Joseph was/is the man!

So have you ever thought about how awesome Joseph (Jesus’ earthly dad) was? Think about it this guy was engaged to Mary looking forward to marring her and then come to find out she is pregnant! I don’t know about you but I would have an extremely hard time just looking past that. Not to mention there is the whole she got pregnant by an immaculate conception piece that would throw anyone for a loop. Finally you have the enormous pressure of raising Jesus. I mean come on would anybody have blamed the poor guy for hitting the road and not looking back?

Do you know what the best part is though… He manned up and stood next to his wife no matter the opposition. As a husband I can really learn a lot from such an unsung hero like Joseph.

1. Nothing is bad enough to leave

2. Roll with the punches

3. Put my desires to the side and lift up my wife

4. Be a man and make the best life you can

These are just a few things that are jumping out at me.

What do you think men? Women feel free to comment as well, what can we learn from Joseph?

The Bible…Reading VS. Studying

So as some of you know I have been in school now for a bit over a half semester and learning tons of new stuff. One of the things that I have been learning is how to study the bible vs just reading. Reading the text is great and I will never encourage you or anyone else to stop reading but when you want to kick up the reading and really study the text here are a few things that will help make that journey happen.

1. Grasp the text in their town -What did the text mean to the biblical audience?

2. Measure the width of the river to cross– What are the differences between the biblical audience and us?

3. Crossing the Priciplizing Bridge– What is the theological principle in this text?

4. Grasping the text in our town– How should individual Christians today apply the theological principle in their lives?

This is just the beginning of studying the Bible in a whole new way, J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays put together a great little book titled “Journey into God’s Word” “Your guide to understanding and applying the Bible” published by Zondervan. I am becoming a big fan of this little book and recommend that you go pick it up.

Training

When we start to become engaged in the aspect of sharing our faith with other people we can not expect to just know how to do it or expect to have the stamina to complete the challenge. So like anyone else training for a big event (marathon, superbowl, ect.) we have to train. One of the first things we should do is know our own story. Well you say I know my own story. Yeah of course you do it is your story, but can you share it with somebody in less than 5 minutes and will it truly showcase what God has done in your life. If not we need to start there. The next thing we need to do is know what to share. Many evangelist have put together their own selections of bible verses and analogies and so you need to decide which one works best for you, but I like this one it’s called the Roman Road. The Roman Road takes you on a journey towards salvation through the book of Romans. Here is what it looks like.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned; all fall short of the God’s glorious standard”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”

Fomans 5:8 “But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners”

Romans 10:9-10 “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him                from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it                 is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”

Romans 10:13 ” For anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 11:36 “For everything comes from Him; everything exists by His power and is intended for His glory. To Him     be glory evermore. Amen”

(note: all verses are from the NLT version of the bible)

So now you have some verses but what does that mean, well it’s the start of our training. Know your story, know these scriptures and we will began to see God train us up for sharing our faith with others. Tomorrow I will show you how to use what we have learned so far in everyday life.

Did I miss something or do you have a different take on evangelism drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts. See ya.

Have you ever wondered…

Have you ever wondered why we just can’t seem to stay on a straight path with God? I have, and last night while I was doing some studying I realized that I am not alone. I am taking an Old Testament class and found that all the way back then the people of Israel had the same issue. You know what the great part is God never left the people and He never leaves us in fact just like in the book of Joshua He will tell us the same thing over and over until we get it. It’s simple stuff I know but it just really resonated with me while I was reading it. What are your thoughts?