If you have not yet taken the opportunity to start listening to these short 3 to 5 minute audio lessons, I’m going to reproduce the written form of the most recent episode below.
I’m doing this for two reasons: (1) Every lesson is very good, and this one especially! (2) My overarching theme with www.EffectiveBibleStudy.com is providing good resources I use and can recommend to others who also teach God’s Word. As for this second point, a good student of the Word learns how both to dig into the text for him or herself, but also how to find and use good materials from others which also study the Scriptures. So, here’s the written form of Barry Cooper’s “Final Judgment.”Continue Reading
In March of 2016 I had the opportunity to travel to Israel and Jordan with a tour group from Lubbock Christian University led by Dr. Jesse Long. Among the many highlights of that tour for me was the opportunity to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Within that building is the “Edicule,” a small building built during the crusades over the remains of what was believed to be the cave tomb of Jesus.
About six months after our visit, the Edicule was closed for major repairs and the National Geographic magazine and cable channel was granted permission to video what was uncovered in the center of that small building. A documentary and magazine article are available from them. But in brief, when the flat marble stone (dating from about AD 1100-1300) supposedly covering the “tomb bed” was removed, another much older stone slab dated to about AD 345 was discovered beneath. Then when that slab was shifted to one side, only the original limestone tomb bed was found beneath! And then within a few hours it was all cleaned and repaired, and hidden once again from human eyes.Continue Reading
The Wednesday night class at Sunset Church of Christ that meets at 5:30 is being taught about the Feasts of Israel by Brian Garnett, one our our instructors at Sunset International Bible Institute. This past Wednesday, I was the substitute for Brian as he has left for the Philippines for some short-term mission work.
My topic was The Day of Atonement, the most solemn and holy celebration under the Law of Moses. It is spoken about in detail in Leviticus 16 and 23. What follows is the handout I created to accompany my “lecture.”Continue Reading
Today (02/16/2020) I taught my Bible class at the Sunset Church of Christ. We are studying from a guide by Scott Franks called, Practical Proverbs. This is a lesson on “Quarreling.” Last month I taught on “Gossip,” and reproduced that outline earlier here. Below I have reproduced the handout I provided for the class today.
Dissension, Strife and Quarreling
INTRODUCTION:
Remember what “wisdom” means in the Book of Proverbs: “Seeing life as God sees it and then living out our life in a way that honors and glorifies Him.”
We notice that several of the other topics in Proverbs may be connected to, or else lead to, strife: wrong use of the tongue, money, inappropriate sexual relationships, honesty, friendships, and anger.
In 2012 I preached a 14-lesson series called The Dark Kingdom examining what the Scriptures say about Satan and his work from Creation until the end of time. This was very well received by the Tanglewood congregation in Odessa, and inspired me to organize my material better and do even more study to teach a similar 12-lesson series, Satan and His Dark Kingdom, at the Sunset Church of Christ in 2014. This latter series and accompanying study guide is available in my Store if you wish to have a copy of that study.
One of the resources I discovered and used in the above study was a pair of books written by Dennis McCallum. I want to recommend the smaller of his two books entitled, Unlocking the Mysteries of Satan. It is only available as a Kindle ebook (not in print or on Apple Books). The price varies over time between $1.99 to $2.99, but it is a bargain at either price! Different than many other books, it is not written as sensational, light and fluffy approach to the subject, but is a serious and scriptural study of a key Bible doctrine.Continue Reading
The story of three Jewish expatriates cast into a fiery furnace for their refusal to worship a statue of their Babylonian king is one of the best known and loved in the Old Testament. It is recorded in Daniel chapter 3 and involves the young men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (given the Babylonian names Shadrach, Mishach and Abednego). I had the opportunity to speak in chapel at Sunset International Bible Institute about this story and what we can learn from it. Click here to watch and listen to the video on YouTube.
Meanwhile you might also enjoy reading these articles about some of the history of the Babylonians which provides some background information:
Attendance at churches in America is in a downward spiral. Religious critics increasingly malign and belittle people of faith in Christ who do attend. More and more professed Christians have essentially joined them by abandoning their participation in “church.” Why? Did God make a mistake in creating the church? Has the gathering together of believers become optional as public attendance seems to indicate? While I may not be able to answer these and other questions to everyone’s satisfaction, I would like to share with you today why I have neither abandoned nor given up on the church. Here is why I go to church. Click here to listen.
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.”
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.
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.
On September 8, I had the opportunity to help the Hermosa Church of Christ in Artesia, NM launch their Small Groups study on the “Spiritual Disciplines.” The spiritual disciplines is a term used to describe those consistent habits every believer should have in their life in order to grow to maturity and fulfill God’s desire for us to be Christlike.
Since this was a new subject for many in the class, I created the following handout as part of my introductory presentation.Continue Reading
Part of the unique nature of humankind, God’s highest creation, is language
Language allows both the expressing and transferring of knowledge, feelings, thoughts, dreams, and history
It also allows – through similes, metaphors, parables, and other forms of symbolic expression – the describing of otherwise unknowable things using comparisons to those things that are known
The Bible has many descriptions of spiritual realities by means of this symbolic imagery. Examples: Jesus’ parables and the amazing “pictures” in the Book of Revelation
This imagery is also used to reveal spiritual realities involving prayer
Here we will look at just two aspects of prayer through these images:
A few weeks ago, our “Pick of the Week” was the “Simply Put” Podcast, hosted by Barry Cooper and produced by the Ligonier.org ministry.
The Wednesday night class at Sunset Church of Christ that meets at 5:30 is being taught about the Feasts of Israel by Brian Garnett, one our our instructors at Sunset International Bible Institute. This past Wednesday, I was the substitute for Brian as he has left for the Philippines for some short-term mission work.
Today (02/16/2020) I taught my Bible class at the Sunset Church of Christ. We are studying from a guide by 
In 2012 I preached a 14-lesson series called The Dark Kingdom examining what the Scriptures say about Satan and his work from Creation until the end of time. This was very well received by the 
The story of three Jewish expatriates cast into a fiery furnace for their refusal to worship a statue of their Babylonian king is one of the best known and loved in the Old Testament. It is recorded in Daniel chapter 3 and involves the young men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (given the Babylonian names Shadrach, Mishach and Abednego). I had the opportunity to speak in chapel at Sunset International Bible Institute about this story and what we can learn from it. 
Attendance at churches in America is in a downward spiral. Religious critics increasingly malign and belittle people of faith in Christ who do attend. More and more professed Christians have essentially joined them by abandoning their participation in “church.” Why? Did God make a mistake in creating the church? Has the gathering together of believers become optional as public attendance seems to indicate? While I may not be able to answer these and other questions to everyone’s satisfaction, I would like to share with you today why I have neither abandoned nor given up on the church. Here is why I go to church. 
The following material was presented at the 2019 Sunset Vision Workshop as part of the Sunset Satellite School Administrator training track.
The video of this lesson can be viewed on the Sunset International Bible Institute YouTube channel by 
On September 8, I had the opportunity to help the Hermosa Church of Christ in Artesia, NM launch their Small Groups study on the “Spiritual Disciplines.” The spiritual disciplines is a term used to describe those consistent habits every believer should have in their life in order to grow to maturity and fulfill God’s desire for us to be Christlike.
The Privilege of Prayer