Showing results by author "Rick Noyes" in All Categories

The unsettling events of 2020 are mind boggling and can easily cause a person to wonder just what happened. As if the world was not already confusing and complicated enough, having the events of the past year crashing into our reality has left many people trying to make sense of a world that doesn’t make sense. Are you trying to figure out what is the point of it all? Finding meaning in life seems to be impossible, but there is nothing new under the sun and Solomon has some words of hope for us to consider. The book of Ecclesiastes is a must for anyone asking, why am I here? What is the ...

The book of Judges is a historical account which investigates the lives of people who lived long ago. Some of those lives are going to be tales of caution, while others will be inspiring. Most are people who would not warrant a second look today and would be dismissed as valueless by most, but when viewed through the lens of God’s purpose, we will see that they became much more than they could have dreamed. They become exceptional stories in the greatest story ever told, that is still shaping lives today. Wouldn’t you like your own story to matter like that? Then maybe this study is for...

Have you ever had your life suddenly become a trainwreck? Maybe from a sudden death, a divorce, a turnaround in financial fortunes, a job loss, a bad diagnosis, or any other multitude of things that can happen, which can take a person by surprise, leaving them feeling devastated and broken. I would like to suggest that this book of the Bible was written for just such times. Right now, it seems that our world is turned upside-down. Many people are experiencing a loss of the familiar and face the uncertainty of what is to come. Historically, Daniel lived during the time when Jeremiah ...

Imagine for a moment, being told that everything you ever thought you knew about God was wrong. All of what you thought you knew was incomplete, misinformed, and incorrect. Admitting that would not only mean that your view about God was wrong, but your view of yourself and your approach to God was misguided at best and deceived at worst. The response to what you suddenly understood would mean all of life would be a new paradigm. In turn, those protecting the status quo and orthodoxy of the incomplete view would attack those embracing this new reality as outcasts, troublemakers and even ...

Genesis means beginning and as the first book of the Old Testament it is a fitting title. However, it is more than just the Bible’s opening book, since it is the proper place to understand what the whole of God’s Word is revealing. Therefore, it is the proper beginning for understanding the origin stories and the plan and purpose of God. It not only reveals the God of the Word, but the call of God, the understanding of faith and obedience and the need for humanity’s Savior. Please join me in seeing how a proper beginning is important.

Have you ever longed for justice, desiring for a wrong to be righted or inequality to be avenged? I often think I am prone to desire justice, if justice does not hold me personally accountable. When it comes to justice, I rarely think about God dispensing justice, because after all that is somewhere in the future right? This study of the book of Ezekiel challenges my own thinking about justice by examining when God demands justice. If God’s justice were happening right now, would the scope of that interest you? Maybe it should.

Acts is a travel log of the church’s journey through the many changes that God puts in the path of His people. Change is the thread which weaves its way through these first twelve chapters of this first volume and really the whole book. I subtitled this study guide When everything changes because I think this theme not only draws out what is described by Luke, but also because it has real world application for anyone reading this. The reason is most people find at some point in life that everything changes. How we view life through the glass of that change can either be character building...

God’s Word has something to say to anyone who has known the disappointment of failed expectation which leaves the gray fog of pessimism tainting your view of life. Maybe your expectations concerning marriage were dashed and you have the bitter taste of betrayal in your mouth. Perhaps the circumstances of your life are not what you hoped for, because your expectations were built on an idealism squashed by the harsh boot of reality. So, you find yourself questioning your choices and perhaps God. If that is even close to describing your broken expectations, then this is the study for you.

Why would anyone want to study the prophet named Isaiah? Afterall, he lived centuries ago, in a time nothing like our own days, or were they? Can a person or nation benefit from the mistakes made by others or is it just better to replicate them for ourselves? Ignoring history is certainly the right of a person or nation, and by the looks of things today we are skilled at doing that. But if you are tired of the uncertainty and chaos that is our new norm, then may I suggest the book of Isaiah has something to say to us today. Won’t you join me to see what that is?

Have you ever found yourself in the wrong because you totally missed the point? It could have been a school assignment, a botched task given by your employer, feeling the cold shoulder of relationship because you missed the point of something said, or even the punchline of a joke that everyone else understood. Regrettably, when we face those kinds of situations, most people revert to a self-defense mechanism that questions our guilt or failure. Sometimes that is displayed by pushing off our failing to others. I didn’t have enough time. The instructions were unclear. I was not given ...

