Archive for January, 2007

Matthew 23:6-11 - “They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’  But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.  And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.  Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ.  The greatest among you will be your servant.”

Our flesh craves prestige and power.  The Holy Spirit does not accommodate this trait of man.  In the Work of the Holy Spirit, there is a constant struggle to keep our flesh from interfering with the Spirit’s Work, from hurting God’s project.  The Spirit wants to give glory to Jesus and none other.  Our flesh wants at least a little glory for ourselves.  Some people feel a need to be someone “special” – as did the Jewish leaders Jesus describes in the passage above.   continue

Job 1:1-3 – “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East...”

The purpose of this lesson is to give a brief overview of the Book of Job for workers who intend to preach from it. The goal is to provide some useful background information.

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“God does all these things to a man – twice, even three times – to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him.”  - Job 33:29-30

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Ezra 8:31-32 – “On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was upon us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way. So we arrived in Jerusalem, where we rested three days.”

The people of Israel were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah. The people was far from Jerusalem and cried together at the rivers of Babylon because they could not worship the Lord (Psalm 137:1) When the time revealed in the prophecy had been fulfilled, the people returned to Jerusalem under the hand of the priest Ezra to build the temple.

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