Weekly Bible Study Review

Weekly Bible Study Review

February 19, 2012

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Class Schedule
Go to www.theocentrix.org click on the "Events" tab
for maps and more information.

Cafe Class
Culture Cafe
1359 N Altadena Drive
Pasadena CA 91104
Wednesdays 10:00 am

Read-to-Believe Class
Lake Avenue Church
Hutchins Hall Room 402
309 N Lake Avenue
Pasadena CA 91101
Thursdays 7:00 pm

Arbo Class
LA County Arboretum
301 N Baldwin Ave
Arcadia CA 91007
Saturday 12:00 noon
Once per month

January 7, 2012

February 4, 2012

March 3, 2012

March 31, 2012

April 28, 2012

May no class

June 2, 2012

July 14, 2012

August 11, 2012

September 8, 2012

October 6, 2012

November 3, 2012

December 1, 2012

Greetings!

This newsletter is sent to people who attend one of Sandy's weekly Bible studies. The left column has the current class schedule. Be sure to watch for the links in each article. Clicking on them will lead you to charts, diagrams and additional articles related to your class.

Anyone can subscribe to this free newsletter by using the link in the upper left corner. If you would like to forward this issue to a friend all you have to do is click on the link below.

Wednesday Cafe Class

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 11:1-16

11:1 Paul tells the Corinthian believers to "follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." He means they should act unselfishly with the same attitude as Christ who did not seek His own good but the good of others.

v. 2-5 In the following passage Paul uses the term "head" in two different ways:

headship or authority
one's physical head

Verse 3 says that God is the authoritative head of Christ, Christ is the authoritative head of man, and man is the authoritative head of woman.

Men must uncover their physical "head" when they pray or prophesy or else they dishonor their authoritative "head"-- Christ/God.
Women must cover their physical "head" when they pray or prophesy or else they dishonor their authoritative "head"-- man/Christ/God.

Before we go on, notice that both men and women are praying and prophesying in a public gathering of the church. Both are treated the same in that they may pray and prophesy (give words of encouragement or correction from God).

Click to read more...

Thursday Read-to-Believe Class
Genesis

Genesis 19:1-23:20

In the previous chapter the Lord and two angels visited Abraham. The Lord confirmed His promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a son whose name would be Isaac. The two angels started walking toward Sodom while Abraham pleaded with the Lord. He agreed to spare the city if ten righteous people could be found there.

19:1-3 The two angels arrived in Sodom that same evening and were greeted warmly by Lot at the city gate. He invited them to stay at his house for the night but they said they would spend the night in the square. That would be similar to sleeping in a public park. But Lot insisted that they come with him. The angels agreed and Lot prepared a quick meal which included unleavened bread.

v. 4-11 Before they went to bed all the men of Sodom, young and old, came to Lot's house demanding that the two strangers be brought out so they could "have sex with them." Lot went outside and pleaded with the men not to do "this wicked thing." He offered to bring out his two unmarried daughters instead of the strangers. But the crowd had no respect for Lot, calling him an alien who was now judging them. They threatened him with physical harm and moved forward to break the door down. The angels pulled Lot back into the house and struck the men outside with blindness so they couldn't find the door.

v. 12-26 The angels told Lot to go out and get any other family members he had in the city but Lot's sons-in-law only laughed at him. At dawn the angels told Lot to take his wife and daughters and flee to the mountains or else they would be swept away when the city was destroyed. Lot hesitated. The angels took them by the hand and led them safely out of the city. The Lord was merciful to them. Lot didn't want to go too far away so he bargained with the angels to let him go to a small town nearby. They agreed to spare that town. At around noon the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah that destroyed the cities and killed all the people and vegetation. Lot's wife didn't make it out alive. She looked back and became a pillar of salt.

Click to read more...

Since ancient times the Bible has been read aloud to groups of people who were eager to hear the words of Life. We're really no different today. Believers still look to the Bible for wisdom and instruction. We belong in the Word together. Thank you for your participation in these classes. I hope you will pass this email on to others and invite them to attend a Bible study.

Grace and peace,

Sandy Blank

Wednesday Cafe Class (continued)

1 Corinthians 11:1-16

11:6 If a woman does not cover her head (with a veil or scarf) it is just as though her head were shaved. It is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair shaved off (See Deut 21:10-14). Therefore, if she refuses to cover her head when praying in the assembly it is as disgraceful as being bald. But a man should not cover his head.

Let's try to understand this from their cultural perspective. Men often wore turbans on their heads. The turban indicated their status in the community. A man of high standing wore his turban proudly. For a woman, her status in the community could be seen in the way she wore her hair. High status women braided their hair, wore jewels in their hair, etc. When believers from all walks of life came together for prayer and worship it was obvious which ones were wealthy or of high social status. Paul's command about head coverings served to equalize them. When the men uncovered their heads by removing their turbans they all looked the same. When the women covered their hair with a veil they all looked the same. The status issue was minimized as both men and women humbled themselves before God in their gathering. Although this passage has sometimes been used to make women subservient to men it actually tells both men and women to voluntarily humble themselves so that God may be exalted.

v. 7-12 Man is the mage and glory of God. That is, man is a reflection of God's glory. The woman reflects the glory of man as he reflects the glory of God. Paul goes back to creation and says that woman came from man (Eve from Adam's rib) and woman was created for man (as his helper). The sign of authority on a woman's head is her hair. However, "In the Lord" (in the church) men and women are not independent of each other. Sure Eve came from Adam but every man who has been born since then has come from a woman, even the Lord Jesus. "But everything comes from God" so neither men nor women can boast.

v. 13-16 Paul appeals to common sense, for his readers knew that it was disgraceful for a man to have long hair but long hair was a woman's crowning glory. Her long hair is a covering that gives her honor and dignity. Paul abruptly ends his instruction about head coverings by saying "we have no other practice." Men must uncover their heads and women must cover theirs. Case closed!

