Opened Scriptures Bible Studies

This morning I want to wish all of our readers around the world a blessed and safe Christmas week. Our church is having a Christmas Eve service which is a joyous and contemplative service. I wish the same for all of you.  Please remember to pray for Christians around the world who are persecuted for their faith that our wonderful God would place a hedge of protection around them.  Please remember to share the living truth of God's eternal word with other people that you come in contact with because scripture is what God uses to change lives.  Please keep me in your prayers as I will be having a procedure to freeze the nerves around my left knee and on January 7 I will have a total knee replacement done.  Finally, please pray for America. The spiritual needs in our country are vast so it is best to follow the pattern Paul in the text below. 1 Timothy 2:-4  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving ...

Good morning everyone. I am glad that you joined us for today's final posts about the true story of Christmas. Morning skies are gradually turning a peach and gold color and squirrels are fighting over the seed and nuts that we put out for them.  Now we return to Luke's gospel to pick up the threads from his account of the birth of Christ.  Luke tells us that Joseph & Mary returned to Bethlehem for a census and taxation Luke 2:1-5 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Beth-lehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. Luke is picking up the story of Jesus...

This morning is very cold but we are warmed up in spirit when we continue to see the true Christmas story unfold. God's great love for sinners is on display throughout this series and we can be grateful that He love us even when we were still His enemies.  Wise men (astronomers) come to see the Christ Child Matthew 2:1-6 Now when Jesus was born in Beth-lehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. 5 And they said unto him, In Beth-lehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, 6 And thou Beth-lehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for ou...

Good morning and I do hope you are staying warm this morning . Our temperature is 10 degrees F and the wind chill makes it feel like 3 degrees F. It is nice and warm inside our home and fresh coffee is brewing.  Today I have a genealogy for both side of Christ. You can do a search for other charts but this one seemed to be the most complete one that I could find.  Luke's genealogy connects Christ to Adam and to God and connects Mary to King David. Luke's genealogy has some unique variation when compared to Mathew's and again this has to do with the specific reason for Luke's list . Luke 3:13-38 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph, Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the so...

Let's review what we have learned so far.  First, we learned that the birth of Jesus Christ was something determined before man was created and before the fall of man into sin. I think it is important to note that the sin of Adam and Eve did not take God by surprise. His perfect wisdom and foreknowledge means that He created mankind knowing that Adam and Eve would fail the test and fall into sin. Next, we learned that it is the boundless love of God that motivated Him to have the Son of God Jesus Christ be born into a human body. This love was illustrated by John 3:16 and Romans 5:6-8. Then we learned about the seed of the woman from Genesis 3:15 and looked at texts from Hebrews to show how this promised seed was born into this world in the Person of Jesus Christ.  In our last post we learned more detail about the birth of the Messiah Jesus Christ from the prophet Isaiah. We read that the Messiah was going to be born of a virgin and that His name Emmanuel means God w...

Why did Jesus have 2 genealogies? The genealogies found in the gospel of Matthew and of Luke have specific purposes to accomplish and they reveal some startling details about the birth of the Son of God. We will begin with Matthew's list since it comes first and he is presenting Jesus Christ as the rightful heir to the throne of King David. I do not expect you to be able to pronounce all the names in this list but I do want to place the text in front of us.  Matthew 1:1-17 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the ...

May this morning be filled with the grace of God flowing into us as we seek to love and serve our great God. Isaiah the prophet is going to give us some tremendous insight into the birth of the seed of the woman. A virgin is going to conceive and bear a son whose name shall be called Immanuel.  A virgin is going to give birth to a son. This ties directly to Genesis 3:15 and the special phrase the seed of the woman. No earthly man is involved in the procreation process for the birth of Christ.  The seed of the woman is given one name in this text, the lovely name Immanuel. The Hebrew word translated "Immanuel" means "God with us" and it is the prophetic name for the Messiah.  This sign came from the Lord Himself. Isaiah wrote the inspired words of this book about 750 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. God said how the seed of the woman would be born almost 8 centuries before it happened.  The phrase "a child is born" connects onc...

The first promise of a redeemer from the seed of a woman This is the first prophetic mention of a Divine Savior although there are other scriptures which teach us that this promise was made by God well before He created anything! The Seed of the woman will crush the serpent! Genesis 3:14-15 "And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."       Not only is this the very first time that we find a reference to a future savior, we will see that it is most unusual in one respect. Recall that by the time we get to Genesis 3:14-15 Adam and Eve have both sinned in that they ate fruit from one tree that God said not to eat.  We previously studie...

Good morning to all of you and if you live where winter has arrived I hope that you are keeping warm! A good coffee helps me get warmed up and ready for a new day. It is especially good if you can add some real maple syrup to the coffee because that adds a rich, buttery maple (and sweet) flavor.  I want to thank each of you again for taking time to read through these studies. I greatly praise the Lord because this blog has reached into 17 different nations around the world! I have absolutely nothing to do with who reads it or what location they may be in. God gets all the glory for helping people find this blog about His word. Please keep pointing others to Christ and share this blog with other people confidently because the Word of God will not return void. It will do whatever God wants His word to do in each individual heart. We must give the words of life to people around us who do not know Christ.  Christmas is coming. What does it all mean? I would like to take a...