In Acts chapters 9, 22, and 26 as well as Galatians 1, we get an account of the conversion of Saul, who became the apostle know better as Paul. In this short article, I would like to look at Saul’s character and how we should have the same character in many ways. What kind of man was Saul?

One of the things that is talked about all the time in the religious world, but mostly is misunderstood, is demons and demon possession. I have heard people talk about them as evil animal-like creatures. I have heard them talked about as spirits who possess you and make you sin. I have heard them talked about as the driving power behind witches and wizards. But what does the Bible say about demons?

Self-control is not a pleasant concept. It means controlling ourselves to do things we do not want to do and to not do things that we do want to do. We talk about it in relation to fornication and drinking. But there are some areas in our life where many of us do not want to think about the need to control ourselves.

In the book of Genesis, we find that we were created in the image of God. Part of what this means is that God has given us some of the same nature that He has — God expects us to imitate Him. There is a common statement that I have heard: “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” The truth is that God gave us the wonderful ability to forgive just like He has and God expects us to forgive just like he does.

There are people throughout time who have looked at the suffering of good people and the “fulfilling” lives of evil people as evidence against the justice and mercy of God. For an example, look at conditions in Zimbabwe. President Mugabe is one of the richest men on earth but his people are starving and are tortured just to keep him in power. Where is God’s justice there? In Malachi 2:17, the people asked the question, “Where is the God of justice?” The question today is often, “Would a just God let these things continue? Why isn’t He doing anything?”

Premillennialism basically is the idea that we are living before the 1000 year rule of Jesus on earth. Premillennialists claim that they take the Bible literally. People who believe that the prophecies are referring to something spiritual instead of literal do not believe the Bible.

There are passages in the Bible that are difficult to understand. We have been running into many of them in the men’s class. Passages that talk about predestination or God punishing children for their father’s sin can be difficult. The truth is that different passages will be more or less difficult for different people.

God has a plan for every Christian to grow continually through our lives. In the parable of the sower, we find that if we do not bear fruit, we are not good soil and we will not go to heaven. We must grow and produce fruit. How can we do that?

When Adam and Eve were first created, they were not expected to know the difference between good and evil. It was only after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they understood it. We are born into a world full of evil as well as good. We are not born with the understanding (Deuteronomy 1:39), but we all must learn to tell the difference between them.

Something we must do every day, no matter how old we are, what our social position is, or where we live is make decisions. Some of these decisions are more important than others. Deciding what to eat for supper is usually not as important as deciding what job to take. But no matter how important the decision or what the decision is about, we should make it in the same way - with the same goal in mind.

I want to look at three proverbs that deal with the issue of maturity. They do not deal with the subject directly, but certainly they are speaking about some things that really require maturity.

Much of the Old Testament was written as poetry. This includes pieces of the historical books (songs that were sung), many books of prophecy, and the books that are generally known as books of Poetry (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon). To understand what is being said, we must know something about poetry.

The Old Testament was the law of God for the Israelites. In Deuteronomy 4:44 and 5:1, Moses makes it clear that the law was for the 12 tribes of Israel. It was not for any other people, except that some laws applied to those who would live with the Israelites (Numbers 15:29). So the questions comes up, “Why should I study the Old Testament?”

Getting on a regular schedule for reading your Bible is very important. The main reason is that few of us are disciplined enough to read the Bible every day if we do not have some sort of schedule to follow. Another great reason is that it can take you through the Bible faster than you probably would have read without a schedule.

While edification is for the purpose of growing the church spiritually, evangelism is how the church grows numerically. How can the church evangelize?

Obviously, to evangelize, the church must be preaching and teaching the gospel. But there are some factors that influence the response of those hearing the gospel.

How is a church to supply the needs of its members? We already have discussed much of it in the previous section on giving. But in cases where the church is supplying the needs in another church or supplying the needs of an evangelist working somewhere else, how should they do that after they have collected the money?

Going through the “5 acts of worship” is not the same thing as actually glorifying God. What does it take to glorify God?

How can a congregation work to edify its members? Romans 15:1-7 shows that edification is something that is done by each member, working together in one church. This is very connected with what we talked about under unity — we don’t do what we want, we do what our brethren want when we see that it will edify them. The end result of that edification is unity and glorifying God. 1 Corinthians 8:1 tells us that it takes love to edify. We have to focus on other people, not ourselves.

Unifying the church is a hard work because it involves relationships. Of course, this also means that when done right, it is one of the most satisfying works because of the good relationships between brethren.

When the church began, as we read in Acts 2, we find that God was adding daily those who were being saved. How did people come to be saved? They heard the preaching of the gospel and obeyed it. It has always been the responsibility of the people of God to teach others the truth. This is a responsibility for each Christian (as part of the universal church) and a responsibility for the local church.

Local Church

The local church not only has the responsibility to supply the spiritual needs of the members, but also the physical needs. If you remember, at the beginning of the church the members of the church in Jerusalem had all things in common and made sure that nobody was missing anything they needed. The church even daily supplied their widows with food (Acts 6).

To glorify someone means to show that they are worthy of glory or to tell about how great that someone is. Every Christian has a responsibility to glorify God in what we say and in what we do.

Determining what is the work of the church is not a simple task. First, one has to read through the whole New Testament and look at the commands and examples that are given. Usually an attempt is made to categorize each command or example to simplify understanding the basic end results and group specifics under those categories.

There are some things that God really wants us to remember. (See What to Remember for more on that.) God has also given us some examples of ways to remember what He wants us to remember. Let us look at some of these ways.

In this lesson, we will use the examples of the Israelites to give us warning. We want to look at what God wants us to remember, what we actually remember most of the time, and finally what God will remember about us.