Takeaways:

1. The Bible provides everything needed for meaning, purpose, love, peace, and salvation.
2. Trials should not surprise us as Christians, as they are part of the faith journey.
3. Understanding salvation requires a deeper commitment beyond just a one-time prayer or belief.
4. God is actively present during our trials, helping us grow spiritually through adversity.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. www.bible805.com

Takeaways:

1. The Ten Commandments serve as a foundational guide for living a life aligned with God's will, offering principles that promote fulfillment and joy.
2. Understanding the true meaning behind the commandment about taking God's name in vain reveals the importance of living authentically as His representatives.
3. Complaining and grumbling, as demonstrated by the Israelites, can lead to a lack of trust in God and hinder our spiritual growth.
4. Our spiritual habits, whether positive or negative, shape our identity and influence how we respond to challenges in life.
5. Recognizing the serious implications of taking God's name in vain encourages us to live in a way that reflects our commitment to Him.
6. Practicing gratitude and praise instead of negativity can transform our mindset, helping us shine as lights in a world that needs hope.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. www.bibleleetle5.com

Takeaways:

1. The Bible is a comprehensive guide for finding purpose, love, and peace in life.
2. Understanding the context of biblical narratives is crucial for proper interpretation and application.
3. Not every verse in the Bible directly applies to our individual situations; context matters immensely.
4. When reading stories in the Bible, we should recognize that they illustrate God's actions, not just human behavior.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. bible805.com

Takeaways:

1. The Bible offers profound insights into finding meaning, purpose, love, and peace, essential for our lives today.
2. Understanding the Trinity can be complex, yet the Bible provides clarity through its teachings across both the Old and New Testaments.
3. The use of the plural term 'Elohim' in Genesis indicates a foundational understanding of the Trinity right from the start of Scripture.
4. God's presence is revealed through the actions and interactions of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout biblical history.
5. The concept of the Trinity is illustrated through various roles within Scripture, highlighting their unique attributes and unity as one God.
6. Each person of the Trinity plays a significant role in our relationship with God, offering us guidance, support, and spiritual gifts.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. bible805.com
2. blueletterbible.org

Takeaways:

1. Understanding the Trinity reveals that God exists as one substance in three persons, which is foundational to Christian theology.
2. The attributes of the Trinity—holiness, justice, mercy, and love—are shared equally among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
3. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to imitate God's characteristics in our daily lives, striving for holiness and kindness.
4. God's omniscience means He knows us completely yet still loves us unconditionally despite our flaws and mistakes.
5. The eternal nature of God assures us that His promises and love will never change, providing us with stability and hope.
6. By grasping God's attributes, we can deepen our relationship with Him and reflect His character in our interactions with others.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. www.bible805.com

God wants us to know HIM! He went to extraordinary lengths for that to be possible in sending Jesus to live and die for our sins and to come back to life so that we can live with Him forever.

This is the first lesson in a series of three that will help you understand the Trinity from clear passages in the Bible that you most likely simply never put together.

This isn't deep theology, but a joyful exploration of the wonderful God you have as Creator, Savior, and forever Friend!

Takeaways:

1. The Trinity comprises three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are co-equal and eternal.
2. Understanding the Trinity is essential for a meaningful relationship with God as it clarifies His nature and our faith.
3. Misconceptions about the Trinity often arise from erroneous analogies that oversimplify the complex nature of God.
4. The biblical portrayal of the Trinity emphasizes the personal relationships among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their divine unity.

He created a perfect world for humanity to enjoy and to walk with Him. When they disobeyed, He promised a Redeemer.

The entire Old Testament talks about this future Redeemer, the importance of salvation by faith, and how the sacrificial system was a picture of what was coming. The prophets continually reminded the people that the Redeemer, the Messiah was coming.

And the New Testament records the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus and the creation of the church He left to represent Him.

Jesus, reminding ourselves that the book of Revelation is not a puzzle to be solved but as the first words in the book remind us, it is a REVELATION of Jesus Christ.

In this lesson, after introductory comments on Revelation, we’ll look more closely at a revelation of Jesus, we’ll take an in-depth look at the “I Ams” of Jesus in the book of John.

We’ll end with a reminder that though this is the end of our reading in the Bible, it is only the beginning of “the great story, which has no end and in which every chapter is better than the one before (C.S. Lewis).”

Link to blog, notes, and videos: https://wp.me/pazrJD-10M

The development of God’s changed, redeemed people is what we’ve been learning about.

All else will fade (churches, buildings, denominations); God’s people will not. And it is those people (you) who will reach the world with God’s message of salvation.

How we become that, the spiritual formation of God’s people is what these “Pastoral Epistles” are about.

Earlier New Testament writings clarified the theology of salvation--that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone—in other words, Jesus’s death on the cross accomplished all the WORK of salvation.

By faith, we accept it—without any work or merit of our own. That is the foundation of our faith.

But once we are saved—God expects us to live as HIS saved, redeemed people.

Though previous books taught this; how we are supposed to live is the emphasis (instead of theological issues) in these books. We will look at various passages in the books that explain and clarify this, and we only have time for a few—please study more to understand and apply fully!

Here is the link to the blog, notes, and transcript of the lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-114

We always have a choice—we can retaliate; we can throw a pity party; we can blame others. 

Or we can trust God no matter what and try to respond in a way He wants us to.

In what are called the “Prison Epistles” Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon we’ll look at how the Apostle Paul responded in a very difficult situation. This lesson about them is much more than a history lesson about Paul because what we do, how we respond to challenging situations is the clearest evidence possible of what we truly believe and WHO we truly believe in.

We can voice all sorts of positive things, affirm things that sound good— but how do we react in the realities of life?

NOTHING outside us causes/forces us to act in a certain way; we respond based on what is already there.

 From bad language to bad actions, difficult times give us a chance to see what is in our hearts and work on changes if necessary. In these letters Paul helps us respond in ways that please God and make life much better for us.

Link to the Blog, PDF of Notes, video and teaching resources is at: https://wp.me/pazrJD-10W

The content here may seem an overly intense way to encourage you to read through the Bible in Chronological Order, which Bible805 (https://wp.me/pazrJD-OO) has a variety of ways for you to do, but we are living in a time when truth seems to have lost its connection with objective reality in the minds of many and a simple encouragement to read through your Bible in the coming year didn't seem like enough.

Times are tragic when now truth for many is defined by whatever social media we follow or whatever we tell ourselves is true.

Jesus succinctly summed up our situation when he said, "You are in error, because you don't know the Scriptures." Truth, goodness, and beauty, the truly good life, and salvation are all found in the Scriptures, in God's Word. Truth is not humanly generated and when we forget that, when we listen to an authority other than God's Word to guide our lives, life does not go well.

The following example that I'll be sharing, inspired by the movie, Zone of Interest, though extreme I pray will be instructive and motiving for you to consider.

For the links to all resources go here: https://wp.me/pazrJD-OO

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/4w_frPQrPco?si=RC9PK7hATX6i4mVS

Takeaways:

• The importance of adhering to God's Word cannot be overstated, as it serves as our ultimate guide in navigating the complexities of life.
• In a world rife with misinformation, it is essential to ground ourselves in the objective truths found in the Scriptures.
• Our values and beliefs, which are often formed unconsciously, dictate how we respond to moral challenges in our lives.
• The film 'Zone of Interest' compels us to examine our own moral compasses and the potential for indifference in the face of evil.
• It is vital to recognize that our choices shape our character, and we must actively seek spiritual nourishment through God's Word.
• Daily engagement with Scripture equips us to handle life's adversities and fosters a life marked by love, kindness, and mercy.

Links referenced in this episode:

• bible805.com
• https://wp.me/pazrJD-OO --link to the many resources, schedules, motivational videos and other materials that will enable you to read the Bible in Chronological order in the coming year.

 It is different than the other letters of the New Testament that were written to address specific problems in specific churches.

The focus of this book was to clarify the Christian faith and our salvation—to show from start to finish that it is by grace alone through faith alone, not adherence to Jewish laws, or human effort, that salvation is possible.

At the same time, it also clarifies God’s continuing expectations for those who have accepted His gift of salvation and challenges them to walk worthy.

In this lesson, we’ll talk about both parts of the book.

Link to the blog, notes, links to other media: https://wp.me/pazrJD-10d

Link to the Podcast Video: https://youtu.be/p98S4NIbKg0

Link to the PowerPoint Video: https://youtu.be/0CFmIqkZl74?si=ILyjpkj0sVfRuYXM

As we learn in reading Paul's letters to the Corinthians, this struggle is nothing new. We can grow and become all God wants us to be, and these books and this lesson about them will help us do that.

Paul begins by reminding the Corinthians of their high calling as believers and then challenges the church with specific examples where they are not living according to that calling. He doesn't leave them with negative accusations but goes on to challenge them with the reality of the abundant spiritual gifts they've been given as a church to help them live into their calling.

This is a great reminder to us that the best way to grow is to focus on the positive things the Lord wants us to do. If we are wholeheartedly pursuing our calling and working hard to express the gift of love which is described in detail in 1 Corinthians 13, we will become the people God intends us to be. This lesson will give you specific ideas and challenges to do that.

Here is the link to the notes, infographic, and videos of the lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-YM

As he moves further away from Jerusalem and begins to preach to people who aren’t as familiar with the Bible, he runs into both new questions and new challenges.

Many of these are specific to the particular location he writes to and these letters to the Thessalonians are a good example of this as he confronts a new source of persecution that is political, not simply a religious disagreement.

In the midst of this challenge, Paul encourages the young Christians with a reminder of the coming of Jesus and specific advice on how they ought to live as they wait for Him.

In the lesson, we look at the familiar commands to “Pray continuously,” “Give thanks in all things,” and “Rejoice always” along with ideas on how to practice them in our lives.

To help us remember these commands and the hope we have as we obey them, the lesson also has a link to a free download of the printable, “All will be well,” by Dame Julian. CLICK HERE at the Bible805 Images site, (www.Bible805Images.com) and you can download the saying in a variety of sizes and formats—they make great gifts at any time. Simply click on the "BUY NOW" button and a free download of all the images in a variety of sizes is yours.

NOTE: I recently made everything on the Bible805 Images site FREE or PWYW (I greatly encourage simply clicking "Buy Now" and get them for free). There are many images of verses and sayings that can encourage people in their Christian lives--please take advantage of them and tell others about them.

Paul’s reminders and challenges in these letters give us hope and encouragement as we work and wait for our Lord Jesus.

Here is the link to the downloadable notes/transcript: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Yt

Here is the link to the FREE printable "All will be well": https://bible805images.com/b/V2kyq

Hebrews has a reputation for being a difficult book to understand and it is if you simply pull it out of context and without at least some knowledge of the Old Testament that it is based on, try to figure out what it is talking about.

This is sad because Hebrews was intended to be a book of explanation—of how Jesus fulfilled all that was pictured in the Old Testament, how His life was the reality of what was promised before.

But if you don’t know what the Old Testament promised and pictured about the coming Messiah, you’ll have a hard time understanding Hebrews.

This lesson will help you understand the messages in it. This lesson is a little longer and more complex than some because it covers some complex topics, but it is well worth your time to read, listen, or watch it to help you grow as a disciple of Jesus.

The lesson is also a great example of WHY it is so important for you to read your Bible, your entire Bible in chronological, historical order to be able to understand it.

Bible805 has lots of resources to help you do that and next year we’ll be doing it again online and in the live class, click the following link to go to the transcript and notes: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Ya

What an extraordinary shift that is from the message of Jesus, from the first of his ministry when he called followers beyond merely attending his sermons, to joining with him in his life, to one of his final commands where he commanded them to share the life they'd lived for three years and to go and make disciples of all nations and to teach them to obey all he'd taught them.

Regardless of the place of discipleship in many churches today, discipleship was important to Jesus. Disciples, making them, teaching them, living with them, were a priority of his life.

This lesson looks at one passage, Luke 14:15-35 on how Jesus describes in various ways what it means to be a disciple.

Regardless of how important it is to any group we are part of or people we fellowship with, because discipleship is important to Jesus, it needs to be important to us. No matter what the challenges and demands of our life, we need to grow in it. I pray this lesson is useful to help you do that.

If you would like to teach the lesson, the source materials for it are available through the Bible805 Academy (https://www.Bible805Academy.com) where you can download the source PowerPoint, editable notes, questions, the video and podcast without advertisements or distractions, and other related materials. All these materials are available for $2.99 a lesson, $5.99 a month, or $36 a year. There are many lessons on the site and free ones for you to try. As a member of the Bible805 Academy, I grant you permission to make unlimited copies of the materials and to edit them as needed for your audience. They are offered at this extremely low price so that any church, regardless of size or location has access to in-depth Bible teaching resources. If even that cost is too much, simply email me at yvonprehn@gmail.com and I'll give you free access. CLICK HERE to go to the Bible805 Academy.

I STRONGLY disagree! Our God wants us to know Him and understand Him and I don't believe the essential doctrine of the Trinity is difficult when it is explained correctly and supported from what the Bible clearly teaches. That's what this lesson attempts to do.

