Book Review: @#!*% , Rob Bell, and What Happens When People Die by Bobby Conway

I read Rob Bell's newest book, Love Wins, and blogged about it.  You can read that review here.  Then I ran across this book that counters Bell's philosophy by Dr. Bobby Conway.

First, I will say that Rob Bell makes a smooth argument.  You leave the book feeling very persuaded, and it all sounds very nice.  I can see that many will accept this philosophy just based on the feel-good factor.  But, I got to thinking--human nature craves justice.  We all want to see evil punished, things evened out in a fair manner, that is, until it comes to us.  So the "no-hell" theory sounds nice, and makes you feel very comfortable, until you start thinking about the worst offenders in our world--pedophiles, kidnappers, Nazi concentration camp officers, rapists, serial killers--admit it, you want to see them burn.  It's the truth.  That throws a wrench into the works, doesn't it?  This changes things a bit.  You could change your theory to a "bar set really low" theory, it becomes a "most get into heaven" theory, but I do not see how anyone can really have an "everyone gets into heaven" theory.  You say, "well, I'm not nearly as bad as those kind of people, surely God would let me into heaven."  But the fact is, sin is sin, and we all deserve hell.  I'm no better than a lying, thieving, murderous, adulterer.  It say so in James 2:10.

That is how Bobby Conway opens his book, and I like that approach.  With a very loving tone, his focus is on grace.  He does not come from the stance of attacking Bell, but rather goes to the Bible to show the truth.  It's the truth, you deserve hell, I deserve hell, we all do.  And if you follow Bell's thoughts through to their conclusion (which Bell did not do in his own book), you will start to question many, many things about the Bible.  The biggest question becomes, "why did Jesus have to die?"  Conway addresses this issue.  As he puts it, "Why did the Father allow His wrath to be poured out on His Son?"  Doesn't that make God out to be more cruel than the God Bell portrays?  If everyone gets into heaven, there was no point to God's wrath on Jesus.

This brings me to the heart of the matter.  Bell ultimately does not take the Word of God as inerrant, and inspired, he doesn't take it seriously.  Conway puts it this way, "One thing becomes clear when reading Bell’s writings: he is more comfortable casting doubt on the Bible than offering credible contextual interpretations."  He says that we must go to the Word with an attitude of "what does the Bible say?" rather than "what do I want the Bible to say?"  I completely agree.  Conway quotes Darrell Bock, saying, "Bell reads Revelation 21–22 as if Revelation 19–20 did not exist."  I thought the same thing when I read Love Wins.  We cannot pick and choose from the Bible as if it's a salad bar.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that has read Love Wins, or anyone that has questions about heaven, hell, death, or the afterlife.  As Conway puts it, "Jesus wins!"  I agree!

This book is only available in ebook format.  I have to say, I wasn't thrilled about that.  I thought my eyes would get too fatigued reading on my PC (I don't have a Kindle or Nook), but they didn't.  I do like the feel of a book in my hand, but this book is pretty short, so I didn't have to sit at the computer for very long.  It is only 58 pages, not counting end notes, table of contents, etc.  Perhaps it will be released in print at some point.  But don't let the ebook format stop you from checking it out now.

I agree with Conway that it does seem that Bell has the right heart, to see people come to Christ, but I'm telling you, when you start doubting parts of God's Word, you tread on thin ice.  You will open the door for the devil to tempt you with other deceptions--the ultimate being that Jesus is not really the Son of God, He was not really born of a virgin, and therefore cannot save.  If you will recall that is the same thing he did in the Garden of Eden--tempted Eve with doubting God's Word (Gen. 3).  I will be curious to watch the path that Bell follows in the coming years.  I really hope he doesn't end up like the Carlton Pearsons and Charles Templetons of the world, but I see him opening himself up to that.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Dispensations

