The nature of God and the nature of Satan could not be more opposite. God is Creator, all-powerful, and completely good. Satan is created, limited in powers, and pure evil. The existence of both creates challenges both for our understanding as well as our obedience.

On Sunday, John Mulligan talked to us about the current hostilities in Israel, “Complication and Compassion: Responding Correctly to the Conflict in Israel.” This short summary may create more questions than answers for you. Please take the time to watch the full video if you didn’t see it on Sunday.

Using the Apostle Paul’s writings in Romans chapters 9 through 11 as his talk’s foundation, John helped us to look at Israel from a Christian standpoint and to think about what to pray for. As John said, Israel has an extremely complicated past AND present - its Biblical history, current history, and political challenges make for very complicated personal challenges, as well. He gave us five essential principles to help us understand Israel today:

1) God worked through the nation of Israel and respect needs to be given about that. That history is how Jesus eventually came to us. As it says in Romans 9:5, “Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.”

2) Israel today is a political state. The ongoing debate is about who has the right to that land. An important point made in Rom. 9:6-7, “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”

3) Some religious leaders wrongly hope for a full “restoration” of Israel. Romans 10:1-4 reads, “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” We all need to come to God through Jesus. It’s not about land, it’s about being saved.

4) God’s greatest hope is for all Jewish people to accept Jesus and be saved. His hope is about their spiritual state.

5) Pray for conversion as well as protection and peace. An important point is that when we speak to a Jewish person, we must speak gently and with love. We have to realize that due to their past persecutions, they are extremely sensitive to any message that might make them feel different, or ‘wrong’. God loves us all equally. He did not reject the Jews. Rom. 11-4-6: “...I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”

So when we think about Israel and its residents today: Pray for protection. Pray for peace. Pray for all God’s people.

Jay Mijares’ lesson on Sunday was “Where Are You?”, taken from Genesis 3:6-12, about Adam's decision to eat the fruit that Eve offered to him.

We know that Eve was deceived by the serpent into eating. Adam, however, willingly sinned. He wasn’t misled, he knew what God had said, he could have said ‘no’, but instead, he made a conscious decision to do it.

Was it just because Adam wanted the knowledge Eve now had? Or because he loved her and wanted to stay with her? Love that is not directed at God can be sinful. Loving your spouse, your family, is good - but choosing love that leads you to sin (and away from God) is sinful.

After they ate, verse 7 reads, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Adam and Eve’s nakedness was a physical representation of their spiritual reality. Their physical eyes weren’t opened - it was their hearts and minds that were opened. They were no longer innocent, not at peace, no longer in the image of God. It was a spiritual nakedness.

In verse 9, we read “But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” This was not asked in anger, but in fear - as a parent would call to a missing child. When we sin, we also run and hide from God, like Adam and Eve did. But God was asking where Adam had gone *spiritually*. Adam, however, didn’t answer the question, but instead gave excuses. He blamed Eve and then even God, for creating Eve. Adam did not accept any responsibility for his action. He was more worried about getting caught than about his wrongdoing.

Jay gave us four Questions to Ask from Our Hiding Place:

Where are you spiritually right now?

Are you no longer ashamed of sin?

Do you accept responsibility for your sin?

Who is your love pointed at today?

We must point our love to God and reflect His spirit. And we mustn’t be afraid to confess and repent when needed. There is no need to hide. He will always give us His merciful grace.

Our lesson by John Mulligan was on “Seeing the Unseen: Understanding, Appreciating, and Living with the True Supernatural.” As the Scripture says, we live by faith not by sight.

The first step is to *Accept* that an unseen world exists. The Bible is full of instances of the supernatural, from the talking serpent to demons, angels, and the Evil One. But our world is bigger than what we can see. Unseen conflicts are ongoing ‘behind the scenes’. These are the real battles between God and Satan - battles about us. God and Satan both care for us and they are fighting for our very souls. We must be certain of what we do not see. This is something we have to accept, even if we don’t quite understand it.

