Mandeville Bible

2024-08-04 Faith, Finally
by Pastor Chris Berg 
Scripture Reference: Habakkuk 3:1-19
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
2 O Lord, I have heard the report of you,
    and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
    in the midst of the years make it known;
    in wrath remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman,
    and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
    and the earth was full of his praise.
4 His brightness was like the light;
    rays flashed from his hand;
    and there he veiled his power.
5 Before him went pestilence,
    and plague followed at his heels.[a]
6 He stood and measured the earth;
    he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
    the everlasting hills sank low.
    His were the everlasting ways.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
    the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
    Was your anger against the rivers,
    or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
    on your chariot of salvation?
9 You stripped the sheath from your bow,
    calling for many arrows.[b] Selah
    You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw you and writhed;
    the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
    it lifted its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their place
    at the light of your arrows as they sped,
    at the flash of your glittering spear.
12 You marched through the earth in fury;
    you threshed the nations in anger.
13 You went out for the salvation of your people,
    for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
    laying him bare from thigh to neck.[c] Selah
14 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
    who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
    rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
15 You trampled the sea with your horses,
    the surging of mighty waters.
16 I hear, and my body trembles;
    my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
    my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
    to come upon people who invade us.
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed[d] instruments.
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 
2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing 
ministry of Good News Publishers.

 
2024-07-21 A Frustrated Prophet
by Pastor Chris Berg

Scripture Reference: Habakkuk 1:1-17
1 This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision.
2 How long, O Lord, must I call for help?
    But you do not listen!
“Violence is everywhere!” I cry,
    but you do not come to save.
3 Must I forever see these evil deeds?
    Why must I watch all this misery?
Wherever I look,
    I see destruction and violence.
I am surrounded by people
    who love to argue and fight.
4 The law has become paralyzed,
    and there is no justice in the courts.
The wicked far outnumber the righteous,
    so that justice has become perverted.
5 The Lord replied,
“Look around at the nations;
    look and be amazed!
For I am doing something in your own day,
    something you wouldn’t believe
    even if someone told you about it.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
    a cruel and violent people.
They will march across the world
    and conquer other lands.
7 They are notorious for their cruelty
    and do whatever they like.
8 Their horses are swifter than cheetahs
    and fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their charioteers charge from far away.
    Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.
9 “On they come, all bent on violence.
    Their hordes advance like a desert wind,
    sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
10 They scoff at kings and princes
    and scorn all their fortresses.
They simply pile ramps of earth
    against their walls and capture them!
11 They sweep past like the wind
    and are gone.
But they are deeply guilty,
    for their own strength is their god.”
12 O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal—
    surely you do not plan to wipe us out?
O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us,
    to punish us for our many sins.
13 But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil.
    Will you wink at their treachery?
Should you be silent while the wicked
    swallow up people more righteous than they?
14 Are we only fish to be caught and killed?
    Are we only sea creatures that have no leader?
15 Must we be strung up on their hooks
    and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate?
16 Then they will worship their nets
    and burn incense in front of them.
“These nets are the gods who have made us rich!”
    they will claim.
17 Will you let them get away with this forever?
    Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?

2024-07-14 The Seven C's of History
by Pastor Chris Berg

Scripture Reference: 1 Timothy 1:17

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

2024-06-30 Let There Be Lightby Shane O'Hara
Scripture: Genesis 1:1-3
1  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. 
   And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 
2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing 
ministry of Good News Publishers.

2024-06-16 Avoid the Detour of Discounting God’s Testimonyby Pastor Chris Berg
Scripture Reference: 1 John 5:6-12
6 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

2024-06-09 Avoid the Detour of BurdenScripture Reference: 1 John 5:1-5by Pastor Chris Berg
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is God's Messiah has become a child of God. And if we love God, our Father, we will love his other children too. 2 How do we know that we love God's children? We know it when we love God and we do what he tells us to do. 3 Because, if we really love God, we will obey his commands. And those commands are not difficult for us to obey. 4 Because we have become God's children, we can live in a good way. We can refuse to live like people who belong to this world. We are able to win against the wrong ways of this world because we trust Jesus Christ. 5 It is only people who believe that Jesus is the Son of God who can do that. Only they can win against the wrong ways of this world.

2024-06-02 Avoid The Detour Of Fearby Pastor Chris Berg
Scripture Reference: 1 John 4:7-21
7 My friends, we should all love each other. It is God who makes us able to love other people. Everyone who loves other people has become a child of God. That person knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love. 9 This is how God showed that he loves us: He sent his only Son to come and live in the world. He did that so that we could have true life with God because of his Son. 10 This shows what love is: It is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice, to take the punishment for our sins.
11 My friends, this shows how much God has loved us. So we should also love one another.
12 Nobody has ever seen God. But, if we love each other, it shows that God lives in us. As a result, we can love people completely, in the same way that God loves us. 13 God has given us his Holy Spirit to live in us. Because of this, we know that we live together with God. And we know that he lives with us. 14 God the Father sent his Son to come into the world. God sent him to save the people of the world from their sins. We apostles have seen that this is true. So now we are telling people about it.
15 If anyone says clearly that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in that person. And that person lives together with God. 16 So we know the kind of love that God has for us. We believe that God has put that love in us. God's nature is love. So, if someone continues to love other people, he is living together with God. And God lives in him. 17 That is how we are able to love other people completely. Then, we will not be afraid on the day when God will judge all people. We can be sure that God will not punish us. We know this because we have lived in this world in the way that Jesus lived.
18 If we really love God, we will not be afraid of him. We cannot love him completely and also be afraid. We would only be afraid of God if we thought that he would punish us. So, if someone is afraid that God will punish them, it shows that they do not completely know God's love.
19 We are able to love God and other people because God loved us first. 20 Someone may say, ‘I love God.’ But if he says that and he hates another Christian, he is telling a lie. He sees other believers but he does not love them. So he surely cannot love God that he has not seen. 21 This is the command that God has given us. He has told us that anyone who loves him should love other Christians too.

2024-05-26  Avoid the Detour of False Teaching
by Pastor Chris Berg Scripture Reference: 1 John 4:1-6 
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God:every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.