Day of Atonement

Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Leviticus 16:29-34 KJV 

29 And [this] shall be a statute for ever unto you: [that] in the seventh month, on the tenth [day] of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, [whether it be] one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: 30 For on that day shall [the priest] make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, [that] ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. 31 It [shall be] a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever. 32 And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest's office in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, [even] the holy garments: 33 And he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation. 34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What two things were the people of God to refrain from doing during on the Day of Atonement? Why? (v.29-31)
2) What were God's ordainined priests to do on that day? (v.32-33)
3) How often was the Day of Atonement to be observed according to the Law of Moses? (v.34)  

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) How frequently do you confess your sins to God during this age of grace? 

LIFE LESSONS
5) As children of God we are to confess and repent of our sins as soon as we are convincted/aware of them.

The Forgiving God

Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Nehemiah 9:6-21 KJV 

6 Thou, [even] thou, [art] LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all [things] that [are] therein, the seas, and all that [is] therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. 7 Thou [art] the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; 8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give [it, I say], to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou [art] righteous: 9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea; 10 And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as [it is] this day. 11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters. 12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go. 13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: 14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant: 15 And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them. 16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments, 17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou [art] a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. 18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This [is] thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations; 19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go. 20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. 21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, [so that] they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) After returning from their captivity in Babylon, the book of the law was read to the people of God and they repented of their sins. After all had assembled for the reading of the word, what did the Levites pray to the Lord, to exalt Him as the One True God? (v.6)
2) What did the Levites pray to the Lord concerning His faithfulness to His people and to His servants Abraham and Moses? (v.7-15)
3) What confession did the Levites offer to the Lord concerning the deeds of God's people? (v.16-17a)
4) What did the Levites declare about the Lord's mercy upon His people, despite their rebellion? (v.17b-21)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
5) Have you ever learned of a sin that you unknowingly committed against God through the reading of God's word? If so, briefly describe what happened and what, if anything, you did to repent?

LIFE LESSONS
6) God is a loving and merciful Father to His children.
7) Like any father, the Lord chastens those who He loves to brings us back into alignment with His word, His will, and Himself.

Zion Speaks

Saturday, July 25, 2015
Micah 7:8-11 NIV

8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. 9 Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD's wrath, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness. 10 Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame, she who said to me, "Where is the LORD your God?" My eyes will see her downfall; even now she will be trampled underfoot like mire in the streets. 11 The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What do the people of God say to those opposed to them about their spiritual condition and hope? (v.8-9)
2) What do the people of God anticipate will happen to those who opposed them? (v.10)
3) What do the people of God expect to happen after they have repented of their sins and been restored to God? (v.11)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Have you as an individual, your local church, or this nation ever turned from the Lord? If so, how were you restored back to God.

LIFE LESSONS
5) The Lord God longs for His people to return to Him.
6) The people of God can only be restored to God through confession and repentance.
7) The Lord God will restore whatever may have been lost after His people have forsaken their evil doings.

Great and Awesome God

Monday, December 1, 2014
Daniel 9:3-10 KJV 

3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: 4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness [belongeth] unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, [that are] near, and [that are] far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. 8 O Lord, to us [belongeth] confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. 9 To the Lord our God [belong] mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; 10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) The prophet Daniel had read God's word and understood that the time for the captives to be free had come. As a result, what did the prophet do? (v.3-4a)
2) What did the prophet confess about God? (v4b, 7a, 9a)
3) What sins did the prophet confess to God concerning himself and his people? (v.5,6,9b,10)
4) According to the prophet, what did God's people deserve for their sins? (7b, 8)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
5) Have the people of your family, church, and/or nation sinned against God? If so, please explain how?
6) Have you ever confessed the sins of your family, church, and/or nation to God? If so, when and under what circumstances.
7) If your family, church, and/or nation has sinned against God recently, is the Lord leading you to intercede on their behalf?

LIFE LESSONS
8) We don't deserve God's forgiveness, but He offers it to all who believe in Him.
9) Intercession is the confession of corporate sin before Almighty God.
10) The Lord is merciful and forgiving toward all who keep his commands.
11) The elements of intercessory prayer are: (a) Confession of personal sin, (b) confession of corporate sin, (c) Confession of God's goodness and mercy, and (d) Petition for the Lord's forgivness and mercy.

A New and Right Spirit

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Psalm 51:1-13 KJV

1 [[To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.]] Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin [is] ever before me. 4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done [this] evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, [and] be clear when thou judgest. 5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden [part] thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; [that] the bones [which] thou hast broken may rejoice. 9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me [with thy] free spirit. 13 [Then] will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What inspired the writing of this psalm by King David? (v.1a)
2) What  fourteen  things did the psalmist ask the Lord to do for him? (v.1b-2,7-12)
3) Why did David expect the Lord to do this for him? (v.1b,3)
4) Why did King David write that the Lord would be justified and clear? (v.4)
5) What two things did the psalmist attribute his behavior to? (v.5)
6) What did the Lord desire of the man? (v.6a)
7) Through what would David receive wisdom? (v.6b)
8) What did the king promise the Lord that He would do after the Lord granted his petitions? (v.13)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
9) Have you ever committed a sin that you did not immediately confess to the Lord? If so, what happened as a result?
10) If you answered affirmatively to the previous question, who or what convicted you of your sin?
11) What does it feel like to know that your sins are forgiven?

PRINCIPLES
12) Because the human heart is deceitful, there are times when we fail to immediately confess our sins to God.
13) Confession is the only means by which we may be cleansed of our sins.
14) There is always an expiration date for sin.

Confession and Forgiveness

Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:5-10 KJV

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.


OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) How does the Apostle John describe God? (v.5)
2) What does the Apostle say about anyone who says they have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness? (v.6)
3) What happens if we walk in the light? (v.7)
4) What does John say about those who claim to have no sin? (v.8)
5) What happens if we confess our sins? (v.9)
6) What does John say about those who say they have not sinned? (v.10)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
7) What do you think “light” and “darkness” represent? Why?
8) Have you ever sinned, after confessing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
9) What do you do when you commit sins against our Lord Jesus?

PRINCIPLES

10) Being a Christian doesn't make one perfect, but it does make us forgiven!

11) The only perfect Person is JESUS!

12) Confession is necessary for forgiveness and spiritual cleansing!