Class Series

The last series in my class finished right before Easter; and I'm about to start the new one this coming Sunday.  It was nice to have a break; and to let God help me work through dealing with the critics.  I think I'm ready to start again, especially with the encouragement from Psalm 44, rather than trusting in my own "weapons", letting God deliver victory over adversaries.

In the last series, it was interesting to be review different aspects of Who Christ Is through the Gospel of John.  We looked at Jesus as the Word (John 1:1), the Creator (John 1:3), the Source of Life (John 1:4), the Light of the World (John 12:46), the Son of God (John 3:16-18), the Lamb of God (John 1:29), the Son of Man (John 3:9-13), the Bridegroom (John 2:1-11), the Savior (John 4:42), and the Messiah (John 11:27).  A few interesting points and highlights from the series:

•  Christ being the WORD and Creator are tied together in that "He spoke it, and it came to be" (Psalm 33:9a).  The vastness of creation declares the glory of God (Psalm 19:1)
• While the sun, moon, and stars were not created until the fourth day, in verse 3, when God said "Let there be light", it was like lighting a blank canvas to start His artistic work of Creating
•  The speaker talked about Christ creating all things, including governments both good and bad ("thrones or powers or rulers or authorities" Col 1:16).  Yet, to be absolutely correct, when He created everything, it was GOOD.   It is man's sin that causes the fall to BAD, though God does still retain authority over all
•  Because He is the Source of Life, apart from Him, there is death ("for the wages of sin is death" Romans 6:33a)
• Many of the characteristics of Christ are displayed together - life-light, light-creator-word, etc
•  Jesus, as the Son of Man, is the fulfillment of Jacob's dream of the ladder ("the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (John 1:51b) as the bridge connecting Heaven and earth
• During the "Bridegroom" lesson, there was a comment about being distracted by how much the speaker said he loved his wife (though he just used it as a illustration to show that it was nothing compared to the love Christ has for the Church)
• We need Christ as our Savior because of the Law, our sin, Satan, and the judgment.  We were reminded of the beautiful passage in Jude 24-25:  "To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." 
•  In the Christ as "Savior" lesson, we had a discussion on the definition of SIN.   I think the best definition comes from Romans 3:23  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  The most often word used for SIN literally means to miss the mark; and that mark is God's standard of perfect holiness.  Anything that falls short of that would be SIN.
• Closing with Jesus as the Messiah or Christ, the "Anointed One" appropriately led into Easter.  He was the Promised One from the Beginning, and through His suffering and resurrection is salvation of blessing

The new series will be in the Book of Ezra on "Renewal".    Because of my area of focus this year, I was drawn to Nehemiah as a clearly evident person of prayer.  Yet, because Ezra and Nehemiah were considered one scroll, it seemed to make sense to start with Ezra, to get the "full picture" leading into Nehemiah.  (Not so coincidentally, there will be a series that is planned in between to be taught be another person in my class, who said he chose the topic of "Prayer"). 

In outlining Ezra, the themes that seemed to recur were along the lines of second (or multiple) chances, restoration, starting again, etc.   So, going along with the prefix "re", which means "again", it was decided that the title of the series would be "renewal" (which means to restore, revive, rebuild, begin again); and the titles of each chapter lesson would give a overview along those lines:  Return, Rebuild, Restraint, Restart, Rededicate, Recognition of God's Hand at Work, Request through Prayer, Repentance, and Reparation.  In applying that to our own lives, when we need a renewal in our relationship with the Lord, we would need to RETURN to God, REBUILD the relationship, RESTART even when we encounter RESTRAINT from opposition, REDEDICATE ourselves to God, RECOGNIZE His Hand at work, make REQUESTS through prayer, REPENT, and make RAPARATIONS as needed.

In putting that into practice personally, starting with my RENEWAL motivated on Good Friday, I have committed to fully RETURN to God, REBUILD parts of my life that have been broken by sin, RESTART teaching again in spite of the critics, REDEDICATE my life and service to God, RECOGNIZE His Handiwork (my perspective on the critics, encouragement through Scripture, God's breakthrough, etc), make REQUESTS through prayer (my focus this year), REPENT, and make REPARATIONS (e.g. using the nail as a symbol for a reminder, reviewing and evaluating all that I do, etc).