July 27, 2025 – A Study of Matthew – Loving Mercy

Loving Mercy

Micah 6:1-8 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ Listen to what the Lord says:

“Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;
    let the hills hear what you have to say.

² “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;
    listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has a case against his people;
    he is lodging a charge against Israel.

³ “My people, what have I done to you?
    How have I burdened you? Answer me.
⁴ I brought you up out of Egypt
    and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
    also Aaron and Miriam.
⁵ My people, remember
    what Balak king of Moab plotted
    and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
    that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

⁶ With what shall I come before the Lord
    and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
⁸ He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

Who does the Lord tell Micah to “plead my case” before (verse 1)?

Who is the Lord “lodging a charge against” (verse 2)?

What does the Lord want to know (verse 3)?

Where did the Lord redeem Israel from (verse 4)?

Who answered “Balak king of Moab” (verse 5)?

In your opinion, why does the Micah ask the questions in verses 6 and 7?

“And what does the Lord require of you” (verse 8)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about receiving mercy?

Matthew 9:9-13 - New International Version (NIV)

⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Who saw Matthew (verse 9)?

Where was Matthew sitting (verse 9)?

What did Matthew do (verse 9)?

Who was at the dinner at Matthew’s house (verse 10)?

Who ask the disciples “why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners” (verse 11)?

Who did Jesus say needs “a doctor” (verse 12)?

What did Jesus say they needed to learn the meaning of (verse 13)?

Who had Jesus “come to call” (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about receiving mercy?

In your opinion, how does the Lord’s requirement to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him in Micah 6:1-8 strengthen Jesus’s saying “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” to the Pharisees in Matthew 9:9-13?

Titus 3:3-11 - New International Version (NIV)

³ At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. ⁴ But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. ⁸ This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

⁹ But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. ¹⁰ Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. ¹¹ You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.

Who was “foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures” (verse 9)?

Whose “kindness and love” appeared (verse 4)?

Why did God save “us” (verse 5)?

How was the Holy Spirit “poured out on us generously” (verses 5 and 6)?

What do the heirs have “hope of” (verse 7)?

What did Paul want those “who have trusted in God” to devote themselves to (verse 8)?

Why did Paul want “foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law” avoided (verse 9)?

When should Titus “have nothing to do” with a divisive person (verse 10?

Who is “self condemned” (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about receiving mercy?

In your opinion, how do the sacrifices mentioned in Micah 6:1-8 figure into the salvation that Paul is writing about in Titus 3:3-11?  Where does the acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly from Micah fit into what Paul was saying?

In your opinion, what does Titus 3:3-11 help us understand about the people that Jesus said He came “to call” in Matthew 9:9-13?

1 Peter 1:3-9 - New International Version (NIV)

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

In what has the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” given us “new birth into a living hope” (verse 3)?

Where is the “inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” kept (verse 4)?

What shields Christians “until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (verse 5)?

What do Christians have to suffer “in all kinds of trials” (verse 6)?

What is “of greater worth than gold” (verse 7)?

What will the trials result in “when Jesus Christ is revealed” (verse 7)?

How do the Christians Peter is writing to feel about Jesus even though they “have not seen him” (verse 8)?

What do the Christians Peter is writing to receive as “the end result” of their faith (verse 9?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about receiving mercy?

In your opinion, if God would ask Christians “My people, what have I done to you?” as He did the Israelite people in Micah 6:1-8 what does 1 Peter 1:3-9 reveal that should be listed in the answer?

In your opinion, how does the dinner at Matthew’s house in Matthew 9:9-13 reveal about who will receive the “inexpressible and glorious joy” that 1 Peter 1:3-9 says fills Christians?

In your opinion, what do both Titus 3:3-11 and 1 Peter 1:3-9 reveal about the fruit of God’s mercy to those who “have trusted in God”?

In your opinion, what do these Scriptures from Micah, Matthew, Titus, and 1 Peter reveal about what God has done for those He can make a case against?

In your opinion, how should we respond to God’s loving mercy?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

October 25, 2020 - Mark’s Good News about Jesus – Burning Joy

Burning Joy


Exodus 3:1-15 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

¹² And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

¹³ Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

Where did Moses lead Jethro’s flock (verse 1)?

What was strange about the bush that was on fire (verse 2)?

How did Moses answer God when He called “Moses! Moses!” from the bush (verse 4)?

