This Weekend's Message: Life-Altering

I love to watch my son play in Little League games, but I often feel sorry for how hard the coaches have to work when the kids are young. The coaches consistently bring the same messages to the kids: “Swing early,” “square up to the ball,” “pay attention,” and “use two hands.” Despite these constant reminders, many of the kids continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. Sometimes I daydream about what kind of a team they would be if they actually put the instruction of the coaches into practice.

When we read the Bible, we are exposed to a new world that opens our eyes to reality. What would happen if we were truly to put the faith of the Bible into practice?

Dan Franklin

This Weekend's Message: A Real Page-Turner

I passionately collected baseball cards from about 1987-1991, and then sporadically for a few years after that. Then, when I went off to college, I put my baseball cards in the garage and didn’t look at them for years and years. Finally, I went back into the garage, took out the baseball cards, and started to look through them. I had set aside several cards that I knew where special in 1991. But I was wondering if any card that wasn’t special back then had become special (and valuable) since then. To my delight, I found many. Rookie cards of Jeff Kent, Derek Jeter, Randy Johnson, and Chipper Jones (if you’re a baseball fan, these names are meaningful to you). I was so excited to realize that I had these special (and valuable) cards. For years I had no idea; I only found out because I looked. Sometimes our greatest treasures are right under our nose.

Many of us have a great, unused (or underused) treasure right under our noses. It is called the Bible. If we open it up, we will find treasures that will make sense of our lives, give us practical wisdom, and most importantly, connect us to God’s heart. But we will never experience these wonderful benefits if we leave the treasure chest unopened.

Dan Franklin

This Weekend's Message: Riveting From Beginning to End

One of the main reasons why Christians don’t read the Bible as much as they would like is that we aren’t quite sure how to approach it. Sometimes it seems like a rule book, but many sections of the Bible don’t fit this grid. Sometimes it seems like a collection of wise sayings (much like the collected works of Confucius), but again, this only covers part of the Bible. Sometimes it seems like a collection of stories that are meant to give us moral messages (much like Aesop’s Fables), but sometimes the stories in the Bible seem to fall short in the presentation of clear moral lessons.

The Bible certainly contains rules, but it is not a rule book. It contains wisdom, but it is more than a collection of wise sayings. It contains stories, but it is more than just an anthology. At its core the Bible is none of those things. It is something much different and much better.

Dan Franklin

This Weekend's Message: A True Story

Why should we believe the Bible? How do we know that the right books were chosen for inclusion in the Bible? How do we know that the Bible we have today is the same one that was originally written? Isn’t the Bible full of factual and textual contradictions? If we can’t answer these questions, we will never truly embrace the Bible. We can’t embrace a book that we believe is full of inaccuracies and corruptions, no matter how much it moves us on a heart level. We will only embrace the Bible on the deep level that it demands if we are convinced that it is, in fact, a true story.

Dan Franklin

This Weekend's Message: From the Author of Life

True Story: Joey, a nine-year-old boy, went to his Sunday school class and heard his teacher talk about how Israel escaped from Pharaoh and the Egyptians. When Joey got home, his mother asked what he had learned.

He said, “Well Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. He used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike when the Egyptians were closing in on them. They sent in the bombers to blow up the bridge and destroy the enemy and all the Israelites were saved.”

“Now Joey, is that REALLY what your teacher taught you?” his mom asked.

“Well, no, mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe me!”

We may find this story entertaining, but it does show an attitude that is common in our world today when it comes to the Bible. Many talk about the Bible as if it were based on myths and legends – some people question the Bible's historical accuracy while others merely ignore it as fiction and an invention of man. This week as we start our new series called “Bestseller,” we will start by examining the Bible’s authority, its author, and its relevance for the 21st century.

I hope to see you this week!

Also I want to extend a HUGE thank you to each of you who signed up to love and teach our kids this summer. All of our classes in our three services are now covered for the summer with many substitutes – our children can look forward to a spiritually important and fun summer because of you!

Gary Keith