Life Markers

One of the most famous stories in all the Bible occurs when Moses finally leads the Israelites out of Egypt after 400 years of bondage. This story is told in the book of Exodus. After the plagues over Egypt, Pharoah tells Moses to take Moses’ people away from Egypt. After they leave, however, Pharoah has a change of heart and …

Rahab the Prostitute, Woman of Faith

Begin your discussion by reading the compelling story of Rahab and the Hebrew spies who she protected. Joshua 2:1-24 Many people who know the Bible love the story of Rahab. It is one of the greatest pictures of the idea of faith.  There are two important lessons to be learned from Rahab: 1) God’s loving care and relational covenant are …

What Does It Mean To Be United?

National unity is a major topic of conversation in the United States of America. After all, the word “united” is part of our name. Our national motto is “out of many, one.” Most people in the United States long to be a part of a nation united, but yet they often don’t feel very unified. The nation of Israel is …

Living in the Covenant

The very first prerequisite to understanding the Old Testament as a whole and the book of Joshua in particular is to understand the different covenants that are brought forth in the preceding books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). A short list of the covenants up until Joshua 1 are as follows: Adamic Covenant- God told Adam …

Motives

Almost every sermon series that we teach at Venture seems to have a focus on right motives in the acts of obeying God. This is not coincidence. The theme of right motives for Christian living is actually a major tenet of what it means to be a Christian. Think about some of the things that Jesus said to people who …

Reaping and Sowing

Paul has spent most of the letter to the Galatians explaining why salvation cannot be found through adherence to the law of Moses. Toward the end of the book, he now reintroduces some laws that have are good, from God, and still have great impacts on our daily life.  In the past weeks, we have talked about the ethical good …

The Humility of Bearing a Burden

The timing of this discussion comes during a month when modern Western culture celebrates the fact that it is rushing headlong into a moral abyss that will culminate in its eventual implosion. All our cultural institutions and leaders are trying to outdo one another to see who can demonstrate the greatest “pride” in a particular angle of humanity’s fallen state. …

Bear One Another’s Burdens

There is much made throughout Galatians drawing a contrast between life by faith indwelledwith the Spirit of God and life according to the flesh that is identified with law. The only positivething that could be said about the law previously in Galatians was that it kept the nationtogether in a way that pointed to Christ. The law of Moses was …

Restoration

Very few weeks go by without a news story about a prominent Christian who has been caught in sin. This becomes a common theme that people expect when they hear things about the American church. But it’s even more jarring that every church has moral failings by people within the body. Some of these are big and noticed by others; …

Life by the Spirit

One of the great ironies of religious life is how some of the people whose lives are most dictated by rules are often the people who are greatest offenders of the rules. This makes no sense to many people who are outside of religion. Religious people who fail to uphold the rules are very quickly labeled as “hypocrites” and cast …