I'm studying Ephesians right now and have come to verse 10.  In this verse we see the word dispensation.  What is a dispensation?  It is the Greek word is oikonomia.  It means the management of household affairs, or administration.  It's simply the rule of the house, the way things operate for this time.  It is used 4 times as dispensation (I Cor. 9:17, Eph. 1:10, 3:2, & Col. 1:25) and 3 times as stewardship (Luke 16:2-4).  Some translations will use the word stewardship rather than dispensation.  I use the NKJV, which is based on the Textus Receptus.  In Eph. 3:9 there appears a word for fellowship--koinonia.  But some translations are based on the Alexandrian text, which uses the word oikonomia in that verse instead  Just something to be aware of.  The NKJV reads, "fellowship of the mystery", the ESV reads, "plan of the mystery", and NASB reads, "dispensation of the mystery."

 

Heb. 1:1 – God works in different ways in different times. This does not mean that God tried one thing and it didn’t work so He tried something else. The reason for each of these periods is to lead man to the cross, until the final period where Christ will reign forever.

 

These dispensations help us understand the overall plan of scripture. They help us have a big picture perspective.  Understanding these dispensations particularly helps us understand how we are no longer under the law.

 

So, what are the different dispensations?  There are seven, here is a list.  I interpret them slightly differently than some.  You may ask, "who cares?"  Does this information really do us any good in our day-to-day life?  For one, I will use them to explain the Sheep and the Goats post.  And I see a very practical aspect applied to our parenting.  I will post about that soon.

 

1. Innocence (Gen. 1:28) – from creation to the fall. How long did it last? We don’t really know, but we do know it ended when they sinned. They were no longer innocent at that point.

 

2. Conscience/Moral Responsibility (Gen. 3:7) – from the fall onward. You now know good and evil, I will leave you to your conscience to choose between those. But man tends toward evil, so we get up to Gen. 6:5 and God says that ALL the purposes of man were evil continually.

 

3. Government (Gen. 8:15) – from the flood onward. After the flood there were consequences for evil. Man was still accountable to his conscience to choose between good and evil, but God added an incentive. He says that anyone that takes a human life will have his taken away. We see the value God is placing on human life here. If you can’t govern yourself, someone else will have to. See also Rom. 13.

 

4. Promise (Gen. 12:1) – from the call of Abram onward. This promise was not based on anything Abraham had done; it was unconditional. All Abraham had to do was believe. This promise is still available to us by faith, as well. So this dispensation, too, has not gone away. Gen. 12 & Gal. 3, 4. God is now teaching humans to trust in Him.

 

5. Law (Ex. 19:1) – from Mt. Sinai until Jesus (or specifically John the Baptist—Luke 16:16). Promise does not end and the Law did not bring justification. It brought a picture of the Savior. It brought many, many types and shadows to point us to the cross. You can study everything in the law, from the Sabbath, to the Feasts, to the elements of the Tabernacle, to the Dietary Laws, to the specific instructions to the priests on how to administer offerings, to the laws for declaring leprosy cleansed, and you will see Christ through and through. Beyond all the symbolism, the law was meant to frustrate man and show him he could never make it on his own, even with conscience and human government.

 

6. Church (Acts 2:1) – from Pentecost until the rapture. This is sometimes called the Age of Grace (I do not agree with this title) or the Dispensation of Faith (again, I don’t think this is entirely accurate), or the Dispensation of the Spirit. This is the mystery Paul is talking about, the secret that was hidden, not revealed in the OT, that Gentiles and Jews would be part of the same Body, and that the Spirit would indwell us. These were mind-blowing truths. This is one of the reasons Paul prayed for revelation for the people he was writing to. We need to pray this pray, too, that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes to these profound truths.

 

· Do we still have moral responsibility (#2)? Yes, but now we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, to give us the power to choose right and wrong, and our human spirits have been recreated in the image of Christ—it wants to follow after Him.


· Do we still have human government (#3)? Yes, we do, but if we walk according to the Spirit, we don’t have to be afraid of the government. If they put us to death for righteousness sake, the Bible says we’re supposed to be happy.


