Gilbert House Fellowship

More references to the divine council, this week in the context of Yahweh's establishment of His covenant with David and His holy mountain, Zion. Continue reading →

THE TROUBLES of this world can be a huge obstacle to following Christ. Money, family, social status, possessions, and even religious tradition can distract us from prioritizing our lives in the proper order. Continue reading →

THIS WEEK'S Old Testament study is another lesson in how much depth the scriptures contain when we actually look. Continue reading →

JESUS POKES the rebellious Fallen in the eye again this week as he sends out 72 disciples (or 70–and we discuss the difference) to witness and cast out demons. This episode was Jesus serving notice to the bene elohim that were allocated to the nations after Babel (of which, according to Deuteronomy 32:8-9, there were 72) that they were no longer welcome in Israel, which is ground holy to God. We a...

PSALMS OF thanksgiving and a retrospective of Israelite history are the focus of our Old Testament study this week. Continue reading →

THE CONSPIRACY to kill Jesus of Nazareth gains momentum as the Pharisees begin to look for reasons to stone him. Twice in this week’s reading Jesus hid himself because the time for him to be lifted up was not yet. We also discuss the disbelief of his brothers, how allegorizing John 7:10 led to the heretical eschatology of the Latter Rain movement, and why Jesus’ reference to Psalm 82:6 (“I said yo...

DAVID'S CORONATION as king over all Israel is the focus of this week's Old Testament study. Continue reading →

JESUS TAKES command of the enemy’s holy mountain, demonstrating his authority through the Transfiguration on Mount Hermon–the place where the Watchers descended and initiated their plan to corrupt humanity in the days of Noah’s great-great-grandfather Jared. We also explore several import aspects of Bible doctrine: The hierarchy of the entities in the supernatural realm, the long war between Yahwe...

MORE GENEALOGIES and a recap of the death of Saul, as well as several psalms from the period around the time of Saul's demise, are the focus of our Old Testament study this week. Continue reading →

PARALLEL ACCOUNTS of Peter’s declaration of faith at Caesarea Philippi, a site sacred to Pan at the base of Mount Hermon, are featured in our New Testament study this week. We also see another feeding of a multitude, Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees and Sadducees who demanded a sign, and the healing of the demon-possessed daughter of a Gentile woman in the region of Tyre.

PSALMS OF ASAPH are featured this week in our Old Testament study. Continue reading →

TODAY WE revisit the accounts of Jesus walking on Sea of Galilee and feeding the five thousand, this time from the perspectives of Luke and John. We learn from John that the miracle of the loaves and fishes was so impressive to the crowd that they tried to take Jesus by force to make him king. Since today is Palm Sunday, we also read the four gospel accounts of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusale...

PSALMS AND genealogies again this week in our Old Testament study, but even here we find some very interesting nuggets. Continue reading →

THREE OF the most iconic moments of Jesus’ ministry are the focus of this week’s New Testament study: Jesus walking across the Sea of Galilee, the feeding of five thousand men (plus women and children) with five loaves of bread and two fish, and the decapitation of John the Baptist on the orders of the cowardly Herod Antipas. We discuss the mission of the twelve disciples to heal the sick and driv...

THE PSALMS of David take center stage this week. The tone of the psalms changes as well, as David's circumstances have shifted from running and hiding to ascending to the throne of Israel. Continue reading →

OUR SIDE-BY-SIDE comparison of Jesus’ ministry continues with our chronological study of the New Testament. This week, Jesus calms the storm, drives out the demons who call themselves Legion (“for we are many”), and brings back the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue leader, from the dead. We also examine several of Jesus’ best-known parables, including the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of th...

OUR OLD Testament study this week moves to a new phase of David's life as he is declared king of Judah. Continue reading →

JESUS SAVED his harshest criticism for the self-appointed gatekeepers of the faith, the scribes (lawyers) and Pharisees who became stumbling blocks between the people and God. He also had some very blunt comments about the people of his home town, Capernaum, and nearby Chorazim, saying it would be better at the judgment for the people of Nineveh, Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, and Gomorrah because they, alth...

THE ONLY place in the Bible where we see the appearance of a human ghost is part of our Old Testament study this week. Continue reading →

TODAY’S STUDY is one of the most important of the time we’ll spend in the New Testament. We focus on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which may be another account of the sermon Luke recorded in Luke 6 (which we studied  last week ). We discuss God’s standard of righteousness, which none of us can reach, and our relationship to the Law, and we look at the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for prayer rather tha...

OUR OLD TESTAMENT study this week continues through the period of David's life in the wilderness, on the run from Saul. Continue reading →

OUR NEW TESTAMENT study this week clearly illustrates the viewpoints of the gospel writers with parallel accounts of the disciples eating grain plucked from the stalk (on the Sabbath–oh, no!) and the healing of a man with a withered hand (also on the Sabbath–oh, no!). Matthew draws on the Torah to validate Jesus’ claims of divinity, Mark offers a condensed, almost bullet-point account, and Luke, t...

DAVID IS on the lam as our Old Testament study continues, running for his life from the mad king, Saul, and we discuss five psalms written during this period of David's life. Continue reading →

JESUS’ MINISTRY of healing and casting out demons is a key part of our New Testament study today. We discuss the healing of the centurion’s servant, the paralytic lowered through the roof of the house in Capernaum, and the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda, and we read Matthew’s account of the Gadarene (or Gerasene) demoniac(s). (More on that story still ahead in Luke and Mark.) But even more impor...

THE TRANSITION from Saul to David is the focus of this week's study, which includes the famous confrontation between David and the giant, Goliath of Gath. Continue reading →