I don't claim credit for the basic ideas or the organization of them. I was fortunate to have an excellent Bible teacher when I was young in my faith who clearly taught the basic doctrines of the Bible. In years of study since then, in graduate school studying church history, seminary, and many years of study and teaching, I've refined the presentation of it and this lesson in various forms has proved helpful to people.

Following are the Handouts for the Lesson, along with notes, questions, and infographics on it, the podcast, and videos of the lesson. All these materials are free for you to use and share.

If you would like to teach the lesson, the source materials for it are available through the Bible805 Academy where you can download the source PowerPoint, editable notes, questions, the video and podcast without advertisements or distractions, and other related materials. All these materials are available for $2.99 a lesson, $5.99 a month, or $36 a year. There are many lessons on the site and free ones for you to try. As a member of the Bible805 Academy, I grant you permission to make unlimited copies of the materials and to edit them as needed for your audience. They are offered at this extremely low price so that any church, regardless of size or location has access to in-depth Bible teaching resources. If even that cost is too low, simply email me at yvonprehn@gmail.com and I'll give you free access. CLICK HERE to go to the Bible805 Academy.

We need to take their challenges seriously because our New Testament contains both how to be saved by faith in Jesus AND how to live our lives after we accept Him as Savior in ways that are pleasing to Him.

But there are always alternative voices, ways to be saved, and live a “spiritual” life.

The Gnostic Gospels are an ancient alternative what we are going to look at because it isn’t just scholars who are influenced by them. Here is a typical quote that could be said by many,

“It seems to me that the only true Christians were the Gnostics, who believed in self-knowledge, i.e. becoming Christ themselves, reaching the Christ within, the light is the truth. Turn on the light.”

John Lennon is the person who said it, and you don’t have to listen to those famous, past or present, to hear the idea of God within you (without Jesus. This claim is very popular today in some of the philosophical heirs of it in various cults such as Scientology, modern church “progressive” movements, and the challenges of “deconstruction.”

In this lesson, we’ll start with what the Bible warned us about false teachers and then we’ll go into detail showing how these views are false. To do that we’ll read some of the source documents.

People are sometimes afraid to read them but they shouldn’t be—don’t simply listen to what critics say about the Bible, check it out and you’ll see for yourself the truth of Biblical teaching. Link to download notes and infographics: https://wp.me/pazrJD-W8

Wasn’t the New Testament written hundreds of years after He lived?

How do we know it isn’t just legends about a good teacher?

And why did some books get included and others didn’t?

In addition to that, from the start, John the Baptist and Jesus both talked about the importance of the Kingdom of God—that with Jesus the Kingdom was now present.

The whole idea of the Kingdom can be challenging to understand and though we won’t attempt to explain it totally, we will discuss it, what it meant then and what it means now to us in this lesson.

The questions we started with and more we’ll answer in our podcast.

To download notes from the lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Vi

For claims of such importance, naturally, not everyone believed them then or now and questions like these come up:

• Wasn’t the New Testament written hundreds of years after the events recorded in them?
• In the time between the events and the recording of them, did myth and legends replace reality?
• Therefore, are the stories of the miracles, the resurrection of Jesus, just wishful thinking?

Properly dating when the New Testament documents were written is of critical importance to establish the claims of credibility of the Bible.

In this lesson, we’ll go over ways we can know for certain when the New Testament documents were written using a variety of dating criteria including source criticism (what we learn from the documents themselves, the actual tangible copies of the historical records), when others quoted them, and statements from contemporary historical figures about Jesus and what he did.

Click on the following link for notes of the content, an infographic that documents the superior number of supporting manuscripts for the New Testament in contrast with other historical documents, and video sources: https://wp.me/pazrJD-V5

From the close of the Old Testament to the start of the New Testament, it is a VERY different world—so many things had changed.

There is a an infographic that goes through the changes that goes with the lesson. In this lesson,  we’ll go over how the changes came to be.

We’ll also look at the various groups that emerged during this time, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and others we find in the New Testament.

The lesson ends with some thoughts on the description of this time as the “400 Silent Years” and some suggested applications for us when God seems silent and because we also live in an in-between time.

https://wp.me/pazrJD-Uh

In some ways, these brief statements sum up the entire history of the Old Testament.

God again and again both shows and declares His love for His people.

And His people again and again, don’t believe Him, go their own ways, reap the punishment from it, repent, God loves and forgives them, and they do it all over again.

In this lesson, we’ll first look at the history of God’s love for His people, His challenging conversations with them in the book of Malachi, and applications for us.

Link to the Blog and Notes: https://wp.me/pazrJD-TP

These books were written 14‐16 years after the Jews returned to the land after their captivity. The return itself was a glorious work of God.

Once in the land, there were challenges when the surrounding people tried to stop them, but God intervened there also.

The Israelites had seen God conquer and give victory in much greater problems and He took care of this situation also and they got permission from the king to continue building.

But they didn’t—even though God miraculously provided permission for them to continue building the temple, they got distracted, a lot like we do from the work God gives us to do.

But God’s work is primary and to remind them of that He sent TWO prophets to them: Haggai and Zechariah, who preached at the same time, but in very different ways.

Haggai is very practical about what to do NOW.

Zechariah, like many prophets, jumps into the mind of God and challenges the people from His viewpoint with dreams and visions from the view of eternity. We’ll look at each one of the prophets in more detail in this lesson.

Link to blog and handouts: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Tr

In this lesson we’ll go over the return and the leadership God used to make it possible.

This is a lesson where knowing the correct chronology is especially important (and of course this lesson will teach it to you) because the books of the Bible that talk about the history Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, are just before the middle of our Bibles, are out of order in what happened, as Esther takes place shortly after the beginning of Ezra, and the books that contain the messages of the prophets who encouraged them at this time, Haggai and Zechariah are at the end of our Old Testaments.

***PLUS A VERY HELPFUL NEW Infographic on the order of events that make up the timeline of the return is included at the link at the end of this description.

This lesson will not only put them in order, but will help you see how God is faithful to keep His promises. In addition, our applications will focus on how we need to be faithful to God in keeping our promises.

Links to the blog, notes and charts with the lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Tc

After hundreds of years of warnings and challenges, it’s over for Judah.

Daniel and Ezekiel are in Babylon taken there in an early deportation before the end came in Jerusalem.

What seemed horrible to them at the time was a great blessing in disguise— they were kept from the horrors of the siege, the total destruction of Jerusalem, and final deportation.

Daniel and his 3 friends were taken to the palace; Ezekiel was relocated with the captive people, near the river.

This lesson is on both of them and we’ll see how in the midst of unimaginable challenges,

Daniel and Ezekiel didn’t whine.

They faithfully worked.

Their lives became a witness.

And then the wonder of God was revealed to and through them.

Link to the Blog and notes: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Os 

You are never too old, too young, too anything to not follow God's leading in your life and the dreams He gives you!

This type of writing is what is known as “apocalyptic” and it’s useful to take some time to understand this type of writing, this genre in the Bible to understand the books that contain it.

There is a lot of confusion around the word “apocalyptic.” In the secular world, this term has taken on the idea of the end of the world, or a massive collapse of society, etc. The Biblical meaning, though it can be that, is a little different—

The Greek term apokalypsis, from which we get our English word apocalypse, literally means “unveiling.” It also means a revelation.

In the apocalyptic writings, God is unveiling, giving special revelation, special insight to His prophets, enabling them to see things from HIS viewpoint.

And sometimes that view can get a bit wild and difficult to understand as he does that.

In this lesson, we’ll look at a key characteristic that distinguishes apocalyptic writing from other prophetic writings and that is its use of images, why we need to understand the meaning behind the images if we are going to understand the writing, and why today we often have trouble with that.

In addition, one of the most useful parts of this lesson will be an overview of commentaries you can go to for help in understanding these books. None of us and no one teacher has all the answers, but we have incredible resources today that can help.

Below are links to the blog and downloadable notes and questions, the podcast, and video:

Link to the blog and downloadable notes and questions: https://wp.me/pazrJD-M6

I have answers to these questions and more in this lesson.

First, the lesson goes into a little bit of history to set the stage. For centuries God has been patient, but now things are falling apart.

After repeatedly sending prophets to His people to remind them of the covenant He made with them where they accepted His salvation and promised to obey His commands—they didn’t respond.

The time for judgment had come for the Northern Kingdom when Assyria took them into captivity and now the time is almost up for the Southern Kingdom.

The history gets VERY COMPLEX here and I created an infographic that is freely available to you at www.Bible805.com that will explain the final four kings and how they were related. Even for many of us who have read this section repeatedly, it can be a little complex trying to keep them all straight and I think this infographic will help.

After the history, we’ll look at how Jeremiah preached starting during the reign of the good king Josiah, through the final four kings of Judah, and after the land was conquered Babylon when he wrote the book of Lamentations.

Obediah, may or may not have been written at the same time. The book talks about the fall of Edom, the nation south of Israel, populated by the descendants of Jacob’s brother.

Regardless of the exact timing, the theme is the same in all three books—how to act when God is judging His people and their world is falling apart.

 The message is timeless as we face challenges in our world and personal lives.

Link to the www.Biblea805.com entry and free download of the infographic: https://wp.me/pazrJD-LB

We all have questions like these:

Why does God allow evil?

Why do evil people get away with things?

Why do good people get caught up in the mess others make?

In this lesson we’ll look at the prophet Habakkuk and what happened when he not only asked God “Why?” but when he kept asking God when he didn’t like how God answered him the first time.

In addition to the basic and yet challenging content of the book, we also look at the book's form, which is a CONVERSATION with God. This is different than the majority of the prophets because for most their writings are a record of God speaking through them. In Habakkuk, it is all about him speaking to God and listening for specific answers to his questions.

The lesson goes on to talk about how we can develop a conversational nature with our God who talked with His creation in the Garden of Eden and who will one day, again physically walk and talk with His redeemed people when all things are renewed. As glorious as that will be, we can grow in that kind of relationship with Him now.

Link to the blog and PDF of the notes and questions: https://wp.me/pazrJD-La

The habit I’m talking about is Habit #2—Begin With the End in Mind

The prophets who preached after the fall of Israel and before Judah was conquered by Babylon preached to challenge people to do this.

We will briefly talk about 3 prophets Micah, Isaiah, and Zephaniah, and how they encouraged people to live with the end in mind.

There are several related topics we also cover including how Christianity is a linear religion unlike many Eastern ones with a clear beginning of planet Earth and also a clear end. Related to this is the reality that our lives have a clear ending where we will meet Jesus and not vague reincarnation where people imagine a series of do-overs. We also talk about judgment and rewards.

The prophets and the point of this lesson is that we have ONE opportunity in this life to determine the outcome of our eternity and we want everyone to as C.S. Lewis says, "choose the right side."

Below are links to the podcast and video of the lesson, plus a PDF of the notes.

Link to Bible805 PDF of notes: https://wp.me/pazrJD-L2

He also told them that if they did not follow His laws and worship Him only that God would discipline them, life would not go well for them, and if they persisted in their sin, they would be removed from the land.

He set forth the terms of His covenant clearly and the people enthusiastically agreed to it. An additional part of this lesson goes into a timeline of when the people agreed to the covenant with God and the importance of that timing as a foundation for the legitimacy of the challenges of the prophets.

But their obedience was short-lived, and their remaining history was one of alternating between times of obedience and blessing and times of oppression and judgment.

To call them back to Himself and the covenant they promised to keep, God sent His prophets, who again and again warned them of the consequences of disobedience, and again and again, they disobeyed.

This lesson is a story of how God finally deals with Israel, and they are conquered by Assyria, never to a nation again. Yet God doesn’t give up on them and this lesson talks about that also.

Link to the links and video of this lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Kz

With Hosea God gives his people a similar message that they have violated his covenant and judgment is coming, but in a very different way. In Hosea, his overall message is of God’s incredible love for His people, no matter how badly they treated him. The book is an excellent rebuttal to those who say that the Old Testament God is one of vengeance and hurtful actions.

In addition to that, the book is a challenge to us because to show people His love, God used Hosea to live out his message of love with a wife who was unfaithful to him.

God uses people to show His messages to the world and it isn’t always easy for the people being used in this way. The book is also an encouragement if you feel God has you in a situation you’d rather not be in. He may be using you to teach a lesson that will be a blessing to many, even though at this present time it gives you great pain.

We learn a lot from this book, not only about the history of Israel, but how God works and how we must keep an eternal viewpoint in mind, realizing much in this life won’t make sense, though we need to trust God regardless. One day our pain will end, God’s purposes will be clear, and we can rejoice with Hosea that we trusted our God.

Below are links to the blog & notes, podcast, video, and Bible805 Resources on the lesson:

Blog and notes of the Lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-JX

As I was preparing this section on the prophets, especially as you start to read Isaiah, I realized that an explanation of two more things are very important to keep in mind as we study the prophets as we go through the Bible. They are:

1. The prophet’s expansive view of time
2. The prophet’s expansive view of God’s sovereignty, His requirements, love, and plans permeating ALL of life

In this lesson, I’ll clarify these 2 characteristics in order to help your study of the individual books because they can be confusing and overwhelming if you don’t.

