"The Christian and the 21st Century: Lesson Twelve""1.In Matthew 5:14, how does Jesus describe Christians? What real-world comparisons does""He make in 5:14-15? In 5:16, what does He urge us to do? What does this mean for our lives?""2.Each of the passages listed below describes a responsibility we may have as Christians.""For each text, identify the responsibility and explain how fulfilling the responsibility helps us shine as lights in the world.""• 1 Peter 2:13-15""• 1 Peter 2:18-19""• Romans 13:6-7""• 1 Peter 3:1-2""3.Each of the texts below describes a behavior that will cause us to shine like lights in the""world. For each text, identify the behavior, discuss what each should mean for the way we live, and explain how it will help us to shine.""• Philippians 2:14-15""• 1 Peter 2:11-12""• 1 Peter 4:15-16""4.Listed below are several passages that discuss a way in which our speech should help us""to shine. For each passage, identify the word or action being encouraged, explain why it is helpful, and discuss how we should practice it.""• 1 Peter 3:15""• 2 Timothy 1:7-8""• Titus 2:7-8""• 2 Timothy 2:24-26"

"The Christian and the 21st Century: Lesson Eleven" "1.It is commonly asserted that Jesus taught nothing about homosexuality. What subject" "does Jesus discuss in Matthew 19:4-5? What does He say about it? Does this reveal anything about the practice of homosexuality? Why or why not?" "2.In Romans 1:24, what is God described as doing? How does 1:25 explain God’s action?" "Why is this text significant to this topic?" "3.What is God described as doing in Romans 1:26? How does 1:26-27 explain this description? Is there any legitimate doubt about the subject of this discussion? Why or why""not? Why is this important?" "4.What happens in Genesis 19:4-5? In 19:24-25, what does God do in response? Is this important to us today? If so, why?"" ""5.It is sometimes argued that the sin of the men of Sodom was their failure to show""hospitality to guests. What does Jude 7 say about the people of Sodom? How does this relate to the above argument?""6.What groups of people appear in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10? What is true of them? Why is this""important?""7.In 1 Corinthians 6:11, what does Paul reveal about some members of the Corinthian""church? What happened? Why is this significant?""8.What does Hebrews 4:15 reveal about Jesus? Is it a sin for anyone to be tempted? Why""or why not? Is it a sin for a man or woman to be tempted to practice homosexuality? Why or why not? What should this teach us?""9.According to James 4:17, what is sin? How is this passage relevant to \\\\our""understanding of homosexuality?""10.What three groups of people does Jesus describe in Matthew 19:12? What is He talking""about here? What does Jesus encourage? What does this mean in the context of homosexuality?""11.Advocates of the practice of homosexuality often argue that it is unjust to expect Christians with homosexual inclinations to remain celibate all their lives. Are such Christians the only Christians of whom celibacy is expected? The story of Ezra 10:18-19 may help you""answer. Why is this important?""12.What does Jesus say in Matthew 13:45? In 13:46, what does this merchant do? What""should we learn from this? How should this shape our understanding of homosexuality?"

The Christian and the 21st Century: Lesson Ten 1. In Colossians 3:5, how is covetousness described? Why is this true? What should it teach us? 2.What does Paul reveal in 1 Timothy 6:6? How does he explain this in 6:7? What attitude does he endorse in 6:8? What makes this attitude so counter-intuitive today? How can we develop it in our lives? 3.What different attitude is discussed in 6:9? What does this lead to? How does Paul explain this in 6:10? According to Paul, how severe can the consequences be? What should we take from this? 4.What is Jesus asked in Luke 12:13? In 12:14, what reply does He make? Accordingto12:15, what related warning does He issue? Why is this warning important today? 5.Who is the subject of the parable that begins in 12:16? According to 12:16-17, what is his situation? According to 12:18-19, what does he resolve to do about it? What flawsare evident in his thinking at this point? 6.In 12:20, what happens to this man? What does this reveal about his plans? What general application does Jesus make of this in 12:21? How can we avoid this trap today? 7.Whom do we meet in Luke 16:1? According to 16:1-3, what problem does he have? In16:4-7, what solution does he arrive at? What do we think of his solution? 8.What happens to this man in 16:8? Why? What does Jesus urge in 16:9? What does this mean? 9.What does Jesus state in 16:10? What rhetorical questions does He ask in 16:11-12? What’s the point? What warning does He issue in 16:13? What should this teach us? 10.To whom is 1 Timothy 6:17 addressed? What does Paul urge them not to do? What does he urge them to do? Why? How should we apply this text today? 11.In 6:18, what does Paul instruct this group to do? According to 6:19, what will the result of this be? How should we practice this instruction? 12.In Matthew 6:19, what does Jesus tell us not to do? Why? In 6:20, what does He tell us to do? Why? In 6:21, what explanation does He give? What should we understand from this?

