Blog

Spring 2023

Jesus Calls Us What does it mean to be a citizen of the kingdom of Heaven? The lessons this quarter explore some of the most basic principles of Christian faith: that Christ’s invitation is open to all people, that his resurrection changed everything, and that those who put their faith in Jesus and anticipate their own resurrections are Jesus’ chosen community. These truths have much to reveal about what it means to live in the kingdom of Heaven, both in the present and in the glorious future we anticipate. Open to All Our first unit highlights accounts in which Jesus disregarded artificial societal barriers, choosing instead to reach people on the margins. Emotions, biases, and ignorance can stand in the way of accepting people as Jesus did. But the welcome of the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable (Luke 15:11–24) sets the scene for all sorts of surprising people who can […]

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Winter 2022

From Darkness to Light The lessons of this quarter give evidence of cause-and-effect relationships at work. God’s call serves as the cause, with the effect being the presence of His salvation available for all people. As a result, all humanity is invited to live in reverence to the merciful and saving God. God’s Preparation The quarter begins with four lessons from Luke’s Gospel. These lessons highlight faithful people of God who longed to experience God’s salvation. These people longed not merely for spiritual salvation, but for God’s reign on earth. They desired a world where God would bring mercy and justice to his people (see Luke 1:46–55). Luke’s Gospel describes the ways that God’s people came boldly to Him in prayer. The expectant hope that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6) was the foundation for their eagerness to pray. Through their prayers, the people were prepared […]

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Fall 2022

God’s Exceptional Choice From a mountain in the wilderness of Sinai, God told Moses, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.… You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5–6a). God’s words declare one of the central themes of Scripture: God’s freedom to choose a people to be his own. Our limited understanding will not fully comprehend God’s choices. His selections may defy our standards for determining who is considered “choice.” Ultimately, he is in no way bound by our human standards. This quarter’s Scripture texts unpack the exceptional nature of God’s choice. An Obscure Choice The quarter begins by looking at the narratives in Genesis set amid the nomadic life of the ancient Near East. God demonstrated his choice by calling a descendant of Noah to experience blessing and […]

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Summer 2022

Partners In A New Creation The book of Judges documents a dismal pattern of apostasy, oppression, repentance, and restoration in ancient Israel. But these times of crisis were not unique to the period of the judges (about 1373 to 1043 BC). The two greatest crises Israel faced happened centuries later. These were the exile to Assyria in 722 BC and the destruction of Jerusalem and exile at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 BC. Back to the Future The prophet Isaiah lived through the Assyrian crisis, having begun his prophetic ministry in about 740 BC in Jerusalem. He foresaw the coming oppression by Babylon as a time when the land of Israel would be largely emptied of its people (lesson 1). Even so, he offered hope for a future time when “the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones” (Isaiah 49:13, lesson 2). This […]

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