an outlet of encouragement, explanation, and exhortation

Category: Bible Study (Page 1 of 5)

Video Message Series – The Gospel of John

These 30 messages working through the Gospel of John were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church. The links will open a video of the message on YouTube.

John 1.1-51 – Intro & Opening
John 2.1-12 – Wedding Feast
John 2.13-25 – Clearing the Temple Courts
John 3.1-21 – Nicodemus
John 3.22-4.2 – Becoming Less
John 4.1-42 – Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
John 4.43-54 – Jesus Heals the Official’s Son
John 5.1-15 – Healing at the Pool
John 5.16-47 – Jesus’ Authority – Who Says?
John 6.1-15 – The Coming of Yahweh! In Jesus
John 6.25-71 – Eating Jesus
John 7.1-52 – Living Water
John 7.53-8.11 – Adultery
John 8.12-59 – Disputed
John 9.1-41 – Blind
John 10.1-42 – Good Shepherd
John 11.1-57 – Raising the Dead
John 11.55-12.11 – Offending Judas
John 12.12-50 – Yahweh the King Comes Back to Jerusalem
John 13.1-38 – A Very Different Approach
John 14.1-31 – The Way to Yahweh (the Father)
John 14.30-15.25 – The Vine
John 15.26-16.33 – The Spirit of Truth
John 17.1-17 – Jesus Prays for His People
John 18.1-27 – Arrest and Denials
John 18.28-19.16 – Before Pilate, the Roman
John 19.16-42 – Crucifixion
John 20.1-31 – Resurrection
John 21.1-14 – Fish!
John 21.51-25 – Peter & John

The photo of the Greek word logos was generated by Google’s Gemini image generation feature.

Video Message Series – 2021 Revelation Series

These 9 messages on the Book of Revelation were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church in late 2021. The links will open a video of the message on YouTube.

2021-09-26 – Introduction to Revelation, Part 1
2021-10-03 – Introduction to Revelation Part 2
2021-10-10 – What Must Soon Take Place
2021-10-17 – Churches
2021-10-24 – Who can fix this mess?
2021-10-31 – Sevens & the way of Jesus to bring His kingdom
2021-11-07 – The Fate of Beasts, and Their Mark
2021-11-14 – What is the Millennium?
2021-11-21 – The Biggest Thanksgiving Celebration Ever

I took the photo of a folio from Revelation during my visit to the Chester Beatty Library and Museum in Dublin, Ireland.

Video Message Series – 2023 Friends Topics

These 9 messages exploring Friends theology, communion, and sacramental life were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church in the second half of 2023. The links will open a video of the message on YouTube.

2023-07-23 – Sacramental Life
2023-08-13 – Baptism
2023-08-20 – Communion
2023-09-10 – Baptism and Communion
2023-10-01 – Communion Maintenance
2023-10-08 – Do we believe Psalm 23?:
2023-10-29 – Loss of Communion – Unforgiveness and Retribution
2023-11-05 – Maintaining and Building Communion
2023-11-12 – Focus on Jesus – It’s all a Gift

The image of The Presence in the Midst painting is in the Public Domain. It is widely available across the internet.

Brief Articles on Women Teaching Men

I liked these three articles by Shaun Groves a lot. They get the necessary background for understanding out there without a lot of undue verbiage. They are written for those who are open to considering women teaching and who care what scripture has to say about it. That’s me and people at the church of which I am a part. So I will post links to these articles for the benefit of referring others to them easily from my blog. Here they are:

1. What does 1 Timothy 2 say about women teaching men in church today?

2. What does 1 Corinthians 14 say about women teaching men in church today?

3. What do 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 say about women teaching men in church today?

I appreciated these a lot for being really helpful as they summarize what is written up in far more scholarly manner (and for some less approachably) elsewhere.

While I’m at it, I might as well include a link to Margaret Fell‘s essay written in the 17th century, most likely while she was imprisoned for allowing Quaker meetings in her home and refusing to take an oath. It is entitled, after the manner of the time, Women’s Speaking Justified, Proved, and Allowed of by the Scriptures, All such as speak by the Spirit and Power of the Lord Jesus. And how Women were the first that Preached the Tidings of the Resurrection of Jesus, and were sent by Christ’s own Command, before he Ascended to the Father, John 20.17.


The photo for this article is clipped from the file 1666 Fell Womens Speaking Justified.jpg, usage according to CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Video Message Series – The Gospel of Mark

These 17 messages working through the Gospel of Mark were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church in mid-2021. The links will open a video of the message on YouTube.

