Posts by Billy Arnold (Page 8)
Preparing for Palm Sunday and Holy Week
Jesus enters Jerusalem on the way to the cross—John 12 As you get ready for this coming Sunday, March 28, let me remind you that you are not just preparing for a normal Sunday, but much more: you are preparing for what is traditionally called Holy Week, Passion Week, or Passover Week. We all need to read ahead—not just for Sunday, but for each day of the week leading all the way to Easter Sunday. Your assignment for the whole…
The Raising of Lazarus
As you get ready for the church teaching this coming Sunday morning, March 21, read the amazing story of John 11. Read the whole chapter. Catch the names of the characters in the story. See if you can catch the intensity of the situation at hand. Try to capture the human emotion and agony of sisters Martha and Mary when they were pleading for Jesus to come and heal their dying brother, Lazarus. Try to place yourself in the moment…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 5)
Today I bring you Tip #5 in the “How to Read Your Bible” series. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. TODAY’S FOCUS—Tip #5: Mark up your Bible! Take notes! This is one of my personal favorites. I love to mark up and write in my Bible. Now, I am a note-taker in most meetings. My notes are not always clean in form, but I get inspired and like to write stuff down because I…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 4)
Today I bring you Tip #4 in the “How to Read Your Bible” series. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. Today’s Focus—Tip #4: Choose your Bible Translation When you begin to get serious about reading the Bible regularly for yourself, you quickly notice that there are many different English versions of the Bible. This can be very confusing. You may wonder to yourself, “What is the right version? Is there a more correct version? Does…
Because Jesus is the Light of the World, Then I as a Disciple…
As you get ready for this coming Sunday morning, I am asking you to read two chapters from the book of John: John 7 John 8 Through this season, we are spending our time looking deeply at the life of Jesus from the book of John, learning and connecting the dots on how the entire Bible is built around Jesus in our years-long series, “The Book of Jesus.” But last Sunday morning we crossed a continental divide, theologically. We saw…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 3)
Over the next many weeks, I am giving you my tips as to how to go about developing a habit of reading and mediating daily on God’s Word—the Bible. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. Today’s focus—Tip #3: Use a Study Bible as your primary Bible to read from each day I highly recommend that you find a good Bible (I always recommend a printed Bible, not just electronic) to be your “go to”…
Warning Label
Are you turning back also? When Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life,” he actually said it twice—in John 6:35 and again in John 6:48. The statement came on the heels of last week’s story, the famous feeding of the 5000. Remember Scott Jackson’s phrase from the sermon: Jesus had “bread power”! We were challenged again to truly come and make a decision as to who this Jesus really is to us: A Quid Pro Quo Jesus, the trade-off…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 2)
Scroll to the end for a full explanation of the previous tip. Today’s Focus—Tip #2: Choose the location of where to read When I say “location,” what I really mean is, “Where should I start in the Bible?” The Bible has 66 books—39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. There are multiple subsections of the Bible as well. The 39 books of the Old Testament are divided into… The Pentateuch & the Law: the first 5…
Getting Ready for This Sunday
John 6:1-15: Jesus Feeds 5000 When I was a little boy, I grew up in a Sunday School class and went every summer to Vacation Bible School. Those days certainly impacted my life in a huge way, and I am so grateful for the teachers and leaders who led me. Often we don’t remember details about those Sunday School days, but I do remember this one. We learned the story of how Jesus fed 5000 people (actually, because of the…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 1)
One of the best practices in a growing disciple’s life is the habit of reading God’s Word personally on your own. There is everything good about a Bible study group with people, or listening to a sermon out of scripture. But none of this replaces the value of you personally sitting down in a quiet place and reading God’s Word, then reflecting on it—in other words, letting God speak to you. For several weeks I am walking you through some…
The Only Way to Be Set Free
I want to give examples to our church family on how to build a lifelong habit of reading and absorbing the Scripture on your own. Over these few weeks I’m showing you how I read the Bible each morning; maybe you will be able to develop a similar pattern. This is just an example of my devotional thoughts—not so you can use my devotional, but so you could instead cultivate your own time with God. Currently, I am reading every…
Do You Really Want to Get Well?
If I walked into a hospital room (which somehow sounds strange in our new world of COVID-19 restrictions!) and asked the sick patient if they really wanted to get well from the illness that hospitalized them, I am pretty sure they would give me a sarcastic response. “Why do you think I am here? Of course I am looking for a cure!” The story I am teaching this Sunday is from John 5:1-15. I ask you to read ahead before…
Is There a Reward for Hard Work?