· What about the law? Does it still stand? I Tim. 1:8-10 says that the law is not for the righteous—we have been made the righteousness of Christ—but for the lawless, the ungodly, the sinners. The law still stands to point people to Christ, to show them their need. The law still stands as a standard in our world, that if people would follow it, our world would be a better place to live in. The law does not justify us, but it sets the standard and grace gives us the power to live it.

 

7. Kingdom (Rev. 20:4) – from Armageddon onward. The visible rule of the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. We can see II Sam. 7:12-16, Is. 9:6-7, Luke 1:31-33, Rev. 3:21, and Matt. 25:31. He came once to die, the second to reign.

  

Now, the thread that is common throughout all these dispensations is grace. That is why I do not call the Church Age the Age of Grace. Every single age has been the age of grace. It was God’s grace that blocked Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life. He did not want them to live forever in their fallen state. It was grace that God had on Cain when He marked him and sent him away. It was grace that saved Noah and his family. Grace called Abram out of Ur. Grace redeemed Israel from their bondage to the Egyptians. Grace came and dwelt among us. Grace will rule on a literal throne forever and ever. The other side of this coin is faith. You can read about people of faith throughout all the past in Hebrews 11. Just like them, we are saved by grace, through faith, in whatever age we live.

What is Grace?

I listened to a fabulous message the other day by John Bevere. You can listen to it, too, here.

He included a great analogy that has really stuck with me.

Imagine a tribe that lives in the bush, in Africa. They live far from all amenities. They have to travel far for water. They have to travel really, really far for medical supplies. They have to go out and hunt their food and then carry the heavy load back to the village. They have no connection to the outside world--no radios, no TV, no Internet. They have no A/C in their huts. And on and on and on.

We decide to grace them, to show them favor, to give them a great gift. We buy them a Land Rover. We bring it over and explain many of its benefits. We show them the A/C, heater, DVD player, Satellite Radio--really awesome things, that will benefit their lives. They are in awe and ask how they can pay for this. No, no, no, this is a FREE gift. We are giving it to them and expect no payment.

We leave and then come back to visit in 10 years. We find that the Land Rover is still sitting in the same spot! We find the odometer reads 0 miles! Why haven't they used it? Why haven't they taken advantage of the benefit of using it for transporting water, medical supplies, food, and more? Why haven't they used it to make their lives better?

Because we FAILED to explain to them the PRIMARY function of the Land Rover--transportation! We explained other good benefits, but not the primary benefit. They wrote songs about how great this gift was, they wrote books about it being a free gift that they didn't earn, they preached sermons about how it covered them when they climbed in to get out of the rain. But they WASTED our gift!

Is Jesus going to come back and see that we have wasted His gift of grace? We write songs about how amazing His grace is--and it is. We write books about how it's a free gift that we could never possibly earn--and it is. We preach sermons about how it covers all our sin--and it does. BUT, we are not teaching people the primary purpose and that is...

Empowerment!

Grace empowers us to overcome sin, overcome our weaknesses, overcome the world, overcome the devil, to be all that God has planned for us to be!

There is much more to the message and I encourage you to listen to it. The different references that were used were Eph. 3:9-10 Msg, Rom. 5:18 Msg, Gen. 1:27 Msg, II Cor. 12:9 TEV & NLT, II Pet. 1:2-3, John 1:16, I John 4:17, I John 2:6 NLT, II Cor. 7:1 TEV, Heb. 12:14, Heb. 12:28, II Cor. 6:1 TEV, John 20:21, Acts 4:33, Acts 6:8 NLT, Luke 2:40, John 14:12, Rom. 5:17 TEV, Dan. 6:3 NASB, Dan. 1:20. Look all of these up and see what the Holy Spirit wants to teach you. All unmarked references are NKJV.

Christmas Prophecy 3

The Messiah was to be of the tribe of Judah (this is one of the twelve tribes of Israel).

