The early Christian church battled many headwinds, including the pagan religions that controlled the masses. To this point, Paul urged the saints of Ephesus to embrace a simple and direct faith in Christ. His message was in stark contrast to the fearmongering gods of the day, gods who decreed predetermined futures for their subjects, regardless of their subjects’ personal choice.

We love our time together to pray, think, share, and discuss. But we long to go beyond this and actually do something for and with those around us. We want to make a difference in our communities and around the world. We want the work to be finished, and we want Jesus to return. This quarter’s Sabbath School Adult Bible Study Guide is designed to focus attention on getting out there and doing something. We will examine many wonderful Bible stories. We will read about exciting experiences and illustrations. We will learn about available resources to assist us in reaching out to our neighbors (especially to those who have no Christian background). But those will just be ways of illustrating and motivating us. The real focus, the real heart, of each lesson is what will be shared on Thursday each week—a challenge to get out and actually do something.

The Psalms: Where God and People Meet Heart to Heart

If asked, “What central theme runs through all the Bible?” how would you respond? Jesus? The plan of salvation? The cross? Yes to all three, of course! But these three important topics unfold against an even more all-encompassing theme: the great controversy. This theme pervades the Bible, from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation.

This quarter we will explore the story of Jesus through the book of Mark. It is a most remarkable story, told in a terse, fast-moving style with little commentary from the Gospel writer himself. He simply tells the story and then lets the words, the deeds, the actions, speak for themselves regarding the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth.

This quarter we will be studying another finely crafted masterpiece. This work is not the result of a brush on canvas, a precisely framed photograph, or a skillfully woven carpet. Rather, it is the Word of God as artfully expressed in the Gospel of John. Words have meaning within their contexts. For anyone to understand what Scripture intends to say, it must be studied in context—the immediate sentences, chapters, and sections, and the overall message of the Bible itself. Finally, because the entire Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, each part should be studied in the context of the whole.

God is love. So says 1 John 4:8 and 16. The entirety of the Bible testifies to this fact. The Christian faith is centered around God’s character of love. Love is at the core of who God is, at the core of everything that we believe, and should be at the core of everything we do. Accordingly, the way we understand love affects the entirety of our faith and practice. If, for example, one believes that God’s love must be earned or merited, a person might think that God does not love them because they are sinful and unworthy. And, in relation to others, one might expect others to merit love—a recipe for disaster.

During the First Gulf War (1991), a well-known Protestant writer and speaker was convinced that the book of Revelation predicted this conflict. His argument was based on the fact that some of the helicopters in the war looked like the locusts depicted in Revelation 9. “And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power” (Rev. 9:2, 3, NKJV). Not exactly the best way to interpret biblical prophecy, is it? Yet, interpretations like this are fairly common. In fact, over the decades multiple books, articles, videos, and now websites, all dedicated to prophecy, have made many predictions, including date setting about final events—usually centered around wars or turmoil in the Middle East.