Pastor Postiff took questions on a number of topics, including burial versus cremation; donation of one's body for medical research; organ donation (living and deceased); the enigma of Lot and how he could be a righteous man living in the midst of Sodom, along with his use of alcohol and the incident of incest with his daughters; the reason that the location of Lot's tent is given in Scripture; how Lot could have attempted to give up his daughters to the assailants outside his home; a brief mention about the justified use of deadly force; about the "wisdom" of Solomon given all his sins; when Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes; and about Luke 13 and how it is that people will attempt to enter the door of salvation but will not be permitted.

Fellowship Bible Church enjoyed a special commissioning service for their members who will be launching Sunday morning services in Howell, MI. Pastor Postiff outlined the history of the work in Howell and encouraged the church in Ann Arbor as well as the group in Howell to be faithful to the Lord and wholeheartedly take up the task of church planting and strengthening of our sending church. The service concluded with a time of prayer in which the planting team members were committed to the Lord.

The study of Hosea continues with chapter 7.

Pastor Postiff reminded us about the opening of chapter 5, that taught us to "watch our tongues." Then we examined the portions that have to do with societal corruption, material things, and enjoying the work God gives us.

Having laid the foundation in the past three weeks about slavery in the Bible, we now turn to Philemon and Onesimus and Paul's letter to Philemon. This message focuses on the background of the circumstances that surround the letter and Paul's greeting.

The focus of this message is Hosea 7. Pastor Postiff added some reminders having to do with questions raised by the audience during the lesson regarding the purpose of the Old Testament for us today.

Pastor Postiff explains the bases of Christian assurance of salvation. We outlined four different views on whether one can have assurance of salvation and upon what bases. We then discussed briefly several factors that weight against assurance, talked about why it is important, and then detailed the three-fold basis of assurance.

After a brief review, Pastor Postiff continues the study of slavery in the Bible by going over Old Testament regulations for domestic and foreign slaves in Israel. The terrible so-called justification of slavery based on Genesis 9:21-27 is also explained and dismissed as a terrible example of Bible interpretation. Pastor Postiff takes a clear and strong abolitionist position at the end of the message. The weight of Biblical theology and morality demand that property slavery and any abusive forms of that institution be eliminated. Servant arrangements or debt-payback arrangements are not forbidden and can be done righteously according to God's word.

With this message, the mini-series on slavery is completed and next time, we will start looking at the letter to Philemon and learn about Onesimus and his slavery situation.

The exposition of Hosea continues into chapter 6, with references to Acts 8 about a man named Simon whose heart was not right with God.

In this message, we complete the study of Ecclesiastes 4 and continue into chapter 5. The study at the end of chapter 4 concerns the comparison between an old and foolish king and a young and poor but wise youth. In chapter 5, we saw that Solomon urges us to watch our mouths.