God works in accordance with His Word and Ezekiel has a job to do in proclaiming it. God could have just made the bones come together but he waits for His Word to be proclaimed by His prophet. That’s a good principle for us to learn. God’s Word is the agent that brings about change, and we’re the agents that must proclaim that Word.

Just as there are many misconceptions when trying to learn a new language, so too, many of us have some misconceptions about the Bible. Here are three that come to mind:

It’s too confusing to read

These myths are demolished in Nehemiah 8.

Here in Acts 4, we’re seeing Peter as a man of boldness and courage. A man who is willing to face down the Sanhedrin - the ruling body of the Jewish nation. A man who not only intended to preach Christ no matter what the cost... but who preached with a boldness that most of us would envy. BUT, not more than 2 months earlier, Peter was a beaten man. Peter was a man who was impulsive and reckless.

Stubbornness. This word means “hard” and we get the word sclerosis from it, as in hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis or even sclerosis of the liver. In the Book of Hebrews, we’re told three times to Do not harden your hearts.

Today, we’re going to be talking about the painful side of love…The dark side of affection...The flip side of friendship...Today we’re going to discuss a painful experience known as loneliness.

Failure to deal with rejection can change the course of our life. Just because someone rejects you does not make you a failure or a reject, just maybe the problem is with the one who rejected you!

Jesus will never reject you, no matter what you have done.

Too often when problems come along, we try to fix it ourselves and forget to exercise our faith. When faced with overwhelming difficulties things we can’t handle ourselves, we STILL look to ourselves… but not to Him.

Today, we’re going to focus on Samson as we seek to deal with our own fatal flaws. We won’t have the time this morning to hit all the highlights, or lowlights, of his life, but I do want to touch on some significant details in Judges 13-16. Samson’s feats are legendary but it’s his flaws that prove to be fatal and show us where he was LOST along the way. He was extremely gifted, but certainly not always godly. He was strong on the outside but had no control on the inside.

The name we are focusing on today is Jehovah Nissi, which means “God is my Banner.”

The name of God that we are studying today is Jehovah Sabaoth, which at its root, refers to a captain or general who commands a mighty army. It’s used over 270 times in the Bible. The King James version translates this name as “LORD of Hosts” while the NIV uses “LORD Almighty.”