Of special importance is that you understand God’s view of time and a copy of the chart that helps explain it is in the notes, check them out here: https://wp.me/pazrJD-JD

Martin Luther King used it in his I Have a Dream speech where he quoted the verse “Let justice roll down…” from Amos 5:24.

And in June 2023 Pope Francis chose “Let justice and peace flow” (citing the book of Amos) as the theme for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which will be on Sept. 1.

In this lesson we’ll first look at the meaning of the word justice in the Old Testament and how it is far more than a legal term but about “giving people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or care.”

We will confirm Amos as a historical figure through what archeology tells us and then look at his challenges to the people of his time and how they apply to us as followers of God today.

In his time sadly there was a “famine for the Words of the Lord,” in both the land and in their religious observances. There was much religious observance and little true obedience to God—similarities we find in our world. Amos tells us how to live in the midst of these challenges.

For a transcript of the notes for Amos and links to other materials – https://wp.me/pazrJD-Jv

The prophet Amos and his message has captivated preachers, reformers, and Christian leaders from the earliest days it was preached until today, particularly with its emphasis on justice.

Martin Luther King used it in his I Have a Dream speech where he quoted the verse “Let justice roll down…” from Amos 5:24.

And in June 2023 Pope Francis chose “Let justice and peace flow” (citing the book of Amos) as the theme for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which will be on Sept. 1.

In this lesson we’ll first look at the meaning of the word justice in the Old Testament and how it is far more than a legal term but about “giving people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or care.”

We will confirm Amos as a historical figure through what archeology tells us and then look at his challenges to the people of his time and how they apply to us as followers of God today.

In his time sadly there was a “famine for the Words of the Lord,” in both the land and in their religious observances. There was much religious observance and little true obedience to God—similarities we find in our world. Amos tells us how to live in the midst of these challenges.

For a transcript of the notes for Amos and links to other materials – https://wp.me/pazrJD-Jv

What about people who haven’t heard the gospel if Jesus is the only way to God

What do we do about bad people, or when people treat us badly? What does God expect from us as His followers?

How should we respond to continuing trials?

Answers to these questions and other elated applications are what we will cover in our lesson on Jonah.

In addition, we’ll look at the importance of follow-up after someone becomes a Christian. This is inspired by Jonah because world history at that time could have been very different if Jonah hadn’t stomped off with a bad attitude and had stayed to teach the people of Nineveh after their great national repentance.

But we’ll never know because Jonah didn’t stay and do what he should have done. That is the last we hear of Jonah, but not the last of Nineveh. They return to their evil, aggressive ways and less than 40 years later conquer Israel, and the nation is destroyed.

New believers need follow-up—they need to learn about the God they have trusted for salvation. They need to know HisWord and His ways.

The lesson then talks about the importance of follow-up and shares a chart of 5 Assurances of the Disciple of Jesus, a modification of a chart on follow-up that I learned from the Navigator ministry.

With this additional lesson, I’m also introducing a series on Discipleship for Bible805, a series of blogs, videos, podcasts, and other materials in addition to going through the Bible in chronological order.

Please sign up for the Bible805 newsletter for notifications of new materials on this topic both for your personal spiritual growth and to use in helping others grow in their spiritual lives.

First, most people think of the prophecies of Jesus’ coming, and though that is important and a significant validation of the truth of the Christian faith, only 2% of prophecies are about the coming of Jesus.

Second, many think of the Old Testament prophets as a group of angry old guys railing against evil and the coming final judgment. Though they were frequently angry and did rail against evil, only about 1% of what the prophets talked about was end-time judgment.

As you’ll see in this lesson they are about so much more, not only in their messages to the audience of their day, but in the challenges that apply to us in our current lives and as representatives of Jesus.

If you are joining us in reading through the Bible in chronological order (for more info on that, go to https://www.Bible805.com) this is an essential lesson for understanding how we will place the prophets in their proper historical context.

Link to the website, notes, and charts: https://wp.me/pazrJD-I2

This lesson will show you the solid foundation of Biblical instruction he had, how he started well, but progressively deteriorated into self-indulgent sins that destroyed not only his life but split his nation and condemned it to continual war and trouble throughout Old Testament history.

We’ll overview the books he wrote, Song of Solomon, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes along with the probable progress of his life as he wrote each one.

We will end with the challenge of what a true king should be like, the model of it in our Lord Jesus, and a challenge for how we should live to please Him.

Link to website links to podcast, video, other resources, and downloadable notes: https://wp.me/pazrJD-HR

It’s a goal I think we’d like to describe all our lives and how to do that is what we will cover in this lesson.

The most encouraging characteristic about David’s life is that it wasn’t perfect—he sinned, sometimes in big ways that affected not only him but his family and nation. Yet, what made his life commendable to God was that when he sinned, he deeply repented, accepted God’s forgiveness, and moved forward in serving Him.

We can learn a lot from him as all our lives have ups and downs, times of sin, and goodness as we progress to become all our Lord wants us to be—this lesson will help you in that.

Link to blog and downloadable handouts: https://wp.me/pazrJD-HI

Most of us have. Maybe we weren’t paying attention, or maybe we didn’t want to hear what we knew someone was going to say.

Whatever the reason, not listening can get us into a lot of trouble.

The trouble is especially serious if we aren’t listening to God. If we aren’t hearing what He has to say to us.

First, in this lesson, we’ll establish the fact that God does want us to hear Him. Dallas Willard says:

Hearing God? A daring idea, some would say—presumptuous and even dangerous. But what if we were made for it? What if the human system simply will not function properly without it? [without listening to God] There are good reasons to think it will not. (from Hearing God).

To live for what we were made for, to help us function properly, to help us listen to God, and for some practical tips on how to do it better is what you’ll learn in this lesson.

Link to the blog, downloadable notes and questions, the podcast and video: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Ht

Though it sounds appealing, is this really the best way to live?

We’re going to look at around 400 years of history when an entire nation decided to do it their way in this podcast.

From our earliest days, we want to do things our way; we don’t want anyone else to tell us what to do.

Though we may appear to go along with rules as we get older, in our heart of hearts we often think we know what’s best for us.

But do we?

The books of Judges and Ruth give us interesting pictures from Old Testament history on what happens to individuals and people when they either—do what they want to do regardless of what God wants or trust Him no matter how difficult it might be.

Judge and Ruth are little-studied books in their entirety, but as you’ll see they are very relevant ones for our world today and for us personally.

For a downloadable copy of the notes, links to the video and more, go to https://wp.me/pazrJD-Hf

If someone does something that seems a bit odd, like Gideon setting out a fleece to determine God’s will or the Children of Israel walking around the walls of Jericho to conquer it—

Does that mean I should do similar things to please God?

We’ll answer these questions and more in this lesson on How to Correctly Understand & Apply Bible Stories & Biblical Narratives.

We will do this first by defining and understanding genre in the Bible and that for the various genres of the Bible, narrative, poetry, prophetic literature, etc., we need to interpret and apply each of them according to the specific guidelines that rule that genre.

We’ll look at how we can make mistakes in interpretation and application if we don’t understand the genre we are reading and some specific guidelines to help us get the most out of reading the genre of Biblical narratives and stories.

Here is the link to the downloadable notes: https://wp.me/pazrJD-GF

Once you realize you are in a battle, this lesson will give you 9 ways to fight and win.

To go to more on it and for a copy of the notes and link to the video, go to: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Gv

The Bible describes the Christian life in this way:   This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Eph. 6:12(MSG) Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, just as I do; and as Christ’s soldier, do not let yourself become tied up in worldly affairs, for then you cannot satisfy the one who has enlisted you in his army. 2 Timothy 2:3-7 Living Bible (TLB)

There is a lot to talk about, but in this lesson, we’ll discuss three areas:

1. How we should love 2.How we should give 3.How we should define ourselves and how it influences all we do

A few thoughts from the lesson include that we should love as a reflection of God’s love for us; that love results in extravagant joyful giving (in a passage you are sure to find quite surprising from what you’ve previously heard about giving), giving that includes supporting the church and those who do God’s ministry among us, celebrating joyfully before the Lord, and sharing with those less fortunate. In the final area of how we view ourselves, we note how God sees us corporately, as a PEOPLE, as a Kingdom where Jesus joyfully rules every part of our lives.

Many of us have wandered long enough in the spiritual journeys of life and Deuteronomy can help us end going around in circles and live in the Promised Land of God’s will where He joyfully intends us to be.

Link to website and downloadable notes and the charts shown and talked about: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Gd

In this lesson, we’ll look at how Israel was condemned to 40 years of wandering because they didn’t trust God. So that we don’t make the same mistakes we will look at Spiritual Disciplines or Habits and how they can help us change our hearts so we trust and do what God wants when life is challenging.

Go to the website entry and downloadable notes: https://wp.me/pazrJD-G1

The Bible is no different—the more you understand the foundational items in the first 5 books of the Bible, what we call the Pentateuch, the more the rest of the Bible will make sense. This is especially true in what you’ll see about what it will tell you about the foreshadowing of Jesus’ life and  completion of our salvation in the Old Testament.

We’ll talk about some of them in this lesson today that is longer and more complex than some, but I trust worth it in your understanding of the Bible.

For more about how to trust, learn, and apply the Bible at https://www.Bible805.com

And why shouldn’t they?

What do these laws and regulations have to do with us today?

We will answer all these questions and more in this lesson as we consider the importance of the messages in them and deal honestly with the reality that anything that is worth learning often involves challenging times to do that well.

We will then look at the topic of Typology and how the foreshadowing of lessons in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament. Plus, you will get a clear explanation of the confusion between “type” and “antitype” which will help you understand this vital topic.

To the website, PDF of notes, charts, and links to the video: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Fv

To the Podcast: https://anchor.fm/yvon-prehn8/episodes/142-The-Old-Testament-Laws--Why-read-them--How-to-understand-them--and-Apply-them-today-e1v60ue

To the video: https://youtu.be/doGjUagO8iQ

The last few years for many have been times of lockdowns, isolation, disruptions of all sorts.

Current challenges aside, at any time of life we can become trapped, emotionally, physically, or spiritually.

The book of Exodus and the life of Moses can encourage, inspire, and give us freedom and hope as we’ll see in our lesson today, EXODUS, A new beginning for Moses, Israel, and us.

This lesson covers not only the basic events in Exodus, but it has a bonus video on The Faces of the Pharaohs, where you can see the images of the men (and a woman!) who ruled during the times related to the Exodus.

In addition to the fascination of being able to see the same face that Joseph or Moses faced, this underscores the truth that our Bible is based on historical realities, not fanciful stories.

Link to the Bible805 website and PDF of NOTES & QUESTIONS that go with the lesson:  https://wp.me/pazrJD-Fj

The Patriarchs of this family, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, along with Joseph had a huge responsibility and as we look at their lives it is a good opportunity to consider questions about what did God Sovereignly determine in their lives and what were they responsible for.

The lesson goes over both topics.

For links to notes, the chart mentioned in the lesson and more, go to:  https://wp.me/pazrJD-F9

And though we do want to honor him, we also need to clarify that description of him and here is why—In reality, there is only ONE true hero of the faith throughout the Bible

And it isn’t any human.

The only true hero of the faith in the Bible is our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It is so important that we understand this so that our admiration and praise is in the right place—directed to our God and not inappropriately to any human.

How this worked out in Abraham’s life and its application to us is what our lesson today is about.

Below is a copy of the notes, questions, and a map of the key locations in Abraham’s life plus links to the podcast and video:

Link to the blog, video, and notes: https://wp.me/pazrJD-ES

“What about those who have never heard of Jesus?”

We have two more questions in this series,  “Why do innocent people suffer?”

And along with that one “How can we comfort those (including ourselves) who suffer?”

To go to the blog, notes, and questions: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Em

We will talk about why we read these two books together and you’ll see how Genesis and Job lay the foundation for much of what we will read in the rest of the Bible by starting out with answers to the Big Questions of life—

•       How did the world begin?

•       Why are there troubles in this world?

•       Is this all there is or is there life after death?

God hasn’t left us alone to answer these questions and many more that trouble us in our quiet moments and worst nightmares, as we will learn in this lesson. The material on life after death is especially encouraging as you’ll see in a close analysis of an early very in Job.

For the lesson, notes, links to the video on it, and more, go to: https://wp.me/pazrJD-DV

However, even though I feel deeply about this and have created many resources for it, I realized I hadn’t been very clear on exactly what I’ve done, the resources I have, and how I can help you in this vital area.

The podcast here is a description of the resources I have available to help you both do it for yourself and to teach others. Almost all are free, only one at a very low cost so think of them as one last gift of the holiday season that may make the greatest impact in your spiritual life and the lives of those you influence in the coming year.

Links to them all are at  https://wp.me/pazrJD-Cq

A GPS in our car or phone can give us directions because it is linked to a system of satellites orbiting the earth that can pinpoint where we are within 1 centimeter of accuracy. We might be lost or not know how to get from place to place where we are on earth.

