**IMPORTANT**


Saturday, May 26, 2012

Sunday Worship Service - Lesson 17: God Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah


This is a story that we are all familiar with, and it is a portion of scripture that we need to look at with seriousness. We are going to look today at how a person can stand in the presence of God and be counted as righteous. Or maybe we should ask, “Is that even possible?” How can anyone be counted righteous in God's sight? Does God care if people choose to live an immoral life? I spoke strongly against homosexuality last week, but is homosexuality really a sin?
The Bible answers these questions very clearly and we need to be reminded of these clear truths from the Word of God as we are consistently bombarded by our culture with claims to the contrary. This story may remind us of what happened in Noah's day, and it should open our eyes to what is happening right now in our own society.
Let's read Genesis 13:14-17
14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16  I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”

Genesis 15:5-6, 13-16
And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Genesis 17:1-5, 15-17
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
Isaac's Birth Promised
15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

Genesis 18:20-21
20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,21  I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”

Genesis 19:1-7, 10-17, 24-26
The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.  And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.
10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.
12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. 13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
All scripture is quoted from the ESV.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Understanding the Minor Prophets - Wednesdays at 6:30pm

Introduction
The 'Minor Prophets' are called the minor prophets only in relation to the 'Major Prophets', and this really only refers to the length of their writings included in the Bible. They could more accurately be called the 'shorter prophets' and the 'longer prophets'. Altogether there are a total of 16 prophets included in the Old Testament and counting Jeremiah's Lamentations, they account for 17 books of our English Bibles.
The Writing Prophets - English Bible Order
Isaiah                           Jonah
Jeremiah                      Micah
Lamentations               Nahum
Ezekiel                        Habakkuk
Daniel                         Zephaniah
Hosea                         Haggai
Joel                            Zechariah
Amos                         Malachi
Obadiah
But this can be confusing for today's Bible readers because this is not the chronological order in which these books and the events they cover actually occurred.  I have borrowed this timeline from an article at Bible.org which is a great Bible study resource.  This timeline shows the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and marks the approximate times that each of these prophets ministered for the LORD.
Here are our Key Verses for this Bible study series.  Perhaps the Lord will lay it on your heart to memorize these verses in order to assist you in remembering the keys to understanding the minor prophets.
Key Verses
Jonah 2:8-9 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!
Amos 8:11-12 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.”
Hosea 3:1 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”
Obadiah 1:15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head.
Joel 2:11 The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome.
Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Nahum 1:7-8 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
Zephaniah 2:3 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. 
I will update the rest of the verses for the remainder of the study soon.  May God open the eyes of your understanding to see Him through this study and bring glory to Himself.


Friday, May 4, 2012

Upcoming Events:
Ladies' Day Apart - Tomorrow 9am to 2pm.

Ephesians Bible Study - Sunday 9am.

Worship & Communion - Sunday 10am.

The Gospel and Personal Evangelism - Sunday 6pm.

Understanding the Minor Prophets - Wed 6:30pm.

Spiritual Truths from the Wisdom Books - Thur 7pm.