2021-05-02 – Mark 1
2021-05-09 – Mark 2
2021-05-16 – Mark 3
2021-05-23 – Mark 4
2021-05-30 – Mark 5 Part 1
2021-06-06 – Mark 5 Part 2
2021-06-13 – Mark 6
2021-06-27 – Mark 7
2021-07-04 – Mark 8
2021-07-11 – Mark 9
2021-07-18 – Mark 10
2021-07-25 – Mark 11
2021-08-01 – Mark 12
2021-08-08 – Mark 13
2021-08-15 – Mark 14
2021-08-22 – Mark 15
2021-08-29 – Mark 16

The photo of the statue of Peter is from BiblePlaces.com. It was downloaded from as a part of their package of photos on the Gospel of Mark, used by permission.

Video Message Series – Paul’s Prison Letters

These 13 messages exploring Paul’s Prison Letters, with a focus on Ephesians, were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church in 2026. The links will open a video of the message on YouTube.

2026-03-15 – What Is the Point?
2026-04-12 – Paul’s Prison Letters – Introduction
2026-04-19 – Peacemaking
2026-04-26 – Ephesians – Inheritance
2026-05-03 – Ephesians – Knowing God
2026-05-17 – Ephesians – Alive By Grace
2026-05-25 – Ephesians – One New Humanity
2026-06-07 – Ephesians – Praying Like Paul
2026-07-05 – Ephesians – Unity in the Body by the Spirit
2026-07-12 – Ephesians – Living as Jesus People
2026-07-19 – Ephesians – Living By the Spirit
2026-07-26 – Ephesians – Living as the Body of Christ in Our Households
2026-08-02 – Ephesians – The Struggle
2026-09-13 – Colossians – Jesus is All We Need
2026-09-20 – Colossians – Paul’s Labor and Suffering
2026-09-27 – Colossians – Jesus is All We Need
2026-10-04 – Colossians – All of Life as Sacramental
2026-10-25 – Colossians – Closing Words

The photo of Paul is from BiblePlaces.com. It is clipped from their photo of a cave painting of Paul in Ephesus. The original was downloaded as a part of their package of photos on Ephesians, used by permission.

Video Message Series – Sermon on the Mount

These 24 messages on the Sermon on the Mount were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church in 2024. They follow the Bible Project‘s Sermon on the Mount material for additional study. The links below will open a video of the message from Long Beach Friends Church on YouTube.

2024-01-07 – Introducing the Sermon on the Mount
2024-02-11 – Startling Freshness
2024-02-18 – Peacemaking and its Consequences
2024-02-25 – Visible Salt and Light
2024-03-03 – Jesus and Torah
2024-03-10 – Murdering the Image of God
2024-03-17 – Good News! Jesus is Lord.
2024-03-24 – The Problem with Lust
2024-04-07 – Jesus Comments on Divorce
2024-04-28 – When Our Words Use God for Our Purposes
2024-06-02 – What “Hypocrite” Means to Jesus
2024-06-09 – The Lord’s Prayer
2024-06-23 – The Lord’s Prayer – Part One
2024-06-30 – Lord’s Prayer – Daily Bread
2024-07-07 – The Lord’s Prayer – Forgive
2024-07-14 – The Lord’s Prayer – Temptation
2024-08-25 – Fasting, Treasure, and Eyes to See
2024-09-01 – Mammon!
2024-09-08 – Real Treasure
2024-09-29 – Worry
2024-10-06 – Ask Seek Knock
2024-11-03 – Two Gates
2024-11-10 – Watch Out for False Prophets
2024-11-17 – Grounded on the Rock

The photo depicting the literary design of the Sermon on the Mount was downloaded from Bible Project. It was downloaded from the BibleProject Guide entitled Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. We highly recommend the BibleProject material for study; it is absolutely wonderful – and freely available!

Video Message Series – Jesus is Lord

These five messages on the implications of recognizing Jesus as Lord were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church in early 2026. The links will open a video of the message on YouTube.

2026-01-18 Epiphany!

2026-01-25 Allegiance

2026-02-08 Every Knee

2026-02-22 Obligations of Love

2026-03-01 Words

The naturalization ceremony photo was used under Creative Commons Attributions 2.0 license. It was downloaded from Grand Canyon National Park’s photostream on Flickr.

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