But a GPS system, far above us, can see the big picture and correctly guide us.

The book of Proverbs gives us the view of what our behavior from God’s viewpoint should be like that we need when we get lost in the weeds of daily decisions.

In this lesson, we’ll look at the book overall and then we’ll look at some specific situations in life that our world tells us to respond in one way, but the book of Proverbs gives us a different way to respond.

Link to the Blog: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Ca

Dallas Willard described discipleship in this way,

We need to be clear in our heads about what discipleship is. My definition:
A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. A disciple is not a person who has things under control or knows a lot of things. Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus. http://www.dwillard.org/articles/individual/rethinking-evangelism

The key part of his definition that applies to our lesson is: “people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus. “

Psalms will help us see what that means as they show us how God’s people interact with Him in many areas of life—all areas of life—including those we don’t think God cares about.

In this lesson, we’ll look at Psalms of Praise, Salvation History, Lament, and Imprecatory Psalms (these are the hard ones that call down judgment and curses on enemies). I’ll give examples of these specific types and THEN application suggestions and what we can learn from that Psalm for our walk with God and growth as Jesus’ disciples.

Link to blog and notes/transcript: https://wp.me/pazrJD-C1

You’ll notice that along with the longer passage each day is a Psalm or a chapter in Proverbs.

In this short lesson, I’d like to take a few minutes to explain why we’re doing this. I’ll first explain how we are organizing the books of history and the prophets, and then why these books are different than the books that make up the chronological reading of the Bible, why it’s OK to put them where they are, and more than that, how reading them in this way will help you grow in your Christian life and encourage you on your journey.

For links to the video and to download the chart of the Old Testament prophets, go to: https://wp.me/pazrJD-BT

This lesson is an overview of the reasons why people don't read the Bible in chronological order and the benefits of reading it in chronological order.

Go to the following link for the notes and link to the video on the lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Bk

Traditionally, we celebrate it by lighting candles, reading devotions, and preparing our hearts for Christmas. That’s all wonderful, but I there’s much more to the totality of Advent—when we look a little more closely at it—we find that the coming of Jesus, to save and dwell with his people, expands out both backwards and forwards from the beginning of time until the end of time.

That’s what this lesson is about—Seven Miraculous Preparations for Jesus' Birth and Beyond that took, not 5 weeks, but thousands of years and that all came together in the birth of Jesus that happened, as the Bible says in “the fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4).

It’s a fascinating lesson where we look at the history of the Jewish people and how God used their scattering throughout the world, the development of the Old Testament, of the Greek language, the Roman Roads and peace to prepare our world for Jesus.

From looking at how did all these things we see how we can trust Him to care for us now and forever.

Bible805 Website article on it, notes, and links: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Bb

Though that frustration will most likely never totally go away in this earthly life, I have found some tools that enable me to do a much greater depth of study in a shorter time than I was able to in the past.

This podcast is an overview of them and following are links to the videos that demonstrate the sites--do check them out, they will help you tremendously!

www.Bible.com

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/mYAleEkKtCA

www.Biblegateway.com

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/8OKIKgJikB8

www.BlueLetterBible.org

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/jH8QizSzuGA

www.preceptaustin.org

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/eWmj63_zZVw

www.wikipedia.org

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/T7bafPXAM7c

1. Understand genre—is it a comic book or a cookbook?

2. Beware of the hapax—passages or words mentioned only once

3. Embrace humility—we know so little and so many have gone before us, not one of us is the final authority or expert and so we apply this by using the tools given to us by others in the Body of Christ.

We’ll go into each one and discuss how it will help us in our understanding of the Bible.

Bible805: Link to blog with links to other resources https://wp.me/pazrJD-zX

Instead of a list of rules that are hard to tie to actual verses and even more to life application, this lesson takes the popular verse of Jeremiah 29: 11 that says, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” and uses it as an example.

The lesson demonstrates how people often incorrectly interpret this verse and then get mad at God if He doesn’t do what they expect. It then goes on to show how ultimately this passage can give us great hope in all situations when we interpret it properly.

For downloadable notes and links to the video and other resources, go to: https://wp.me/pazrJD-zI

When we see staid, serious, old-fashioned pictures of Bible translators we have no idea of their sacrifices and heroics involved in bringing us God’s Word as we have it today.

In this lesson we will talk about the history, but also how we got the translations we have, the value of listening to the Bible, and which translation is the best one for us for our study and application to our lives.

For notes, and links to the video of this lesson, go to: https://wp.me/pazrJD-za

For more resources that will help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com

Many have heard the term, "Canonicity" used with this topic, what does it mean?

How did they or whoever was responsible, decide?

These are incredibly important questions for us to answer because if the books that make up our Bibles, the “canon” of Scripture are merely the result of human effort and decision, it doesn’t matter if we read them or what we do with them.

However, if they are from God Himself, given to us through human authors, they are authoritative for our beliefs and how we should live.

The process of canonicity is how the church decided these important issues and that’s what our lesson talks about.

For links to a video, notes, and a download of Easter Letter of Athanasius that first listed the 27 books of the New Testament, go to: https://wp.me/pazrJD-yT

For many more resources on how you can know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com

It isn't just scholars who are affected by these views. Consider this quote:

“It seems to me that the only true Christians were the Gnostics, who believed in self-knowledge, i.e. becoming Christ themselves, reaching the Christ within, the light is the truth. Turn on the light.”

That was the opinion of John Lennon of the Beatles and this idea, along with many other New Age and alternate ideas about spiritual truth have caused many to doubt the solid foundation of our New Testament, which is the ONLY source that truly tells us both how to be saved by faith in Jesus AND how to live our lives after we accept Him as Savior in ways that are pleasing to Him.

But there are alternative voices, and ways to be saved and live a “spiritual” life. These ideas have been the inspiration of books and movies that promote the idea that you need to discover the “god within you” (without Jesus) and the Gnostic Gospels are the origin of where much of this comes from.

This lesson is an analysis of where they came from and why in every way they are not equal to the Gospels in our New Testament.

Included in the lesson are excerpts from them that will help you see how they have little in common with the true Gospels.

To emphasize, this is not simply a lesson for scholarly trivia but a helpful tool to enable you and those you teach to spot false, deceptive spiritual teachings and not be led astray by them.

To go to the website and downloads of the chart and free eBook on how to get started on reading your Bible, CLICK HERE 

These are important questions, and we need to answer them correctly (and spoiler alert—the New Testament was written within a very short time after Jesus’ life by eyewitness writers) not only to answer critics but to answer our internal doubts and fears.

In this lesson, we approach the topic objectively and historically to show you specifically through internal and external evidence WHY we have early dates for the writing of the scriptures. It’s a fun and fascinating lesson that will leave you with increased assurance and peace that you can know and trust the facts of your faith.

To go to the Bible805.com blog about it with links to the podcast, notes, and chart in the video, click the following link: https://wp.me/pazrJD-yn

For more resources on how to know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com.

As interesting as the writing of these two collections are (and they are fascinating—so be sure to check out the lesson on them) much more was going on at this time in between the Testaments and if we aren’t aware of it, it can be a rather jarring when we finish reading the Old Testament and jump into an entirely different world in the New Testament where Judea is now controlled by Rome politically and has the new religious groups—the Sadducees and the Pharisees.

How all these changes happened and who these new religious leaders will be covered in this lesson.

In addition, this time is often referred to as “The Silent Years” and we’ll look at why that description isn’t entirely accurate along with advice for what we need to do when it seems that God is silent in our lives.

This is the third lesson in our series on How We Got Our Bibles and the next lesson is on How We Got the New Testament.

For downloads of the notes, the charts, and the free eBook that goes with this lesson, and links to the video on it, CLICK HERE https://wp.me/pazrJD-xU

For additional lessons, resources, and more to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to https://www.Bible805.com

The best way to answer those questions correctly is to look at the history of when and how they were written and how they relate to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was the Bible Jesus and Paul used and quoted from. If we didn’t have the Septuagint, we most likely would not have the Apocrypha in Bibles today as it was primarily their inclusion with the Septuagint that Jerome used to translate the Bible into the Latin Vulgate that they were considered part of the Old Testament scriptures.

Evaluated on their own, they were never included in the Old Testament canon.

In addition to false teachings in them including prayers for the dead and alms as contributing to salvation, you’ll see from this lesson how on the basis of their manuscript history alone, they have no place in the canonical Old Testament.

For links to the video on this, notes and the chart that goes with it, click this link: https://wp.me/pazrJD-xh

For many more resources to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to www.Bible805.com

Click the following link to go to the Bible805 website: https://www.Bible805.com

Click the following link to go to the Bible805 Academy: https://www.payhip.com/Bible805Academy

Unfortunately also is the idea many people have of the Old Testament is that it is a collection of ancient stories and fables and not something based on true history that can be objectively verified. This idea is unfortunate because nothing could be further from the truth!

The Old Testament can be proven to be historically valid and an essential foundation for the Christian faith. This lesson will demonstrate how it was put together, the sources for it including both oral history (including such interesting facts including that Adam was still alive when Noah's grandfather was alive—and you think your grandpa has great stories to tell!) and written texts, plus the archeological basis for it that includes a fascinating overview of Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham. You'll have a very different view of what Abraham was called out of and how that influenced his life after this lesson.

This lesson is part of a series on How We Got Our Bibles. It is not only a fascinating study, filled with images, archeological discoveries and ancient stories, but included are extensive charts, maps, and notes that will give you confidence in your Bibles—that you can trust them to contain the Words of God essential for our eternal salvation and instruction on how to live lives that are pleasing to God today.

Following is the link to notes, charts, and a video on this lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-wH

For more resources on how to know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com

AND in many ways more importantly how you respond to it.

If on the one hand, we believe the Bible is the creation of human authors, what I call the “short story view of the Bible,” though we feel it might have some inspiring and morally valid advice, it is our choice as a fellow human reader to pick and choose what we follow.

If on the other hand, we truly believe the Bible is written by God Himself, our Creator and the One to whom we will one day give account, in what I refer to as the “Novel view of the Bible” above all else we should work to understand and obey it.

To convince you that the Bible is indeed the very words of God given to us for our eternal salvation and how to live our earthly lives, is the purpose of this lesson. I pray you will pay close attention to it and that we will commit ourselves to getting to know Bible and live in ways more pleasing to our Lord because of it.

To go to the Bible805 site that has notes, links to the video, and the charts mentioned in the podcast, click this link: https://wp.me/pazrJD-wt

In this lesson you’ll see how the very words themselves support it fully in that in Hebrew, both “God” and the word “One” are plural nouns, and not only is the word “God, Elohim” the plural noun used here but it is used 2600 times in the Old Testament. In addition to showing this important word study, we’ll also show how the clear Biblical statement that God the Father cannot be seen with the contrasting statements that people saw and talked to God is explained by the Trinity (see the lesson for the full explanation). The lesson also covers the different ways the Holy Spirit was/is involved with believers.

For links to the video, notes, and charts related to this lesson, go to https://wp.me/pazrJD-vI

For more resources to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.bible805.com

To go to links to a video, notes and charts related to the lesson, CLICK HERE

For more resources to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to https://www.Bible805.com

I totally disagree and this series of 3 parts will show you why and help you understand it.

In this lesson, in contrast to views the widely held, but totally incorrect view that the Trinity is “like ice, water, and steam” which is, in reality, the ancient heresy of Modalism that has God morphing into various forms as God the Father in the Old Testament becoming God the Son in the New Testament, and becoming God the Holy Spirit today, this lesson will demonstrate how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are uncreated, co-equal, and eternal persons.

The Lesson will show this by demonstrating that each person of the Trinity has the characteristics of personhood including personal relations, intellect, emotions, and will. In addition, the lesson will show how the persons of the Trinity work together in our salvation.

To go to links to the video, notes, and downloadable charts related to the lesson, CLICK HERE.

For many other lessons that will help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to https://www.Bible805.com

If so, I've got some resources for you! In my Bible805 ministry, I wanted to reach people I don't normally reach, and as I thought about how in Exodus God not only gave people His laws in a very big book, but also told them to write His words on their doorposts. To me, a modern-day application of this would be to not only continue to do my Bible805 Bible teaching, but to create printables, t-shirts, and mugs as conversation starters and ministry motivators.

And that's what I've done! I tell you all about it in this podcast. To go to the links talked about in it, CLICK HERE.

Lots has been going on and in this podcast I update you on everything and tell you about some exciting new resources I have for you. 

For links to all the resources that I mention in the podcast, CLICK HERE. 

But then the question comes up of WHY do bad things happen to us when we are trying so hard to be good, so we will take a little digression from our discussion of the prophets and explore some answers in our lesson today and look at why bad things happen to Christians, especially when we are trying so hard to do what it right.

In this study we'll look at 7 positive things that can come out of trials.

Click this link: https://wp.me/pazrJD-s3 to go to links to the video of the lesson, notes/transcript of it and associated materials.

Or are small acts of devotion what God requires?