Lesson Nine: Time Management Word Versus Deed It is fair to say that my father is a cynical man. He likes to joke that one of these days, he’s going to collect all the cynical things that he and other members of my family have said, inscribe them on sheets of bronze, and entitle the result The Book of Bassford. Were he ever to compile such a book, the first entry would be, “People always find the time to do what they want to do.” If we’re really committed to doing some-thing, we’ll find a way to fit it into our lives. If we aren’t, we’ll shrug and say, sincerely but incorrectly, “I couldn’t find the time.”This principle is useful for the way it illuminates the priorities of others, but it is especially useful when we apply it to ourselves. What really matters to us is revealed not by our fine words and good intentions, but by what we actually do. The choic-es that we make accurately reflect our priorities. In particular, those choices accurately reflect the im-portance we place on God. If we give Him all kinds of lip service but can’t find the time during the week to serve Him in truth, our lives show He actually isn’t very important.As the Bible repeatedly says, failing to put God first is a disaster in the making. If we aren’t giving God our time, we need to make the time to give Him. The more we do this, the more our devotion to Him will in-crease. The Lord has said that where our treasure is, our hearts will be also, but it is also true that where our time is, our hearts will be there too. This material is subject to a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license. This means that it may be reproduced, shared, and used freely, provided it is attributed to the author, not used for commercial purposes, and not altered in any way. For more information, please see creative commons.org

Lesson Eight: Anxiety -Anxious for Nothing- At first glance, Paul’s admonition to “Be anxious for nothing” appears utterly unhelpful. It reminds me of the bad old days back when I was still single and dateless, and well-meaning friends would tell me, “Just relax and be yourself, and eve-rything will be fine.” In other words, the path to success was not caring about something I cared very much about. How helpful!It’s easy to read the Biblical warn-ing against anxiety in the same light. For many of us, anxiety is as omnipresent as the air we breathe. We’re worried about our jobs, we’re worried about our finances, we’re worried about our families, and Jesus and His disciples come trotting into our lives and tell us to quit. Once again, how helpful!However, we would do well to heed the divine injunction. Even in prac-tical terms, anxiety isn’t useful. It drains us of the energy that we might use to solve our soluble prob-lems, and if the problem is insolu-ble, why fret over the inevitable?In spiritual terms, anxiety is even worse. It is a symptom of foolish reliance on the self. In reality, there is nothing that any of us can do of ourselves to make our work suc-cessful or our finances stable or our families happy. All of those bless-ings are in the hand of God, to give or withhold as He chooses. They do not lie within our power. The only thing we can control is our relation-ship with Him. All we can do is seek His kingdom first and trust Him to provide for us all the other things that we need. Anxiety accomplish-es nothing. ©Copyright Matthew W. Bassford, 2013. This material is subject to a Crea-tive Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license. This means that it may be reproduced, shared, and used freely, provided it is attributed to the author, not used for commercial purposes, and not altered in any way. For more information, please see creativecommons.org

Lesson Seven: -Depression- The Unlikely Foe At least from a surface perspective, the United States of America should be one of the happiest nations ever to grace the planet. Most parts of our territory haven’t felt the hand of war for a hundred years or more, even the poor among us know a level of prosperity that would pro-voke envy among the wealthy of 2000 years ago, and our abundance of natural resources and strong government seem likely to safe-guard these things for the foreseea-ble future. Nonetheless, the United States has higher reported rates of depression than any other nation on earth, even those with a medical estab-lishment as well developed as our own. Each year, 3 to 5 percent of American men and 8 to 10 percent of American women will experience a major depressive episode. The number of people this affects is well into the millions; the economic and emotional toll on society is incalcu-lable. Apparently, not only can money not buy happiness, it may even make the situation worse.The causes of and treatments for clinical depression are well beyond the scope of any Bible class, but an acknowledgment of the problem is not. The disorder has a spiritual dimension too, and it may well lead Christian sufferers not only to hide their condition for fear of the judg-ment of others, but also to shrink back, both from their brethren and from their God. We must learn to deal wisely and compassionately with one another in this area, lest we make an already dangerous problem worse. ©Copyright Matthew W. Bassford, 2013. This material is subject to a Crea-tive Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license. This means that it may be reproduced, shared, and used freely, provided it is attributed to the author, not used for commercial purposes, and not altered in any way. For more information, please see creativecommons.org