Why was Moses to take off his sandals (verse 5)?

In your opinion, why did God identify Himself as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (verse 6)?

What had God seen (verse 7)?

What had God “come down” to do (verse 8)?

Where is God sending Moses (verse 10)?

In your opinion why does Moses react by saying “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt” (verse 11)?

Who said “I will be with you” (verse 12)?

What did Moses want to be able to tell the Israelites (verse 13)?

How is Moses supposed to respond to the Israelites (verse 14)?

What else is Moses to say to the Israelites (verse 15)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

Mark 6:45-56 - New International Version (NIV)

⁴⁵ Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

⁴⁷ Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. ⁴⁸ He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, ⁴⁹ but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, ⁵⁰ because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, ⁵² for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

⁵³ When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴ As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵ They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

What did Jesus make His disciples do (verse 45)?

Why did Jesus go up on the mountainside (verse 46)?

When did Jesus see the disciples “straining at the oars, because the wind was against them” (verses 47 and 48)?

In your opinion, why was Jesus “about to pass” the disciples (verse 48)?

What did the disciples think Jesus was (verse 49)?

Why did Jesus say, “Take courage!” (verse 50)?

What happened when Jesus climbed into the boat with them (verse 51)?

In your opinion, why does Mark point out that “they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened” (verse 52)?

Where did they anchor (verse 53)?

Who did the people recognize (verse 54)?

Who did the people carry to Jesus (verse 55)?

What happened to those who touched the edge of Jesus cloak (verse 56)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how are the disciples response to Jesus in Mark 6:45-56 and Moses to God in Exodus 3:1-15 similar?  Is there anything that we can learn from their responses that applies to our lives today?

Acts 17:22-32 – New International Version (NIV)

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

²⁹ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. ³⁰ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

³² When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”

Who did Paul tell “I see that in every way you are very religious” (verse 22)?

How did Paul know they were very religious (verse 23)?

What was Paul going to proclaim (verse 23)?

Who “made the world and everything in it” (verse 24)?

In your opinion, why does Paul make a point of God not being served by human hands but rather giving “life and breath and everything else” (verse 25)?

How did God make all the nations (verse 26)?

Why did God make all the nations and then mark “out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands” (verses 26 and 27)?

What had some of their own poets said (verse 28)?

Why should we “not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone” (verse 29)?

What does God now command (verse 30)?

How has God given proof that “he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed” (verse 31)?

What were the two reactions to Paul’s message (verse 32)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is Moses’s reaction to the burning bush in Exodus 3:1-15 like the people of Athens having an alter “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD” in Acts 17:22-32?

In your opinion, how are the people of Athens in Acts 17:22-32 like the disciples in Mark 6:45-56 who had “not understood about the loaves”?  How might we be like them today?

1 Peter 1:3-9 – New International Version (NIV)

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

How has “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” given us (Christians) “new birth into a living hope” (verse 3)?

Where is our inheritance kept (verse 4)?

How are we “shielded by God’s power” (verse 5)?

What should we be doing even though we “may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials” (verse 6)?

Why have trials come (verse 7)?

In your opinion, how can we love and believe in someone we have not seen (verse 8)?

What is the “end result of your faith” (verse 9)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what is similar about the task Moses was given in Exodus 3:1-15 and what 1 Peter 1:3-9 reveals that Jesus has done?

In your opinion, what changed for Peter, who in Mark 6:45-56 was one of those whose “heart were hardened”, that he was able to speak with passion and enthusiasm about a “new birth into a living hope” in 1 Peter 1:3-9?

In your opinion, what is the difference between the people of Athens in Acts 17:22-32 who have an alter “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD” and the people in 1 Peter 1:3-9 who “are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy”?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Exodus, Mark, Acts and 1 Peter teach us about how God wants us to seek, reach out and find Him?

In your opinion, how can we move from finding “I AM WHO I AM”, in the burning bush to being people burning “with an inexpressible and glorious joy”?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

April 7, 2019 – Looking Backward and Forward from Zechariah – From Cursed to Rejoicing

From Cursed to Rejoicing


Deuteronomy 28:15-25 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

¹⁶ You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

¹⁷ Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.

¹⁸ The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

¹⁹ You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

²⁰ The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.  ²¹ The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. ²² The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. ²³ The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. ²⁴ The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

²⁵ The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.

When will curses come and overtake Israel (verse 15)?

