Read Your Bibles Personally

Read The Bible Personally: We should approach the scriptures as we have already said, with, prayer, and with all our mind engaged. Now, I want us to get the meaning from what we read. This is not as easy as we may always want it to be. The Bible can admittedly be confusing. So we as Christians have become accustomed to listening to great preaching on the radio, (this scares me as church folk listen to the best communicators in the country all week on their radios and then have to come hear me), doing good Bible studies (Beth Moore, Lifeway), reading good study Bibles (Life App, NLTSB, ESVSB), and all of this is great. I whole heartedly recommend it. But, sometimes through all of this we miss understanding God’s word on our own. There is no greater thrill, that studying, praying, and rereading scripture until you get the meaning and the application in your life. I am not knocking learning from others, hey I am a teacher and a pastor, but boy the joy of having the Holy Sprit of God illuminate you is amazing!

How do you do this? Read, read, read, and read some more. I recommend as an exercise prayerfully read one of Paul’s epistles daily for a month. The whole thing over and over for a month, meditating and contemplating what is said and how it applies to you. Also, maybe don’t use your study bible. Let God speak to you directly through his word. We as evangelicals believe in the perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture. Meant to be understood and you can understand it!

Also, wrestle with Scripture. Jacob wrestled God and would not let go, until God blessed him. Take God’s Word and refuse to go forward in your reading or put it down until God has blessed you! Don’t be afraid, God wants you to understand it and deepen your walk with Him. But, remember Jacob got a limp from his wrestling with God, he was forever changed. You just might find that in your wrestling with God through His Word you will be forever changed as well.

Lastly, experience the joy of illumination! I love kissing my wife. She is hot and wonderful. I would take nothing for the joy of kissing my wife. She is mine, this is what God gave her to me for. But, imagine, if I let some other guy kiss her for me and then he tell me how great it is kissing her. I know this is getting odd quick, but you see if you solely rely on others for your Biblical understanding and hearing from God, you are missing the intimacy that God wants to have with you. God wants you to engage His word personally. Don’t let me sit in my study and do it all for you! Do it yourself, your privilege, your right, your responsibility.

So, grab your Bibles and don’t do until God speaks to you! Pastor Phillip

I can't commend the work of Catholics enough on the issues that truly matter most to myself, and our nation. Please watch this moving video, it is challenging and inspiring for all.




Pastor Phillip

Read Your Bibles With All Your Mind!

Read the Bible utilizing your entire mind. The Bible is an expression of the mind of God, to you and me. This is huge, God infinite and holy, coming to us sinful and finite. We have become very used to religion being emotional. I was convicted, I was blown away by worship, I have deep sense of peace, joy, happiness, so often times we talk about God and use out emotions. This is right, unemotional religion is a little scary and can be indicative of a hard heart. Many people speak of knowing God in their heart and say He speaking to them in their heart. God can does do this, but be careful as Jeremiah 17:9 says "The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

So, I believe there is a place for real hard study of Scripture. We cannot forget that in Deuteronomy 6:5 we are commanded to “love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength.” This takes time, energy, effort, and sacrifice to engage ourselves in the understanding of God’s word and then subsequently God Himself. We give our minds to work, to investing for the future, to understanding our spouse, to diagnosing problems at church, to thinking about the failures of others, so use your head for something more than a hat rack. Put all your mental faculties to work learning about God (some of more faculties that others). Think and study God, keep a journal, get a good study Bible to help, get in a Sunday school class, and learn about God.

My head hurts, Pastor Phillip

Read Your Bibles Prayerfully!

Read your Bibles prayerfully. This is a crucial lesson that I have had a hard time learning. Being in college, I wanted to read my Bible and learn it. I needed ammunition for late night theological debates. Now, I did learn the stories of Scriptures, I learned some proof-texts for various theological positions, but on the whole the connection with God through His word was not there. It was kind of depressing, I was learning God’s word, but felt that my learning was not leading to more loving of God. Then seminary did not help as the Bible became textbook, it was homework. Again, I learned a lot, I enjoy learning the Bible, but learning that is not leading to loving is missing the point of the word of God. I felt I was living 1 Corinthains 8:1 “Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up.” I was not being built up by the love of God, regardless of my ever increasing comprehension of the Biblical text.
Then I found out how to prayerfully read the Scriptures, not so much found some secret, but just slowed down and started praying as I read. I started to read and let God speak to me through His word and then I would speak back. As I read I would things that caused me to rejoice over the God we serve. Then I would look for things that I need to repent of and there are tons that I had to pray about there. Lastly I would look for request to be made on my behalf or on the behalf of others. This little system of Rejoicing, Repenting, Requesting, greatly aided my Bible reading, understanding and application. (This is not original with me; I got from some magazine I read). It also helped a struggling prayer life. I had always read my Bible first, usually for 5 chapters a day, and then prayed a little prayer. I have now found that through this little method I was hearing, speaking, and enjoying God like never before. So, read your Bibles prayerfully. Also, does anyone else have a study method that they would like to share?

Praying you all learn the power and beauty of hearing God speak through His word! Pastor Phillip

Getting A Little Catholic On Ya!

I am not a Catholic obviously, but our Catholic brothers and sisters are some of the most thoughtful, eloquent, and biblical defenders of life. There work against abortion is exemplary. Here are some extremely though provoking statements.

"America you are beautiful . . . and blessed . . . . The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless. If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." - Pope John Paul II

"It is a poverty that a "child must die", So that you may live as you wish... - Mother Teresa

"There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience." - Mother Teresa

I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is "Abortion", because it is a war against the child... A direct killing of the innocent child, "Murder" by the mother herself... And if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love... And we remeind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts... - Mother Teresa

We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, killings, of wars, or of hatred...If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other? - Mother Teresa

Please protect the unborn in our nation! Pastor Phillip

Ronald Regan Quote

"If you don't know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never bury it. I think this consideration itself should be enough for all of us to insist on protecting the unborn"

Great Advice On How To Hate Reading Your Bible!!!

Here is some great advice on how to get nothing out of reading the Bible! Please follow these steps and you are guaranteed to waste your time and hate reading scripture!

· Always read last thing at night when are exhausted after you watched hours of TV

· Just open the Bible at random and start reading, odds are pretty good of hitting a genealogy

· Never read more that five verse at a time, because if you do you may get the idea of what is going on

· Always try and tackle the most difficult passage first, they will encourage you to give up reading more quickly

· Don’t have a plan or a system to help you read your Bible by, you might know where to start then

· Never make notes or journal about what you are learning, it may help process your thoughts

· Never share what you have read with others, because talking about it might bring the Bible into focus

· Never attend a Bible study, because the mutual encouragement of others may help the confusion to disappear

· Never bother your preacher with questions or advice, because he might waste your time and give you some help and advice

· Never work too hard, never think too much, never give to much effort, because you might have a breakthrough in scriptural understanding

· Never sacrifice time just to read the Bible you can always read it next month

· Never try and help your family read there Bible as well, you interest in their spiritual lives my cause the family to grow closer together

· Whatever you do, just don’t read your Bible daily, because it may lead you to a closer relationship with God, which will lead to a heightened awareness of personal sin, which will lead to repentance, which will lead to holiness, which the Bible say if we don’t have we will not see God (Heb 12:14)

So, please follow my advice! Just kidding, hope you got the sarcasm. I will be posting daily on how to read your Bible and hopefully we can all become joyful Christians who deeply enjoy reading and studying God’s word!

Got To Go Read My Bible, Pastor Phillip