LEVEL 1 CLASSES
THE PSALMS
The Psalms, like all scripture are inspired and given by God and yet each Psalm originated with a human author as a prayer, praise or song. Each psalm is an expression of a writer who responded to God in the light of his particular circumstances. It reflects his worship, devotional life, and religious sentiment of approximately 1,000 years of Israel's history and today its universal language is still being used by us. Although the Book of Psalms is packed full of theology, it's primarily not a book of theology; but it’s a songbook, a set prophetic lyrical sheets, the breath of poetry used in the temple “My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul. Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” It was a devotional guide to Jewish believers. As you read this book, read it like a choir. We willl give you a guide to developing the best method of reading and interpreting the Psalms. We will focus on the setting and background in ancient Israel and social and religious life, exploring the historical, doctrinal and Christology and histological purpose of the Psalms.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
There are 630 specific commandments that the Jews recognized as the commandments that commanded them to order their lives. Those laws we're given in the Old Testament under the dispensation of law; so are we Christians subject to those 10 commandments?. That is the question we do not know how to answer or if we do answer the question, we do not know how to provide a clear biblical basis for our answer. This class will provide you with the ability to answer that question clearly. In this class you will be studying the setting of the journey of the commandments, the commandments themselves and how they relate to the dispensation of grace.
THE BOOK OF DANIEL
The Book of Daniel is a first level course. Everything that is happening in the world today has already been foretold by God. It's in the book, but we don't connect the Word of God to what is happening today. When we think of Daniel, we think of basically four young men who were taken into captivity, but the truth of the matter is the Book of Daniel is about the God of history. He created history. Everything that is happening, everything that will happen, God has already foretold. We’re told that the Southern Kingdom of Judah would be taken into captivity by Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar; and they would be there for about 70 years. He said that when they came out of captivity, they would not be guilty of idolatry anymore; so, 70 years of captivity cured Israel from idolatry. One of the things we will find out is that it's dangerous to take God’s glory. Nebuchadnezzar took God's glory by taking credit for himself and God punished him. That lets us know not to mess with God’s glory. For seven years the man walked around like an animal. He didn’t even know who he was or where he was. History is already written. All we must do is read the book, follow God's instructions and live the life that we are supposed to live; and you will find Daniel himself and the other three friends, and all the interesting characters in this book.
HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE
Textbook: Living By the Book by Howard HendrIcks Have you ever noticed that sometimes you'll hear a person share the Word of God from a scripture that you're very familiar with and yet you say to yourself “I didn't see that in the scripture, how did they get all of that”? Well they have probably been trained how to look for and how to unlock scripture, so in How to Study the Bible, we're going to do just that . We are going to be writing on several different perspectives of study: devotional study, chapter study, thematic study, bibliographical study, and a word study. There are a few more, but these studies will be dealt with— how you apply the scripture to yourself.
LEVEL 2 CLASSES
REVELATION
As we sit here tonight the state of California is burning and it's on fire. Many people have left their homes and just before we started this orientation, I was listening to the news saying that many of their hydrants don't work. It’s the signs of the last days. Jesus said when you see these things to look up. Wars and rumors of wars. When we study the Book of Revelation, we’ll begin to understand what end times are about and where the second coming of Christ comes in.
ACTS
The Book of Acts gives us the beginning and establishment of the Christian Church. We talk about the Holy Spirit and how the audience reacted to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We will touch on how the churches respond today about being filled with the Holy Spirit. We introduce the messengers and non-personality and roles in acts that spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, focusing on the ministry of Peter, Paul, Barnabas and the stoning of Stephen.
CHRISTIAN LIVING
Many Christians who have been saved for years struggle with the knowledge of who they are. They mimic other Christians right or wrong, but they're mimicking them because that's their idea of what holiness is or that's their idea of what Christianity is. We need to know who we are and whose we are. The bottom line is we need to know who this being is that we serve and the only way we're going to be able to serve Him and serve Him the way He deserves to be served, is to learn of Him. The Word of God uses common things of this earth such as prolific internal truths about who we are as Christians. Christ is known as a shepherd - shepherd of the flock. He is known as the Good Shepherd, the great shepherd, and the chief shepherd. Look at all three aspects and see how that affects our Christian walk from three different perspectives. It is my endeavor to teach students what a Christian is. If you learn what a Christian is, you'll know how to walk, you'll know how to cooperate, you'll know how to live, you'll know how to dress right. By dress I'm not talking about general attire, I'm talking about your spiritual attire. You'll know how to put on the armor of God. You're going to know how to use the right words when you're ministering salvation to somebody else, you’ll learn how to live so that it pleases God because our whole makeup is all about pleasing God.
