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Paul concludes the book of Ephesians (6:10-20) with an unexpected section about the battlefield of the Christian life. He opens with two basic commands: get yourself strengthened in the Lord, and put on all the armor He provides. These six pieces of armor represent the fullness of Christ’s provision for the Christian in a military metaphor and how each is applied to the believer. Finally, Paul ends with a word about the soldier’s line of communication with his/her Captain: prayer.

How should we as Christians engage our culture and the world around us? Many different answers have been proposed; from free and full adoption of the culture to complete withdrawal, and many positions in between. A proper Christian understanding of the world will recognize two things: First, the fact that God made the world good, to be enjoyed, and to be a blessing to his image bearers. And second, that this world is fallen and miserable under the burden and curse of sin. Understanding this, we can see how to use the things of this world legitimately (1 Tim 4:4-5), as well as how we must not use the things of this world (1 John 2:15-17).

For many years, our family read the Bible out loud together. We did it for about a decade. It gave our children a love for the Word of God, and it provided them with an understanding of the sweeping history of redemption from Genesis to Revelation. It showed them where they fit in the world. Why do this? David gives the most powerful argument in Psalm 19:7-11, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.” What is the value of a deep understanding of the Gospel? What is the value of seeing the sweep of history? What is the value of knowing the whole counsel of God? What is the value of getting prepared to meet the trials and heartbreaks that are ahead? I believe that there is no better way to capture this value than to simply read the Bible as a family. Here is my challenge: read the Bible with your whole family in 2018. Here are Ten Tips for Reading the Bible as a Family in 2018: 1. Resolve this issue right away: Can your children handle it? Can they? Yes! Don’t be intimidated by the fact that your children are young. They may not get everything out of everything, but they will get something out of everything. You will find that they will understand more than you anticipate. Remember that Timothy’s mother taught him the scriptures from the time he was a child, “from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures” (2 Tim:315). Remember that God’s people have gathered for many hours to hear the reading of the Word of God (Nehemiah 8:1). Also, remember that most of the Bible is narrative – stories that children can love. Children are fully able to sit down and watch a video for an hour. Certainly, that is proof positive that they can sit and listen to reading for 20-40 minutes. 2. Prepare a heart of gladness</

Christ’s life and death led to the groundbreaking, world-changing resurrection that forever altered the course of history. After this resurrection the living King Jesus commissioned his disciples to make known the earthshaking message of the gospel. The message of King Jesus is an international message designed to penetrate and invade the domain of human beings, bringing them face to face with God’s deliverer. Jesus was raised from the dead and declared to have all authority. This authority is worldwide for establishing His international glory, by working in families and churches. Let us come and delight ourselves in the glory of the King!

True humility is hard to find. In an age were self-exaltation is the norm and encouraged on every social media platform, humility is left behind. Sinful and frail as we are, humility should come naturally to us, but we instead exalt ourselves. Conversely, Christ had every right to be exalted, yet he humbled himself and became the greatest example of humility for us. Looking at his equality with God, his making himself of “no reputation,” his humility in life and in death on the cross, his exaltation, and the exaltation of his Name, we see what true humility is and we see the call to emulate such humility.

When the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon she was amazed at his wisdom and wealth. So great was her astonishment that she said, "indeed the half was not told me" (1 Kings 10:7). This is a picture of Christ and our response to him, a Jesus himself points out in Matthew 12:42. It was far too difficult a task to accurately describe what Solomon was like. What the Queen had heard about him was great, yet it still didn’t do him justice, because he was too great to be able to be explained fully. In the same way, what we know of Christ is incredible, and yet it still doesn't do him justice as he truly is incomprehensibly great!

Malachi - Fathers Hearts Turning Towards Home by Jason Young. Have you felt like you didn't fit in growing up? Have you wondered how to grow deep, meaningful relationships? Do you not understand where you stand or where you fit? 1. What does the book of Malachi teach us? There was a people that forgot God's love. What way has God loved me? 2. Do you think we have a problem with leadership in this day? Leaders are devaluing Christ and His authority. Are we offering defective sacrifices? Worship that is "good enough" is not good enough for God. 3. We are losing our children because we have offered the refuse of the sacrifices. God brings judgment. (2:7) You picked and chose what you would teach your family and you are judged for this with the cutting off of the seed. 4. Are we robbing God of tithes and offerings? Do we sit in the pews every Sunday and worship stuff over the things of God?

In this video, Scott Brown and Jason Dohm discuss several chapters in both Genesis and Matthew. In this particular section, there are four great patriarchs discussed: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. God made Abraham a rich man. We see that God is faithful to rescue and sustain His people through famine, war, and upheaval. He is our shield. Psalm 28:7 (NKJV) - "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him."

