Focus on Eternity

     This weekend I was asked to teach third, and fourth-grade kids about Hope from a Bible passage found in 1 Thessalonians 4.  This particular passage is commonly used to encourage Christians about the hope we have in Jesus Christ, which leads us home after we pass away. It is an interesting passage to teach to young people whose thoughts are often far from death.  As we age, it is more common to contemplate death as we have much more experience with losing loved ones.  In the Thessalonian passage, believers concerned themselves with the location of their loved ones once they died.  These early believers thought Jesus was returning soon, so they were perplexed by why Christians were dying before his return as Paul taught that Jesus conquered death.  It was customary for Paul to write letters to encourage the churches that were planted during his three missionary trips, and the book of first Thessalonians represented one of his many letters called epistles.      The child

      I hope you will allow my testimony to encourage your faith.  This morning I was directed to three different passages in Scripture by my daily Bible reading plan.  On the agenda were a few chapters in Isaiah, two chapters in 2 Chronicles, and Philemon.  This seemed to be a strange combination until I began to read and discover that Isaiah and Chronicles had overlapping stories.  I found my eyes resting on several verses that I highlighted, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what the Holy Spirit was trying to teach me.  Rather than explain outside of the experience, let me show you what happened.      The Biblical account I was reading told a story of King Ahaz, king of Judah.  Assyria was a powerful nation and a threat to Judah, Israel, and Aram.  King Rezin (Aram), and King Pekah (Israel) were so concerned that they formed an alliance to strengthen their military power.  They requested that King Ahaz join them.  He refused.  That is when God sent Isaiah the prophet to

Scripture Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.   Titus 2:3–5 Introduction      As I wade through the Old Testament prophets, I've been learning about the consequences of repetitive cycles of disobedience. It felt like a drink of refreshing water, to review the apostle Paul's instructions to both Timothy and Titus in my New Testament reading. Paul was giving instructions to young pastors on how to appoint good leaders within their churches. In this article, entitled "Instructions to Old Women," I would like to focus on only one demographic that I can relate to, women.  Paul focuses on four people groups: old men, old women, young men, and bondservants.      I initially thought