Teaching & Study

How God Views the Church

October 20, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Preaching, Series, Teaching & Study

Here are four messages I delivered in 2010 exalting the Bible’s view of the Church. It was originally planned as a 7-lesson series, but was shortened to four. Following this series I will post two additional sermons I delivered in 2012 and 2013 as follow-ups to this series.

1. The Church in God’s Eternal Plan – “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ephesians 3:10-11) This morning we begin a seven lesson series we call, “7 Things to Know about the Church!” Our first message focuses on the role of the church in God’s eternal purpose. Some religious groups teach that the church is simply a “stop gap measure” by God until He can bring in the Kingdom at Christ’s second coming. Many groups and individuals seem to believe the church should be whatever they want it to be – in organization, worship, practice, finances, and purpose. Paul’s statement in Ephesians 3 (above) says that “through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known.” The church reflects God’s planning, wisdom and purpose! It is not an afterthought or temporary measure.

Pick of the Week: “Bible Land Passages” Videos

October 17, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Pick of the Week, Resource

World Video Bible School is a ministry in Maxwell, Texas serving the churches of Christ since 1986. They provide a large number of online video courses, DVDs, books, charts, audio files and other teaching materials. Many videos and courses are available free of charge through their website, with most of their physical media like books and DVDs, while not free, very reasonably priced. Thousands of individuals and congregations have been using their excellent materials for evangelism, Bible classes and small group studies for years.

Pick of the Week: The Visual Bible’s “Gospel of John” Movie (2003)

October 11, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Pick of the Week, Reviews, Teaching & Study

Ever since the movie industry began, stories from the Bible have provided the scripts for movies, even before sound and color were a part of film-making. But of all the movies about Jesus I have watched and/or own, by far my favorite is The Gospel of John(2003) created by the Visual Bible Project. Earlier films produced included Matthew (1993) and Acts(1994), but used different actors than The Gospel of John.

The Gospel of John reproduces verbatim essentially the entire Gospel of John from the American Bible Society’s Today’s English Version (alternately called the Good News Bible). While perhaps not considered as literally accurate as some other translations, its easy-to-understand style helps the movie dialogue seem natural instead of “preachy.” Christopher Plummer is the narrator for the non-conversation parts of John, while Henry Ian Cusick plays the part of Jesus, and both do masterful jobs.

Resources: On the Miracles of Jesus

October 10, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Resource, Teaching & Study

This last quarter of 2019, I am teaching a Wednesday night series of classes on Jesus and His Miracles. The series is entitled The Wonder Worker, with the subtitle of “The Miracles of Jesus… and What They Really Tell Us About Him.”

Having been a preacher and teacher for almost 50 years now, I unconsciously draw on a large amount of previous reading, study, lessons taught and messages heard which have impacted my thinking. But I also have collected some other resources, old and new, to use as I prepare these classes. Here are some I would recommend, though, as with all works of mere men, there are surely things in them with which I might disagree. Note that EBS may earn a small commission off any merchandise purchased through links on this page.

Free Bible Images from www.freebibleimages.org

October 4, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Resource

I was recently putting together a Powerpoint presentation and wanted to illustrate John 20:24-29. This is the passage about Thomas declaring he would never believe Jesus was alive from the dead unless he touched Jesus himself… and then Jesus appeared to him! But how could I appropriately illustrate this event?

I could “google” for images I was looking for, but the chances are great that the images found are owned by others and copyrighted. So use of them without their permission, – even if credit is given – is a violation of copyright and unethical!

Pick of the Week: The “Bible Across America” NIV Bible

October 4, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Library, Resource, Teaching & Study

Have you heard of the NIV Bible Across America Project that took place in 2008-2009? Sadly, probably not. Let me fill in some background from my own experience.

The first edition New International Version of the New Testament became my English translation of choice in about 1973 soon after it was first published. The print copy I still preach and teach from is the 1984 printing of the NIV whole Bible, which I purchased when it was first released and I had rebound when the covers were falling off somewhere around 2005.

In 2008 Zondervan wanted to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the NIV Bible’s release. They announced a nationwide tour covering 40+ states and at least 140 cities in a specially equipped motorhome. Their goal was to have some 31,100 volunteers each handwrite one single verse of the Bible (NIV translation, of course). Those verses taken together made up a complete copy of the Bible written by hand by 31,100 people!

“Catching Fish!” – Engaging Your Students in Deeper Bible Study

October 3, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Study, Teaching, Teaching & Study

The following material was presented at the 2019 Sunset Vision Workshop as part of the Sunset Satellite School Administrator training track.