The Christian and the 21st Century 22 Lesson Six: Pornography The Heart, Part II Whenever we get on the subject of the sins that seem to flourish in the Internet age, it’s easy to think of the Internet and all the other mod-ern communications technologies as somehow evil. That isn’t true. The Internet is neither good nor evil. It’s a tool that makes it very easy for our hearts to get what they truly want. Our problems with the Internet, then, are really heart problems that now have an outlet.Back in the day, pornography wasn’t so easy to come by. You had to go to the convenience store and wait while the clerk smirked at you as he got the smutty magazine out from under the counter. You had to drive across the county line to the XXX video store with painted-over windows by the interstate. Worse still, you had to do all these things in public, and Somebody—somebody you went to church with, even—might see you! Laziness and fear conspired to keep a lot of would-be porn hounds on the couch watching Family Ties instead.Today, by contrast, the streaming video can go straight to our laptop screens, the steamy novel can go straight to our e-readers, and not even our spouses will know.We must remember, though, that the real problems with pornography continue unchecked. If we use it, it will inevitably corrupt our hearts further, damaging our marriages and our lives in ways we can’t imagine. Worse still, God will always know, and we cannot give our lives in service to such things a 1.From a dictionary, define “pornography”. In your own words, explain what this definition means. According to this definition, what forms of entertainment are pornographic? 2. Each of the four verses listed below supplies a negative definition or consequence of lust. List at least one definition/consequence for each Scripture and explain how it applies to us.  Matthew 5:27-28  1 Peter 2:11  Ephesians 2:3 24 Colossians 3:5-63. What principle does Numbers 32:23 state? How does this apply to pornography use? Why is this important? 4. Below, there are three verses that explain a Biblical defense against pornography and lust generally. For each verse, give the defense, ex-plain what it means, and explain why it is effective.  Romans 13:14  Colos ©Copyright Matthew W. Bassford, 2013. This material is subject to a Crea-tive Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license. This means that it may be reproduced, shared, and used freely, provided it is attributed to the author, not used for commercial purposes, and not altered in any way. For more information, please see creativecommons.org

Lesson Five: Social MediaThe Fullness of the HeartAs James says in James 3:2, any man who is able to control his tongue isn’t going to have any trou-ble controlling the rest of his life either. For many of us, our most common spiritual challenges con-cern the things we say. Many sins—theft, adultery, and so on—require us to invest effort in sinning. By contrast, the sins of the tongue are nearly effortless. We can ex-press an ungodly thought with little more effort than it takes to think it.When Satan already has this kind of advantage, it doesn’t hardly seem fair to give him the Internet too! Online, many of the obstacles that inhibit our face-to-face expression are removed. We don’t have to look someone else in the eye as we express our anger and contempt for him. The distance provided by the computer screen helps us forget that real-life people are going read the words and see the pictures we post. Some Internet forums even allow us to speak anonymously, freeing us from concern for our re-lationships and reputations. No-where are we as free to express what is in our hearts.The only way to prevent ungodly speech on the Internet, then, is to uproot ungodly thoughts from our hearts. As soon as we have a thought, rather than impulsively expressing it, we must learn to con-sider it and evaluate it, to deter-mine whether it is from below or from above. We must temper our self-righteousness with humility, our anger with wisdom, or the evil in our hearts will flow over our key-boards and our lives. The Christian and the 21st Century: Lesson Five1.Each of the verses below lists a spiritual problem. Identify what each problem is, and explain how it appears in the world of electronic com-munication.Proverbs 10:19Proverbs 18:2Proverbs 12:16Proverbs 20 ©Copyright Matthew W. Bassford, 2013. This material is subject to a Crea-tive Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license. This means that it may be reproduced, shared, and used freely, provided it is attributed to the author, not used for commercial purposes, and not altered in any way. For more information, please see creativecommons.org

Lesson Four: -Distraction- Lord, make in me an undistracted mind.Clear from my eyes the cares that leave me blind.Tear from my heart the thorns that choke my love;Help me to set my mind on things above.Lord, make in me an undistracted mind.Make it renewed, transformed to seek and find.Remind my soul, when stressed by many things,One thing I need: the portion Jesus brings.Lord, make in me an undistracted mind.Help me press on and leave the past behind.One thing I do: reach forward to the goal,Each thought restrained with chains of self-control.Lord, make in me an undistracted mind.Fill it with thoughts for which it was designed.Make me know love beyond all human thought;Then I will find my God whom I have sought.—Stephen Rouse An Undistracted Mind ©Copyright Matthew W. Bassford, 2013. This material is subject to a Crea-tive Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license. This means that it may be reproduced, shared, and used freely, provided it is attributed to the author, not used for commercial purposes, and not altered in any way. For more information, please see creativecommons.org

Lesson Three: Worldliness -Purity- It is extremely Biblical to say that Christians should be “in the world, but not of it.” “In” is emphasized by texts such as John 17:15 and 1 Co-rinthians 5:9-10, while “not of” is emphasized by James 4:4 and 1 John 2:15, among many other pas-sages. Here, as in many areas of our walk with God, balance is key.However, God’s people inevitably find this balance hard to strike. Many Christians view their disciple-ship in an almost monastic light. They recognize the dangers posed by the world, but in response to those dangers, they seek to with-draw their children and themselves from the world. Their motives are good, but in so doing, they often forfeit the opportunity to be a godly influence, both by moderating their children’s exposure to the world and by shining the light of Christ for the sinner to find.On the other hand, many other Christians struggle with the oppo-site problem. They fail to hear the urgency of the Bible’s call toward purity. They are quick to recognize the appeal of worldly practices, but slow to acknowledge their dangers. Most of all, they fail to admit that most of the people around them are really, really going to lose their souls because of the evil ©Copyright Matthew W. Bassford, 2013. This material is subject to a Crea-tive Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license. This means that it may be reproduced, shared, and used freely, provided it is attributed to the author, not used for commercial purposes, and not altered in any way. For more information, please see creativecommons.org