Thursday, May 13, 2010

Adult Bible Class

For the last seven months the Adult Bible Class has been studying Genesis. We have been looking at this book of the bible with the idea of understanding Gods purpose for man and how he works to make us understand his goals for us. We have studied the creation of man and his relationship to God. Areas we have looked at are: the story of the Garden of Eden, man's fall from grace, Noah and the flood, and Gods covenant with man. We studied the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We looked at God's attempt to develop a race of people that would follow his ways.

Most recently we have been studying the story of Joseph. This is the saga of his rise from a slave in a foreign country to the second highest official in the country of Egypt. How did he do it? Yes he had the gift of interpreting dreams but he also was a faithful worshiper of God that never wavered when he had tough times. He was able to impress his superiors with his compassion for others and his integrity. His brothers, eleven of the roughest characters you would ever want to meet is a story of reconciliation. By threats of starvation, incarceration, and death they came to the realization that their brother's dream was true. They were restored and able understand that selling their brother to slavery and then lying to their father was wrong. They were forgiven by Joseph and allowed to live with their father in Egypt safe from the famine.

Throughout all of this we have been studying what all these stories mean. What does God want for us? Why did he create us? What is his plan? How does God work? What are we to do to be faithful to God? To answer these questions we studied key words such as trials, humbleness, pride, discipline, integrity, providence, redemption, restoration, reconciled, and wisdom. There are hundreds of passages in Psalms, Proverbs, and the letters of Paul describing what these words mean.

During the next two months we will be studying some of the epistles. These were letters written by Peter, James, and John to the early Christian congregations. They discuss some of the problems of that time and how to deal with them. Some of these problems are evident even today which makes them all that more important to the learning Christian.

Take some time to grow in the wisdom of the Lord. Come join us for this class!

The Adult Bible Class is lead by John Chadwick (860-643-0943) every Sunday night at 6:30-8:00.