The second step is to approach the unseen with faith, not fixation. Our faith means we accept the historical references in the Bible as real and we believe His Word; that’s enough. We also believe in Heaven and God’s Love, but we also must believe in the Evil One. Any one of us who has struggled (with virtually anything) has been the object of a battle between God and the Devil.

Job 1:6-7 says, “One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

Yes, the Tempter is here, roaming amongst us, unseen. As we read in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” But we mustn’t fixate on the supernatural or live in fear of it because angels in disguise are amongst us as well. After all, (Romans 8:31) If God is for us, who can be against us?

Michael Rankin’s message for us on Sunday was “Millstones & Mustard Seeds: Understanding our responsibilities in God’s world”, taken from Luke 17:1-10.

The first aspect of our responsibility is influence. Our actions can, and often will, influence others, but we won't always perceive the effects we have on them. In Luke 17:1-3 we read, “Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves.” Influence can be positive or negative -- which will we be?

Our next responsibility is forgiveness - seven times. As verse 4 says, “Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” As painful as it may be, forgiveness must be without limit. Imagine if God imposed a "benefit maximum" on our forgiveness! We are to forgive, as we are forgiven.

Our third responsibility of faith is to trust in its power. (Luke 17:5-6) The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" They didn’t have trust in their faith; they thought they needed something bigger, stronger. He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you."

Our final responsibility of faith is of service. Duty is its own reward. Our duty as Christians is to be a good influence, forgive all, and recognize the power of faith. We mustn’t be looking for kudos and pats on the back for our good works. Being a good servant - THAT’S the reward.

We are God’s servants. We are here to serve God and others (and those two are the same) because that’s what God made us to do. When we live out our responsibilities in God’s world, that’s how others learn to praise the merciful and all-loving God we serve.

Our lesson by John Mulligan on Sunday was about “Time, Part 3: Making Sure Time Is on Your Side.” As long as we still have time left on this earth, we should look forward and embrace the future, not dread it. There are three principles that will help us do that.

1) Use Time to Keep You Out of Sin. As we read in Romans 13:11-14, "...The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed...." If we aren’t aware of our top priorities, then we are slumbering. The time to do the right thing is always now. Do we need to make amends, are we jealous of other people’s success? Looking at this moment, is this where you would want to be if Christ returned now?

2) Use Time to Keep You from Presumptive Living. James 4.13-17 reads, "...why, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “if it is the Lord's will we will live and do this or that...". We mustn’t assume we’ll have time in the future. Life changes unexpectedly. Enjoy this day, right now. Recognize today as a gift from God.

3) Use Time to Prepare For Departure. As it says in II Timothy 4:6-8: "...and the time of my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith..." Can we spend our days in quiet reflection that we fought the good fight and kept the faith? Or will we fret, wondering if we did enough?

Let us use our time wisely to prepare for our departure, to be ready when the trumpet sounds announcing that our Lord Jesus Christ has returned.

John Mulligan’s message on Sunday was Part Two of “Time: Turning Time from Enemy to Friend.” He started with some words of wisdom from 2 Corin. 4:16-18. The heart of this message is not to fret over temporary matters, but to look towards the unseen - the eternal.

(1) Counting days doesn’t have to be doom and gloom! Certainly not for believers, for we know the glory that is to come and we’ve always known that this life is a temporary one. 2 Corin. V16: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” Focus on the unseen - that’s the good part!

(2) Counting Days Starts with Using Time Correctly. Eph. 5:15-16 tells us to “Be very careful how you live… making the most of every opportunity…” Note, it says to be careful - not scared or anxious. Simply live as righteous a life as you can, don’t waste your time in sin. Avoid investing time on things that give you temporary pleasure. The best way to invest your time is in people. Help your community, love and honor others by being kind and merciful. What we do now echoes into eternity!