Paul White! How are you doing? I'm very good. Very good. Blessed. Good! So good to see you. I see that yoke of oxen behind you. You know I'm just thinking about, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." That's it! Hey, so we get to discuss Exodus 20-40. That's a big rope to pull in. It is. And then Matthew 24 to 27. So, we have this great privilege of starting in Exodus 20 when the Ten Commandments show up. Right. Every law of God is a law of love and then you know, Moses goes through and gives a number of case laws that cover lots of issues and we get to Chapter 25. We hit the tabernacle. Yes. The rest of it is just outfitting the Tabernacle for the worship of God on what all that means. So there's there's just a maximum of elements of imagery that help us understand Jesus in the tabernacle anyway. So that's the deal. Here's just a comment to make about Exodus. In Exodus, it's really interesting. Redemption comes before the giving of the law. Correct. Of course, the whole theme of Exodus is deliverance. That God delivers His people from the bondage of that abusive traitor to God -- Pharaoh, you know. And this makes me think of just what a traitor he is. How you get no rest. You get no help. All you get is abuse from the devil and that's all the children of Israel ever got. But they got delivered. Yes sir. When I read the Exodus, I try to always keep in my mind that almost perfect split half and half. And so when we hit Chapter 20 like you said, we're seeing the people come out of that bondage which Scripture testifies is a picture of salvation. So, we come out of the bondage and immediately the people of God are brought into His presence. They receive the law. Like you said, the law of love, the glorious, perfect law of God are then taught to a people. This is what it looks like to be the people of God, called into his presence, given his commands, outfitted for worship. I mean, I would imagine a large number of this group were probably just as idolatrous as they were in Egypt. Outwardly, they were told several times to get rid of their household gods and things like that. They needed conformity to God. And within that group, obviously, there were the true believers, the God-fearing Jews. But, I'm just reminded of that picture. When a person is redeemed, immediately brought into the presence of God, the law of God put in the heart, made a part of a p

In this webinar, Scott Brown and Chris Law discuss sections from both the Old and New Testament as part of the series, Journey Through the Bible. In the first half, they discuss the conclusion of the Book of Genesis and how there was reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. They conclude by discussing chapters from the book of Matthew. Genesis 50:20 (NKJV) - "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."

In this video, Scott Brown and Carlton McLeod discuss the first 2,000 years of history of the world by discussing the first 14 chapters of Genesis and the first 8 chapters of Matthew. God is the Creator of the world and was in existence even before the world was created. Eternity is a topic that we can discuss with our children when studying the book of Genesis. Romans 15:4 (NKJV) - "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."

Okay! Hey, Scott LaPierre, good to see you! Good to see you too! Glad we can talk about the Word together. Yeah. So Scott, you're the pastor of Woodland Christian Church in Woodland, Washington -- we're 3,000 miles away. Yes. Well, this is really nice. Thanks for joining us. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So here we are, in the last part of Numbers -- Numbers 16 onto the very end of Numbers. The theme is "Wilderness Wanderings" and you know they're just amazing narratives here: types of Christ, visions of sin, and even Baalam's prophecy -- a man hired to curse Israel. He actually blesses Israel. I love it. I can't wait to get to that. I hope we have time to talk about that. You know, the hymn we're recommending that everybody sing is "Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah." Pilgrim through this barren land, I am weak but Thou art might. Hold me with a Thy powerful hand. Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven. Anyway, it's a great hymn. But what's this all about? First Corinthians 10 tells us why all these things are written. It says they were written for an example so that we would learn not to be idolators. And so there were different things that the Apostle Paul points out -- not being idolators, not rising up and playing and eating and drinking and sexual immorality and complaining -- he mentions all those things and all those things happened in the book of Numbers that we're trying right here. And then Paul says, "Take heed -- let him who thinks he stands lest he fall." When we read these things, we have to make sure this is about us. It's not about how dumb they were. It's about who we are. We're just like them. We do have a new covenant and the blessing of the Holy Spirit which is so helpful but things are written for us. And it's also First Corinthians 10 where Paul identifies the rock as a picture of Christ. So, Jesus in John 7 -- He talks about the rivers of living water flowing from Him and we get to see it so beautifully prefigured in the Old Testament, in the wilderness, where Jesus is accompanying them and providing for them. Whether just like you sang in that hymn -- the bread or manna that came down from Heaven -- as he provides in that respect. And then the water that flows from the rock and all of this -- just looking forward so beautifully to the way that Christ spiritually provides for us, as our spiritual bread from Heaven and our spiritual living water that we need. Amen.