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Today on Bold Steps with Pastor Mark Jobe … we’re learning how to be alive in the spirit. Ephesians 2 talks a lot about being spiritually alive, but it’s not something that we can do on our own. It might come as a shock, but there are a lot of dead men walking. Yes, they are alive … but they’re not spiritually alive. Today’s challenging message comes from the book of Ephesians chapter 2.

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The Summer season of marriage is delightful. Love is what keeps a marriage healthy and growing.

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Hebrews Chapter 1 emphasizes the supremacy of Christ over angels

and other religious figures. It explains that Jesus, the Son of God, is

the ultimate revelation of God’s truth, superior to the prophets and

angels. Jesus is the exact representation of God and upholds the

universe. He made purification for sins and sits at the right hand of

God. The chapter cautions against angel worship, highlighting that

Jesus, not angels, deserves our worship. This message is directed

to Jewish Christians to encourage them to stay with Christ despite

facing persecution and the temptation to return to old beliefs.

Watermelon vines had overtaken my garden. They snaked across the stone path, climbed the fence, and worst of all tried to choke my favorite vegetable plants. I knew the garden wouldn’t thrive unless I took action. So, one evening I went to work uncurling tendrils from stems and leaves. When the coils grew back, I kept removing them until the plants finally matured and produced plump tomatoes and shiny peppers.

Sins like greed, lust, and hate can overtake our lives like the vines that tried to dominate my garden. Left untended, the seed of a wrong thought may develop until it controls our desires and actions. The Bible says it’s possible to be so consumed by a particular sin that we’re held back from growing spiritually. This is the “sin that so easily entangles us” (Hebrews 12:1).

The writer of Hebrews encourages us to “throw off everything that hinders” so that we can “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (vv. 1-2). To break free requires that we acknowledge we need help to handle the sin. This can be difficult if we’ve convinced ourselves and others that it’s not a serious issue.

Once we sincerely admit the problem, Jesus welcomes our prayers of confession and forgives us immediately (1 John 1:9). He can show us how to change our life patterns and through the power of the Holy Spirit help us to overcome the bondage that prevents us from flourishing

Where do you turn when you're desperate? Continuing our study through 1 Samuel, Pastor Javan Shashaty unpacks 1 Samuel 28 and the last days of the reign of King Saul. Together, we'll see another cautionary tale from Saul as he falls further away from the Lord in his desperation and delves into some dark stuff in his search for answers.

Just as coal must be crushed to become a diamond, there’s a brokenness we must learn to be useful to God. When Jonah was in the belly of the great fish, he finally came to the end of himself. In this message from Jonah 2, Pastor Philip Miller points out four pivotal moments of Jonah’s prayer. God-ordained trials might just be our redemption.

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Perched high on the climbing wall, Sarah could feel panic rising as her weakening fingers began losing grip on the handholds. Just how hard will I hit the ground? she wondered.

But the instructor kept calling out assurances from below. As the “belayer” tethered to the other end of the rope tied to Sarah’s harness through a pulley, his weight would hold her if she fell. “I’m much heavier than you!” he yelled. “Just let go.”

So she did—and simply swung away from the wall to dangle safely in the air.

The incident gave Sarah a new perspective of the picture of God in Psalm 18:2: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock . . . my stronghold.” Sarah observed, “God is so much heavier than all my problems. I can let go of my worries and fears, and He’ll catch me.”

King David sang the words of Psalm 18 after God rescued him from “deep waters”—these were his “powerful enemy” looking to bring about his “day of . . . disaster” (vv. 16-18). Even if his troubles didn’t disappear, he knew he could trust his all-powerful Savior and that God was holding on to him tightly.