Michael L Ruffin

Christian faith emphasizes revelation. As believers, we take seriously the fact that we know about God only because God has chosen to reveal God's self to us. When we stop and think about it, it is amazing that God gives any thought to us at all. But it is even more amazing that God wants to enter into relationship with us. Christians believe that God's ultimate revelation to us is in the incarnation. Jesus Christ, who was God with us and the Word made flesh, came as a sign of God's kingdom breaking into the world. Along the way to Jesus, though, the biblical writers employed many images and metaphors in their attempts to communicate God's revelation. Some of those images are familiar: Father, Shepherd, Judge, and King, for example. In fact, these images are so familiar that we need to revisit them frequently and to ponder their meaning. In this unit we will examine some less familiar metaphors for God from the Psalms and the Minor Prophets: God as Rock, as Storm, as Fire, and as Beast. Each of these vivid images communicates aspects of God's character. As we understand more about God through this imagery, our relationship with God and our faith in God are strengthened. These images are not to be taken literally; God is not literally a rock or a storm or a fire or a beast, just as Jesus is not literally a door or a light. Still, we should take the imagery seriously because we want to know God and be known by God. God knows everything about us, although we can never know everything about God. Even so, God has revealed God's self to us in varied ways. All those ways are gifts that we should gladly and enthusiastically receive.

This unit is partly about how Scripture came to us. Along the way, we will look at how the Bible developed from its roots in oral tradition to collections of written texts and finally to the biblical canon we now have. We will also look at how the Bible came to be translated from Hebrew and Greek into other ancient languages, such as English. We will seek to develop greater appreciation for all the work that was done by the preachers and teachers who spoke the word, the collectors and editors who expanded and organized the word, the scribes who copied, preserved, and protected the word, and the translators who translated the word. We will also seek to develop a greater appreciation for the God who inspired the word. We will also hopefully grow in our appreciation for the God who stands behind and within the word, for the Christ who fulfills it, and for the Spirit who enlivens it. All of that is going on right here and now, so this unit is also about how Scripture comes to us. Its words come to us as we make ourselves available to them by carefully and prayerfully studying them. In those words, we find ourselves drawn more and more into the life of God and into life with God. We are grateful for the great gift of our Bible, but what do we do with that great gift? Do we show our appreciation for it in the amount of attention that we give it? Do we approach it with an attitude of humility, asking God to help us understand what we need to understand, or do we come to it with an attitude of arrogance that assumes we already know what we need to know? Do we read our Bibles through the lens of Jesus, desiring that our study of the Bible will lead us to a life characterized by the kind of love he showed us and that only he can make possible in us? Yes, Scripture not only came to us; it also comes to us. Thanks be to God who made and makes it all possible-and to all the people who worked and work with God to make it all possible

This study focuses on Jesus' parables that are unique to the Gospel of Luke. These parables are stories that, according to Luke, Jesus shared with his disciples as they accompanied him on the most crucial journey they ever took together-the journey to Jerusalem. There Jesus would die, and there the disciples would learn of the true nature and cost of following him.These stories in Luke's Gospel are pilgrimage parables. They are parables for those on the way to being the people of God. They are not places where we stop and stay; they are rather places where we learn what we need to learn and from which, equipped with Jesus' directions, we continue the journey. But we will see that they are also places to which we repeatedly return.Because it became Scripture, Luke's Gospel functions for us as it has for generations of believers through the centuries: as our guidebook while we try to find our own way in following Jesus. Like Jesus' first disciples and like Luke's original audience, we want to follow Jesus in taking up our cross and laying down our life.This Teaching Guide for the Smyth & Helwys Annual Bible Study on Luke's parables includes teaching options, suggested worship and sermon outlines, and approaches to leading discussions and group study. This guide also includes relevant lesson plans for including youth and children in a congregational study of the parables of Luke.

As we prepare each year to celebrate the Incarnation, the Advent season reminds us that we live in an interim period between the First and Second Comings of Jesus Christ. In this book of twelve riveting sermons on a variety of Advent themes (all based on texts from Cycle B of the Revised Common Lectionary), Michael Ruffin explores the challenges of Christian living in this time between the First and Second Advents -- particularly the tension between the modes of patience and action. Though we await Jesus' return with hopeful anticipation, Advent waiting is active waiting. Ruffin's messages invite readers to share in the richly rewarding life of faith, while providing abundant comfort and inspiration for those who endeavor to live as disciples of Jesus in the modern world. Preachers looking for an imaginative illustration or observation to stimulate their sermons will find ample material in this book. But this is much more than just a reference for ministers preparing to preach during Advent -- it's also an excellent resource for spiritual reflections reminding us that the good news in these days between the Advents is that Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us. Possessed by an abiding love for the Lord Christ, Michael Ruffin approaches a season that he loves with his scholarly skills of exegesis, his insight into contemporary life issues, his common sense, and his disarming humor, crafting a collection of sermons that will bless the reader, inspire the preacher, and remind us all of the renewal that Advent brings. James C. Elder Jr. Pastor, First Baptist Church Fitzgerald, Georgia Michael L. Ruffin is the pastor of The First Baptist Church in Fitzgerald, Georgia. He is a graduate of Mercer University (B.A.) and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div., Ph.D.).