Malachi 4:4-6

“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

From Background Notes [BN] for November 2^nd & 3^rd  written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The audience that heard Malachi had become complacent and jaded about God and religion. Skimming through the chapters of his book, we discover the areas where the spiritual life of Israel had broken down after the return from exile.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

From Background Notes [BN] for November 2^nd & 3^rd  written by Pastor Bob Brown:

By their own example of devotion to Yahweh, parents and grandparents began to shape their children’s lives.

Deuteronomy 4:9

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

From Background Notes [BN] for November 2^nd & 3^rd written by Pastor Bob Brown:

“Teach them” involves the Hebrew verb yāda‘, which has to do with “making known” and “learn to know,” having to do with not only knowledge, but with experience, recognition, and skill.

Genesis 2:18

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

From Background Notes [BN] for November 2^nd & 3^rd written by Pastor Bob Brown:

What is striking in this statement is the value judgment made by God about His own work thus far: “It is not good …” Did not each creation “day” end with a favorable evaluation, climaxing in the final judgment about the sixth day:

 

Galatians 5:6

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

From Background Notes [BN] for October 26^th & 27^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

From this we discern the importance of grounding every value in its core, which for C1 turns out to be expressed in four different, but related, ideas:

Faith

Family
Friendship
Father Along

John 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

From Background Notes [BN] for October 26^th & 27^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Core values are the centers that hold together the unity of an organization, and as such, they in tension with forces that pull inward and those that push outward. Life in its raw form is generally lived on the edge of chaos where forces threaten to tear apart the fabric. Things like purpose, choice, and confidence require such a center.

Jeremiah 31:31

 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah

From Move the Stone [MtS] written by Pastor Brian Wangler:

Bad days are never permanent.  The sun will shine again!  Colin Powell says it well, “Things really are likely to look a little better in the morning and a whole lot better a year from now.”

Acts 27:7

We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone.

From Move the Stone [MtS] written by Pastor Brian Wangler:

The difficulty your leading through is NOT personal, pervasive, or permanent, but the love of God IS. 

Acts 27:7

We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone.

From Move the Stone [MtS] written by Pastor Brian Wangler:

The difficulty your leading through is NOT personal, pervasive, or permanent, but the love of God IS. 

Acts 27:7

We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone.

From Move the Stone [MtS] written by Pastor Brian Wangler:

The difficulty your leading through is NOT personal, pervasive, or permanent, but the love of God IS. 

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

From Move the Stone [MtS] written by Pastor Brian Wangler:

I wish this was unfamiliar territory to me, but it isn’t.  All too often over the years, in the hard places between “here” and “there” I have felt leadership ground give way, energy drain and my attitude sink.  Usually, as a leader there are plenty of spectators for the event making it a nasty place to be.

Joshua 1:16-18

Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey it, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”

 

From Move the Stone [MtS] from October 8^th written by Pastor Brian Wangler:

 

“The question followers are asking about leaders in the midst of change is this; ‘Do you have the courage of your convictions?’  If your convictions don’t come with courage, you’re wasting my time. 

 

John 14:1-2

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?

From Background Notes [BN] for October 12^th & 13^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

We are inclined to use this text at funerals and to relate Jesus’ promise to either heaven or his Second Coming. Those interpretations are certainly possible, but they are not at all exhaustive of Jesus’ intentions.

1 John 5:18

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.

From Background Notes [BN] for October 12^th & 13^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

By his coming, the Word authorizes a whole new human family which returns to its roots in the person of God Himself (“born of God”) and so is radical. By his coming, the Word authorizes the overthrow of the old order ruled by Satan and his human partners, thus making his new children rebels in the world.

John 1:12-13

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

From Background Notes [BN] for October 12^th & 13^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Adoption, used in this sense, is more than a legal transaction. The writer, realizing that the poetry might be too ambiguous at this point, chooses a prose explanation in 1:12b-13.

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

From Background Notes [BN] for October 12^th & 13^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The Greek term for Word is logos, an expression laden with both religious and philosophical content. Greek thinkers, like Heraclitus (545-475 BCE), for example, used the term for the main principle of structure and reason operating in the world of nature and ideas, much like our concept of cosmic law.

John 14:1

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

From Background Notes [BN] for October 12^th & 13^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Jesus doesn’t appear in the Bible as a shadowy figure whose feet scarcely touched the ground. He is unlike the pagan heroes, half-god and half-human, full of walking contradictions and fatal flaws. Rather, Jesus of Nazareth bursts on the scene with life-giving words and deeds, wholly unexpected by his contemporaries, and yet committed to finishing the work the Father sent him to do.

Malachi 2:15

Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.  So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

From Background Notes [BN] for October 5^th & 6^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

A number of prominent biblical values appear in this passage which, if we read it correctly, governs the way we view divorce as a "first option." The opening part of the text (2:13) reminds us that our spiritual lives and our walk with God are both affected by what we do in our marriages.

Genesis 3:12

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

From Background Notes [BN] for October 5^th & 6^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

It is out of such alienation and blame-laying that marriages suffer damage and, in some case, divorce. But God is unwilling to allow such separation to become the final state of the relationship.

 

Matthew 19:9

I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

From Background Notes [BN] for October 5^th & 6^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Divorce for the cause of adultery, Jesus argued, was a legitimate cause. Divorce for any cause was not legitimate and that is why he goes on to explain that a person divorced for any cause grounds commits adultery if he remarries.

 

1 John 2:16

For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

From Background Notes [BN] for October 5^th & 6^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Lust, like the gnawing of the worm, eats away at human life, filling the eye and the heart with poison that ultimately ends in death.