Infusion Bible eStudies are downloadable small group studies that can be read online, printed, or emailed. Each study includes a leader guide and a study guide and is suitable for a one-hour group Bible study.
Listen...to the words of the Scripture, and in them discover God's message for you today.
Look...at a brief verbal snapshot from the scrapbook of contemporary life and discover its connection both to you and to the Scripture passage.
Live...inside the Scripture to discover its context and message; then allow the Scripture to come alive in you and cause you to live out your faith in new and more-effective ways.
Read an excerpt from this study below.
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I have made a practice of preaching a particular sermon on Confirmation Sunday called “Why You Should Not Join the Church.” It may seem odd that on an occasion when young persons are poised to join the church, I should preach a sermon with such a title. My thinking, however, is that before one commits to being an adherent of the gospel, one ought to consider what one is getting into.
Joshua would have understood, for he did something quite similar when he called the Hebrew people together at Shechem to confirm the covenant that they would serve the Lord alone. When the people, in what must have seemed a rather cavalier fashion, quickly claimed that they would serve the Lord, Joshua would not accept their vow without first warning them of the utter seriousness of what they were doing. “You cannot serve the Lord,” he said, “for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God....If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good” (Joshua 24:19-20). “Before you confirm this covenant,” Joshua said, “you had better consider the strong reasons against saying ‘yes.’”