Prophecy -

Genesis 49:10

The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

Fulfillment -

Luke 3:33

[partial genealogy, to read in full, see Luke 3:23-38]

The son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,

Matthew 1:2

Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.

[Again, partial genealogy, to read in full, see Matthew 1:1-17]

Hebrews 7:14

For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.

This is a continuation of our Christmas Prophecy series. To read part one and two, click here:

Christmas Prophecy 1

Christmas Prophecy 2

Christmas Prophecy 2

The Messiah was to be of the seed (family/descendant) of Abraham.

Prophecy -

Genesis 12:2-3 & 22:18

[God is speaking to Abraham]

I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you and make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Genesis 22:18

In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

Fulfillment -

Matthew 1:1

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham...

Galatians 3:16

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.

All the families and nations of the earth have been blessed through Abraham, because Jesus was born of Abraham's family and salvation is only through Jesus. Salvation is for Jews and Gentiles (all non-Jews). (John 14:6, Acts 26:23, Romans 3:29)

This is a continuation of our Christmas Prophecy series. You can read the first post here.

Christmas Prophecy 1

Christmas is a time to celebrate Jesus (yes, I know He wasn't really born on December 25th and there is no where in the Bible that tells us to celebrate His birth, but I think any time we stop and focus on Him, God is pleased).

But was Jesus really the Son of God? Was He really the Messiah?

I've decided to do a countdown to Christmas and post, every day, one prophecy concerning Jesus and show the fulfillment. What are the odds that one man could fulfill all these prophecies? Could He have engineered it Himself, just made His life fit each prophecy? Or was it coincidence that He just happened to fit all these prophesies? Or what about the context of the prophecies themselves, are we taking them out of context and trying to make them fit the life of Jesus? Stay tuned and I will answer these questions throughout and at the end of the series.

The first prophecy I want to focus on is that the Messiah had to be born of a virgin.

Prophecy -

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. [Immanuel means God with us.]

You can also see Genesis 3:15. It refers to the seed of the woman. Women don't have seed, only men do. This also implies a virgin birth.

Fulfillment -

Luke 1:26-35

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Matthew 1:18, 24, 25

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together [referring to marital relations], she was found with child of the Holy Spirit...Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her [again, referring to marital relations] till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.

We Think We Know What We're Doing

It is human nature to try to work things out ourselves, without consulting God first.

Remember Abram and Sarai? God had promised them a child, but Sarai knew she was barren. She thought she would “help” God and come up with her own plan. She took her maidservant and gave her to her husband as a second wife (common practice in the ancient world). The second wife conceived and had a son, but this was not what God had intended. The second wife and son were trouble to the family from the start. (You can read the story starting in Genesis 16.)

Humans have been doing it since the beginning of time. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. God made skins from an animal instead, showing them that blood had to be shed to cover their sin.

I was raised to “fix” things naturally. We didn’t go to the doctor except for life and death issues. This was carried into my adulthood. If I came down with a cold or the flu, I would pop vitamin C, take Echinacea or goldenseal, etc. When I developed a rash on my hand (more detail here), my first thought was to solve it myself. I put lavender oil on it (known to be antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal), I put coconut oil on it, I would do a salt rub (because it would develop a thick skin layer), I also tried putting MSM on it (because I had read that sulfur was good for eczema). All I accomplished was further irritating it! Lesson learned--seek God’s wisdom and have patience that He will give you the answer. And take my advice, if you have dermatitis, DON’T do any of these things I did (except the coconut oil, it might sooth it)! I am now healed, because I chose not to resolve it in my own strength and knowledge. You can read that story here.

Do you have an area of your life that you think you can solve? Are you subconsciously leaving God out of the loop? He wants to be involved in every area of your life.

I leave you with this verse.

Proverbs 14:26 - There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Why Am I Here?

