This week I have been reading from “The Gospel According to Matthew”, and as I have done so God has opened up this telling of Jesus Christ in a new and different way. The words came alive in a way I had never seen them before and in many ways it was as though I was hearing them for the first time. Of all that I read one verse in particular that I had read two days ago stood out and I kept referencing back to it as I read on. I guess I had not really noticed it before or was just more focused on the surrounding verses. The verse that I am referring to is Matthew 16:27, Jesus is talking with the twelve, He asks them who do men say that He is, then He asks them who do they say that He is. Peter says: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord proceeds to tell them how He was going to suffer at the hands of the elders, chief priest and scribes, that He would be killed and be raised from the dead the third day. Peter rebukes Him and the Lord says, “Get behind Me Satan…

This morning God gave me a message through a short passage in the gospel of Luke and it is that message that I would like to impart to you today. There is an enmity that separates the people of this world from God and that enmity is God’s law. Enmity means a wall of separation. And this wall is a daunting and impossible wall to scale for no one can climb over it, no one can go around it because it is eternal, and it is impenetrable, you cannot break it down. Many try to scale the wall and die trying, many try and walk around the wall and never find its end, and many more try to go through the wall and are crushed by it. The good news is that there is a way through the wall, a very narrow gate by which you might enter and the pathway through the wall is difficult. Most refuse to enter through this narrow gate because they are proud, and many more stray off the path because it is difficult. To enter through this gate you must be; poor of spirit, mournful, meek, hunger and thirst …

There are two things that I would like to talk about today; love and sacrifice. These two words are deep in their significance and meaning, they are a totality of scripture in a wonderful summary. They are so simple, yet so extremely difficult. These two words are both defined by the world and by the Bible, with the definitions in contrast. If you were to take all of scripture as incredibly vast as it is, it can be summarized in love and sacrifice.

The first message is this. God loves you, so love God and other people. How is God’s love demonstrated to us? On the cross, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God does not love you because you are lovable, God does not love you because you are good, God does not love you because you are someone great, God does not love you because of your beauty, God does not love you because you are desirable. God loves you because He is love, “God is love” (1 John …

God had recently led me to read the Bible in 90 days. In the week following I prayed to Him and reflected over what I had read the preceding 3 months and God showed me a couple of different things. As you read the Word of God this rapidly you see things a little differently than you do when you focus on specific passages, you see the overall plan of God unfold before your eyes. Just a few words about the Bible, 2 Peter 1:21 tells us in talking about the Bible that “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. In other words God used these men as instruments to write His Words. Just like you would use a pen, pencil, or computer to write what you want to convey to someone else, God literally used these men to write His word. The Bible is written by men inspired by the Spirit of God, it is literally God breathed, the Bible is God’s Words given to man. The Bible is amazing; it is 66 books, written over a period of 1500 years, by 40 different authors, on 3 different…

Recently God had me do something that I thought was carrying on with the same but in reality it was something much different. I have read through the Bible cover to cover several times and have read through the New Testament more times than I know, but recently God had me do something a little different. He had me and a couple of other men read His Word in a rapid way. Beginning on the first of September 2011 we were to read the Word of God from Genesis 1:1 to Revelations 22:21 over 90 days. I came to repentance and faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in May of 2003, so I began following my Lord at that time. One of the things that He has had me do as His disciple is to read His Word daily. His word is quite literally the food for my soul. Before becoming a believer I was in the church on and off, I read the Bible some and even knew many scriptures; but the Bible was to me a book to read. Sure I believed in God and even believed in Jesus Christ but did not have the Spirit…