Foundations by ICM: Recent Episodes
Foundations by ICM
Foundations is a complete devotional survey of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, that provides practical discipleship for those who are new to faith in Christ. Foundations is curated and distributed by ICM, a nonprofit organization focused on global church development. ICM equips churches around the world with vital resources: infrastructure, discipleship tools, and training to grow and thrive.
On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus delivered the “Upper Room Discourse.” Jesus, their Lord and teacher, washed His disciples’ feet as a manifestation of His great love for them. He commanded them to love each other in the same way. He compared Himself to a vine and His disciples to branches—He produces His fruit in the world through them, and they bear fruit only when abiding in Him. Jesus prayed for His church to live in unity with Him and with each other; to know and demonstrate His love.
After giving sight to a blind man, Jesus announced, “I am the Light of the world.” After miraculously feeding the 5000 Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life.” When accusing the religious leaders of dark sin He declared, “I am the good shepherd,” and as the Good Shepherd He protects His sheep. Before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life.” This is our savior, the great I Am.
After healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus tells the religious leaders that they have enough evidence to recognize Him as the promised Messiah. He claims that John the Baptist, God’s voice from heaven, and scripture all supported His claims. Jesus feeds over 5,000 people and claims to be the Bread of Life, the source of living water, and the light of the world. Jesus teaches that those who come to Him with a willingness to do what He says will know that His teaching comes from God.
Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at a well and offers her living water that will quench her thirst forever. She accepts His offer and becomes a spring of living water flowing out into her community. Jesus encounters a damaged man waiting beside a pool rumored to have healing powers. He heals him, but when persecution comes because of Jesus the man stands with the religious leaders against Him.
Jesus’ first recorded miracle was turning water into wine, symbolizing what happens when we believe in Him; He takes the ordinary and miraculously transforms us—we experience new birth. When Jesus performed miracles, many believed, but they did not follow Him. In John 3, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to ask Him questions. Jesus told this teacher that the only way to see God’s kingdom is by being born again. Jesus made it very clear that He was God’s only Son and only solution.
The Gospel of John is unique in many ways. Its purposes, its literary style, and its content are different from those of the other gospels. John’s gospel was specifically addressed to those who do not believe, in order to bring them to faith. John answers basic questions in each chapter, like: “Who is Jesus?” “What is faith?” and “What is life?” He records many signs and miracles that encourage and strengthen faith and prove that Jesus is God’s Son.
Jesus told a parable about repentance and about the refusal to repent. The parable describes two men, a Pharisee and a tax collector—a tax collector—praying at the temple. The Pharisee was focused only on himself, while the tax collector humbled himself and begged for God’s mercy. Jesus encountered a repentant tax collector named Zacchaeus, who showed what repentance looks like. He changed his ways and promised to pay back everyone he had defrauded. Only the sinner who repents is forgiven.
Many of Jesus’ parables teach us how to approach and respond to His teaching. Jesus used metaphors from common, everyday life that His listeners would have understood. Yet most of the religious leaders rejected His teaching and opposed His work. With metaphors and illustrations, such as new wine in new wineskins or new material for mending garments, Jesus shows us how to hear and obey His Word. Jesus’ teaching is intended to transform our minds, our values, and our lives.
When God intersected human history and became a man, He invited certain people to participate in the miracle: Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth, a girl named Mary, shepherds who went to see the newborn King, and Simeon and Anna who recognized the Savior and bore public witness to His coming. The miracle of Christmas is God becoming man so He could bring salvation to mankind. The Old and New Testaments tell of the miracle of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ: the blessed hope of the Church and the only hope of the world.
Jesus told two parables, “The Unjust Steward” and “The Rich Man and Lazarus,” which are often misunderstood. There are at least two applications of these parables. First, while we are in this life, we are only stewards or managers of all that God has given us and we should use these things wisely always. Secondly, we should see the people of this world as the lost sheep and allow Christ to reach these people through us.
Jesus proclaimed His mission in Luke chapter four, proved it in chapter five, and practiced His mission throughout the rest of the book. Jesus continuously taught and trained His disciples, challenging others to become partners with Him in His mission. The first example was his recruiting of Simon Peter to follow and become a “fisher of men.” Jesus demonstrated His mission in three parables: a shepherd seeks his lost sheep, a woman seeks a lost coin, and a father seeks a lost son. We need to share the heart of the Father for all His children.
Luke is the favorite Gospel of many because it emphasizes Jesus’ humanity as the God-Man. It shows the Messiah's compassion and how He identified Himself with us. Many of Jesus’ best-known parables, like the stories of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, are found only in Luke. Luke tells us more about Jesus’ birth than any other Gospel writer. And Luke gives us Christ’s proclamation—the clear statement of His mission—the key to the ministry of the Messiah.