Do you ever get that feeling?  Do you know what your purpose is?  Unfortunately, most people don't have a sense of purpose and without it, we flounder through life.  You will find true joy when you find your purpose.

You will remember that I did a study with my son on what the Bible says about who we are, this spring.  After we finished that study we jumped into a study of what the Bible says about WHY we are here, why we were created.  This is what I came up with.

Why Am I Here?

First we realize that it's not all about us!

::We were created for God's glory.

Isaiah 43:7, I Corinthians 10:31, I Corinthians 6:20, Proverbs 16:4

::To love God

Mark 12:28-30

::For God's pleasure

Psalm 149:4, Psalm 147:11

::To worship God

John 4:23, Psalm 105:4, Psalm 113:3, Psalm 34:1

::To understand and know God

Jeremiah 9:24

Now, God wants to work in us and through us...

::To make us like Christ

Romans 8:29, Ephesians 4:22-24, Romans 13:14, I John 3:2, II Peter 3:14 (NIV), Hebrews 4:11

::To develop character in us

Romans 5:3-4, II Peter 1:5-8, Colossians 3:12-17, Galatians 5:22-23

BUT, we must never forget that it is God developing that character in us and changing us into the image of His Son!

Philippians 2:13

Why is character so important?

So we can fulfill the next part of purpose...

::To be the light of the world

John 8:12, Matthew 5:14-16, Ephesians 5:8-10

::To love one another

John 13:34-35, I John 4:7, I Corinthians 13

::To serve one another

Mark 10:35-45

::To bear good fruit

Genesis 1:28, John 15:16. Galatians 5:22-23

::To spread the gospel

Mark 16:15

::To do good works

Ephesians 2:10

::To do a job in the Body of Christ

I Corinthians 3:5-15, Romans 12:6, I Corinthians 12

Now, you may have noticed that the first portion  of this list related to God and the second portion is in relation to others.  We cannot love others and minister to others until we understand God's love for us and let him start to change us from the inside out.

Now, in relation to this earth...

::We are to have dominion over the earth (this is partially realized now and fully realized in the age to come)

Genesis 1:26

And finally, in the future...

::To rule and reign with Christ as kings and priests.

Revelation 5:10 & II Timothy 2:12

Now, equally important as our purpose is, is also what NOT to do.  We are NOT to seek after man's approval, our motives are just as important, sometimes more so, than our actions.  God looks at the heart.  

II Corinthians 10:12, 17-18

As I stated in our study of who we are, you can find more in the Bible to add to this list, but this is what I chose to study with my children.  Start a study to find out what your purpose is.  Need some help?  Check out The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren.

This article is also a follow-up of my challenge, to write down a list of my beliefs.  This list answers some of those questions.

Who Are You?

Last month I issued a challenge, you can read more here.  Part of that challenge was to write down what you believe about yourself.  What does the Bible say about you?

I did some study and came up with these 15 things.  I know there are more to be found, but 15 was a nice number to cover with my son.  I think we studied these over a 3 or 4 week period.  I used this opportunity to cover who we are, but also where we came from, a catechism of sorts.  I wanted to include some fundamentals of doctrine in this list.  I also wanted to start from scratch with this list.  I made a list of things I believed, but only kept the ones that I could find scriptural basis for.

Who Am I?

I was created by God, in His image.

Genesis 1:26-31

I am a spirit, I have a soul, and I live in a body.

Genesis 2:7, Job 32:8

I was born a sinner.

Romans 3:23

I have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

Ephesians 2:1-13

I am a new creation.

II Corinthians 5:17

I am more than a conqueror.

Romans 8:37

I am a child of God.

Romans 8:14-16

I am a joint heir with Christ.

Romans 8:17

I am seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:6

I am dead to sin and alive in Christ.

Colossians 3:1-17, Romans 5:12-21, Romans 6, Galatians 2:20

I am an overcomer.

I John 5:4-5

I am an alien (you could also say stranger or foreigner) of this earth.  (My son is partial to aliens, so he chose to use the word alien in this list.)