Psalm 127 Last week I told you I wanted to share a few weeks of personal devotion time with you—not to show you what I have learned while reading the Bible, but to encourage each of us to learn how to have our own personal time with God, letting him speak to you. As an example this week, here is a simple devotional that I had a few days ago, and what God showed me. Psalm 127:1 ”Unless the Lord…
True Worship: The Woman at the Well
This coming Sunday, February 7, we are looking at the next story in our “Book of Jesus” series: the famous story of the Samaritan woman at the well. You can find the story in John 4:1-42. In every story we study this winter from John, we find Jesus revealing something new about himself. This story is no different. To help shape your thoughts, I want you to think about what it means to worship God. For most of us, worship…
Developing Your Own Devotional Guide
Hearing God Speak to You Every Day One of my greatest desires for our church family is for each of you who calls LifeWay Church home to develop the life-long habit of picking up your Bible personally every morning (or evening, or during your noon lunch break) and listening to God speak to you. To borrow a phrase from youth director Kevin P: “If you want to hear God speak, then open your Bible. If you want to hear God…
“For God So Loved the World…”
“For God so loved the world…” I would guess that for many of you, if I gave you this opening line, you could finish it for me. You might be able to tell me where to find it in the Bible. Many of you have seen this famous verse on a billboard signs at stadium events, or even painted on the uniforms of a famous football player. If I ask you to think a little deeper, you probably could tell…
Where Have We Been, and Where Are We Going Next?
LifeWay Church Sunday Teaching: The Book of Jesus In September 2020, LifeWay began a journey of study that we have called, “The Book of Jesus.” The intent of this journey is to highlight how God’s story—as written in all of the Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament—is completely centered around Jesus. I want to remind you today where we have been and where we are now, and share a little look ahead into where we are going—and how you can and…
Ambassadors into a New Administration
Praying for the new presidential administration as a follower of Christ—and a citizen of this country I don’t need to remind you of the chaos in our country right now. Many of us have varying opinions about how things could be, should be, should have been, etc. I have seen this coming like a storm for about 5 years now, in a direct way. I have always, as a pastor, cringed some during election times. About 3 years ago I…
How Am I Reacting to the National News Right Now?
I went to bed last night and then woke up this morning, like so many of you, pretty heavy-hearted about the state of our nation, state, region and world. Much like many of you, I certainly have reflected on the state of affairs and my reaction to them. These words reflect some of my sentiments: Frustration. Embarrassment. Shame. Anger. No surprise to most of you, I am a pretty conservative person, personally and politically. But having friends around the world…
Entering LifeWay Church Through One of Three Doors
Someone I have known a long time asked me the other day, “Is your church meeting yet?” It’s not an uncommon question these days. I even had a local pastor friend ask me the same question when I saw him at Costco. In turn, he told me what his church is doing in these unprecedented days. Here’s my answer to both them, and a reminder to you: Our church has never closed! Yes, indeed—we are open, and will remain open…
Can Things Be New in the New Year?
Most everyone is ready to turn the calendar over to 2021. But we also know well that just turning over a date does not make all things new. I don’t mean to be a downer. But here’s what I do know about making all things new: it doesn’t come from turning over a calendar page, or watching the clock strike midnight on December 31. It comes from a life in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the…
Proclaiming to the World Who He Is
“Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen you salvation which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel.” Luke 2:29 The passage above is the amazing proclamation of a man named Simeon. Luke chapter 2 tells his story. Read Simeon’s words in Luke 2 for yourself over the Christmas weekend. This elderly man had…
Do You Know Him as King?
The Wise Men in the Christmas story had a question. “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2) We know these historical figures well. Many of us have the wise men in our Nativity sets, on our desks or even in our front yards. Who were these guys, really? How do they really play into the storyline of God’s gift of Jesus to the world? What did their question really mean? Let’s consider it…
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is a classic Christmas song that is solemn and powerful. It was written 1200 years ago during the Middle Ages, in a religious monastery. The first lyrics were in Latin: Veni, veni, Emmanuel. Musically played and sung in a minor key, it’s almost as if the darkness of night is brought to life when you hear and sing this song. You can almost feel a longing and anticipation that light will eventually come, even though…
Did You Know Jesus Came for All Nations?
When you picture Jesus in your mind’s eye, what do you see? I asked this question last week. This week holds the next challenging question: Is Jesus a cultural figure for only one part of the world? This Sunday we will study Isaiah 49, a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah—the birth of Jesus. It is a prophetic passage that tells us who the Messiah is, and who in the world his message is really for. The passage talks…