Biblical Illiteracy, its Results and its Cure

Brothers and sisters this is a very disturbing topic, Biblical Illiteracy is a huge cancer not only in our world, it is also very prevalent in our churches. There are a lot of churches that are dying, homes that are wrecked, lives that are faltering, and the reality is that this very problem “Biblical Illiteracy” is likely the major contributor to the all the rampant immorality in our midst.
Well, I guess I need to ask the question; Are you Biblically Illiterate?
I want to encourage you to take to heart the reality of this message; your eternity will depend on your answers to some very powerful questions that will be asked of you.

Who is Jesus?

The whole of the Bible is the revelation of the story of God’s love for the human race. It is amazing when you study the scriptures and discover that from before the foundation of the world Jesus has been working, either in the creation of all that is, or He has been being revealed in and through various Old Testament figures, such as Job, or Moses. In the New Testament you have men life Simeon who longed for the revelation of Jesus and was promised that he would not see death until as he put it “the Salvation of God is revealed” and it was in Jesus.

Beyond the question of Who Jesus is, lies two more prevalent question that are birthed from knowing who Jesus is and they are; What does know who Jesus is mean to me? And What do I do whit Jesus now that I know who He is?

I guess for me the most important realization of who Jesus is manifests itself in these two statements.

Jesus is the Love of God

And

Jesus is the Heart of God

Well you can check out the message here

Dying Without Regret

I am just in awe at the wonder working power of God, maybe I am just easy to amaze but God is just doing some amazing work in our midst. I want to just share this, it is just so amazing, but several weeks ago, I got some visitor information cards for the church and began to pray over them and distribute them in the pews, that same day we had two visitors that have been pretty regular attendees since, and today we five more visitors, God is so faithful and so good, and I am so thankful for all He is doing in our midst.

This week we looked at 2 Timothy chapter 4, and this was a very different sermon for me and while I normally flesh out a fair amount of my sermon here, instead I want to ask you the reader the same questions I asked of my congregation and then encourage you to go and listen to the sermon for yourself.
Do you have any regrets about the way you have lived your life?
What about the things you have done or have not done?
How about this are there any regrets in any of your relationships, ones you have currently or ones that are strained or broken?
How about any regrets with the way you have raised your children?
Within your marriage, have you done things, said things that you regret?

If you answered yes to any of these then I would encourage you check out this weeks message

Ladies & Gentlemen Please Welcome...

Ladies & Gentlemen Please Welcome, Tobias Samson Zeubie II, about a month ago our dog Jasper died suddenly, he was sick on Monday and the doctor could not see him until Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday morning while we were out he passed away.
At this point we decided that we would not seek to get another dog right now, but did purpose in our heart a prayer that if God wanted us to have another animal, He would provide. Well, within a few weeks my former boss at the college library contacted us about a young lady who was moving into the dorms at our college, and how she could not keep her dog, we contacted her and took the dog for the weekend and fell in love with him. He is a Great Pyrenees mix, much like my dog Zeus who died at the ripe old age of 13, just before Christmas last year. In looking at Tobias and in getting to know him he reminds us so much, not only of Zeus but of my wife's dog Willy who also died at age 13. It is so neat how God has allowed this animal to come into our lives and how a little piece of each of the three dogs we have lost in the last three years is present in Tobias.
Tobias welcome to the family and we pray that you have a long and happy life with us.

Salvation, God's Plan Not Man's Part 2

What another phenomenal day! We awoke this morning to cooler temperatures and clear blue skies, the kind that says fall is in the air, ahh, I love this time of the year. Anyway, I need to get on with it, last week we left off with these three “Hearing, Belief, Repentance” as things that are in the scriptures when it comes to a plan of salvation, now as I told the congregation this morning do not get too hung up on order, as we go through this it appears the only things that require order is the first two, hearing and believing anyway, we looked at confession and how Jesus says we must confess Him before others and how He will do the same before His Father.
Next we looked at Baptism, which is probably the most argued point in all of Christianity. The scriptural teaching is reasonably clear, the scriptures command that we submit to baptism; it is a part of the salvation process and as much so as any other piece. Now, I am not arguing in favor of Baptismal regeneration, I am not arguing at all, I am simply stating the facts from scripture, for example, that word “for” is said to mean because so in other words, you are baptized because your sins are forgiven, (Acts 2:38) how ever if you were to turn your Bible to Matthew 26:28, you will find another “for” where Jesus said His blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sin, when you look to the original Greek text what you will find is this, εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. The words are pronounced Ace, Aphesin, Hamartion, which in the English is for forgiveness “of” sins. OK, I know that is a lot to swallow, so I will refer you to the phrase study sheet which I have prepared. Anyway, the first word is the preposition “for” according to Thayer it means “to obtain” the second word Aph-es-in is a Singular Feminine Noun in the accusative case, the accusative case is the case of the direct object and it means “forgiveness” and finally Hamartion, which is a Feminine Plural Noun in the Genitive case, this case roughly corresponds to our English possessive case. The genitive expresses possession, and it means sins.
OK, Greek class is over, hang in there you are doing well, the only difference between the Acts passage and the Matthew passage is these two things which are both found in the Acts passage. In the Matthew passage, Jesus is referring to sin in general and at large, you know your sin, my sin, his sin, her sin and so on, while in the Acts passage, Peter uses the article “the” and the personal pronoun, “your” both in reference to a particular persons sin, yours, in other words “the sin of yours” Bottom, line is that there are five places where that phrase “for forgiveness of sin” occurs and in each and every case it is the same, so if we are to understand the Acts passage to read, the we are baptized “because” our sins have been forgiven then we must conclude that Jesus’ blood likewise was poured out “because” sin was forgiven. I simply can not do that because that really goes against everything the whole Bible teaches.
Next we moved to the last thing the scriptures say that lead to life and being saved and this my dear friends is perseverance, Jesus said just as He overcame we should also, for all practical purposes it works like this if Jesus can persevere against all He did surely we can manage in this life being faithful to the call and being faithful means, living our lives trusting that Jesus is who He said He is, that He will deliver on the promises He gave, and Obeying, this is lived out by following the commands of the scriptures and living life in a such a way as to say, no matter what because I love Jesus, I am going to do and teach what His word says.
Well, if you want to get a deeper understanding listen to both of the messages and look a the phrase study sheet, it is an excellent resource designed to strengthen and encourage you in your walk and growth in Christ Jesus. May the Lord Bless you in direct proportion to your study of His Word.