Psalm 119:19, Philippians 3:20

I am an ambassador for Christ.

II Corinthians 5:20, Ephesians 6:20

I am part of the Body of Christ.

I Corinthians 12:12-31, Ephesians 1:22-23

I am a person with unique God-given gifts and talents.

Matthew 25:14-30, Ephesians 4:7-8, I Peter 4:10, I Timothy 4:14, II Timothy 1:18

This started as a way to teach my son some fundamentals, and I took for granted these beliefs that I held, but I cannot tell you how good this study has been for me.  I believe that seeds have been planted in both my children (9 & 3) through this study, but I have experienced revelation, breakthrough, and victory in my life as a result.  I went from comprehending to apprehending these truths.  See Ephesians 3:18, the verb comprehend, in the Greek, is also translated apprehend, meaning to lay hold of so as to make one's own.  These truths became my own.  It is when the truth of God's Word comes alive to you that it's power works in your life!

Next, we will study why we are here on this earth.

If you would like to read some of what I believe about God, see my earlier articles here, here, and here.

Too Funny!

I love reading the Bible to my kids.  First, they have a fresh perspective on things, they haven't had years of man's opinions clouding their thinking.  Second, they come up with good analogies, and third, they often (especially the younger they are) come up with funny comments!

We were reading the story of Noah this morning and got to the verse where God tells Noah to take 7 of every clean animal onto the ark, and 2 of every unclean animal.

My 3 year old daughter said, "That mole in the backyard is dirty!"  (She saw a mole digging in the dirt a couple evenings ago.  To her, that is unclean, digging in the dirt!)  This made me laugh out loud!

Now, question for all you adults.  Why did God tell Noah to bring extra "clean" animals AND how did Noah know the difference between "clean" and "unclean?"  The law wasn't given for, at the very least, 500 more years (it was 400 years from Abraham and Abraham was many years from Noah).

Prophecy

Update below 12/24/08

As an advent activity last year I decided to cover prophecy scriptures about Jesus, and their fulfillments, with my kids.  You can read about that here.  It didn't seem to have the impact that I was looking for so I wasn't going to do it again this Christmas, but have changed my mind.  I will tell you why.

A little while back (can't remember what we were reading), my son had a lightbulb go off in his head during Bible reading.  He said, "you mean the Bible not only tells us things that happened, but things that are going to happen, too?!?"  I thought I had explained that last Christmas with the prophecy scriptures.  Oh well, now that he understands this he thinks it's really cool.

I also got to thinking about the method I used last year.  I printed out the scriptures on red and green paper and cut them out with fancy scrapbook scissors and each day that we read them, I let the kids tape them on the fridge in a long string.  We alternated the red and green papers.  Well, since I was the one that did all the work, I was the one that learned!  None of the information stuck in my son's head.

So this year I am reading to him, but having him do a little notebooking.  I had him title his page, "Prophecy" and he is making a list.  We have one through nine so far (we do these on week days).  I have him write the basic synopsis of the prophecy (I usually help him think of it) and the scripture reference and then I ask him if it has been fulfilled or not.  This gets him to thinking of the fulfillment and usually he'll tell me what the story is for the fulfillment, sometimes I'll read the fulfillment, as well.

Now since I decided to do this again this year, I just pulled up my references from last year and figured I would go down the list.  But what most often happens when I open up the Bible, is I get led other places (I'm also more knowledgeable than I was last year).  So our list this year will vary a bit from last year (I got most of the references last year from a book, can't remember the title).  I will list them as we do them, in case we veer off our course again.

