Austin Live Classes Starting

I’ll be starting up a new series of live classes in Austin soon so I wanted to let ones in the area know in case they’d be interested in taking part.

This series is going to be on the book of Acts, which is the history of the birth and growth of the Early Christian church in the first years after the resurrection of Jesus.

What I love about that book is that we can find there the original pattern of Christian discipleship and cooperation as lived by the Apostles who had been with Jesus, as well as by Paul of Tarsus who was miraculously called to be an apostle as well. There’s just so much there in the way of their original beliefs, what they did with their lives, their difficulties in agreeing and working together, how they witnessed their faith, their sacrifices, the strong persecution they received and how the Lord through the Holy Spirit was so very present to lead them and guide them and show them what to do. I love to see how the Lord was, in a sense, way out in front of them and leading them into all truth. At times it almost appalled them as the Lord’s ways were so revolutionary and different from what they thought was the way God would do things.

Five months ago I posted an article about the live classes I was doing at that time in Austin. That was a series on the books of Daniel and Revelation which so many are especially interested in nowadays. We finished that up last week with a class on the Millennium and the New Heaven and New Earth, all found in Revelation 20 through 22.

A series on Daniel and Revelation is pretty hard to follow. Those are some of the most envisioning, soul-challenging chapters in the Bible, especially if you’re of the ones who believe that we’ll be going through times of tribulation before the coming of the Lord, as I and my friends believe.

But with the book of Acts, it’s a good deal more down to earth. On the other hand, there are all kinds of things in there that most churches shy away from teaching or even bringing up for a number of reasons. And yet it’s the fifth book in the New Testament, evidently written by Luke the Evangelist. It’s primarily a historical book but in it can be seen the fervor and dedication of the first disciples, as well as how they explained who Jesus was and what His significance was to the people of their day. With great zeal and fervor the early Christians witnessed daily both to the Jews who’d been looking for the coming Messiah as well as the much larger group of “Gentiles”, most of whom knew virtually nothing about the promises that had been made to Israel.

So I’m really looking forward to this study. And if you’re in the area and would like to possibly see if you’d like to join us, I’d like to hear from you. We’ll be meeting on Thursday evenings in the Cedar Park area, a suburb north of Austin. I’m finding that the atmosphere in these “small groups” has a real advantage at times over the much larger corporate church in that there can be so much more of an “open forum” environment and personal interaction between those present. I’ve made some good new friends over the past months and found a number of ones with whom I have similar views and aspirations.

We’re open to finding others who are looking to go further with their Christian discipleship and to dig deeper into God’s Word. If this is something you’d like to check out, please do get in contact with me and I can let you know more. God bless you, your friend, Mark