We were glad to have Josh Lewis (along with his wife Kirby and son Ezekiel) with us a few weeks ago. His lesson was focussed on confession and repentance in the Bible. These two concepts are clearly connected and are meant to go together as we confront our sin. Also, they are not exclusively a New Testament idea at all. Specifically, we look at the differences in how King Saul and King David respond to their sin. By seeing the ways God's people were always to respond, we learn how we ought to respond to God today.

In the Gospels, there are numerous times people ask Jesus a question. Seeing how Jesus responds can be extremely helpful in understanding the truths He wants people to know, how to apply these truths and what can get in our way of hearing or following Jesus. In this lesson, we look at some of the times Jesus responds to questions with His own question. As part of our theme, "Jesus Christ, Our Foundation," seeing Jesus' questions and responses to questions helps us establish the foundation that Jesus wants us to.

The psalms glorify God, but they also describe how creation glorifies Him and how we should glorify Him. His glory makes demands upon us, such as patterning ourselves after Him and teaching others about Him. Listen and consider how you can better glorify our Creator.

With our theme in mind, "Jesus Christ, Our Foundation", we will take a look at establishing a good foundation. This is a follow-up lesson on Ezra from a month ago where we looked at chapters 1-6. In this lesson, we pick up in chapter 7 and notice what patterns Ezra shows to help us have a good foundation for our faith. Also, what should we do if we have a wrong foundation?

We are supposed to boast. In fact, we all do boast. Our lifestyle, how we treat people, and our approach to what we do shows our boast. To find out what this is we need to dig deeper into what we do by asking the "why". Jesus Christ should be our boast and is the only thing that will be the foundation we can count on.

Faith and works (or Faith vs. Works) is a topic of conversation among most Christians and it seems like it was a common conversation in the 1st Century. The people of faith we see in scripture and the ways faith is described points to a strong connection to works instead of the two being opposed. In fact, it looks inevitable that faith leads to works and faith is seen by works.

In Malachi 4, the day of the Lord is described and clearly means one thing for those that fear God and another for the arrogant and unrighteous. One aspect of the day of the Lord that we might not always consider is the multiple meanings of this day and the different ways to understand it. This lesson explores those ideas and what we should do in light of Malachi's words.

With our theme this year being "Jesus Christ, Our Foundation", this lesson focuses on Jesus from the beginning to the cross. John 1 says His beginning is the Word that was with God prior to creation. We are established on the foundation of Jesus as the Word, but we are built on Jesus as a sacrificial King. How does the foundation Jesus laid impact our lives and decisions?

In Ezra 1-6, some Israelites living in exile are able to go back to work on the temple. It's a long process for sure! They are met with a lot of opposition, but the same people that discouraged their work and tried to stop them actually wanted to join in and help early on! The leaders of the Israelites respond, "You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God." Was this an appropriate response? How does this affect our work for the Lord?

Jesus clearly taught heaven and hell. The idea of hell is seen many times in the gospel accounts and the hearers of Jesus would have understood what He meant maybe more than we do. Gehenna is what Jesus taught and it is important for us to understand this teaching like they did. God has called us to a high calling, but His call leads to salvation and a life-long relationship with God.