Adult Christian Life: January- March 2020

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

Adult Christian Life is a quarterly resource that is specially written for practical adult life experiences. These lessons provide clear, biblical interpretations and stimulating discussions for everyday living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Dec 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781681676210

Book preview

Seeking God’s Guidance

Suggested Opening Exercises

1. Usual Signal for Beginning

2. Prayer (Closing with the Lord’s Prayer)

3. Singing (Song to Be Selected)

4. Scripture Reading:

Psalm 8 (KJV)

Director: O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

School: When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?.

Director: For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

School: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

All: O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Recitation in Concert:

Matthew 5:1–12 (KJV)

1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

CLOSING WORK

1. Singing

2. Sentences:

James 1:17–27 (KJV)

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

3. Dismissal with Prayer

A LONG-ANTICIPATED CELEBRATION

RESOURCES: The New National Baptist Hymnal, 21st Century Edition, Boyd’s Commentary for the Sunday School

KEY VERSE: I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever. 1 Kings 8:13, KJV

Intro

The people of Israel wandered forty years after their deliverance from Egypt. God met them in their wanderings, giving Moses the Law on Mount Sinai, sending them manna for food, and going before the people in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. Finally, after all those many years, God led the people to the Promised Land and gave them a permanent homeland. No longer would the people of Israel be forced to live in temporary huts called booths.

The Feast of Booths memorialized their wilderness wanderings and reminded the people of Israel that it was God who gave them a homeland. A sacred celebration was decreed by God (see Lev. 23:34–36). The Festival of Booths, or Sukkot in Hebrew, commenced on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, usually late September to early October. It began with the blowing of a trumpet to call all the people to a solemn assembly (Lev. 23:35). The assembly was actually a call for unity to celebrate God’s goodness.

Paul House observed, Solomon’s choice of the Feast of Booths for the dedication [of his Temple] was strategic in that it was a traditional time of national gathering, a reminder of Israel’s conquest of Canaan, and a time of religious renewal (House, Paul R., 1, 2 Kings, New American Commentary, Vol. 8 [B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, TN] 136). This Festival of Booths was different from all the other festivals.

Think About It

Worship may be offered in a variety of circumstances: corporately on Sunday at church, privately in a believer’s quiet time, or whenever one or more believers have reason to celebrate God’s presence. How do our various times of worship differ from one another?

I. A Permanent Home for God (1 Kings 8:1–4)

Know It

The Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence with His people, rested for years in the tabernacle (tent of meeting) that resided on Mount Zion. On this mountain peak, one of seven that would eventually comprise the city of Jerusalem, lay the original city of Salem that was inhabited by the mysterious Melchizedek (Gen. 14). Later it was known as Jebus (see Judg. 19:10), the capital city of the Canaanite tribe called the Jebusites. David conquered the tribe and the city (2 Sam. 5:6–10) and renamed the city Jerusalem, the City of David. As David’s power grew, and as Solomon’s grew even more, the city expanded to the neighboring hills, including a nearby ridge called Mount Moriah. It was on Mount Moriah that Solomon chose to build his temple, renaming the hill the Temple Mount. Once the temple building was completed, the Ark of the Covenant had to be moved from its resting place in the tabernacle on Mount Zion to its new home on the next hill over. Mount Moriah was where Abraham had offered his son Isaac to God and is today the site of the Islamic place of worship, the Dome of the Rock.

The moving of the Ark and the opening of the new temple was a transition point in the history of the nation of Israel. A solemn ceremony was called to mark the auspicious occasion, and the Festival of Booths was selected for the event because it was a time when the people of Israel were used to gathering as one people (see Lev. 23:34). A straight pathway was constructed for the procession, and on the appointed day every Israelite who possibly could get there lined the parade route. It was going to be a slow procession because, as Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown note in their commentary, Priests were stationed to offer an immense number of sacrifices at various points in the line of road through which the procession was to go (Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, 1 Kings, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible [Christian Classics Library, Grand Rapids, MI] 751).

II. The Blessings of Formal Worship (1 Kings