One of the primary Marks of the Church is to Evangelize, by sharing the good news of the work of Jesus, for salvation! 

The point of Church is for the gospel to be proclaimed. What is the gospel? The gospel is the power of God for salvation. That power is not only based on the love He has for His people, but the power is rooted in the all encompassing attributes of God! 

You ever looked at your church and thought "Why am I still here? I don't feel like I'm growing. What's the point of this?". That may be indicators of you being in an unhealthy church. Over the next few weeks we will be discussing the characteristics of what a healthy church looks like and what you can do to help your church. In this episode, we are starting with the most important characteristic, the Bible teaching.

We start the last portion of the Hebrew scriptures by taking a deeper look at 5 of 13 poetry and wisdom books (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Lamentations). These books are almost entirely made up of poems, songs, and wise sayings that the ancient Jews (and the Christians who followed) used to make wise decisions and worship God.

There are too many, so we started with 4 (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings). These are known as the former Prophets and the beginning of the Nevi'im. The main theme of these four books is discipline, repentance, and the faithfulness of God. These books will give us wider view in the development of the meta narrative of Scripture. 

In this episode we give a concise overview of the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). We cover the main story arch, key themes, and key players of each book. 

Last episode we outlined the different resources and tools we use for Bible study and preparation. In this episode we delve into what our process looks like and how we use some of these tools. 

Join us in this episode as we discuss some of our favorite Bible Study resources, such as: Bibles, Commentaries, Lexicons, Softwares, and even Websites. 

The influences that we allow in our lives will either lead us closer to Christ or lead us further from Him. Many times the influences that lead us astray can be found in our own churches. Jude, writes this letter to bring us a sense of urgency to identify who those people are, how to deal with them, and how we can use our faith to protect ourselves from these kinds of people. 

To forgive is an easy concept, and practically simple on small errors and non-issues, but forgiveness is much more difficult when it hits too close to home. Paul, appeals to Philemon's Christians character in order to remind him, that even when forgiving seems impossible, it's something we must practice.