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Genesis Study Begins January 4

I'm looking forward to beginning 2009 with a study of the Book of Genesis. The book we will use as a guide is William Kroll's Genesis: a God of Purpose, a People of Promise. To take a look at one place the book can be ordered online, click here. My hope is that we can have it available for the first week of the new year in the Second Baptist Bookstore, too. Copies also are available at CPO.

Since Genesis is a 50 chapter book, and this study guide tries to cover it in twelve weeks, I'm preparing to slow it down a little. For instance, the first chapter of the study guide covers the first two chapters of Genesis. I think the best approach probably would be for each of us to go ahead work through that first full chapter of the study guide in advance of the first Sunday lesson, but the lesson itself will only cover the first "half" of the recommended passage in scripture. That is, on January 4, our focus will be on Genesis chapter one. Then, on January 11, we'll study Genesis chapter two. I'll put together a full calendar on the way we will break down the book of Genesis over a 32-week period.

Merry Christmas all.

Matt

"God With Us"

This week will be the fifth of our five-part series on the Old Testament prophesies of Christmas. We'll conclude with a study of the prophetic names (or titles) of Jesus. We'll examine:

• The descriptive names prophesied in Isaiah 
• The official, proper name of "Jesus"
• The prophesied "Title" of "Immanuel"

It is a good way to enter Christmas week. Studying this subject has been a great blessing to me, and I hope it has for you as well. We'll not have class on December 28, and will begin with a new study of the Book of Genesis on the first Sunday of 2009.

To take a look at this week's lesson notes, click here. Also, in my research this week I found a really cool little 30-page booklet publised by RBC Ministries (Radio Bible Classes) that spends quite a bit of time analyzing the four descriptive names of Jesus prophesied in Isaiah 9:6. It's available online as a PDF file by clicking here. I thought you might enjoy the read too (and you'll notice I've borrowed liberally from it for parts of this week's lesson).

Class Directory Online

Reggie shared an up-to-the-minute directory with class members each of the last two weeks. For those who haven't been in class recently, or if you prefer your directories in an electronic format of one kind or another, we now have them available online through this blog. Below are your options:

PDF One-page Directory (ideal for printing)

PST file (ideal for importing into Microsoft Outlook)

Excel Spreadsheet (ideal for sorting and organizing by various fields)

CSV file (comma-separated file generally accepted by most organizers)

Also, birthdays and anniversaries are now placed on the class calendar (found at the bottom of this blog, or searchable in Google Calendar as "Breshears - Morrow ABF Calendar"

Kings Will Pay Tribute and the Government Will be on His Shoulders

The Magi are an enduring and cherished part of the nativity story. But which parts of the story we "know" so well are mere tradition and which are truly biblical? More importantly, what role do these "wise men" play in pointing to the fulfillment of important prophesy that comes in the Christ child? To see this week's lesson notes, click here.

Jesus' Lineage and the Virgin Birth

A critical component to demonstrating Jesus is the promised Messiah is establishing his hereditory claim on the throne of David. Old Testament prophesy was clear that Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah and the line of David. Jesus's family tree demonstrates his qualification in this regard. 

And, one of the most outrageous claims of the Christian faith is that our savior was born of a virgin. Amazingly, this too was prophesied in the Old Testament, and the amazing circumstances of Jesus birth not only fulfill that prophesy, but also give us a clear picture of the unique nature of Christ: he is fully man and fully God. To see the lesson notes for this week, click here.