“Catching Fish”

Introduction:

Sunset Satellite School classes provide a high-quality, well taught experience in studying the Bible. However, we really should desire to take our students to the next step – helping them become not just more knowledgable, but capable of growing and going deeper into God’s Word on their own. This will allow them to be of greater service to the church as teachers, leaders and shepherds.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” We might even modify this to say, “Teach him to fish and he will be able to feed both himself and others for a lifetime.”

Pick of the Week: Google Keep Note-taking App

September 26, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Pick of the Week, Reviews, Software, Teaching & Study, Tech & Internet

For much of my early ministry I carried a small notebook around in my pocket to write down and keep random bits of information I might need later. This would include (before cellphones!) phone numbers, addresses, to do lists, shopping lists, and various thoughts about upcoming lessons I might be working on. While I still have a few of these pocket notebooks around, I no longer use them.

Instead I now use my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 smart phone with the free Google Keep notes app on it. What a useful, versatile and handy app this is! Everything I enter in it immediately is available on the Google Keep app on my Apple iPad, in the Google Keep app in my laptop and desktop’s Chrome web browser, and even by going to the https://keep.google.com website and logging in using my Google Gmail account.

I use Keep mostly as a place to type in the various bits of info I want to keep, but it has many additional features I have not even tried. Read about some of the many things you can do with Google Keep at these websites: PCWorld, Lifewire, and PCMag.

There are numerous other apps available which do more or less the same thing as Google Keep – think Evernote, Apple Notes, etc. But I wholeheartedly recommend the free Keep app for its combination of ease of use, versatility, and almost universal accessibility on any device.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 – “Hear, O Israel!”

September 25, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Preaching, Teaching

The video of this lesson can be viewed on the Sunset International Bible Institute YouTube channel by clicking on this link.

INTRODUCTION:

Our passage is called the “Sh’ma” (pronounced She-MAH, and meaning “Listen” or “hear”). It has been used as a prayer by devout Jewish people since before the time of Jesus.
It is the first verse in the Torah every Jewish child memorizes.
It is still the first prayer in the morning and last prayer at night a religious Jewish person offers.

CONTEXT

Moses is speaking to those ready to enter the Land of Canaan under Joshua.
They and their parents have spent almost 40 years after leaving Egypt learning to fully believe in, trust, and obey the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
They had to learn that the core of their Law and their obedience was that YHWH was the only God there is!
- “I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of Egypt”
- “You shall have no other gods other than me”
- “You shall not make a carved image… you shall not bow down to them or serve them”
They had learned many hard lessons in the desert, and a whole generation had died there, because of their idolatry, rebellion, disobedience and grumbling.
In chapter 4, YHWH says, “Hear… follow… keep… observe” – Deut. 4:1-6
Again in chapter 5, “Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them.” – Deut. 5:1

Pick of the Week: “The Book Club” Podcast

September 19, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Pick of the Week, Resource, Reviews, Teaching & Study

A great way for me to learn more about a topic dear to my heart is through “podcasts.” These are series of audio or video programs put up on the internet and usually available free to download or stream using almost any device which can connect to the internet. This includes smart phones, tablets, Windows and Mac computers, Chromebook computers, and even devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home internet connected speakers; they are also available through the Spotify music program installed in many new automobile stereo systems. Rather than saying more about podcasts, you can go read this well-done article on www.howtogeek.com.

Series: “How to Understand the Bible” Available

September 16, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Pages, Series, Study, Teaching, Teaching & Study

During the first quarter of 2008, I had the opportunity to teach this series of twelve lessons on Sunday evenings at the Tanglewood Church of Christ in Odessa, Texas. This was a challenge since normally I teach this in the classroom instead of in a sermon format. Entitled “How to Understand the Bible,” my goal was to introduce our church to the actual work involved in studying the Bible, rather than just assuming everyone already knew how to study and understand. Click here to access the entire series.

Pick of the Week: Google Slides Online Presentation Software

September 13, 2019 By Richard Cravy in Pick of the Week, Resource, Software, Tech & Internet

For some time now, preachers and teachers have joined the education and business communities in using visual presentations with their teaching. This usually means the use of either Microsoft PowerPoint (for both Windows and Mac OS) or Apple Keynote (Mac OS). And these are the two software packages I have used for years as well.

But recently I decided to be adventurous and try an online slide creation and presentation software available free from Google. I had tried Google Slides several years ago but found it too awkward, unintuitive and lacking in features to continue using. Many changes for the better have come to Slides since then. The cost of admission is simply a Gmail email account login, which is itself free.

Teaching & Study

“Catching Fish”

“Catching Fish”