--Sandy Blank
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Thursday Read-to-Believe Class (continued)

Genesis 19:1-23:20

19:27-29 Early the next morning (the day after the Lord and the angels had visited him) Abraham looked down at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and saw dense smoke rising from the plain. He had no way of knowing if Lot made it out of the city. But God remembered Abraham and brought Lot safely out.

v. 30-38 Lot and his two daughters didn't stay very long in that small town because he was afraid. They soon settled in a cave in the mountains (where he'd been told to go in the first place). We don't know how long they lived there but after a while his daughters came up with a plan to "preserve" their family line through their father. On two consecutive nights they got him drunk and then slept with him. Both daughters became pregnant this way and bore sons. The older daughter's son was named Moab (meaning "from father") and the younger daughter's son was named Ben-Ammi (meaning "son of my people"). From these sons came the Moabites and the Ammonites.

20:1-7 Abraham moved on to the Negev and stayed for a while in Gerar. As he had done before he asked Sarah to say she was his sister. Abimelech, king of Gerar, took Sarah to be his wife. But God came to him in a dream and said, "You are as good as dead" because he had taken a married woman to be his wife. Notice that God spoke to a pagan king in a dream. Abimelech defended himself saying that he didn't know she was married. God said He knew this and He had kept Abimelech from sinning against Him. It was God who kept him from sleeping with Sarah. God told him to return Sarah to her husband and Abraham would pray for him so that he and his whole family would be allowed to live. This is the first time we see Abraham called a prophet.

v. 8-18 Early the next morning Abimelech did as he was told and demanded an explanation from Abraham. Abraham explained that he thought they would kill him for his wife, and besides she really is his sister since they have the same father. Abraham routinely called Sarah his sister everywhere they went. Abimelech gave Abraham livestock, servants, and 1,000 shekels of silver and told him to live wherever he liked. Abraham prayed and God healed Abimelech and his family so that the women could have children again.

21:1-13 The Lord was gracious to Sarah, she had a son and they named him Isaac (meaning "he laughs"). When he was 8 days old Abraham circumcised him. Abraham was 100 years old. Sarah was very happy. They had a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned but Sarah saw that Ishmael (who would have been a teenager now) was mocking her son. She told Abraham to get rid of the slave woman's son because he would never share in the inheritance with her son, Isaac. Abraham was greatly distressed but God told him to listen to Sarah and send Ishmael away because it is through Isaac that his offspring will be reckoned. God would also make Ishmael into a great nation because he is a son of Abraham.

v. 14-21 Without hesitation, early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar some food and water and sent them away. She wandered in the desert until the water was gone and put Ishmael under a bush, expecting that they would both die in the desert. But "God heard the boy crying" and an angel came to Hagar promising that the boy would become a great nation. Her eyes were opened, she saw a well and gave her son some water. God was with Ishmael as he grew up in the desert. He became an archer and his mother got a wife for him from her own people, the Egyptians.

v. 22-24 Abimilech and his military commander made a treaty with Abraham at Beersheba. Abimelech acknowledged that God was with Abraham in everything he did. He wanted Abraham to swear that he and his descendants would not deal deceitfully with Abimelech and his descendants. Abraham willingly swore that he would not deal falsely with them. Has Abraham ever been deceitful before? Yes, in the previous chapter we saw that Abraham neglected to tell the king that Sarah was his wife. Abimelech was frightened of Abraham and his God so he wanted a treaty.

v. 25-34 Abraham took this opportunity to settle a dispute about a well that Abimelech's servants had seized from him. Abraham gave him some livestock and set apart seven lambs as his witness that he dug the well. The two men swore an oath there and then Abimelech returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree, perhaps signifying that he was going to stay there for a long time. He called upon the name of the Lord, "the Eternal God," there and stayed in the land of the Philistines a long time.

22:1-14 A few years later God tested Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Once again we see that Abraham did not hesitate to obey God. Early the next morning he left with his servants and his son to go to the mountain God told him about. "On the third day" he arrived there and told his servants to wait while he and Isaac went to make an offering to God. Isaac asked him, "where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." Abraham bound Isaac, placed him on the wood that was on the altar and took the knife to slay him. But the angel of the Lord stopped him and said, "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." There was a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it instead of Isaac. He called that place, "The Lord Will Provide" and to this day it is said among his descendants, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided."

v. 15-19 The angel of the Lord spoke again saying that Abraham would be blessed and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars and the sand. They will take possession of their enemies' cities and all nations will be blessed through his offspring because of Abraham's obedience. Then Abraham went back to Beersheba.

v. 20-24 His brother Nahor had eight sons through his wife Milcah and four more through his concubine. This will be important when it comes time for Isaac to find a wife because Nahor's son Bethuel is the father of Rebekah.

23:1-20 Sarah died at the age of 127 in Canaan. Abraham mourned for her. He owned no land for a burial site so he asked the local Hittites to sell him a field that had a cave. They graciously offered him any of their tombs or would have even given him a field, but Abraham insisted on paying the full price. The owner, Ephron, accepted 400 shekels of silver for it. So Ephron's field in Machpelah, the cave in it and all the trees were deeded to Abraham as his property. Sarah was buried in the cave.

See you next time.

--Sandy Blank

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This newsletter is maintained by Sandy Blank (Ph.D. Educational Studies, Biola; MA Biblical Studies, Grace University). If you would like further information about any of her classes or would like to know how to start a Bible study in your area please contact her at sandyblank@theocentrix.org. This newsletter is sponsored by Theocentrix, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting God-centered Bible literacy. Visit www.theocentrix.org for more information.