This lesson reviews the 10 commandments as God’s loving gift to the world. Divided between right actions toward God and right actions toward man, these commandments provide critical stability for a thriving society. We must, however, go beyond the letter of a law, seeking loopholes, and instead strive to live out the spirit of these laws, so they can nurture the abundant life that God lovingly envisions for us. The lesson ends with a summary of God’s purposes in the Book of Exodus: Providing the way, the walk, the wonders, the word, and the worship.
This lesson explores the miraculous hand of God in the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, which stands also as an allegory for our deliverance from sin. It draws a comparison between the miraculous hand of God at work in this deliverance with the processes and needs in our own. The tricks of Pharaoh parallel many Satanic tricks as he seeks to both prevent and then corrupt our escape from the power of sin. Just so, the actions of God to help Israel in their escape, especially the Passover, parallel God’s acts to sustain us in the journey as well.
This lesson rehearses four closely connected spiritual laws regarding the role of God vs. the role of Man in the work of God. It applies them first to the calling of Moses and his complaints about being called, in Exodus 3, and then applies them to Jesus' donkey who rides Him into Jerusalem, and finally to the Apostle Peter on the day of the miracle catch. Never forget: It's all God, not us. But God is with us. He needs our availability far more than our ability.
This lesson considers the tensions between the positives and negatives of choosing Moses as the deliverer for Israel from Egyptian bondage. The key word for Moses in this lesson is Humility. Moses spends 40 years thinking he is really somebody, 40 more learning that he is a nobody, and yet another 40 learning what God can do through a willing and obedient nobody. The true power of Moses is revealed when God shows Moses, "I Am with you."
This lesson explores the life of Joseph, Jacob’s favored son. The key word for Joseph is "providence." God uses traumatic events to make Joseph what he needs to be and to put him where he needs to be to save the nascent people of Israel and many others from famine. Joseph rises from slave to the right hand of Pharaoh by way of false accusation and prison that he might be poised to create the perfect nursery for Israel’s growth as a people. Seeing God’s hand in his life, Joseph becomes the emblem of forgiveness.
This lesson explores the life of Jacob, Abraham's grandson, and the father of the 12 patriarchs of the tribes of Israel, which is Jacob's second name. The key word in this lesson for Jacob is "grace." Jacob the grasper learns through a series of life experiences crafted by God for the cause, to look up, look in, and look out and realize that everything Jacob gains in this world and the next is the product of divine grace at work in his life in spite of, not because of, his grasping ways.
This lesson explores the life of Abraham, the first patriarch of the people of Israel. It explores the life of Abraham as the great exemplar of the man of faith. It tells God's side of the story and Abraham's using four altars of worship Abraham builds during His journey of faith with God.
This lesson considers the fallout from Adam and Eve's sin as their children inherit their corrupt hearts and build a world saturated with conflict. It looks specifically at the story of Cain and Abel and strives to both expose the roots of human conflict in human selfishness and to find a path toward a more peaceable life.
This lesson considers the fall of man into sin. The human race faced and faces a dangerous point of decision–“Are we going to live life God’s way or are we going to live it our way?” Our first parents failed the test, and plunged creation into a cursed state. God will not be thwarted, however. He has continued to rebuild His kingdom in the hearts of those who will respond to His call and wholly commit to Him. God continues to reach out, all we have to do is respond with confession, repentance, and obedience.
This lesson unpacks the theological power of Man's creation in Genesis. It explains the truest sense of man as image of God in the pagan context of the inspired author—functional. God made man to reign over His creation as His Holy Spirit filled representatives. This lesson also considers the beauty of God's plan for man as male and female in the exclusive sexual union of marriage, where, with God's help, the right people become the right partners creating the right home to raise children spiritually equipped to repeat the cycle.
This lesson introduces Genesis as the book of Creation, designed to correct pagan conceptions of God, Man and Reality, and the reveal the essence of divine order in the world. We should ask as we read each piece, “What does this text tell me about God, Man and Reality?” “What does this text teach me about how to live well in God’s world?” “What do I learn about the present from this story about the past?” We review the essential flow of the book from chapters 1-12.
To study the Bible and apply its truths to life requires work. Effective Bible study is a three-part process: observation, interpretation, and application. In other words, we ask ourselves these three questions: "What does it say?" "What does it mean?" and "What does it mean to me?" The first book of the Bible, Genesis, helps us understand our world and ourselves as we were intended to be and as we are now.
Understand how the Bible came to be and why God gave it to us. All of Scripture has four main purposes and they all point to Jesus. Those four purposes are; (1) To present Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer of the world (2) To provide for us the historical context in which Jesus came (3) To lead the unbeliever into faith in Jesus and (4) To show believers how God wants us to live.
We begin a journey through the Holy Bible, a systematic yet practical study through all 66 books, from Genesis to Revelation. We will learn about the inspiration of God's Word that was penned by some 40 men, from all walks of life, over a period of about 1,500 years. The truths we find can correct us, lead us in the right paths, and equip us for every good work when we are willing to obey.