This week, we’ll look at what God says is the way of life that pleases Him in our lesson from the Prophet Micah. 

I trust you'll find the message encouraging as God's demands are not difficult or unreasonable. He simply wants us to act like He does with His people, with justice, mercy, kindness, and humility. And yes, our God is humble and demonstrated that in the ultimate act of humility when Jesus, "who was in very nature God, humbled Himself, became human and died on the cross."

The notes and link to the video, are here: https://wp.me/pazrJD-rH

If you'd like more on how to know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.bible805.com

Let me explain—as this lesson shows, God's view of time, seeing and knowing all that is past, present, and future is what enables us to understand prophecy and trust that what He promised in the past He will fulfill in the future just as He made promises in the past in the Old Testament that He fulfilled in the New Testament.

Though that is comforting, it also brings up the question of if God determined the major events of Biblical history, does He predetermine my every action? If that's so, am a responsible for them, or just a puppet?

This lesson answers those questions--so listen to find out the answers!

For notes and links to the chart mentioned and a video on this, go to: https://wp.me/pazrJD-ro

For more to help you get to know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com

I created this podcast to tell you about an infographic with verses included explaining the meaning of what Christian salvation is all about. CLICK HERE to download the graphic or if the link doesn't work, go to https://www.Bible805.com.

I put it together as part of a series of lessons I was doing in my Sunday School class on why you can trust the Bible. We were looking at other religions and comparing them to the Christian faith and one of the most important differences is their view of salvation compared to the Christian view.

In all other religions, people have to do things to make themselves acceptable to God. The Christian faith recognizes that we can't ever do that and that Jesus died to cancel the debt of our sins. He is the link, the bridge between us and God, and that is what the chart on this video illustrates.

Is it because God doesn’t love you?

Is it because He’s trying to teach you something?

Or is it another reason?

I have challenging and not always easy answers for you in the lesson today.

For links to notes and a video on this lesson, click the following link: https://wp.me/pazrJD-qZ

For many resources and materials that will help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com

•  Is going to church enough?
• Do we need to read our Bibles every day?
• What about taking care of the less fortunate?

People asked the same questions when the prophet Amos lived, and we’ll look at his answers in our podcast today.

There are a number of intense, but practical applications coming, please hang in there until the end as this is very important.

For links to the video of the podcast and related materials, go to: https://wp.me/pazrJD-qH

For more on how to know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com

But what does that mean in practice?  How do we get distracted?  

What can bring us back to where we should be?  And on a more serious note, what are the consequences if we don’t obey? 

The Old Testament prophets can help answer these questions and the story of the Prophets in the Old Testament begins with Elijah and Elisha who we will talk about today.  

 For handouts and more on this, go to: https://wp.me/pazrJD-qs

For more on how to know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to:  https://www.Bible805.com

What about people who haven’t heard the gospel if Jesus is the only way to God?

What do we do about bad people, or when people treat us badly? What does God expect from us as His people?

How does God treat us when we fail?

Answers to these questions and other related applications, are what our podcast about Jonah is all about. 

To go to the Bible805 entry for notes, the video, and links to a Timeline of the prophets: https://wp.me/pazrJD-q3

We've finished the books that are primarily historical narratives and are now in books that combine both historical narrative AND the messages of the prophets to the people at that time. Understanding what is going on in the history of the people and how that relates to the book of prophecy is very important. Without it, the books of prophecy either make little sense or people come up with wildly incorrect conclusions about them.

A modern-day analogy would be to imagine 2500 years from now (that is how long ago most of them wrote) if you heard Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. If you were not familiar with the Civil Rights Movement, what was going on in the U.S. at that time, how extraordinary it was for the speech to even take place, and why he wove together Bible passages with his visions (and imagine you didn't even know some of them came from the Christian Bible), well, obviously the speech wouldn't make sense to you. Knowing the historical context of a speech makes all the difference in our ability to understand it.

My goal in this next series of podcasts (plus your reading and a Timeline of the Prophets I put together for you) will help you understand not only the meaning and importance of what the Prophets said in their day but also how we can apply their words to our lives to live in ways that are pleasing to our Lord.

To go to the specific post that has downloads of the charts, CLICK the following link:https://wp.me/pazrJD-pQ

To go to the Bible805 ministry website with many resources to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com

Wisdom, power, romance?

Unlimited wealth and scores of people to do whatever you commanded?

What would you do with it?

Most of us will never have to contemplate those challenges, but in our lesson today we’ll look at someone who did King Solomon.

For links to the video and notes on this topic, go to https://wp.me/pazrJD-py

And for overall on how to know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.bible805.com

• That David was a man after God’s own heart?

• Didn’t he commit adultery and murder?

• How can that be “after God’s own heart?”

In today’s podcast, we’ll take an in-depth look at that statement and be challenged on how our hearts can be ones that please God.

For more on this, notes, and links to a video, go to https://www.Bible805.com

• When you are asking for directions?

• Or when a parent or spouse is telling you what to do?

• Or more importantly, what happens when you don’t listen to what God tells you?

The results can range from frustrating to tragic and we’ll look at the lives of Samuel and Saul to see how one listened to God, the other didn’t, and the results of each one in our podcast today.

For more about how to know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com.

It is an extraordinary cry of victory and hope.

Though it is a part of sermons on the Easter message of salvation, there are many questions about it that we will explore in what follows including:

• Did Jesus really say “tetelestai”?
• What does it mean?
• What is finished?
• If the victory is won and the battle over, why is life so hard?
• And how should we live in this challenging time, considering what He said?

My prayer is that in the following material you will find encouragement and hope in your life battles while we wait for the finished work of our Lord on the cross to be the overwhelming reality of our forever with Him.

For more resources to help you know, understand, and apply the Bible, go to: https://www.Bible805.com.

We don’t want anyone else to tell us what to do.

Though we may appear to go along with rules as we get older, in our heart of hearts we often think we know what’s best for us.

But do we?

The books of Judges and Ruth give us interesting pictures from Old Testament history on what happens to individuals and people when they either—

· Do what they want to do regardless of what God wants

· Or trust Him no matter how difficult it might be.

Judges is a little-studied book in its entirety, but as you’ll see it’s a very relevant one for our world today as you’ll see in our lesson. 

For notes, links to the video on this and more, go to: https://www.Bible805.com

Are you struggling, under pressure, afraid? Feel like you fight one battle after another?

In today’s lesson, I’ve got some encouragement for you as we look at…..

Book of Joshua 9 Lessons on how to fight and win in the battles of life

As we start, the first step to winning the battles of life

Realize you are in a battle!

The Bible describes the Christian life in this way:

This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Eph. 6:12(MSG)

Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, just as I do; and as Christ’s soldier, do not let yourself become tied up in worldly affairs, for then you cannot satisfy the one who has enlisted you in his army. 2 Timothy 2:3-7 Living Bible (TLB)

This view is very different than many contemporary ideas of the Christian life today that tell people to not only expect heaven after they die, but heaven on earth. The reality of the  Christian life and what we see in the book of Joshua is very different.

For notes, links to a video, and more, go to www.Bible805.com.

Does that mean I should do similar things to please God?

As we start reading the book of Joshua, we move from the foundation of laws into stories, also called narratives

Let’s face it, it is a bit of a relief to be finished with the the foundation of laws and into the stories of the Bible.

For the next few months, you’ll be reading some of the most familiar stories from the Old Testament: about the walls of Jericho falling down, of Gideon setting out a fleece, of Sampson and Deliah, about David and Goliath and the other exploits of David’s life.

Though interesting reading, these books pose a major challenge.

How do we properly apply them?

The laws are easy—God says, don’t lie; I know I’m not supposed to lie.

The stories are harder—because a Bible character acted in a certain way and seemed to turn out well, should I act in the same way?

For example, in the story of Gideon, he asked God for sign that confirmed what he was supposed to do. He set out a fleece (an animal skin) and asked that the next morning the fleece be wet and the ground dry. God graciously, miraculously answered him and did that. He asked for the reverse and God again answered.

Does that mean that we should come up with tests to determine God’s will?

For notes and additional Bible Resources, go to https://www.Bible805.com

How are they to live as representatives of the living God, as His disciples, His image-bearers in a pagan culture? We’ll answer these questions for them and us in our lesson as we discuss the topic Deuteronomy—5 Ways to Reflect God's Image to our World.

It's a very practical lesson for us because just as the Children of Israel were God's representatives to their world, so we represent Jesus to our world today. The book of Deuteronomy give us timeless advice on how to do that well.

For notes, link to a video and more resources that will help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to https://www.Bible805.com.

People are wondering if it means WW3 or even the end of the world.

What should we do?

This is a special podcast, an interruption in our reading through the Bible commentary, because I feel it is needed.

I want to give you some spiritual encouragement and practical advice from God’s Word and from
C. S. Lewis’ essay, “The World’s Last Night.”

Listen and be encouraged. Our God is in control; He is a good God, and He has work for us to do as long as we remain here.

For notes from the podcast and links to more encouraging Bible lessons, go to https://www.Bible805.com.

Can we do what we want?

Or does being a believer have obligations?

And what about when we mess up?

These questions and more are what we’ll answer in our lesson today from the Old Testament: The book of Numbers, Bad Choices, Consequences, and God’s Grace

For links to notes and a video on this topic, go to https://www.Bible805.com, where there are many resources to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible.

What about the Shema, which says clearly, “God is One?”

Also, how does it reconcile the verses that say God can’t be seen, with ones that say people saw God?

Who is the Angel of the Lord talked about in the Old Testament? Is He really Jesus before he was born in Bethlehem?

These questions and more are what we’ll answer in our lesson today on what the Old Testament shows us about the Trinity. I think you'll find the material interesting and surprising in some places!

For links to a video on this, plus explanatory charts, and more go to www.Bible805.com.

I very much disagree—and I’ll share the details of why in this lesson.

God does not intentionally confuse us as to who He is; He desires a relationship with us.

The challenge to understanding the Trinity is the same challenge of understanding everything else aiout our faith—we need to look at God’s Word, which I’ll help you do, and so you won't simply accept the statements of “Oh, this is a mystery we can’t understand.”

To download the chart talked about in the podcast, click the following link: https://bit.ly/33DTREy

For more information, handouts, links to a video, and more: https://www.Bible805.com

How do we do that?

The Bible has some very specific advice on how to live a fulfilled life and it isn’t full of more tips on how to make ourselves #1,

We’ll talk about that today in our lesson podcast today.

For more on this topic, go to www.Bible805.com.

And why shouldn’t they? 

What does that have to do with us today?

These are the questions we are going to discuss in the podcast today, along with an explanation of the usefulness of Historical Context and Typology as tools to help us better understand the Bible. 

For additional resources and links to the video on this topic, go to www.Bible805.com.

For many of us as I’m recording this, that’s the situation we’ve been in with the Covid lockdowns and
the many ways it has put life on hold.

But for all of us, no matter what we are trapped in, emotionally, physically, or spiritually the book of Exodus and the life of Moses can encourage, inspire, and teach us as we’ll see in our lesson today.

For a video of this podcast, notes/transcript, and more related to the lesson, go to: www.Bible805.com.

Did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph have any say in being the founding fathers or were they predestined to do all they did?

And what about us? What is God in control of and what are we responsible for?

We’ll answer these questions and more in our podcast today.

For links to notes, a video of this material, and additional resources, go to https://www.bible805.com.

We’re starting into the part of the Old Testament where we talk about
“heroes of the faith”

What does that mean and does an ordinary person have any chance of pleasing God in that way?

Those are some of the questions we'll talk about in the podcast today.

For notes, links to a video that has all the images talked about and additional resources, go to www.Bible805.com.

This is the second lesson in our through the Bible series on Genesis and Job and in it we work to answer these questions from the big picture of God's Word.

For additional resources and links related to the topic, go to www.bible805.com.

This podcast started out as added material to the podcast on Life After Death in the Old Testament.

It is a critique of scholars who do not believe that is true, but it became much more when I realized that the timeline I was putting together to show that faulty beliefs about the views of life after death in the Old Testament were based on bad dating of resources, it applied to much more than that one lesson. I felt at the time it was incredibly important for you to understand as you study the Bible, but somehow in the last few crazy months with my undergoing major surgery 2 days before Thanksgiving, the usual holiday challenges, and Covid hovering over everything, the podcast got lost.

As I was organizing the new year of lessons with added videos, notes, and questions for all, plus the new Resource Shop, I discovered it and found I had not posted it.

I also realized the importance of it in that this podcast not only shows the false conclusions of the scholars who say that people in the Old Testament did not believe in life after death, but it illustrates the bigger picture of why anti-supernaturalist scholars are incorrect in their commentary about the Bible in many areas.

Their mistakes have nothing to do with a belief or not in God or in the supernatural origin of scripture. They are simply about the dating of resources. They will use a source, for example from 70 AD to cite as a reason for a belief that scholars (secular and biblical) universally date hundreds of years earlier. I cannot ascribe motive, I do not know why they do this, but it is sloppy scholarship and misleading.

