This week we talk about how God will allow His children to experience the wilderness, trials, and tribulations because He loves us and is testing us.  Even though it may feel like we don't want to go through it, we want to give up, or we made a mistake we should understand according to the Bible we are right where God wants us to be.  The Holy Spirit will lead us into the wilderness and is right there with us even though it may feel like He is not with us.

Romans 5:1-5, James 1:2-4, Matthew 4:1-11, 1 Peter 4:12-13, Hebrews 12:6, Revelation 3:19, Job 1 & 2

When ducks are first born they go through a process called imprinting that teaches the duck how to follow the adult duck's movement and sound.  When a person becomes born again we go through an imprinting process with the Holy Spirit and we have to learn to keep up with Him.  Unlike ducks the imprinting process of a believer never ends as long as we are in this world.  We have to learn the voice of the Holy Spirit and He is there to guide us in different ways to get us to become more Christ like if we learn to keep up with Him.

Romans 7:13-25, Galatians 5:25, Romans 8:1-5

Truth and Love may not always be accepted by those who are unsaved as well as those who believe God accepts them despite their behavior.  The life of a Christian is a marathon and is not an easy walk in this world.  Truth and Love may come in different tones but they should always have the same note.  Matthew 11:1-19, Isaiah 35:5-6, 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12

Jesus is risen!  As Christians we need to realize that we died with Christ and we live with Him.  There is power in the resurrection of Jesus not just for the future, but in the present.  We do not fear death, sickness, persecutions, or tragedies in this life because we are alive in Christ Jesus and dead to our old selves.

Colossians 3:1-15, Romans 6:4-13, Colossians 2:12-15, John 11, Matthew 27:51-54, 1 Corinthians 15:55-58, Romans 8:11, Acts 5:30-32

Jesus is the head and we are the body.  If Jesus said His Kingdom is not of this world, then our Kingdom should not be of this world.  The world's kingdom focuses on power, authoritarian rule, money, prestige, and other things however, Jesus said His Kingdom is based on truth.

As Christians we cannot have truth and no love nor can we have love and no truth, but we must have both.  We cannot have partial truth and partial love.  The truth and love we are supposed to have must be based on what the Bible says.  The world's truth and love is conditional, produces conflict, and is confrontational.

Dr. Marshall Wigfall

This week we take a look at Gideon a person who had no experience in war, but God called him to lead Israel as a Judge and into battle against their enemies.  Gideon was able to lead Israel because the Lord was with him.  God was patient with Gideon and helped him grow into the person to be able to lead Israel in the time of their need.

This week we learn about God being with Joshua.  In studying the promotion of Joshua we learn that a person may be strong in faith in one area, but that doesn't mean they will be strong in faith in another area.  After the death of Moses Joshua became fearful and God intervened and came to encourage him.

Numbers 27, Joshua 1