(3) Embrace the future. In 1 Thess. 4:13-18 we read, “...the dead in Christ will rise first… we who are still alive will be caught up together…to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Every day we come closer to our eternal home - we will be pilgrims to a new and better land! Death is simply our entryway to that glorious eternity. Our job until then is to use our time to His glory and encourage others with God’s words of hope.

Jay Mijares’ lesson on Sunday was about “A Deceptive Conversation” -- how the serpent talked to Eve in the Garden, from Genesis 3:1-7. The first verse described the serpent as crafty; crafty doesn’t necessarily mean evil, but in this case, since the serpent was Satan, it did. Crafty can also mean subtle, which this conversation was.

Jay said we can learn 5 lessons from Eve’s temptation:

Satan attacks us when we’re alone. The serpent caught Eve on her own and misquoted God’s words about eating the fruit. This made her doubt what was said and to question God’s intent.

Satan tempts us with doubt. The serpent made Eve wonder what God was keeping from them, and why. The serpent said (Gen. 3:4-5) "You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened [that is, you will have greater awareness], and you will be like God, knowing [the difference between] good and evil."

We rationalize our sin by altering what God says. Satan snatches the truth of God’s word out of our hearts. Satan wanted Eve to fall, just like he did. He makes us question God’s word on our own. Eve could have turned away, but did not, because the craving (the coveting) took her over.

Sin eventually affects - and involves - others. Adam ate the fruit, too.

Satan had the authority to tempt Eve, but he didn’t have the power to make her sin. Satan’s language rarely demands or orders us and he didn’t force Eve to eat. She made that choice herself.

Jay gave us two questions to ponder about this lesson:

Do you overlook God’s provision in your life? Eve certainly did; she ignored the entire garden that surrounded her and obsessed on the one forbidden tree.

When you experience the “fear of missing out”, do you recognize it as temptation? That’s just Satan whispering to you, raising doubts about God’s word and making you forget the many blessings that are here for everyone.

We can refuse the temptations of the serpent because we know that God wants us in Heaven with Him; we know what we must do (or not do) to be there with Him. Let His word “create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me!”

Time is one of the most referenced features of our lives. Most everything we do centers around time yet we rarely think deeply about what is really going on with time. In today's lesson, we will look at four realities about time and how understanding them changes our lives.

John Mulligan’s lesson on Sunday was the last in his series: The Problem of Worry, part 4 - what a worry-free life looks like. Taken from Phil. 4:4-9, the lesson describes 5 features of a worry-free life in Christ. This doesn’t mean disregarding responsibilities. It’s about taking life seriously, but with a calm sense of purpose. We can accomplish that with five practices:

1) Continual rejoicing in the Lord. As that first verse says, “Rejoice in the Lord always, rejoice!” To be clear, joy (or rejoicing) doesn’t necessarily imply happiness. Happiness is fleeting. We can rejoice without panicking because “this too shall pass.”

2) Be in constant anticipation of the Lord’s return (4:5, “The Lord is near…”) He is close to us always and we need to be ready. The great day is coming when all our problems will be eclipsed when we are with Him for eternity.

3) Consistent thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is a powerful weapon against consistent worry. Instead of obsessing on what is wrong, think about the many things that are right. Be specific with these thankful thoughts. Make a list if you have to, so you can return to it and be reminded of your blessings.

4) Have a preoccupation with good things. Verse 8, “...whatever is true, whatever is noble… right… pure… lovely… admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.” Close off your sources of negativity, whether it’s the news, social media, or negative people. There are countless good, lovely, and admirable things in our world. If we concentrate on those, we lock the door against worry (Satan).

5) Faithful practice of Christian principles. Verse 9 tells us to put these into practice. Don’t just think about it, live a good, Christian life of service to others.

In summary, let’s be consumed with productivity. Write a card, make a phone call, visit someone who’s sick -- using whatever skills you have is putting faith into practice. While you are living these five practices, you will be exempt from worry’s pull. Verse 9, “And the God of peace will be with you.”