In my infographics which I discuss in the podcast, you will see the use of 4 Ezra (dated 70 AD) as the source of Old Testament beliefs (dated by even the most secular scholars) written almost five hundred years earlier, which obviously did not happen.

I did up infographics on the Bible805 website where you can see this for yourself. I strongly encourage you to look at these materials.

The faith of many people has been damaged by quotes from so-called scholars who call into question the supernatural aspects of the Bible based on quoting writers from times that have nothing to do with what they claim. Fortunately, our God can be trusted and if we take the time to simply look up universally agreed-upon dates for writings and then the messages he communicated them through his prophets.

I will mention more examples of the importance of dating various writings as we go through the Bible.

For a download of the infographic and related materials, including a video of it, go to: https://www.Bible805.com.

In this lesson, I’ll give you background on why we read Genesis and Job together as well as answers to these questions:
**Why we are here?
**What went wrong?
**Is this all there is?

For notes, links to a video, and additional resources and related lessons please go to: www.Bible805.com

Here is the current intro to it: 

We could all use some good news now…..

Pandemic, crazy weather, racial injustice, and political turmoil—wherever we turn, bad news fills our world.

But there is one place the news is good—and that’s in the good news about Jesus. Many call this good news the gospel and that’s what our lesson is all about.

Be sure to go to https://www.Bible805.com for links to the video, notes, and more resources related to it.

In a past lesson, I shared how the Bible has the same structure as a novel but as I was preparing for going through the Bible in the coming year, I realized that a more detailed look at how the Bible is like a novel as opposed to a collection of short stories has important implications for how we read and apply it. In this lesson I’ll briefly explain how the short story view is the dominant, though incorrect, view today, and then why I believe it’s valid to view the Bible as similar to a novel—I think you’ll find it very interesting.

This is a complex lesson, but extremely important for you to understand and apply. Please go to Bible805.com for links to a video, transcript, and additional resources on this topic.

We all have. Few things are worse than having an expectation that someone will do something or give you something they said they would and then they didn’t do it.

It’s horrible when a friend does this, but even worse if we feel God has let us down.

Why this happens and what to do about it in our relationship with God is what our podcast today is about.

For notes and more related to the podcast and reading through your Bible in Chronological, Historical order, go to: www.Bible805.com.

This podcast will give you an EASY way to do it, plus point you to a free downloadable eBook that will help motivate you and/or your church, small group or Sunday School class to read through the Bible in the coming year in Chronological, historical order. In addition, the download has printable schedules in both dated and undated formats, plus blank journal pages to record your readings.

To go to the Bible805 article with links to the video, notes, and the free eBook, click the following link: https://wp.me/pazrJD-jc

You may make as many copies as you want to share the eBook or schedules included in it with people in your churches, small groups, or whatever.

The results of that study are incredibly exciting and not only in preparation for Christmas, but I trust that listening or looking at this content will also give you trust and assurance in how God works through history.

This content goes over the 7 Extraordinary Preparations God made in real history that when you look at them all together are an amazing testimony to the power of God and the reality of the divine origin of Jesus.

This topic is so important, I also created two videos, notes, a printout of maps, a free encouraging printable, and more all linked for you at: https://wp.me/pazrJD-jh

Here is a direct link to the video of this podcast where you can see maps of the areas talked about: https://youtu.be/O5mm4Lj8e6Y

Secular history and all the major religions of the world agree He existed, but they have very different answers as to who He is
In our podcast today we’ll look at the history that verifies His existence and in contrast the beliefs about Him that have no basis in history or the Bible account of Him all to help YOU answer the most important question of time and eternity.

Be sure to check out the notes, and links to the video of this podcast at www.Bible805.com

BUT.....there are many questions about it--and this podcast explores them--including did Jesus really say that? If the victory is won and the battle over, why is life so hard? And how should we live in this challenging time?

•Some say that the people in the Old Testament didn’t really believe in it like we do. Is that true?

•Why does it matter?

•Hi, I’m Yvon Prehn and welcome to Bible 805! Where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible.

•We’ll answer these questions and more in today’s Podcast

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways Bible805 can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

•Because it’s in the Bible, we know it’s there for more than simply as an example of great literature—so, what lessons can we learn from it?

•In today’s podcast I’ll share why the lessons you can learn from the book of Job are an essential foundation for your Christian life, especially on how to handle trials and suffering and to help others going through a difficult time.

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways Bible805 can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

What’s the source of all that’s wrong in our world?

Fortunately, God hasn’t left us without answers and that is what we are going to talk about in our podcast today. The answers to these questions and more are found in the books of Job and Genesis.

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways Bible805 can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

They are much more recent than Hindu or Buddhist scriptures, so aren’t they more trustworthy?

According to the writings of each religion, not only are they more trustworthy, but both religions claim that they are the most correct scriptures. By the law of noncontradiction, they can't both be true. So, how do we evaluate them to determine whether the trustworthiness of each?

That's what we will talk about in detail in our podcast today.

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways Bible805 can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

Don’t they lead to the same place and aren’t all their holy books similar?

If you’ve asked questions like these, I’ve some fascinating history that helps answer these questions.

In the last two podcasts we've talked about what is truth and then how historians determine what is true. Please listen to them as background for this and the next podcast.

In this podcast we'll apply what we talked about as we evaluate the historical truth of the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures and compare that with the Christian Bible. I'll be giving you the background and overview of each religion, some samples of their scriptures, and then a historical analysis of them.

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways Bible805 can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

In a previous lesson, we talked about the importance of truth and how truth is that which corresponds to reality.

We then talked about how history is a useful way to determine what corresponds to reality and how this is foundational to determining if a religion is true. But how do historians go about figuring out what corresponds to reality? Obviously, we don’t have time machines. We can’t go back to the events themselves.

They do it through evidence and in this podcast we'll talk about the evidence of geography, archeology, artifacts, and documents.

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways Bible805 can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

On one level if the confusion over truth were just confined to the political realm or whatever tragedy consumes the news,
one option would be to block the media noise and hope things will get better.

But we can’t do that in all of life.

In spiritual realities, truth matters!

This podcast goes on to talk about what Truth is not, what it is, and how history can help us determine what is true. 

For notes on this podcast and links to much more, go to: www.bible805.com

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

Does it matter which one it is?

In this podcast, we are going to answer those questions in our lesson today by explaining what’s called “progressive revelation,” a big term with a simple meaning that’s incredibly important for you to understand in determining if God is the ultimate Author of the Bible.

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways Bible805 can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 videos of the lessons, the links to them are on https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lIs tesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

What does God’s view of time have to do with whether He wrote the Bible or not?

Today we are going to answer these questions, which are foundational to any study of the Bible & discover some very fascinating things about God and Time that prove the answer!

Go to https://wp.me/pazrJD-ff for a downloadable chart of God's view of time that we talk about in the podcast.

Go here: https://youtu.be/65LQFOYCIzw for a video of it.

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways Bible805 can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 videos of the lessons, the links to them are on https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways Bible805 can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 videos of the lessons, the links to them are on https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways we can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to a PODCAST of these lessons from Bible805, go to https://anchor.fm/yvon-prehn8

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways we can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to a PODCAST of these lessons from Bible805, go to https://anchor.fm/yvon-prehn8

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways we can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to a PODCAST of these lessons from Bible805, go to https://anchor.fm/yvon-prehn8

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805.com where you can learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible and I have many more resources to help you in your study of the Bible, here they are:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

This podcast is from Yvon Prehn and Bible805, where you learn to know, trust, and apply the Bible. Following are additional ways we can help you do that:

To download free Chronological Bible reading schedules and blank Bible-reading journal pages and much more, go to https://www.Bible805.com, specific link of the schedules: https://wp.me/pazrJD-cZ

To go to a PODCAST of these lessons from Bible805, go to https://anchor.fm/yvon-prehn8

To go to the Bible805 Academy for this material in downloadable, lesson format, with notes, handouts, and discussion questions, with permission for you to use it all, go to https://bible805-academy.teachable.com/

To go to Yvon Prehn’s Instagram on the Bible for weekly encouragement, go to https://www.instagram.com/yvonprehn

For blogs, commentary, and links to all resources related to Bible study, go to https://www.Bible805.com

To see videos of the maps talked about in the podcast and lots more on studying the Bible, go to www.Bible805.com.

Are they historically reliable? Why aren’t they in all Bibles?

Today we’ll answer those questions in this podcast.

In our last lesson we looked at how the Old Testament is tied to real history and real geography.

This week we’ll look at the Apocrypha to see if it meets the same tests. We’ll look at what it is and how it came about.

As you’ll see it’s part of a bigger story that includes a history of the Septuagint—more than a scholarly term, this was the Bible of Jesus and Paul—a Greek translation of the Old Testament that was translated about the same time as the Apocrypha. But we can’t confuse the two because the Septuagint is a translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek and the books of the Apocrypha are not considered divinely inspired because the reasons we cover in the podcast.

Images of some explanatory slides, are on the Bible 805 website at: https://wp.me/pazrJD-2g

But there is one place the news is good—and that’s in the good news about Jesus. Many call this good news the gospel and that’s what our podcast is about today.

For notes from the show and more information on the Christian faith, check out www.bible805.com.

We started with Paradise lost in Genesis and we will end with Paradise restored in Revelation, so should we focus on end-time prophecy? Figuring out when Jesus will return?

There are many things we could focus on as we wrap up this year, but) what I decided to talk about as we look back on what we’ve read and look forward to God’s plans for us is to answer the question taken from a passage in 2nd Peter where in light of Jesus coming, he doesn’t focus on the newspaper sensational details of it, but asks:

What manner of people ought we to be?

For notes on this lesson, Yvon's Bible Blog and much more, go to www.bible805.com.

• u We always have a choice
• u We can retaliate
• u We can throw a pity party
• u We can blame others
• u Or we can trust God no matter what and try to respond in a way He wants us to

No one or no circumstance ever forces us to act in a way God doesn’t want us to

In our podcast today we’ll look at how the Apostle Paul responded in a very difficult situation.

For notes and more, go to www.bible805.com

In our podcast today we’ll see how that is a little like what it is like if we accept Jesus to be our Savior, but then we quit God’s plans for us only halfway to where He wants us to be.

For notes from the podcast and more, go to www.bible805.com

In today’s podcast we’ll talk about the meaning of salvation and how to get from wherever we are to this spiritual destination. Our roadmap for this journey is found in the book of Romans.

For notes and more, go to: www.bible805.com.

The history of the early church is no doubt exciting, as they worked miracles, held everything in common and lived a life of continual worship.

 However, a key question for us living today is which of their actions should we follow as a normative command for the church today—meaning we should keep doing it because they did it and what should we understand simply as a history of the birth of the church, something to learn from in principle, but not necessarily a practice to precisely follow?

Those are the questions we will answer in our podcast today. For notes from the podcast and more, go to https://www.bible805.com.

We’ve all struggled to lose weight or exercise or get up earlier or all sorts of things we wish we’d do differently and it's hard to do!

It’s never easy to change even the most simple of habits, but in our podcast today we’ll see that the followers of Jesus not only changed their personal behavior from that of fearful cowards to fearless leaders but that thousands of Jewish believers totally changed the faith practices that had been the core of their identity since the time of Abraham.

In our podcast, we’ll look at the history of the incredible changes that took place after Jesus Resurrection that we read about in the book of Acts and then we’ll look at two of the earliest books that were written to the early church, James and Galatians.

Secular history and all the major religions of the world agree He existed, but they have very different answers as to who He is

In our podcast today we’ll look at the history that verifies His existence, the beliefs about Him that have no basis in history all to help us answer the most important question of time and eternity—Who do you think Jesus is?

For a copy of the notes that go with the podcast and more, go to https://www.bible805.com.

• Is it knowing all the things you learned about the Old Testament if you’ve been listening to this podcast the last few months?

• Is it holding to certain beliefs like a 6-day Creation theory or 5-point Calvinism?

• Or is it what you do like being sure that you don’t do cheat on your spouse or taxes?

• As we will see in our lesson today it isn’t a what or a what you do, that is the most important thing about Christianity, that is at the core of what it takes to connect you with God, it’s a WHO.

The Bible is very clear

•  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

If we want a relationship with God in this life, the forgiveness of the sins that have severed our relationship with Him and to live in heaven after we die, Jesus said He is the only way we can achieve that.

He said that because though he was God, he came to earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins and by his historically verifiable resurrection from the dead, validated all the claims he made for himself and that He is the only way of salvation.

To find out more and the notes for this podcast, go to www.bible805.com.

OR if they talk to you and you ignore them?

In our podcast today we’ll review God’s conversations with His people throughout the Old Testament and what he finally had to say to them before becoming silent for 400 years. Along the way, we’ll talk about how we ought to respond when we read his messages today.

For notes and more on the podcast go to https://www.bible805.com.

An image can contain volumes of backstory and meaning in a few words—the challenge is you need to understand the meaning of the image.

The books of the Old Testament and Zachariah is one of the main ones that do this, uses imagery in much the same way.

