Separate for a Purpose

Monday, December 14, 2015
Leviticus 20:7-8, 22-24 KJV 

7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I [am] the LORD your God. 8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I [am] the LORD which sanctify you. ... 22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. 23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. 24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I [am] the LORD your God, which have separated you from [other] people.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What did the Lord God tell His people to do, and to refrain from doing, to inherit their land of promise? Why? (20:7-8,22-24)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
2) In what ways have you separated yourself from the people of the world?

LIFE LESSONS
3) As God's holy people, we are to separate ourselves from the ways of the people of this world, that we may inherit the blessings God has promised us.

Remembering God's Grace

Thursday, September 24, 2015
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 KJV

1 Paul, called [to be] an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes [our] brother, 2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called [to be] saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: 3 Grace [be] unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and [from] the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; 5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and [in] all knowledge; 6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: 8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, [that ye may be] blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God [is] faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What is the Apostle Paul's salutation to the church at Corinth? (v.1-3)
2) What is Paul thankful for? Why? (v.4-7)
3) With whom had the saints in Corinth been called into fellowship with and who would present them blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus? (v.8-9)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) How would you describe your relationship with the Lord Jesus?

LIFE LESSONS
5) The Lord Jesus calls every believer into relationship with Himself so that we may be sanctified through His Spirit.

Truth is in Jesus

Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Ephesians 4:17-25 KJV 

17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) After exhorting members of the body of Christ to walk in unity, what does the Apostle Paul tell disciples to refrain from doing? (v.17)
2) Why are these Gentiles living as they do? (v.18-19)
3) What have disciples of Christ been taught and what should we "put off," "put on," and "put away", as a result? Why? (v.20-25)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Are you still living as those who have not learned of Christ? If so, what will you do to renew your mind?

LIFE LESSONS
5) Those who have been saved from the penalty of sin, are being freed from the power of sin as we are increasingly conformed to the image of Christ, through His Holy Spirit.

Sanctified in the Truth

Sunday, January 11, 2015
John 17:6-21 KJV 

6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received [them], and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we [are]. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What did our Lord tell the Father that He had done for His disciples? (v.6a)
2) What did Jesus tell the Father about His disciples? (v.6b-7)
3) What had Jesus given His disciples and what did they know as a result? (v.8)
4) What did Jesus say to identify those He was praying for? (v.9-11a)
5) What did Jesus pray and ask the Father to do for His followers then, and His followers to this present time? Why? (v.11b-21)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
6) How do you know that you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?
7) What distinguishes you from the people of the world?

LIFE LESSONS
8) Those who follow Christ are being sanctified (conformed to the image of Christ) by the word of God.
9) The people of the world and the people of God have the sames problems, but followers of Christ trust in Him alone, in times of trouble.

A New Birth, A Living Hope

Friday, November 21, 2014
1 Peter 1:1-7 KJV

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) Who was the Apostle Peter writing this epistle to? (v.1)
2) What made them the "elect" and how did that effect them spiritually? (v.2)
3) What has the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ done for all who have been born again? Why? (v.3-4)
4) What are we kept by and through? (v.5a)
5) What does our faith lead to? (v.5b)
6) What should be our response to so great a salvation? (v.6a)
7) What may happen instead, as a result of our faith? (v.6b)
8) Why are our trials so precious? (v.7)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
9) What is your typical reaction to the trials that you face in life?
10) Has your faith in God ever faltered, since you believed? If so, what happened?
11) To whom, or what, do you attribute your faith in God today?

PRINCIPLES
12) We are saved by grace, through faith, in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
13) We were chosen by God for sanctification that leads to soul salvation.
14) All who belong to the Lord have an eternal inheritance that is reserved for us in heaven.
15) Trials are used by God to test our faith and to bring glory to our Lord.