Bringing Scripture to Life

I found this photo the other day, and began thinking about an odd thought. What if our Bibles could speak to us? And, if our Bibles could speak to us, would this be what it says? This would be a strange thing for us to see on our bibles. Can you imagine if our Bible sent us a message like this each day, informing us of important truths that are going on within our lives. Obviously "Read me", would not be the words that anyone who loves God would ever want their Bibles to say, because that would say a lot about a person's spiritual condition.  The great thing about our Bibles, is that they actually do speak to us. In fact the Bible tells us, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO LIFE AND GODLINESS, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:2-3). The Bible tells us here that because of our faith in Jesus, and our knowledg

1 John 5:6-12 When God Bears Witness Pastor Jason Stewart I.      Introduction: a.    When John began this letter, he started off by sharing his own testimony of how he had met and experienced a relationship with Jesus Christ. He then with authority teaches the believers of Asia Minor who Jesus is, and what a relationship with Jesus looks like. From his own eyewitness testimony, to his God-inspired teaching, John will now move on to the most authoritative testimony in all creation, and that testimony is from God Himself. II.    Revelation/Application: When God Bears Witness a.    The Witness of God the Spirit (5:6)                                               i.      God sent Jesus to minister and die, and the Spirit of God bears witness of that (5:6) 1.    The Greek verb “to witness” martyreo , and the noun “witness” martyria , are found a total of 113 times in the NT. Of these, 47 are found in the Fourth Gospel and 17 in the Letters of John. This means tha

More than Surviving! We’re Thriving! Pastor Jason Stewart I.      Introduction: a.    We must go from Surviving spiritually to Thriving! b.    Romans 8:37 II.    Revelation/Application: Spiritually Thriving Spiritually Thriving: a.    Is the Result of trusting in Jesus (5:1)                                               i.      Belief in this verse is “pisteuo”, and it is a word that means much more than intellectual belief. This word is a belief that fully trusts in the object of belief.                                              ii.      It conveys the idea of our absolute “reliance” upon Jesus in our day to day lives, and in His securing our salvation throughout eternity. And for some reason it always seems easier for most of us to rely upon and fully trust Jesus to take care of us on the other side of eternity, when we get to glory. But for some reason we find it more difficult to rely upon and fully trust Jesus in our day-to-day life on this side of eternity.              

A few weeks ago, I shared a story about my family experiencing the effects of a multi-vortex Tornado. It was on Tuesday May 24 th 2011 that an F5 Tornado touched down in Oklahoma. I received a text from someone asking me to pray for her aunt who lives in Oklahoma, because a Tornado just hit ground on the I-40. This text caused me to immediately call my mom to see if she was okay, because she and my dad just moved out to Oklahoma 2 months ago to stay with family for a while.  So I immediately called her and a recording came on the line saying, “The number you are dialing has been disconnected or is no longer in service.” I thought to myself, “Oh no my mom has been swept away!” So I called back again, and thank God she finally answered. She had just picked up my 6 year-old-nephew at school, and she and my dad were heading down to the basement of the school. I asked her if they were near the I-40, and she said yes, it is very close to where they are. And for the next hour I stayed on th

I.       Introduction: On June 25, 1967 the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) commissioned the Beatles to write a song for the United Kingdom’s contribution to a T.V. show, called Our World, which was the first live global television link. The Beatles were asked to write and perform a song that would contain a simple message to be understood by all nations. What was the song that they wrote? “Love is all you need.” And with that song the Beatles struck a nerve that was felt around the world, as it hit home in the heart of over 400 million television viewers. After playing this song to over 400 million viewers, they quickly released it in the UK, where it soared to the top of the charts to number 1, and then after that they released the song in the US where it also reached number 1 on the billboard charts. The concept of love reaches down into the deepest part of almost every human being’s heart and soul. It has such an appeal to the human race that Amazon has over 245,000 books w