Bible Study Summary

Here at Lancaster First UMC, I am privileged to be part of two weekly bible study groups that study the scriptures for the upcoming Sunday.

Here are some of the questions/insights from my Wednesday group today:

Numbers 21:1-9

• This passage has a very disturbing beginning as the Israelites pray to the Lord to defeat the Canaanites and in return, the Israelites will destroy their cities. The Lord answers their prayer. Why would a loving God allow the Israelites to do such a thing? My answer was that this was part of the muddy process of how God would redeem the world by fulfilling the covenant that was made to Abraham for his descendants to be God's people who would be a light to the world.
• Another troubling question arose as to how a loving God would allow serpents to bite and kill many Israelites for their complaining in the wilderness. Again, forming a people who would be a light to the world is messy business and things could have unraveled in the wilderness if the people would have stopped following God and Moses altogether. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

John 3:14-21

• By being lifted on the cross, we are able to look to Jesus and be healed and saved from the sins and evil of the world. We paused to reflect on thinking how all of the evil and sin that the world could throw at Jesus, fell on his shoulders in that one moment of history when Jesus suffered and died on the cross.
• When people ask, "What is God like?" a good place to point them toward an answer is to have them focus on the cross. The cross is a symbol of how God poured his love out for the world.

The Tau Cross

• We talked a little about how the Tau Cross is associated with St. Francis of Assisi and God's desire to offer us physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing. We ended our bible study by praying for the people who would be attending our services this Sunday that they would find healing through the cross of Jesus Christ.