Here is what we have so far - 

virgin birth - Isaiah 7:14

despised and rejected - Isaiah 53:2-3

stone of stumbling - Isaiah 8:14-15

born in Bethlehem - Micah 5:2 (At this point I decided to try to keep them in chronological order)

out of Egypt - Hosea 11:1 (This one was neat because I could show my son that many verses have more than one meaning.  This one refers back to Israel's exodus from Egypt, but also forward to Christ.)

betrayed - Psalm 41:9 (Again, this one refers to Ahithophel betraying David, but also Judas betraying Jesus.)

suffering - Psalm 22

beaten and killed - Isaiah 53:4-9

no bone to be broken - Psalm 34:20 & John 19:31-36

as a lamb without spot - Exodus 12:5, John 1:29-41, I Peter 1:19 and we talked about Matthew 4

rises from the dead - Psalm 16:10 & John 20:1-18

bring salvation to the whole world - Isaiah 49:6

returning one day - Acts 1:11  (This is where I'm glad I didn't list all the verses at the beginning because this verse didn't come to me until I opened up my Bible to read--I was going to read from I Thessalonians.)

fights enemies - Isaiah 63:1-6

reign on the throne of David forever - Luke 1:32-33

Well, this is our completed list.  I am much happier this year with the retention and interest level of my son.  This makes me want to do a similar study of the verses that give detail about the family of the Messiah, starting in Genesis 3:15 (some call this the scarlet thread).  I think that for now we will get back to our character study of God.

Character

I'm going to reach back a bit and fill in some gaps.  With my 3rd grade son this year I decided to study various character aspects of God.

What you think of God will have a big impact upon your life.  What does God's Word have to say about His character?

I sat down and listed all the character qualities I could think of and then researched each one.  We spent a few weeks on each one.

I had my son take certain notes so that it would help the information stick in his mind.  If kids are doing something with the information they are learning it will help them retain it better.  Now he has that notebook to refer back to, also, and refresh his memory.

For each character quality I had him copy the definition out of the dictionary (one day) and then copy down a theme verse (separate day).  Then each day I would read him a Bible story that illustrated that quality, he then kept a list of the stories on his notebook page.

Our first character aspect was faithful.  The theme verse was Hebrews 10:23 "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful."  I found various stories of God making a promise to someone and keeping that promise.  The ones we read were -  Noah (promised to preserve from the flood), Abraham (promised a son), Peter & John, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego; Paul (God promised him he would go to Rome, we read all the stories of how God kept him from harm so he could get to Rome, including a shipwreck).

Then I thought we would cover some of the promises in God's Word that He is faithful to perform (Jer. 1:12 & Is. 55:11).  I looked up various verses about - protection, provision, strength, healing, joy, wisdom, and peace.

I know there are many more that I didn't find.  Each day we covered a separate promise and I had my son list all the scripture references in his notebook so that he could use it as a reference whenever he needed.

Next we learned that God is our Healer.  Our theme verse was Ex. 15:26 "I am the Lord who heals you."  We went through all four gospels (and the beginning of Acts) and picked out every single story on healing that we found.  I had my son write down each reference each day so that he could have it as a reference.

Next was God our Deliverer.  Theme verses were Psalm 91:14-15 "Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.  He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him."  We read stories of deliverance - Gideon, Jacob & Esau, Moses in the basket, the Israelites from Egypt, Deborah the Judge, Rahab in Jericho, Israel from Balaam's curse, Samson, David from Goliath, David from Saul, Shadrach, Meshach & Abed-Nego, and Daniel in the lion's den.

Next was God our Provider.  Theme verse Philippians 4:19 "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."  Story of creation (order of importance, man was created last so that everything he needed was already here), Elijah and the ravens, Elijah and the widow, manna, water from the rock, Book of Ruth, feeding the thousands (loaves and fishes), consider the sparrows and the lillies/do not worry passage, tax money from a fish, David provided with the showbread to eat, Goliath's sword for a weapon, and a hiding place for his family, when on the run from Saul; and Joseph and his family during famine.

This brings us up to date (we did character qualities from July through October).  We have taken a bit of a detour (because I was lazy and didn't research a new character quality) and read through some Psalms and Proverbs (month of November) and are now on a prophecy kick.  See later posts for details.