The challenge to modern readers have is that we don’t know the backstory of the imagery. For us visions of myrtle trees, golden lampstands, and a flying scroll make about as much sense to us as Captain America, Thor, and Spiderman would make to the Old Testament Jews.

In our podcast, we’ll discover the meaning of the images in this fascinating book that also contains more specific prophecy about Jesus than any other Old Testament book other than Isaiah.

For a PDF of the notes and more information, go to: www.bible805.com.

 Is its financial security? A loving family or relationship? A beautiful home?

Though all of these things, financial security, loving family, beautiful home are what most of us want, we’ll see in our podcast today that these are not what creates true happiness and inner satisfaction and peace—but we won’t stop with being negative, but will talk about how we can achieve not only what we want, but what we are created for.

Our source of for this lesson is the Prophet Haggai and that's what our podcast is about.

For downloadable notes and more, go to www.bible805.com.

What about God? Does He always keep his promises?In our podcast today we’ll see how God kept his promise to return people to their homeland after they’d been taken captive for 70 years.

But as for the people of God, we’ll see how well they kept their promises to God and then we’ll end with some applications on how we might all get better at making the changes in our lives we want to make, but have trouble following through on.

For a PDF of the notes for this lesson and other materials, go to https://www.Bible805.com.

The question is, How do we respond?

Two characters in the Old Testament, Ezekiel and Daniel, whose stories started when they were teenagers give us some encouraging examples

In the midst of unimaginable challenges, we’ll see how…..

They didn’t whine; they faithfully worked, their lives became a witness, the wonder of God was then revealed to and through them.

Our podcast today will show you how this happened!

For notes and more, go to www.bible805.com.

Why do you allow evil?

Why do evil people get away with things?

Why do good people get caught up in the mess others make?

In this podcast we’ll look at the prophet Habakkuk and what happened when he not only asked God “Why?” but when he kept asking God when he didn’t like how God answered him the first time.

Go to www.bible805.com to download PDFs of the lesson.

The habit I’m talking about is Habit #2—Begin With the End in Mind 

Join me as we look at the challenge of how to Begin with the End in Mind in the books of Zephaniah and Joel in our podcast today.

For notes and additional information on this topic, go to www.bible805.com.

And some wonder if it isn’t the spiritual message of these stories that is most important?

In this podcast, we are going to talk about how it does matter tremendously that the Old Testament describes true stories that took place in recognizable places that we can date in true history. 

Once we understand this, it helps us understand the view of our great God and shows that he can be trusted with the details of our history in the past and the eternity of our future with him. 

For downloadable notes and more go to: www.bible805.com

Fortunately God doesn’t play games with us and doesn’t leave us guessing as to what he wants us to do. We’ll talk about that today in our lesson.

We've been looking a lot at the history of what has happened to Israel and though that is important, what is even more important is how we apply the lessons we learn from history. The book of Micah gives us specific advice on how to do that. 

In particular, we'll drill down deeply into understanding and applying Micah 6:8 a verse many are familiar with that tells us that God wants us to: "Live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God."

For copies of the show notes and much more, go to www.Bible805.com.  

It seems to be a common belief today that objective facts aren't nearly as important as how we feel about our spiritual beliefs, but as you'll learn today our Bible is based on historical realities and God cares very much about how we live our lives based on those realities.

For notes from the podcast, go to www.bible805.com.

If God saves us as a free gift of grace, dependent on Jesus death on the cross, does he really care what we do after we accept him? Can we do whatever we want, knowing we’ll be forgiven?

On a more serious note, what if, after we have trusted Jesus as Savior, we truly want to live a life that pleases Him—how do we do that?

To answer the questions I just asked is vitally important for every Christian if we believe, as the Bible clearly teaches, that one day each of us will stand before Jesus to give an account of our lives. Though we are saved from eternal death by the grace of Jesus, he does have expectations of how we should live after we accept the gift of salvation and that’s what this podcast is about.

I’m doing this special edition because what I have recently learned I found so helpful in my Christian life that I wanted to share it.  

For notes from the podcast, please go to: www.bible805.com

Many of us have problems believing God really loves us, but with the prophet Hosea in the podcast today we will see an incredible example of God’s love that not only applied to Israel when it was going through a very hard time, but that applies to us today also.

For notes and other materials related to this and other lessons on the prophets, go to: www.bible805.com

In Dallas Willard’s book, Hearing God, he says that one of most frequently asked questions of Christians is “What is God’s will for my life?” It’s a question I’m sure many of us have asked.

In today’s podcast we’ll be looking at the book of Amos, one of the Old Testament prophets for help in answering this question.

We'll see that God is very clear on what He wants from us and how He wants us to treat others. Amos' message answers the question of what does God want, but the challenge is are with listening with the intention to obey?

For note on the lesson, go to www.bible805.com.

Some of the questions Jonah answers include:

1. What about people who haven’t heard the gospel if Jesus is the only way to God?
2. What are the consequence of sin in the life of a believer?
3. What do we do about bad people, or when people treat us badly? What does God expect from us as His people?

For answers to these questions and other scattered applications, let’s look at Jonah because it’s about so much more than a fish!

For more and for the notes, go to https://www.bible805.com

Not just about God—but learning about the One with whom you will walk throughout eternity?

One of the best ways to get to know someone is find out about their past—who were their friends, what was important to them, what moves them to tears or gives them joy.

 Our God shows us all these things in the history of the kings after Solomon and in the messages of the prophets who preached during that time. But sadly few, even many committed Christians, take the time to read these books in the Bible, and even more to read the prophets in the historical times that they spoke—but during our next 14 podcasts that’s exactly what we are going to do!

Join us as we learn more about our God as revealed in these stories of Prophets and Kings!...extraordinary lessons, seldom read!

Does the way people treat us determine how we should treat them? 

In our podcast today we’ll look at Proverbs and get some advice on how we can respond no matter how difficult people might be in ways that please God and ultimately help us live a more peaceful and productive life.

We laid the philosophical groundwork for this podcast in the last one. Please listen to it first if you haven't already.

In this podcast we get practical on how we can apply Proverbs to our daily lives.

For notes on this podcast and more, go to www.Bible805.com

Are these conscious decisions or simply a reflection of whatever everyone else in your world says and does?

We don’t often give everyday actions or words much thought, but in our podcast today we’re going to look at the book of Proverbs and WHY we need it in a post-Christian, post-Biblical world.

This is an important podcast for you to listen to because though we don't often think about the default settings in behavior and beliefs in our world today, they are important because they guide our behavior unless we make conscious decisions to act differently. Because our society today is post-Christian and post-Biblical we must work much harder to live a Biblical life.

This podcast will walk you through the meaning of these ideas, how we got where we are, and the remedy of a Biblical view of life as found in Proverbs if we want to live a life pleasing to God and peaceful and productive to us. 

For notes on this podcast and more, go to www.Bible805.com

For many people we think of dire warnings of end-time apocalypse, with images of our favorite sci-fi movie dancing in our heads.

But is that what prophecy, specifically prophecy in the Bible is all about?

In our podcast today we’ll see that that the books of the Bible after the poetic books we just studied, that we call the Prophetic books and that make up a major art of our Old Testament are about so much more and that they have surprising applications to ups, not just in the future, but for how we live our lives today.

This section of the Bible can be confusing as the parts that go together historically with the preaching of the prophets are scattered in different places in Old Testament. The history is told from differing viewpoints in both Kings and Chronicles and then the prophetic books that were written during specific historical times. All of these parts are grouped at the end of our Bibles and not precisely in order of when the prophetic messages were delivered.

This makes it extremely challenging to try to make sense of it all, particularly of the prophets who at first reading appear to be simply ranting against evil interspersed with cryptic warnings about future calamities.

However, when the prophets are read IN the proper places where their messages were spoken in historical contexts and when we understand how to correctly read and interpret prophetic messages, the Old Testament and what the Lord wants us to learn from it will open up to you in new and exciting ways.

For a copy of the notes that go along with the podcast, go to https://www.bible805.com.

Today we’ll talk about Solomon, a man who had everything

We’ll look at his life, but more than that, we’ll end with a challenge that You can make a more eternally significant impact with your life than he did with all the wisdom, wealth, power and riches he had.

For a PDF of lesson notes, go to www.bible805.com.

This week we’ll look at an overview of the many benefits God gives us from his Word including wisdom in making decisions, freedom, happiness, guidance, hope, and comfort. Plus one of the most wonderful of all-- peace in our lives, the deep, wholeness of peace that the word “Shalom” describes.

In addition to the benefits we learn in Ps. 119, we’ll make the study practical as you’ll learn FIVE ways to get a grip on God’s Word in your life so that the benefits of God’s Word will be yours daily.

If so I have great news for you!

We will continue our look at King David in today's lesson. His sin with Bathsheba was only one of the serious sins in his life and yet, he ended his life forgiven and greatly used by God.

We’ll learn about God’s great forgiveness and love in our lesson today and how we can learn to forgive ourselves and press ahead to do things that will give our lives meaning and joy no matter what we've done.

Go to www.bible805.com if you'd like to download a PDF of the notes. 

What in the world does "to be a man after God's own heart" mean and what can we learn from it?

In today’s lesson, we’ll take an in-depth look at that statement and be challenged on how our hearts can be ones that please God. We'll also look at David's life and how from great actions for God to great sins, he always returned to God.

We'll see no matter how much we feel we may have failed, that God never fails in his love and mercy to us. 

•Is it just following the rules? In a previous study we looked at where Jesus told his disciples that they can show they loved him by keeping his commands 

•But we know You can outwardly keep whatever the socially accepted commandments are 

•And still be a rotten person, a long way from being described as a disciple of Jesus

•And though we don’t usually think of Psalms as a book on discipleship, we’ll find it has a lot to teach us in this podcast

For notes from the podcast, go to www.bible805.com

This week is a challenge and warning, but after this lesson on what not to do by looking at the life of Saul we will then study the life of David and Psalms and learn what it means to be a person after God’s heart.

For notes and more information on reading through the Bible, go to www.bible805.com.

Benedict's rules are kind and obviously intended for a community of people he wanted to live in such a way as to express the love of God to each other and to their world. 

For the podcast that talks about this material, go to: How to love Jesus, part 2—growing, pruning, being fruitful, trusting Jesus for now and forever https://wp.me/pazrJD-6N

For the podcast that talks about this material, go to: How to love Jesus, part 2—growing, pruning, being fruitful, trusting Jesus for now and forever: https://wp.me/pazrJD-6N 

On the www.bible805.com website you'll find the complete set of resolutions, this is just the first 20 of them.

To answer my question, I know I think about the Last Supper—that’s what has been memorialized in great art throughout the centuries and in the services before Easter and that’s often our focus on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday services.

Though the Last supper is extremely important that was only one part of the teaching and time Jesus had with his disciples and in this part 2 of our special Easter lessons we’ll look the passage in John 13-17 that fills in what happened after that meal until the time Jesus was arrested. 

This podcast will be heavy on application because in our previous special Easter lesson we learned that the primary way to love Jesus is to OBEY HIS COMMANDS. It isn't just knowing about them that pleases him, but obeying them.

In this podcast I'll talk about ways to love Jesus by trusting him to prune our lives to make us more fruitful in both our personal lives and in how we impact the world for him. 

There are additional materials on the website: www.Bible805.com that I refer to in the lesson and I hope you'll check them out and sign up for the newsletter while you're there. 

"Love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength."

But what does that mean?

Does it mean we work up warm fuzzy feelings for God? Or does it mean something more practical? Something we could do and do well?

In our lesson today, we’ll answer the question of how to love God,  how to love Jesus as we look at where Jesus gives us specific answers and examples to follow in John 13-17. These chapters record the last time Jesus was with his disciples before he was crucified.

We’ will talk about them in this lesson and our next one, so let’s get started on —How to Love Jesus, part one.

For notes on this lesson, in PDF and online form, go to: http://www.bible805.com.

The answer to the question I just asked, is that in all of them a key theme is that people want a King. But not just any King, they want a King who is strong, good and just, and who will conquer evil enemies. 

You may be familiar with the stories of how Arthur Curry became Aquaman and Strider became Aragon, and in this lesson you’ll learn the history behind how Israel got its first king.

Before the first King Saul, we will look at the life of Samuel, the last of the Judges. He's a powerful, fascinating character, that though over 13 chapters in the Bible talk about him, we know little of his personal life. But we know a lot about the things he did for God and how his life was the link between the time of the Judges and Israel's identity as a nation.

Though it sounds so appealing, to live our lives exactly how we want, is this really the best way to live?

Today we’ll look at what the book of Judges that show us about 300 years of Israel’s history and what happened when they did exactly that.
That events are told honestly in that story, as that is what the Bible does, and these events make Judges is one of the most difficult books of the Bible to read.

Though it has the stories of some familiar names like Sampson, Gideon, and Deborah, who accomplished great things for God, the book fills in the details of their lives, some of which weren't all that great. In between these well-known characters are also the stories of a number of other Judges who also led Israel for a time.

