is the best thing we could ever do.

June 17, 2009
Drew has started a new study for Wednesday Nights.. famous verses in the Bible!
If we were to start a series in a books, like we have been, we almost never get to look at any verses outside of the book. With this we’ll be skipping around and learning about verses that have become so important & figure out why.

^“8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

Drew explained to us so clearly that we are DEAD, we are born in to our trespasses & sins if we’re not in God. We were not able to respond to God, but through God’s great grace, & not through our own works we are now able. We will only boast in our great God!

Romans 1
Everyone knows that there is a God.

Romans 2
We are all guilty before that God.

Romans 3
We are all sinners.

Romans 4
Justified by Faith.

Romans 5
Jesus brought us to God.

Romans 6
Sin=Death, Jesus=Life

Romans 7
The law is and shows us we are bad.

Romans 8
God’s children are not condemned.

Romans 9
Predestination

Romans 10
Righteousness for everyone who believes.

Romans 11
Everyone can be included.

Romans 12
Transform and not conform.

Romans 13
Respect Authority

Romans 14
Don’t judge because you are not God.

Romans 15
Unity in the body is important.

Romans 16
Greet and Love everyone.

For whatever reason, we havent been meeting as often as we normally do.  Or maybe, I was just gone some.

Either way….we are back on track now.

Last wednesday night, we broke it down nicely and got in to the idea of giving. Not so much giving money or things, but giving ourselves.  What a thought…..have you given yourself fully to God?

Acts 20:35 Paul quotes Jesus saying “it is more blessed to give than to recieve.”We looked at that passage, we watched a video, and then we were challenged to give ourselves.

Paul says he does not count his life as worth anything.

Where are the young people who love Jesus and want to give their all to Christ?

I know they are out there…Jesus always has a following.  Lets rise up and give ourselves to His purposes for His glory!

Last week, we did not have Youth at our church.  We were in the middle of a Revival week and therefore Youth was cancelled.  Nevertheless, we had many youth attend the Revival services and God continues to work among our Young people at FBCF.

This past Wednesday though, we did meet.   And it was good.

Each year at Halloween, we let the children carve pumpkins and sometimes the Youth help out.

This year, I met with the Youth in the YouthRoom for about half the evening.  We were in there until about 7:40.  Then we went ouotside to carve pumpkins and have Hot Chocolate and cookies. It was awesome.

While inside though we took a break from Mark.

I asked 3 questions which are appropriate this time of year.

1) Can we legitimately be scared of the dark?  Either way, then why are we?

2) Are there such things as ghosts?

3) Are there such things as demons or evil spirits?

As the culture declines and families do with it, sadly there are more and more young people who are fascinated by evil and many things associated with it.  It chills me to think of so many teens seeing Halloween and things related to witches as such an awesome thing.

We discussed these three questions.  I wish more people could have heard our discussion.

Here are my conclusions:

1) No and No. 1John 1:5 “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”  The biggest reason we are scared of the dark is because we have trained ourselves to be. And that is bad, because now Satan uses that to make us more afraid and less faithful.

2) No. Ghosts are defined as someone who has come back after dying.  This is not possible.  Hebrews 9:27 “it is appointed for man to die once and after that to face judgment.”  Sorry, but there is no chance. This is God’s world.  The moment you die, you are before Him, to be judged by Him, and to be sent to heaven or hell by Him.  There is no opportunity to come back as a ghost.  Sorry.  Any argument in support of ghosts would have to be explained around this truth.

3) Yes and absolutely.  Satan is not infinite like God.  So, he has armies.  He has demons that work for him and with him.  But let us remember what the Scriptures teach. God is over the demons.  They answer to him and obey him and know him.  Like Luther said, “the Devil is God’s devil.”  So the follower of Christ living by faith has the power of God which is bigger than demons.

May we think about things that matter as we take part in this years Halloween.

Jesus is better.

This past Wednesday night, the YouthRoom took a turn in a different direction.

For some strange reason, every so often when I walk into the room and see 20-30 teens there eagerly waiting to hear me teach God’s Word to them, I become overwhelmed with excitement and energy and responsibility to the duty of being fatherly to them…all of them.  So on Wednesday (after they did a few rounds of ‘improv’ which made us laugh), I began talking to them about how hard life is.  This wasnt intended to be our Bible study.  I was merely talking to them about something on my heart. Well, turns out that took 20 minutes, and we were running out of time. So, I scratched our study from Mark 2 ( will get back to it next time), and I concluded the night following the same discussion concerning ‘life being hard.’

Life is so hard!  Even in thinking that and writing that, I still feel like I fail to grasp its difficulty especially for others.  Today, I preached a funeral for an 84 year old man who is survived by his wife of 61 years. These days must be hard for her.  I know of a 19 year old in Fairdale who is a  mother of two who was just killed in a motorcycle accident.  The driver of the Bike wasnt killed. These days must be hard for him.  Even more, the two children who will now grow up without a mother. Life will be hard for them as well.

My purpose in discussing this with our young people was this: are they ready for hard times?  what will get them through the difficulties?  Will their faith hold them up during the hard times?  Or is their faith so shallow that they will abandon it during the hard times?

As one author says so correctly “wimpy doctrine makes wimpy Christians”.

As the K2G (please see our 2 posts on the K2G on the left side of our youth page) attempts to explain our faith, trust, devotion, & dependence upon God is directly connected to our knowledge and understanding of God and growth in it.

So after that great discussion, we turned to 2 Timothy 3. Verse 1″But understand this. that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.” 

No doubt we are there. They may keep getting worse, nevertheless,…we are there.

If your commitment to following Christ is built only on what good He brings to you and good times, your following Christ will be short-lived.  But if your commitment to following Christ is built on good, rock-solid theology (Bible teaching) from all of God’s Word, then your followng Christ will remain even in the hard times.

2 Timothy 2:13 “if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.”

Now thats good!