The book of Jeremiah was written in a time when God’s people had abandoned their God for their own plan and purpose. That happened while the religious traditions of worship were still happening in Jerusalem. It was time similar to that of our own, when the nation and even the church pays lip service to God, but hearts are far from Him. This ancient prophecy is road sign for us today point the direction back to God for both the nation and the church. I hope you will join me in this Bible study, which speaks to the time when no one will listen.

This study is design to teach a person how to read and meditate on the Word of God. It has a refreshing approach that will captivate your interest. The New Zion Bible Study Series is design to teach a daily habit of study in God’s Word. This is the first book in the series in Kindle format to be used in conjunction with the internet, in an interactive method of looking at Bible study tools to help dig out the nuggets of wisdom found in the Word of God.

Have you ever felt you were inadequate? Perhaps your family excels where you do not and you feel their expectations for you are too high, because you believe they have set the bar far above your abilities. It could be, your instructors in your educational endeavors have moved too quickly for you to demonstrate competency and because you are behind your peers, you feel the weight of inadequacy.Maybe you, like me, lack the eye-hand coordination to do anything but flounder in sports. I also lack the skill to draw a straight line, to sing on tune, to solve quadratic equations, to know when a ...

When you saw the title for this book, what came to mind? Perhaps your thinking was drawn to the heroes of the Bible, who led extraordinary lives. Did you think about a religious duty or mission of biblical proportions? I would guess that one thing that was not in your thoughts was you. That is because we are given to thinking that God’s call is too immense, too demanding, and out of the reach of the average person. But what if I were to tell you that you are exactly, whom the Holy Spirit of God had in mind, when those words were penned. Would that spark your interest? I hope it goes ...

I am 64 years old at the writing of this study guide and one thing the Lord has taught me in life, is relationships are more important than we know. We ought to do what we can to keep them.The subtitle of this book is When your measure is off, but the study is really about reconciliation. I don’t know anyone who does not have at least one relationship that has gone south and refuses to or can’t see a way to fix that which is broken. Paul has become our example to that process in this letter, but an example has to be followed to make a difference in us. Won’t you consider what we learn...

We live in evil times and one of the casualties of our times is the truth. Truth is thought to be relative to one’s viewpoint and distorted to achieve personal and selfish ends. We see this flexible view of truth practiced in our political process, businesses, interpersonal relationships, and in the church as well. The distortion of the truth is a form of deceit that we have grown so accustomed to, that we are not shocked by what is commonplace. What was once considered to be lying, today is simply defined as the truth relative to the person speaking it. This gap between the perception of...

Every day, we all make dozens of choices that are generally directed by our own gratification and rarely do we think twice about them. However, not all the choices that we make are trivial or lost in the memory of the past. Some choices we make effect not only us but other people as well. It is those choices that really matter in life, because they are not forgotten. They shape our past, our present and our future. Those kinds of choices are what this study in God’s Word is about, when the choices in life really matter. If you decide to do this study, you will find it is one choice in ...

In the USA today, there is a bias in the church, which favors those I call intellectuals. Those that lack the proper academic credentials are often dismissed by the intellectuals, lacking their respect. This rise of intellectualism in the church today is an unfortunate situation because it has created a caste system of the haves and have nots, within the body of Christ. This is particularly distressing when the church should be a place which has no distinctions or partiality. The greatest line of demarcation in this unspoken caste system within the church concerns the understanding of the ...

Enduring faith in the God of the Word brings glory to God, no matter if the outcome is what we had hoped for or not. You know there are those who look at faith as a kind of currency. Believe and receive is a popular concept today among many, who view faith as their penny to put into God’s gumball machine. All they have to do to claim the prize, is to use their penny of faith and turn the handle by confessing their sincerity. That is not Biblical enduring faith. Biblical enduring faith waits patiently when life’s circumstances don’t match up to expectations, and looks to a future hope ...

I believe there is need for direction is built into our being. We not only want to know where we are, but where we are going. The problem is that the goal or direction for where we are headed can often be unclear. This is one of the main reasons the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the church in Philippi of Macedonia. He loved this church and desired to give it the directions to finish well in their race toward the goal of knowing Messiah. He wrote this letter toward the very end of his life. Consequently, Paul lays out a map for the church, to set a correct course to finish well. The aim ...