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Abraham: Called to Warfare
For those of you who are joining us for the first time, we are currently engaged in a study of the Bible, being presented here in the form of a two-act play which we’ve entitled, God’s One Big Story. In Act 1, Scene 1, we covered Genesis 1-11—the Overture to our story—and now, in Act 1, Scene 2, we are studying the lives of the Four Patriarchs found in Genesis 12-50. They are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, the four men most responsible for the birth and development of Israel—the nation who would one day become the Wife of Jehovah and the one through whom Jesus Christ would later come…
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Spiritual Warfare: Getting the Lay of the Land
Having familiarized ourselves with the character, career, and ultimate end of our enemy (Satan) in our previous exercise, it is now time for us to “get the lay of the land” over which he rules. In other words, we are going to reconnoiter–or, to put it into military terms–do a “recon” of our enemy’s territory. Since reconnoiter comes from the French word reconnoiter, meaning to “make a survey,” our goal in this action is… …to inspect, observe, or survey (the enemy, the enemy’s strength or position, a region, etc.) in order to gain information for military purposes.[1] Given that the enemy’s territory is so vast, and largely invisible to the…
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Service: Women and the Work of God, Part 2
As promised at the end of our last workout session, we are back to finish what we started in our exercise on Service: Women and the Work of God. There, in Part One, in pursuit of a better understanding of the role God intends for Women to play in the Service of His Kingdom, we once again went back to the story of Adam and Eve, looking at it to determine… God’s Purposes for the Sexes; God’s Punishment of the Sexes; and, God’s Promise to the Sexes. As a result, we discovered that in His quest for a Family to love, God created Man as a Spirit Being, a Spirit…
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Service: Women and the Work of God, Part 1
In our last exercise, Service: Interrupted…By Devilish Design, we learned how Satan, in his drive to establish his kingdom’s rule over the earth, has been at work trying to prevent the establishment of God’s Kingdom on the earth. We discovered that from the beginning of human history to the present time he has… Grown his kingdom by alienating people from God, taking and keeping them captive through sin; Limited the growth of God’s Kingdom by keeping those under his dominion ignorant of God’s goodness, as well as the freedom they could be enjoying as members of His Kingdom; and, Hindered the advancement of the Kingdom of God by means…
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Service: The Church as the Family of God
In our last exercise, Service: The Church as the Body of Christ, we were introduced to the concept that the Church, like the human body, is composed of three parts serving on three different levels, with each part being delegated a specific role to fulfill in its service for Christ. As… The corporate Body of Christ, the Church is to reach outward into the world; bringing the good news of Salvation to the lost in order to bring them into the Family of God; The corporate Soul of Christ, the Church is to reach inward to the members of the Family of God; loving and encouraging them while helping…