WE ARE TRUE NORTH CHURCH, A NON-DENOMINATIONAL, CHURCH, IN PITTSBURGH, PA SERVING THE NORTH HILLS AND SURROUNDING AREAS

Life can take us down paths we never imagined. Some filled with heartbreak, loss, and moments of utter despair. Some filled with the desire to control and being the person who creates our own paths. But even in our darkest seasons, there’s a hope that shines brighter than we could ever imagine. For those who surrender to Jesus, He takes our earthly desires and struggles and transforms them into something beautiful.

The name Samuel means “name of God” or “his name is El,” where El is the name of the God of strength and power. His parents were a Levite named Elkanah and Hannah, who was unable to have children for many years. Elkanah and Hannah were devout Jews who visited the sanctuary at Shiloh every year to worship and sacrifice (1 Sam. 1:3).

Paul wrote many New Testament letters but is not believed to be the author of Hebrews. F.F. Bruce (1910- 1990) was a Scottish evangelical scholar, author and educator and a leading evangelical who believed in rigorous academic study of the Bible for all evangelicals. In his writings on Hebrews, he is quoted as saying: “We may say with certainty that the thought of the epistle is not Paul’s, the language is not Paul’s, and the technique of OT quotations is not Paul’s.”

Can it be “fun” to study Exodus? Maybe the phrase should be “eye-opening” when we consider some of what we will see in this book. A burning bush. A pillar of cloud. A river of blood. Frogs falling from the sky! An entire Sea that splits and has a dry bottom to speed Israelites across to freedom. We have an opportunity to journal all of these miraculous and explosive events!

The books of Joel and Amos are two of twelve books known as the minor prophets; not minor as in unimportant, but minor because of book length- in fact, the books of Isaiah is as long as all of the minor prophet books put together. Jewish tradition groups them into a single book called the “Book of the Twelve.”

Who are the Patriarchs? At this point in Year one of the PATH, you are coming into the homestretch of Genesis with its 50 chapters and many, many characters. The three people known as the Patriarchs are Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob. Many Biblical scholars also include Jacob’s son Joseph in the patriarchy.

Hosea the man and Hosea, the book. Hosea the man wrote about the life that God commanded him to live. The book of Hosea is the story of a man’s obedience to God, a sacrificial obedience that illustrated both Israel’s disobedience and God’s steadfast love for his people. But...would you obey if God told you to marry the town harlot? That was what Hosea had to do, as a way of illustrating the behavior of the nation of Israel.

Did you know that many of the Psalms are connected? They may have been written by the same author or refer to the same event. Psalms 3 and 4 are one such pair. Others are Psalms 1 and 2, 18 through 21, 42 and 42, and 118 and 119. Some psalm are theologically paired while others are companions that tell a story.