Authentic Faith

Authentic Faith
Preached at Maranatha Community Church 



Popular posts from this blog

Jonah: Part 2

Welcome to Grace Outpost , I am so glad to have you here today.   Today we are continuing with our series on Jonah.   Many people only know that Jonah was eaten by a whale or great fish, but miss the broader picture of God’s love and mercy that is the point of the book.   In fact, there are only 3 verses that deal with the fish out of 4 chapters.   Last week we saw that Jonah ignored God’s command to him and as he ran from God he experienced consequence for his disobedience.   Today our key text will be Jonah 1:17 – 2:10 . 1 :17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 2 :1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,     and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried,     and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep,   ...
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Jeremiah 3: Wonderful Forgiveness

Happy Sabbath and welcome once again to Grace Outpost.  This week I have been reading in the book of Jeremiah and God impressed upon me his unchanging nature.  What do I mean by this you might ask?  Often it is argued that in the Old Testament God is a God of wrath and judgment and in the New Testament he is all about love and forgiveness.  At a cursory glance one could certainly make that assumption without taking the time to understand that the Bible is one story that records the unfolding story of redemption of man to God by God.  In chapter 3 of Jeremiah I found a wonderful picture of God's forgiveness and mercy.   Keep in mind that Jeremiah is speaking to Judah (the southern kingdom), Israel has already fallen, and Jeremiah is the last prophet to Judah prior to the fall of Jerusalem and the captivity.   God through the prophet paints the picture of Judah and Israel (the southern and northern kingdoms) as a harlot who has ran out on her h...
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When Later is not Good Enough

Hello and welcome to Grace Outpost!   I am delighted to have you join me today.   This past week has been a tough and discouraging week.   I honestly thought about skipping today's message altogether and just have a stress free day.   However, I ran across the passage that we will look at today.   I kept running into this message throughout the week from more than one angle and place, it became obvious to me this morning that God was speaking to me and my discouragement today.   Before we can jump into Haggai we have to understand the scene upon which Haggai chapter 1 begins.   For this background we need to look in the book of Ezra, chapters 3 & 4, which give us the backstory of what Haggai will speak into.   These books cover a return to Jerusalem after the 70-year exile in Babylon.   King Cyrus who was king of the Persians sent out a decree allowing those from Jerusalem to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.   Zerruba...
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