Atheists must contend with hard questions. If God doesn’t exist, how did our complex universe arise from nothing, and how did morality come from amorality? Without God, on what grounds shall we determine what is right or wrong? If we are not created in God’s image and human beings are nothing more than fortuitously evolved […]
Use one or both of these questions to introduce the lesson: 1. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Why do you say that? 2. Do you think the world is getting better or worse? How confident are you that your grandchildren will have a better life than you have had? Why? Read Luke 18:1. […]
Several years ago, Time Magazine published an article entitled, Does God Want You to be Rich? (September 18, 2006). On one side of the question are those who tout a prosperity theology which says that God wants us to be prosperous and happy. On the other side are folks who are saying, in effect, “I […]
If the unforgiving servant had a shrunken heart (last week’s lesson), the unjust leaders who condemned Jesus had shrunken souls (today’s lesson). While many Jews received Jesus gladly and became children of God (John 1:12), these “religious leaders” played the role of antagonists in the gospel record and in this text we see evidence of […]
Throughout history few leaders have accomplished as much as the apostle Paul, yet he endured an astonishing number of traumatic events: imprisonment, beatings, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, and many other forms of suffering. Almost matter-of-factly Paul mentions, “Three times I was shipwrecked” (2 Corinthians 11:25). In Acts chapter 27, Luke tells about one of those shipwrecks […]
