Homework questions for 10/24/10 posted

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Review from Sunday, 10/24

Hiya 56ers

Here is the scoop from last Sunday's lesson

Our topic of the day was "How can God be everywhere?"

It is a hard thing to grasp that God can be everywhere, see everything, be interested and involved all over the place and be in control of all that is happening and all that is going to happen.  But it is true and it has to be true.  We can't figure that out because we are limited by our human bodies at being in 1 place at any given time, only.

Here is where our discussion carried us.
first we read Deuteronomy 4.39
God is in control.  There is no other like Him.  and still he wants to know us and to encourage us as we try to live a life that honors Him


Next, we read Psalm 139.7-12.
This is for me both one of the most encouraging and one of the most convicting passages in the Bible.  We all have hard things to go through and it is comforting to know that God is with us and will always be.  He is with us, anywhere we go and whatever our situation happens to be,  we will not be removed from where God is and where He has power to intervene.   However, there is another side to the story in this passage.  Some of the verses make it look like David is trying to get away from God.  That is not possible either, so that means that God is aware of all that we have done.  He is everywhere and so there is no way to hide our sins and the deepest thoughts of our hearts.  He knows them all.  But the great thing is that He never gives up on us.  We never stray too far for Him to find us.

Next, we read Jonah 1.1-4 & 2.1-6
Jonah is an amazing story!  It is crazy.  Jonah knows what God wants him to do, and chooses not to do it.  He heads the other direction, running and hiding from God.  We know that this is futile - there is no hiding from God.  we know the story,  Jonah is thrown overboard and a large fish comes and devours him.  So there he is, in the belly of a large fish.  This, in my mind is the perfect picture of "rock bottom" I've never been eaten by an aquatic animal, but I don't imagine that there is a lot of hope for survival or expectation of being saved from this situation.  But here is the hope of the story - that we can apply to our lives.  There at "rock bottom", in the most hopeless of situations, Jonah cries out to God and... ready for it... GOD IS THERE!!!  In even the most hopeless situation - when we have nowhere else to turn, God is there.  It was true for Jonah and it is true for us as well.  And as the rest of the story plays out, we see that not only is there hope in hopeless situations, but God has a plan that can carry through seemingly impossible situations. There is GREAT hope in that.  We just need to remember to look for God and hold on to that hope when we can't see a way out.

Finally, we read Matthew 28.18-20
Speaking of impossible situations,  Here we see Jesus talking to his disciples after they have seen Him go through the impossible.  He died on a cross, and now, a short time later, is back in their midst, risen!  He has called them together and given them a task and a promise.  The task is to spread the word to all the world about who Jesus is - this task has been passed along through the generations and now lies on our shoulders, too.  But so does the promise - that He will be with us always, to the end of the age (to the end of history).  God is with us, He will help us and will equip us to represent Him well if we allow Him freedom to work in our lives.

Our challenge this week is to remember that God is with us everywhere - and so each time we move to a different place, to think of Him, thank Him for his presence and ask Him help us to be faithful to Him in all we say and do, so others may know Him too.

Matt. 28.20 is our memory verse for the week, too.

 Last week, I put some bonus points out there and did get some feedback from it.  Thanks.  This week, we have fixed the "leave a comment" problems, and so I will again offer a bonus point to anyone that leaves a comment anywhere on the livealifealive.
Have a great week!

Crispy

Saturday Bonus Point Opportunity

Here is the final bonus point opportunity for the week.  I hope you have enjoyed this look into the Judges of Israel.  It is interesting to watch how Israel would be rescued by a judge, live in peace for a few years, forget about their devotion to God and start to turn away from Him.  Then they would fall to a foreign king, be taken into captivity, or exiled, have a really hard time, call out to God and be rescued again by another Judge (although there were some judges that were not very good, too.  This was the way it worked for the entire book of Judges.  


The facts of this Judge can be found in Judges 8-9
       - wrestled control of Israel by executing 70 half-brothers
       - Jotham, the one half-brother left, after telling the people they had made a bad choice.
       - This judge ruled for a very violent 3 years - ambushing others and being ambushed.
       - Was killed when a large rock was dropped on his head, then he asked his assistant to finish him off
       - did this so "it wouldn't go down that a woman had killed him".

Friday Bonus Point Opportunity

OK, here is today's bonus opportunity.  

Found in chapter 3 of Judges.

Here are the 5 facts about this Judge:

       - was left handed

       - brought a tax payment to wicked king Eglon

       - assassinated King Eglon

       - escaped and called in the armies to attack Moab to free Israel

       - Israel lived in peace for 80 years after

Hunt away! 

Thursday Night Bonus Time

Hope you are enjoying these crazy stories from Judges.  Here is the bonus point opportunity for today.

Tonight's judge can be found in Judges 4.

The 5 facts about this judge:

       - With the help of Barak, defeated the Sisera, the vicious Canaanite who had oppressed Israel for 20 years (warning: the actual death of Sisera is quite brutal)

       - made judgements under a palm tree

       - Barak, Israel's army commander, asked this judge to go with him into battle against Sisera

       - After defeating Sisera, there was peace in Israel for 40 years

       - Was also a prophetess of God and the only woman judge of Israel

Wednesday BONUS POINT Opportunity!!!

OK, day two of crazy cool stories about the Judges of Israel and how God did wild things through them to show his power and save His people from oppression.

Here are the 5 facts about today's Judge.

This story is found in Judges 6 & 7.  

       1- Called to action by an angel as he was hiding wheat so the enemies wouldn't get it.

       2- Snuck into a temple of Baal (false god) and destroyed it at night so he wouldn't get caught.

       3- double checked to make sure he was hearing God's leading correctly

       4- cut his own army by 90% before going into battle

       5- armed his men with musical instruments and lights, not with weapons