LEVEL 3 CLASSES
CRISIS IN CHRISTIAN MUSIC
In this course we'll examine how secular musical styles have crept into the church all dressed up with Christian lyrics and and sound alright. Our traditional hymns have been dismissed and we’ve seen pastors, music directors, quite a number of praise team members, young people and members of the congregation, have annoyingly embraced musical styles that have spiritually negative effects on their listeners. This course will examine how the enemy is using music as an entry point to advance his Kingdom and the effects the music is having on our churches, is having on our musicians, on our singers, on our young people; and how they are obsessed with Beyoncé, with R. Kelly, and P. Diddy. It is an attack on unity. We’re going to take a real deep look into the Word of God and how things are coming to pass in these end times. We are going to explore if there is such a thing as Christian rap, such a thing as holy hip hop, gospel jazz, gospel, or reggae. We're gonna talk about the demonic attack on musicians. Why has he ever been pursuing musicians, church choir members, praise team members, and overall the world music in the church.
DOCTRINE OF ANGELS AND ARCHANGELS
Hebrews chapter 12:22 states, “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels” therefore the bible clearly bears out that there is a number 2 order that are angels. In this class about angels and archangels we are going to look at and explore the biblical foundation and spiritual significance of these celestial beings. The study will begin with looking at messengers as servants of God, highlighting their role in biblical narrative and their interactions with humanity. Then we are going to delve into the hierarchy of angels distinguishing between ordinary Angels and Archangels such as Michael and Gabriel who hold a unique position and responsibility in the heavenly realm. We’re going to emphasize and look for the belief in the active and ongoing ministry of angels in the lives of believers today. We will assess how Angels are succeeding in providing protection, guidance and deliverance in accordance with God's will. Additionally, the role of the Holy Spirit in discerning Angelic activity and the importance of aligning our understanding of the scripture will be key points of focus. Throughout the course we will encourage a balanced and biblically sound view of Angels.
LEVEL 4 CLASSES
EPHESIANS
The Letter to the Ephesians is loaded with such valuable information, not just on who we are or our position in Christ, but the responsibilities we have as Christians. Sometimes we take those responsibilities for granted; we just want from God what God is supposed to do for us but we have a responsibility to God as well – how we're supposed to live. Ephesians was not written to correct specific errors in the local church, but it was to prevent problems in the church as a whole by encouraging the body of Christ to maturity and that's basically what the book is about – teaching us how to mature in Christ. We'll find those two words throughout the entire letter to the Ephesians. It also discusses the difference between spiritual gifts and ministry gifts and if you didn't know the difference, then you definitely need to be in this class. We're going to look at spiritual warfare. Paul is basically talking about the armor of God, the helmet, the shield and all of the other armor that we need to put on. What do they really mean? What do we do with them? We use them in warfare.
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
This course will examine the 9 elements of the fruit of the Spirit. How much fruit do you want in your life? Do you want faithfulness – the foundation of true friendship? Do you want gentleness – the strength of being gentle which is not weakness? Do you want patience, one aspect of which is perseverance – a long obedience in the same direction? Is your love for God, reflected in your love for others, evident in building lasting relationships with God's family – love that forgives, that loves your neighbor? Is your love for God leading to temperance and self-control – controlling one's tongue, controlling one's appetite, and controlling one's finances. Christ desires that each of us reflects His character in every facet of our lives. This manifestation occurs as each one of us surrenders, following His Spirit to transform our character, progressively becoming more like Christ. As a result, collectively we the body Christ will reflect His character to the world. During this semester we will consider the necessity for the development of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, how each element should impact each individual's life, and how the fruit of the Spirit can revolutionize the corporate body of Christ.
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT PROPHETS
We will survey the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament and we will be examining the lives and ministries of those prophets, the environment in which they ministered and the impact of their message on the people they ministered to. Did the people respond to the prophet’s message? How did they respond? Not only will we be looking at the Old Testament prophets, we will also want to examine the roles of the New Testament prophets. Is the prophetic ministry for the church today? Did the office of the prophet cease with the passing of the apostles? What do you think? We’ll discuss the gifts and functions of the prophet In today’s church and decide on that question. So we will be examining both the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament prophets.