The span of the book is over 300 years and the entire book is a sad cycle of sin, oppression, crying out to God, God saving them through a Judge, a time of peace, and then falling back into sin and starting the cycle all over again because as the book ends up saying, it was a time where "everyone did what was right in their own eyes."

In the midst of this book we also read the story of Ruth, who lived during the time of Gideon and her story shows us that no matter how bad things might be or how crazy our world becomes, there will always be people who choose to serve God and who protects and honors. 

Judges and Ruth show us there will always be two ways to live--God's way or our way. The lesson end with sharing perhaps why we don't choose God's way and the reasons why his ways are always best. They may not be the easiest, but they are they way to true joy and peace.

In this podcast, you’ll see how even though we may be doing exactly what God wants us to do, we can still have challenges, but with God’s help, not in our own strength, we can overcome them. We can learn encouraging, positive applications from that.

We also need to look carefully at the book of Joshua for what happens when we don’t completely obey God. Because some of the tribes did not totally destroy the people and idol worship God told them to, they suffered because of it for the rest of their history. 

We'll look at both the positive and negative ways Joshua teaches us to fight and win the spiritual battles of life.

The book is a series of sermons where he restates and summarizes much of the content of the previous books of the Law. 

The tone of the book is more pastoral and less thundering than his previous messages. It is the first book that God declares His Love for His people. Earlier in the Bible He commanded love for others, but this is the first book that explicitly states his love for us.

In the light of that love, Moses show obeying his commands is for the good and happiness of his people then and for us now.

There is so much in this book that Jesus quoted in his temptation and still speaks to us today! Listen now!

To help us understand what we can legitimately apply to our lives and avoid being disappointed with God, I put together this podcast on the topic of How to Correctly Read and Apply Bible Stories. 

This is a challenging topic for our Bible study because the stories are often our favorite parts of the Bible and what we remember. But valid application can be challenging. For example, in the story of Gideon putting out a fleece for God’s guidance, does that mean that we should come up with seemingly impossible tests to determine God’s will?

We will discuss the answer to that question and have additional guidelines on how to correctly read, interpret and apply Bible Stories/Biblical Narratives. The podcast website: www.bible805.com will have notes you can download to keep in mind as you read your Bible. 

After someone decides to follow Jesus, do they need to live any differently than they did before? 

Those are the questions we'll answer in our lesson today. 

After the Children of Israel were miraculously brought out of Egypt, God didn’t turn them loose in the desert to do whatever they wanted and it’s the same for us today. Once we become a believer in Jesus, we can’t simply live however we want to

Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers help us figure this out. 

They aren’t simply outdated collections of ancient rituals and odd laws.

If we study them, we’ll understand more clearly God’s expectations of how he wants his people to live, not only then, how we ought to live today.

Please go to www.bible805.com for complete notes of this lesson and the others in the series.

But that doesn’t mean it’s without controversy—not only about the dates it occurred, but if it really happened at all and if it did, how does it apply to us today? 

Today we’ll look at an introduction to the book of Exodus and the archeology and history behind the true story of God’s deliverance of his people.

The Egyptians left us massive amounts of information about their rulers--tombs, drawings, thousands of statues, and mummies. By careful analysis of the dates of the Exodus (as given in the Bible) and by comparing them with the dates of specific pharaohs in Egyptian history we can look at the faces of the Pharaoh of Joseph's time, the Egyptian princess who adopted Moses, (and learn some fascinating stories about her), and finally the Pharaoh Moses faced at the time of the Exodus. 

This is a fascinating lesson that will increase your confidence that the God of the Bible is also the God in charge of human history.

For notes from the lesson, please go to www.bible805.com.

What do all these laws about what to eat, sacrifices, and how to build the Tabernacle have to do with us today?

Why should we bother reading them?

The answer is SO much more than you can imagine! Not in that we should follow the laws and regulations in the same way the Children of Israel did, but in what these things foreshadowed in what was coming. 

The study of this foreshadowing of what was coming is called "Typology." It clarifies how things first shown in the Old Testament became reality in the New Testament. For example, in the Old Testament the people sacrificed lambs as an atonement for sin and in the New Testament Jesus is called the "Lamb of God" who truly and finally takes away sin. 

This podcast will explain Typology and help you see how it can make the Bible come alive to you in ways you won't see if you don't understand it or read the whole Bible to see how it unfolds. The Old Testament prophets will make more sense (instead of appearing to simply rant about issues that don't relate to anything we are familiar with) and you'll see in the New Testament how the events of Jesus life were not random, but a fulfillment of prophecies illustrated thousands of years before he was born.

Many people bail out on their good intentions to read through the Bible when they finish the story of the Exodus, but don't do that! Listen to this podcast, hang in there in the coming weeks and you will be richly repaid with additional understanding of the rest of the Bible.

Please go to http://www.bible805.com for notes, previous podcasts, and additional information. 

Please tell your friends about the podcast and invite them to join us in the adventure of reading and understanding God's Word!

Did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph have any say in being the founding fathers or were they predestined to do all they did?

And what about us? What is God in control of and what are we responsible for?

Today we are going to answer these questions and more in our Podcast. 

As we look at the lives of these founders of our faith, we can see God faithful to fulfill his plan and promises even though the people given the task to carry it out sometimes strayed from doing the right thing. 

Though we admire what they did, God is the hero of the story and our stories because He is the one who is faithful and who will carry us through the storms of life.

In addition to the overall themes above, this podcast has some extra material on the history of Midian, Edom, and why the Beatitudes are written in the way they are. If that didn't make lots of sense--listen to the podcast and learn some fascinating facts we sometimes miss in Old Testament stories.

“How do you explain fossils of humans 30,000 to 40,000 years old?” 

“If the Bible says you can’t see God, how could people see him in Genesis?”

“What about the curses in Genesis?, e.g. Cain and Lamech, Canaan and Ham?” 

"Is Jesus the only way to heaven and what does reading the Bible in Chronological order have to do with it?"

These are some of the questions I'll answer in our Podcast on Questions & Answers about the book of Genesis. 

For this podcast, there is a lot more I covered in the live class, and to give you the information on that, go to www.bible805.com for the detailed notes from it that will give you the content of those topics. 

•Some say that the people in the Old Testament didn’t really believe in it like we do. Is that true?

•Why does it matter? Does it matter to me?

•We’ll answer these questions and more in today’s Podcast!

This is an incredibly important topic and one where there is a lot of confusion even among people who believe in God, especially regarding what people believed in the Old Testament.

Do take time to listen, as this podcast will encourage you and give you peace and hope about the assurance of the bodily resurrection.

Also, on the www.bible805.com website are the notes from the Podcast. A bit of a warning on them, they are rather rough notes, so there may be some typos, etc. However, the quotes and many of the verses from this podcast are so important, I wanted you to have a copy of them 

Isn't he also the Father of the faith for Jews and Muslims? And didn't he write an important book for the Mormons?

Do I have to be a person of great faith like Abraham for God to accept me?

These questions and much more are what we will cover in this podcast on Abraham.

I'll start with an overview of the incredible archeological finds that have literally uncovered streets in the city of Ur and buildings that were there when Abraham lived there. We will do an overview of Abraham's life and then compare the Biblical view of Abraham with the Abraham of the Muslim and Mormon faiths. 

Finally you'll see why it isn't the moral character and the perfection of Abraham that made him acceptable to God, but the character of his God, who always has and always will provide salvation to those who trust him, not by works, but by faith.  

What this podcast will show you is that the book is much more than a story, but the true story of a man who went through unbelievable pain for no apparent reason, who endured the accusations and tormenting from his friends, and who finally was confronted with God himself.

This podcast answers many questions including who is Satan? What about people who never hear about God? Do people live after they die? Did people in the Old Testament believe that? How do we comfort others (and ourselves) when we suffer? 

Listen and be challenged and comforted.

Is God real and what is He like?

What messed things up?

Who is Satan and what power does he have?

Why do innocent people suffer? Not just Job, all Genesis characters. Why me?

What does God want from us?

That's what we are going to start to cover in this series, but before that in the podcast below we are going to go over the presuppositions that undergird the teaching for this podcast.

Because our presuppositions determine our conclusions—you should know mine. 

We'll also look at time and eternity, how God can see the beginning from the end, look at an interesting chart of how long the Patriarchs lived and much more.

If so, I’d like to share a way for you to do it that will change your life more significantly than any diet will!

Hi I’m Yvon Prehn and Welcome to bible 805!

Today we’re going t to talk about…..

The Six Benefits of reading (or listening to) the Bible in Chronological order, and probably why you haven’t done it

There are many ways to read through the Bible each year—but there is one that is by far the BEST way to do it (and I’ll be going into the reasons why it’s best shortly) and that is to read through the Bible in Chronological order. That means to read the books (or parts in some cases) in the order they happened, not the order you find them in the Bible. 

Don’t worry about figuring that order out—I’ve got schedules you can download to do it and I’ll be doing podcasts in the coming year to guide you through it.

But for now, since reading through the Bible in Chronological order is a somewhat daunting task, it's worth asking why do it?  

Please go to https://wp.me/pazrJD-3w for the answers!

But just because the canon was decided that didn’t mean ordinary people could read it.  The Primary Bible for centuries was Jerome’s Latin Vulgate

Most people couldn’t read and even if they did, fewer and fewer spoke Latin.

Because they were hand-copied, books very expensive to reproduce

But things changed with increased literacy, the printing press, economic growth, and the Reformation changed everything and that’s what this podcast is about.

Additional materials, quotes of early plus a chart of the various translations are below are at the Bible 805 website here: https://wp.me/pazrJD-39

Didn’t a group of church leaders get together at a council or something and just make a decision on that?

To answer, first let’s review what we’ve done so far.

We started with looking at ancient manuscripts, dating them—the foundation for all other truth claims.

Then, we looked at scriptures of other religions that have little to no verification based on history and truth and in contrast, how the Christian faith is both historical and evidential.

We then looked at the historical anchors (or lack thereof in the case of non-canonical books) for the Old Testament, Apocrypha, New Testament, and the Gnostic Gospels

In this lesson we are going to look at Canonicity, how we got the 66 books we have in our Bibles and in addition to that we’ll look at translations and what is the best one to read. 

Additional materials are on the Bible 805 website at: https://wp.me/pazrJD-2W

The New Testament is a reliable historical record of Jesus and the early Christian church.

For purposes of our time and study, we will focus primarily on what these documents tell us about Jesus—we don’t have time to do more and honestly, if what they tell us about Jesus can’t be trusted, the rest really doesn’t matter.

To do that we will first establish the historical reliability of New Testament documents

Then we’ll look at New Testament non-canonical writings, particularly the Gnostic “gospels”

These documents are much more dangerous than OT Apocrypha which was not inspired scripture, but still talked about the same God—these documents present a distorted image of the Jesus of history, far from the real Jesus who is the only Savior.

Additional materials (including a complete copy of a PowerPoint presentation on this) and copies of some of the gnostic texts are on the Bible 805 website at: https://wp.me/pazrJD-2g

After listening to our last podcast on the historical uniqueness of the Christian Bible….you may be thinking….. BIG CLAIMS there, but can you prove your theory?

Does secular history REALLY anchor the stories in the Bible in real history?

Not only does secular history anchor the stories in real history, but we have many exciting examples to share as I answer those questions today with Lesson #4: Old Testament: Overview and Historical Anchors.

In this podcast we’ll go through some of the major events of the Old Testament and discuss the archaeological finds that anchor them to true times, places, events. 

Images of some of the archaeological artifacts, are on the Bible 805 website at: https://wp.me/pazrJD-1W

• Why do Christians think their sacred books are any different than the sacred scripture of other religion?

• Aren’t they all the same anyway, slightly different messages, but all leading to the same God?

• Hi, I’m Yvon Prehn and welcome to Bible 805! This is part of our series on Truth & History

• Today we’re going to talk about…..The Historical Uniqueness
of the Christian Bible

• The questions I asked in the intro are incredibly important because as we showed last time (and please take time to listen to that podcast if you haven’t already) history provides an anchor to tie what we believed to what is true in what religious texts say with actual events in the world outside the religious texts.

• I called them historical anchors. 

• If the anchors exist, it may not be final proof, but it is a good foundation for the validity of faith.

• In this podcast, which is significantly longer than the ones we’ve done so far, we are going to look at these major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, Islam, and Christianity. 

• For each one, we will look at a brief overview of the religion—With an focus on their plan of SALVATION—the “what’s in it for me” of the religion, how to find meaning in this life, life after death.

• The SCRIPTURES upon which the religion and these beliefs are based, including the history of their sacred documents and a brief analysis of the historical anchors they provide.

• Finally and perhaps the most important of all: each religion’s SAVIOR—do they have one? And also their VIEW OF JESUS. All religions agree he lived, but have very different accounts of who he was and what he did, which account is accurate based on what history tells us outside the sacred documents.

• From this overview, I trust you’ll see the Historical Uniqueness of the Christian Bible and though trust in that is not all that is needed for a saving faith in Jesus, I hope it at least helps you understand that all religions are not alike and encourages you to explore them further because your life now and eternal destiny depend on your decisions.