The excitement is continuing to grow around the Academy. The first quarter is now well underway and a new quarter will begin in January. The Academy will move to its permanent location (next door to the Home or Recovery) in January. Our instructors are doing a fantastic job of delivering advanced biblical instruction to those individuals desiring to seek further spiritual maturity. The Academy’s website and Facebook page provide a flow of information concerning the activities of the Academy. In the upcoming quarter, we will be offering classes on the books of Exodus, Job, and John as well as Church History and English. The classes are available in person, on Zoom as well as being recorded for later viewing. This offers an avenue to take classes if you cannot be there in person or even at the time of the class. Students may enroll in full-time, part-time, or simply audit classes. We enrolled 47 students in the fall quarter and anticipate even more in January. Our Heavenly Father has blessed this work greatly and we seek to glorify Him through this ministry. The Academy has been blessed with significant financial support from our brethren at North Jefferson, Blossom, Centerville Rd – Garland, University Tyler, and others in support of this work. The Academy continues to covet your prayers and financial support as we help move Christians to greater heights of spiritual maturity and service. Pray that this work will train future and present preachers, elders, deacons, teachers, and workers for …
Habakkuk
Habakkuk’s ministry was during a wicked time, where sin ran rampant, and God’s patience would soon run thin. It seems that God’s ear had already begun to turn from Judah and Habakkuk’s burden to bear, including seeing firsthand the overflow of wickedness in Judah (1:3-4, NKJV). Still, secondly, the knowledge of the destructive force soon to come upon Judah. Our minds can’t fully understand God’s timeless nature, just as it was challenging for the prophet Habakkuk to know why God was not responding to his cries of “violence” (1:2) in what he would consider a timely fashion. Habakkuk wanted to know how long it would be before God punished the wicked in Judah. Like many of us today, Habakkuk questions God concerning the injustice and wickedness that affects the innocent (1:13). He pleads with God to bring about righteous judgment because the “wicked surround the righteous; and perverse judgment proceeds” (1:4). All the while, God had already been lifting up a nation to bring about judgment on Judah, and the severity of it would be something Habakkuk would not believe though it were told to him (1:5). The Chaldeans (1:6), a nation more wicked than Judah would soon come in as if an unstoppable force wreaking havoc on Judah. Understanding how God can use a nation more wicked than Judah to execute judgment on His own is challenging, but man’s injustices and evil ways will not go unchecked. Just as the chastening rod was coming for Judah, judgment …
Nahum
When Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh, he delivered a message which moved the people to repentance (Jonah 3:10, NKJV). Unfortunately, the people of Nineveh did not allow their repentance to be long-term and they soon found themselves back to their old ways. As a result, God would not overlook their sin forever and sends them another prophet to warn them of their impending judgment. Nahum is God’s prophet of doom for the Ninevites. The Assyrian kings in Nineveh were known for being ruthless and morally corrupt; they prided themselves in the complete devastation of their enemies.[1] They were known as “the bloody city” where “the noise of a whip and the noise of rattling wheels, of galloping horses, of clattering chariots” was commonplace (Nah. 3:1ff). The people of Nineveh were proud, believing that none could stand up against them, but they failed to account for the Almighty God – “Who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger” (Nahum 1:6)? The actions of the Ninevites had placed them in a position where God was “against [them]” (Nahum 2:13; 3:5). As a result, Nineveh would be made “empty, desolate, and waste” (Nahum 2:10). God’s wrath was coming down on the people of Nineveh due to their own wicked actions. God would make it so that it would “come to pass that all who look upon [Nineveh] will flee …, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste!’” (Nahum 3:7). While Nahum’s message focuses …
Micah
Micha, whose name means “Who is like Yahweh,” prophesied during the same time frame as Hosea. Both of these men began their prophetic work around 760-750 B.C., and while Hosea’s work finished a few years after the Assyrians took Israel captive (722 B.C.), it is believed that Micah continued until around 700 B.C. Micah’s preaching was primarily in the southern kingdom to the people of Judah, but it was not limited to them alone. Micah’s message was that God’s people were about to be destroyed because of the sins of Israel and Judah (Micah 1:5, NKJ). The prophet’s words are clear concerning Samaria; they would be reduced to ruins (1:6), while Jerusalem would be “plowed like a field” (3:12). The condemnation of these nations can be traced back to their corrupt leadership. Micah wrote of those in the upper class who should have provided an example of righteousness for the rest of the people, but because of their wickedness, they used their position to take what little the poor had. These people laid in their beds by night pondering their wicked deeds and executed them by day “because it is in the power of their hands” (2:1). They did it simply because they could. Micah made it clear that such behavior was not acceptable in the sight of the Lord and that the Lord saw them as “an enemy” (2:8). Because of their taking what did not belong to them, God would bring about calamity that they …
Jonah
Of all the minor prophets, Jonah is likely the most well-known. Many know the story of how Jonah was swallowed by a big fish and spit back up onto dry land. The message of Jonah, however, is more than Jonah’s encounter with the great fish. Jonah teaches us about the righteousness of God and gives us a glimpse of the sometimes complicated individuals in whom God finds value. Jonah serves as God’s prophet not to God’s chosen people but to a foreign nation. God calls Jonah to go and “cry out against” Ninevah (Jonah 1:2, NKJV). Jonah’s message for those in Ninevah was a mere eight words: “Yet forty days, and Ninevah shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). God’s message proclaimed by Jonah found good and honest hearts in the wicked city as they were moved to repentance. “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it” (Jonah 3:10). God’s concern is with justice and righteousness, but God is also a merciful and a forgiving God. The repentance of those in Ninevah was true, and God, in His mercy, forgives those in the city of their wickedness. As a result, God’s righteousness causes Him to relent from the destruction He was going to bring upon them before their repentance. The message of God’s righteousness is only one lesson we might learn from Jonah. Jonah himself shows …