Where will Israel be cursed (verse 16)?


What will happen to the basket, kneading trough, fruit of the womb, crops, calves and lambs (verses 17 and18)?


In your opinion, what does it mean to be “cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out” (verse 19)?


Why will the Lord send “curses, confusion and rebuke” until Israel is destroyed (verse 20)?


How will the Lord plague the Israelites (verse 21)?


When will the “wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew” end (verse 22)?


In your opinion, what does it mean for “the sky over you head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron” (verse 23)?


What will come down from the skies until Israel is destroyed (verse 24)?


How will Israel flee from their enemies after coming at them “from one direction” (verse 25)?


In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

Zechariah 12:1-14 - New International Version (NIV)         

¹ A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel.

The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: ² “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. ³ On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. ⁴ On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. ⁵ Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’

⁶ “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.

⁷ “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. ⁸ On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them. ⁹ On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. ¹¹ On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, ¹³ the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, ¹⁴ and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

How does Zechariah describe the Lord (verse 1)?

In your opinion, what does it mean that the Lord will “make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling” (verse 2)?


What will the Lord make Jerusalem into “when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her” (verse 3)?


How will the Lord treat Judah (verse 4)?


Why will the clans of Judah say in their hearts that “the people of Jerusalem are strong” (verse 5)?


When will the clans of Judah “consume all the surrounding peoples” (verse 6)?


Why will the Lord “save the dwellings of Judah first” (verse 7)?


Who will the “feeblest among them” be like (verse 8)?


What will the Lord do to “all the nations that attack Jerusalem” (verse 9)?


In your opinion, why does Zechariah link pouring out “a spirit of grace and supplication” with looking on “the one they have pierced” (verse 10)?


What will there be “on that day” (verse 11)?


What will the land, each clan and their wives, the house of David and their wives, the house of Nathan and their wives, the house of Levi and their wives the clan of Shimei and their wives and the rest of the clans and their wives do (verses 12, 13 and 14)?


In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?


In your opinion, what changed in Israel that caused them to move from being defeated by enemies in Deuteronomy 28:15-25 to being the “immoveable rock” that mourns in Zechariah 12:1-14?


John 19:28-37 – New International Version (NIV)

²⁸ Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. ³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

³¹ Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ³⁵ The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. ³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”  ³⁷ and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

Who knew that everything was finished and that the “Scripture would be fulfilled” (verse 28)?

What did they lift to Jesus’ lips (verse 29)?

When did Jesus bow His head and give up His spirit (verse 30)?

What day was it (verse 31)?

Why did the Jewish leaders ask Pilate “to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down” (verse 31)?

Whose legs were broken (verse 32)?

Why did they not break Jesus’ legs (verse 33)?

What happened when Jesus’ side was pierced (verse 34)?

Why does the man who saw this testify (verse 35)?

What scripture was fulfilled (verse 36)?

Who does the other scripture say they will look at (verse 37)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the cursing of Israel in Deuteronomy 28:15-25 related to Jesus saying “it is finished” in John 19:28-37?

In your opinion, how is the “spirit of grace and supplication” along with the mourning for the one they have pierced in Zechariah 12:1-14 related to the death of Jesus in John 19:28-37?


1 Peter 1:3-9 – New International Version (NIV)

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

What has “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” given us (verse 3)?

Where is the inheritance that God has given us kept (verse 4)?


How are Christians shielded “until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (verse 5)?


In your opinion, why can Christians “greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials” (verse 6)?


What will the trials result in (verse 7)?


Why are Christians “filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (verse 8)?


What are Christians receiving as “the end result of your faith” (verse 9)?


In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?


In your opinion, how are the people who are suffering as a result of the curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-25 different from those who rejoice in the midst of trials in 1 Peter 1:3-9?


In your opinion, how is God making Jerusalem into “an immovable rock for all the nations” in 
Zechariah 12:1-14 and the shielding of Christians though faith by God’s power in 1 Peter 1:3-9 related?


In your opinion, how does what Jesus finished in John 19:28-37 lead to the “new birth into a living hope” that 1 Peter 1:3-9 proclaims?


In your opinion, what do these passages from Deuteronomy, Zechariah, John and 1 Peter teach us about the cursing, mourning, finishing and rejoicing of Christians?


In your opinion, how is it possible to rejoice in God’s shielding while still being subject to the trails of this world?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)