Monthly Archives: March 2022

Triumphal Entry of the King

International Sunday School April 3 2022 Spring #5

Matthew 21:1-11 NIV  As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,  (2)  saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.  (3)  If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”  (4)  This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:  (5)  “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'”  (6)  The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.  (7)  They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.  (8)  A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  (9)  The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”  (10)  When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”  (11)  The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Matthew 21:1-11 NIV 

Just a Little Talk with Jesus

Wow, I am choking up. One of my favorite Gospel songs is, “Just a Little Talk with Jesus”. Dixie Davis shares the story Rev Cleavant Derricks told her and her dad about the inspiration for the song. Growing up during the depression it was a struggle to come up with $5 a month fee to study music at Cadek Conservatory in Chattanooga. One month the young Brother Derricks mother told him he had to stop his music lessons because they didn’t have the money. He was angry. He went to the theater where he worked and while he swiped the floor he cried out to God voicing his anger and frustration. A gum wrapper stuck to his broom. It frustrated him even more until he realized it was a $5 bill. The line we have all sung at church hit him at that moment, “Just a little talk with Jesus makes it right”. Skip 60 years later. My first year of marriage. I wanted to study guitar with Mario Abril. He had already accepted me as a student but I didn’t have the money. I also wanted to study music theory. Absolutely no money for such things. Then my parents gave me life insurance policy that I could cash in. That paid for a year of guitar lessons with Mario and the jazz correspondence course from Berklee. Same God, same conservatory, same problem, same solution. Praise God! JUST A LITTLE TALK WITH JESUS MAKES IT RIGHT!!!!!!

The story about Rev. Cleavant Derricks I am referencing, is located at The Jones County News

Free Because of the Lord

International Sunday School March 27 2022 Spring #4

Deuteronomy 8:1-11 NIV  Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors.  (2)  Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.  (3)  He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.  (4)  Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.  (5)  Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.  (6)  Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him.  (7)  For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills;  (8)  a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;  (9)  a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.  (10)  When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.  (11)  Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

Deuteronomy 8:1-11 NIV 

Free to Celebrate

March 20 2022 Spring #3

Ezra 6:13-22 NIV  Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence.  (14)  So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.  (15)  The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.  (16)  Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.  (17)  For the dedication of this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel.  (18)  And they installed the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their groups for the service of God at Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.  (19)  On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover.  (20)  The priests and Levites had purified themselves and were all ceremonially clean. The Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their relatives the priests and for themselves.  (21)  So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the LORD, the God of Israel.  (22)  For seven days they celebrated with joy the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because the LORD had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

Ezra 6:13-22 NIV 

Free to Worship

International Sunday School March 13 2022 Spring #2

Ezra 6:1-12 NIV  King Darius then issued an order, and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon.  (2)  A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media, and this was written on it: Memorandum:  (3)  In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide,  (4)  with three courses of large stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid by the royal treasury.  (5)  Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of God.  (6)  Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and you other officials of that province, stay away from there.  (7)  Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site.  (8)  Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God: Their expenses are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop.  (9)  Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, male lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and olive oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given them daily without fail,  (10)  so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons.  (11)  Furthermore, I decree that if anyone defies this edict, a beam is to be pulled from their house and they are to be impaled on it. And for this crime their house is to be made a pile of rubble.  (12)  May God, who has caused his Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to change this decree or to destroy this temple in Jerusalem. I Darius have decreed it. Let it be carried out with diligence.

Ezra 6:1-12 NIV