road2answers

Read the book of Jonah first. [i] “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai.”  (Jonah 1:1, ESV [ii] ) God speaks to His people.  We can assume this was not the first time the word of the Lord came to Jonah, and Jonah recognized the word of the Lord. Jonah was a prophet of the Northern Kingdom.  He shows up in 2 Kings 14:25 in the account of Jeroboam II.  Jeroboam II was king of the northern kingdom of Israel during the ministries of Isaiah and Hosea.  2 Kings 14:25 says: Jeroboam II recovered the territories of Israel between Lebo-hamath and the Dead Sea, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had promised through Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher. In this account, we have evidence of some of the ministry of Jonah to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  In the book of Jonah, we have a historical narrative that teaches God’s concern for the nations, God’s concern for His messenger and God’s concern for His people. Going back to ver

We, as a Church, exist to make disciples. We have a commission from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. After He was raised from the dead, He met with His eleven disciples on a mountain.  At that meeting, He said, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.”  (Matthew 28:18)  Then He said, “Therefore.”  “Therefore” based on His authority, based on His position, Jesus gives a command.  He assigns His followers a mission.  He says, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations.”  (Matthew 28:19) The command here is to make disciples.  This is why we say we exist to make disciples.  Jesus commands us to make disciples. This is not as mysterious as it sounds.  Jesus gives us an outline of the process.  He says, “. . . baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”  (Matthew 28:19) Baptizing them assumes conversion.  This is the preaching of the good news

Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 [i] When God speaks, we expect deep and powerful thoughts, piercing to even the dividing of joints and marrow or soul and spirit.  (Hebrews 4:12) When God speaks, we expect truth. We have this with the Bible.  It is obvious that it is no ordinary book. Written by about 40 different authors over a span of 1,600 years, no book is even a close second for unity, depth of content and historical accuracy. Some things contained in the Bible are so remarkable that those who oppose the Bible invent stories to explain them away.  For example, Daniel accurately predicts the history of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman empires.  Daniel was writing history before it happened.  This is impossible.  No man can foresee or foretell the future.  However, Daniel did it accurately.  Therefore, some people say that Daniel’s account was written after the events.  They do this by rewriting history and contradicting historical evidence.  The book of Danie