Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Two sources of sickness

Psalms 32:1-7

1. Why was David sick and when was he healed?

David was sick because he kept silent where his bones wasted away through his groaning all day long. His strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

He was healed when he acknowledged his sin to God and the Lord forgave the guilt of his sin.

1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 Peter 2:24

2. What is God's will for our bodies?

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Not a needle - a nail

Colossians 2:13-16

1. What was nailed to the cross?

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Hebrews 12:1-14

2. Why did Jesus not avoid the cross?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Why was man made free?

John 3:14-18

1. Outline God's plan of salvation.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

2. List the characteristics of God revealed in this plan.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.