Romans

This week in class we got to hear Chad teach us the entire book of Romans. Having never truly studied the book more than just to be able to walk someone down the Romans road it was unbelievable to dive in headfirst. It was cool to see this book in its entirety because Paul had never been to Rome so in this book he basically is writing everything that he wants them to know so it gives us an amazing picture. It was so cool to see as well that basically the theme of the entire bible can be summed up into Romans 1:16-17 because he has a lot of reason to be ashamed of the gospel because he has gone through so much. He has been captured beaten and laughed at but still remains faithful and unashamed to share the gospel. We need to be resilient like Paul so that when the tough stuff comes we do not just punt our faith but that we cling to it in these difficult times.

Apologetics and Sharing the love of Jesus

This week in class we had the privilege of hearing from Pat Zukeran on apologetics. It was so awesome to get to hear so much truth about how to defend our faith, defend the Bible, and defend Jesus. It was incredible. But I just want to share a little bit about how to share your faith in a winsome way. It is important when sharing your faith that you know you are not going to win someone to Christ by sounding smart or giving them a ton of facts but you are going to win someone to Christ by showing them love and allowing the Holy Spirit to do its work in their life. When sharing with someone or having a discussion with a non believer it is important to know that you are not going to win them by winning an argument or proving them wrong it is only going to force them to put up walls and barriers against you. When doing these things it is so important that you do them carefully and respectfully so that you don’t turn them off from the Lord but the way you conducted yourself. I hope some of these things can be of use to you in talking with your non-Christian friends.

1 Timothy

This week we had the great opportunity to hear from Jason Dees on the book of 1 Timothy. This book was written by Paul to his young disciple Timothy around 63-66 encouraging him to stay at Ephesus and warn against the false teachers. There was so much to be taken away from what was taught this week for me because I had never really studied the book of 1 Timothy before so everything in it was a new discovery. Probably the biggest thing for me was learning the qualifications of an overseer and an elder. Before, I knew what these were but I didn't know how you got to be one or what it ment to be one. Seeing the qualifications and desiring to be one someday made me really take a look at my life and check the things I'm doing right now to make sure that they line up so that in the future I would not be disqualified. Another huge takeaway for me was that Paul talks about bodily discipline being of little profit but godliness being profitable for all things. This passage made me reprioritize some of the things in my life and fix my eyes and heart on pursuing godliness above all else.

Discovering Hebrews

This week for class we had Charles Stolfus from Denton Bible Church come and teach us the book of Hebrews. Having never really explored Hebrews I had a great time this week discovering the truths that Hebrews offers. The book of Hebrews is written to a mostly Jewish audience. In Hebrews it unpacks the authority of Christ and how he was able to be a high priest even though he was from the line of Judah. The book also shows Christ's ministry and the power of faith as well as the power of hope and love in Christ. Reading and discovering all this brings me so much hope. Our God is so good and loves us so much. How lucky are we that He cares so much for us that He would send His son to die for us.