Foundations

The book of Psalms is biblical poetry of worship, praise and prayers. The Psalms have four major themes: psalm telling us about those who are blessed, psalms expressing the emotions we feel, psalms of worship, and psalms of prophecy of the coming Messiah. The best-known psalm, and most beautiful description of the relationship between God and man, is Psalm 23. This "blessed man" psalm portrays God as a wise and gentle shepherd.

The Book of Job shares great insights on how to respond to life's storms. When we first encounter suffering in our Christian life, we usually do not really understand why. As we grow and learn from the Bible, however, we begin to find many reasons why people suffer. Great benefits can come out of the trials we face, especially when we are able to stand firm in our faith through them.

Why do the righteous suffer? That is a question people have asked for thousands of years. We normally do not ask or even wonder when bad or evil people suffer, but why do good people suffer? Not only does the book of Job address that question, so do many other parts of Scripture. In fact, the issue of suffering comes up in nearly every book in the Bible. The Bible gives many reasons that help us understand why we suffer.

Taken from Job's time of suffering, we learn three perspectives of life when we face trials. Our difficulties can lead us to ask the right questions. Suffering can also lead us to listen to God for the right answers. And finally we can let our mourning bring us to a place of believing God's answers to our questions. When we do these three things, we will experience the blessing and comfort of salvation.

The Book and life of Job gives us a great perspective on how to face our own suffering and trials. God's people have always suffered. Life is difficult and perplexing, and becoming a Christian does not take us out of our troubles. But God has a message for us when our hearts are hurting: Pain and suffering are inevitable, but misery is optional. That is the message of the book of Job.

God's Word includes five poetry books, also known as "wisdom books" or "the writings": Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. In these books, God speaks to the hearts of His people when they are suffering (Job), worshiping (Psalms), coping with the decisions of daily life (Proverbs), doubting (Ecclesiastes), and expressing the intimacies of marriage (Song of Solomon). God's desire is for us to be changed from the inside out.

See God through the life of Esther, the story of a Hebrew woman who married a Gentile and saved the Jewish people from genocide, preserving the ancestry of the Messiah. One of the most important themes of Esther is God's sovereign care over the lives of His people, even when our circumstances are painful or difficult and how He causes all things to work for the good for those called according to His purposes.

The book of Nehemiah shows us seven practical principles of leadership to do God's work. Nehemiah demonstrated great strength, commitment, understanding, focus, courage, perseverance and complete dedication to doing God's work God's way. These principles from the life of Nehemiah show us how to be available for God's use, because it is the Plan of God to use the Power of God in the People of God to accomplish the Purposes of God according to the Plan of God.

The book of Ezra teaches us that many times adversities are the sign of approval that the work of God is being carried out. But Ezra's message is not about being defeated or distracted by opposition. There are many principles we learn from Ezra, and they can be summed up: It is the Plan of God to use the Power of God in the People of God to accomplish the Purposes of God according to the Plan of God.

The first return from the Babylonian captivity was to rebuild the temple under Ezra's leadership. Ezra is a great example of godly leadership and this lesson explains how and why God uses a man like Ezra. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah, along with Esther, are known as the post-captivity history books. Ezra and Nehemiah are very similar books. They both teach principles of leadership and of doing God's work in God's way.