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Rediscovering Jesus – In the Garden
We were made to be magnificent. Human beings were the culmination of His creation. God lovingly, personally fashioned us from dust. Intentionally sculpted and gave us life. Beautiful…powerful…creative…intelligent…capable…we were built in the very image of God. We were especially designed for relationships: able to intimately know others, and able to walk with God. Until it all fell apart. Christy, you said you were going to do a series on rediscovering Jesus. What are you doing in the Garden of Eden? This is where Jesus starts, friends. This is where the gospel begins! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He…
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Rediscovering Jesus – Rediscovering the Bible (Part 4)
I hope you have enjoyed this little series on the Bible. I have one final post to share with you. 🙂 The Bible is history…the story of God and the people He created. The Bible is prophecy…some of which has been fulfilled and some of which is still to come. The Bible predicts a Savior and then reveals Him to us. It shows us our value as God’s creation and encourages us to seek after the God who made us. It demonstrates God’s incredible grace, love, forgiveness, mercy, and faithfulness. But even more than this, the Bible claims that it is alive, powerful, and able to change hearts, all by…
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Rediscovering Jesus – Rediscovering the Bible (Part 3)
I was five years out of my cult, graduated from secular college, and married to my completely opposite husband, before I started to understand how the Bible was put together. We were at a tiny Bible school in the state of Wyoming and my husband was taking a class on Biblical interpretation. One day as we talked about class, a light bulb turned on and I was filled with questions: The books of the Bible are different genres with different purposes? They were written to unique people? The prophetic books are mostly meant for the nation of Israel and I can’t just apply them to whatever I want? Verses have…
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Rediscovering Jesus – Rediscovering the Bible (Part 2)
Fresh out of homeschooled high school, and because our cultic group rejected traditional higher education, I was pursuing some online college-like classes through Bill Gothard’s Institute. The stress of assignments, deadlines, and a demanding English teacher was hard enough. But, the impossible task ahead of me put me over the edge. Two of my classes asked me to go point by point through the Basic and Advanced Seminars and use the Bible to prove them true. At first, I genuinely tried to complete the assignments, but I struggled to find verses that actually matched the things Gothard claimed. Eventually, as deadlines loomed and tasks piled up, I grabbed our trusty…
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Rediscovering Jesus – Rediscovering the Bible (Part 1)
When people of other religions become Christians, they leave behind their old religious books, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, etc. and start reading the Bible. It seems obvious. But, how do you leave behind the Bible and then start reading the Bible? How do you locate the truth when it’s supposedly found in the book that was used to tell you lies? How do you unravel lies about the God of Christianity without leaving Christianity altogether? These are legitimate and difficult questions. Unfortunately, the Bible can be used to say just about anything. Grab a verse here and a verse there, or just half of a verse, and you…
