After reading Judges 18, Pastor Postiff shared his short review of a book entitled Dispensationalism and Free Grace: Intimately Linked by Grant Hawley. The review was not favorable. Then, we studied the remainder of Mark 6, about the disciples of Jesus who went out to preach the good news of the kingdom and cast out demons and heal. We read then about the feeding of five thousand, Jesus walking on the water, and more healing ministry.

We welcomed a new member into the church this morning prior to the message and heard a testimony of the impact of the church family in the new member's life (not recorded here). We read Genesis 23 and then examined the idea of legalism. Listen in to learn about justification-legalism and sanctification-legalism. We briefly examined some hot issues in this regard--alcohol and dancing. We learned that we need to be very careful about hurling around the accusation of legalism because the term is so misunderstood.

Our teacher added a couple of postscripts to the study on mankind's fall into sin. After Eve fell into sin, she was not happy. So we turned our study to Matthew 5 where the Lord talks about blessedness, or very simply stated, happiness or satisfaction. The beatitudes give a list of characteristics of those who enter and live in the kingdom of Christ. In one of these, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are those who have an intense desire for righteousness.

We studied Job 18 and the first portion of chapter 19. We spent some time thinking about Job's statement that his companions had reproached him 10 times. This was a hyperbolic statement indicating that they had reproached him numerous times. We examined Genesis 31:7 and Numbers 14:22 to see similar "10 times" statements.

After the reading of Judges 17, the church enjoyed an explanation of the Biblical doctrine of forgiveness by Pastor John O'Dell. The connection he made with the last statements of Christ on the cross, and the season of lent, was an interesting introduction to the message.

As we complete our study of 2 Peter, remember that Peter has structured the last 8 verses around three “since…command” structures:

1. Since everything will be dissolved, live a holy life and pursue evangelism.

2. Since you look forward to a righteous new heaven and new earth, live a holy life and concern yourself with the matter of the salvation of others.

3. Since you know have prior knowledge of these things, be on guard and grow in the faith.

It is to the last of these points that we now turn.

We examine in this message the lust of the flesh and eyes and the pride of life, which was the pattern that Eve experienced as she fell into sin.

We study Job's response to Eliphaz's second speech. One of the notable parts in this section is that Job cries out for a mediator. We know the one and only mediator between God and men.

After reading Judges 16, we briefly discussed a book on dispensationalism and free grace that touches on definitions of the terms discipleship, kingdom, reward, and belief. Thereafter, we opened our study in Mark 6. The text in the first handful of verses makes it clear that the Lord does not work mightily in places or in people's lives where there is no belief.

Scripture reading today was in Genesis 21. In verses 13-16, God again tells us through Peter that we need to be holy people while we consider the Lord’s program of salvation. It is a very similar message to that from the prior verses, but this time it is motivated by the fact that a new creation is coming. The old sin-filled creation will be destroyed, and a new righteous creation will replace it. That being the case, it should be easy to understand that for us to take part in the new righteous creation, we need to be righteous (Hebrews 12:14)!