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Surrounding the Resurrection of Jesus were doubters from the unlikeliest of places. What do they teach us about doubters today, and what is the one persisting factor in such doubt that turns all doubters on their heads? Where's the hope?! Where it always is!

God's Word is in, throughout, sustaining everything and it's so clearly on display in all of Passion Week. What does that truth mean for us?

So what? Why is it important if you, or I, Christian believe in Jesus in this way, that He’s fully man and fully God? One word. Mediator.

The Northern Israelites, if the paid any mind to the prophet from the south, Isaiah, could have wondered just who this Gideon figure was that would break their oppressor?! Their oppressor was Assyria! The Messiah comes several years later, and He's not breaking oppressive rods that anybody expected, He breaks a rod much more oppressive: sin!

Who were the prophets of the books who bear their name in the Old Testament? Why is hard to read them? What were they all about? And do their prophecies contain the sensational, future-predicting stuff like Nostradamus, or what DO they contain? We answer all of that here...

As we continue an overview of the Bible, we find in Solomon's books a search and unpacking for the meaning of life. We also find that where Solomon painted the background of the picture, he leaves a silhouette only Jesus fulfills.

Guest Speaker, Passage text: John 15:4,5

In this overview of the Psalms, the biggest book of the Bible, we go through such an overview only hitting the tip of the iceberg: Christ from the Psalms, how the Psalms inform our conscience, and how the Psalms help us converse with God.

This is what we need to remember, and if we miss this, we miss Job. Because many people, myself included even after I came to this truth, this fact, what this book is about… many of us think, “Job - oh that’s about suffering. That’s why bad things happen to good people. That’s about the mystery of suffering.” This isn't so, and the book itself says so.

For me growing up, this was probably the least-touched on major narrative arc for me in all the Sunday School classes and VBSs I attended. I could remember the Flood and Ark, seems like I heard David and Goliath a thousand times, and I knew the names Elijah and Elisha and sure I knew the Esther story but couldn’t tell you when it happened… But the exile? The deportation to Babylon? I mean, also, sure, a few stories in Daniel I would know — but the general picture, the overwhelming, superintendency of God to say, “I have condemned you to exile. You have forfeited your side of the Covenant, and I’m disciplining you to Babylon, pagan overlords.” I never heard much teaching on that.

In the Kings of Israel (both kingdoms) we get snapshots of their hearts. Alarmingly, many echo the heart of Solomon in places like Ecclesiastes 2. Self-indulging. Pursuing the wind more than things that matter. What do these heart-pursuits teach us about the Christian life?

After the dark time of the Judges, God graciously gives Israel a time where His Voice was suddenly accessible and throughout Israel again by the ministry of Samuel. Even so, Israel desires its own voice at the rejection of God's (1 Sam 8:7-9) in their request of a King instead of the Office God had given to them at this time. By the end of 1 Samuel, we see how people can be so hard-headed against God's Voice that they think He's being silent, when it's really people themselves who through disobedience choose not to hear Him!

As we examine the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, we might get weighed down in the first two about the epic, nation-building, nation-moving, nation-disastrous truths to think the points of the story are far removed from us. But then Ruth tells us that even when we can't see it because things look so "ordinary," God's promises and His rescue still providentially takes place in the every day! Woodland Friends now receives online giving! Consider giving on the "GIVE" tab at woodlandfriendschurch.wordpress.com

Unknowns. There are lots of things one could focus on for the first five books of the Bible. For our purposes, let us examine these themes in these books: Unknown Consequences, Unknown Destination, and an Unknown Fulfillment. What's the unknown in your life, and is the Answer of the Bible still your answer? You can give, now, to the ministry of Woodland Friends Church online by clicking on the "GIVE" tab at www.woodlandfriendschurch.wordpress.com

Gifts don't care about feelings, yet we approach Christ often considering our feelings and neglecting His gift.