Opened Scriptures Bible Studies

The hard task of addressing sin within the early church culminated in the deaths of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira. They plotted together to deceive the Holy Spirit filled apostles by keeping some of the money for themselves after selling their lands.  However, Luke tells us that all other believers who sold lands freely gave all the proceeds to the apostles to be used for meeting needs within the church.  We learned from Old Testament examples that what they did compares to Nadab and Abihu offering strange fire before the Lord. It was comparable to Achan's sin of taking the things at Jericho which God said must be burned, because he was a covetous man. There are many other examples that occurred during the leadership of Moses where God swiftly judged the people because they chose to sin and defile His name.  Each of the following texts records instances of the Hebrews sinning while God was in the midst of them, Each time, God judged their sin by pouring out His wrat...

  The Pilgrims stepped out on the ground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. One third of the original colonists or Pilgrims were made up of members of the Puritan sect of the English Separatist Church.  As we noted, their first winter was devastating. At the beginning of the following fall, they had lost almost half of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower.  But the harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one and the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast and they invited 91 Indians including their leader, Massasoit. His tribe was used of God to help the Pilgrims survive their first year. It is certain that the Pilgrims would not have made it through the year without the help of the natives.  The feast was more of a traditional English harvest festival than a true "thanksgiving" observance. It lasted three days. We will read some of the eyewitness accounts of this first thanksgiving.  William Bradford provides some of the context for us to thin...

  Below are the links to Pastor Alvis' Sunday school lesson titled Basics for Believers where he is reviewing foundational truth that we all need to know. Below is a link to Pastor Alvis' Sunday sermon titled "The Loving Ministry of the resurrected Christ." Below is the link to the afternoon lesson preached by Pastor Alvis. The text is from Romans 8 and explores the blessings and assurance of the believer's salvation. I hope that Pastor Alvis's preaching will be a great blessing to those of you who are able to watch the sermons.  Bob

  Here is the link to Pastor Alvis' midweek sermon that continues a series on our great enemy the Devil. We are not ignorant of his devices and we do not want him to get an advantage over us as believers in Christ. Thus, we must study our enemy to properly prepare ourselves for spiritual warfare.

    I am reposting lessons about the factual truth of Thanksgiving in America because this has been ignored and obscured by our culture. The truths contained in these lessons are applicable for Christians around the world. Bob This account was just published in the Weirton Daily Times, in Steubenville, Ohio. It is a reprint from Historian Richard Johnson, Director of Christian Formation Ministries. It is from his Thanksgiving sermon that highlighted the life of Squanto.  Photo of Bronze statue of Massasoit, Squanto's friend.  Life of Squanto "Squanto was a Native American who learned the English language while working as a guide. He was later captured by Spanish slavers. He was freed by monks who bought him out of slavery. “Estas libre (es-TAS LEE-bray)! You are free.” Squanto looked into the clear eyes of this man of God. Though he knew no Spanish, he understood."  "Over the next few weeks he pieced it together. Their love for Jesus had prompted these Chri...

  We have studied how the early church lived and saw what it looks like when the Spirit of God is having His way in our hearts.  This post will look at what happens when someone lies to the Holy Spirit of God. Many signs and wonders done by the apostles to this point were miracles of mercy. However, we now encounter a miracle of judgment because the holiness of God was transgressed by a certain man and his wife.  It is a work of severity that followed several works of goodness and grace so God may be both loved and feared by His people. Don't loose sight of the fact that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of true wisdom (See for examples, Proverbs 1:7; 1:29; 9:10; 10:27). A couple scheme to keep money for themselves.  Acts 5:1-2  But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,  2) And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. Acts 1 through...

In our last post, we saw that after a safe arrival, the Pilgrims gave thanks to God for His blessings and care of them. They also crafted the Mayflower Compact as a binding form of government to guide them and establish some semblance of law and order. Photo of Plymouth Colony It took many trips in small boats to transfer all of their provisions and supplies to land because they did not have enough small boats to ferry things over from the Mayflower. William Bradford preserved details of this aspect of the Pilgrims history. A Godly man chosen as first governor. "After this [the signing of the Mayflower Compact] they chose, or rather confirmed, Mr. John Carver (a man godly and well approved amongst them) their Governor for that year." You may recall that a while back I posted text from some of the original state constitutions that required office holders to believe in future rewards or punishments, the God of the Bible and the inspired scriptures. This began with the Pilgrims ...