Sunday School: 3/23/2008

Sorry it took me so long to post the outline from Sunday. In case you missed it, we talked about the final two plagues God sent upon the Egyptians in response to Pharaoh's hard-heartedness. Coincidentally enough, we spend most of our discussion on the similarities between Passover and Easter and how Christ was the final needed Passover lamb. Here's the outline in case you didn't get one.

Genesis 10-12 -- Passover instituted and the Israelites freed

Sunday School: A Plague on Both Your Houses

This morning we studied Exodus 8:20 through 10:20, the continuance of God's plagues on the Egyptians in response to Pharaoh's hardened heart. Last week we saw the Nile turned to blood, frogs, and swarms of gnats/lice. This week, we saw swarms of flies, disease upon livestock, boils on man and animals, a massive hailstorm, and swarms of locusts. Sounds like fun, huh? Throughout all the land of Egypt, the people were in misery...everyone except for the Israelites, God's chosen people, whose region was spared. What we see here is not only a testimony of God's sovereignty, but also a clear demonstration of his favor and faithfulness to the Israelites, just as he promised.

Exodus 8:20-10:20

Midweek Bible Study 3/13/08

We had a great group last night for The Rebel's Guide to Joy in Conflict. Despite a few controversial comments by Mark, we were left with a very fruitful discussion on the dangers of religion over relationship. There was so much meat in this lesson with regards to the differences between religiosity and true Christ-centered living. To summarize, here's Mark's closing thought...(my paraphrase)

Religious People are Dogs,
Religion is Rubbish,
Jesus is the SOURCE of gift righteousness
which results in eternal, unending, unfathomable
JOY
and that is always worth fighting for

Sunday School 3/2/2008

It's already March???? What happened to February? I thought perhaps we might start to see signs of Spring; that is, until I woke up to snow flurries this morning! We'll I've lived here long enough to know better than to try to play weatherman...guess we'll just have to take it a day at a time...

This week, we started with the end of Exodus 6, which contains the list of Israelite clan leaders and continued through the first 3 plagues on Egypt, the consequence of Pharaoh's disobedience. Thanks to all who participated in the discussion...it was certainly full of great insight and thoughts (as always). In case you missed it, be sure to check out the outline below. See you next week.

Exodus 6b through 8a