Bethel Christian Center

If there is one thing that satan will use to keep you ineffective for the kingdom of God, it is your past. After all, satan is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). The Apostle Paul had a horrific past as a persecutor of the early church but was used by God to evangelize and establish churches. Paul chose to forget the past failures and successes and pursue the call of Christ in his life.

Faith in the natural is defined as, the assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition or statement for which there is not complete evidence; belief in general. In the book of Hebrews, the Bible defines faith as the evidence of things hoped for the substance of things not seen. The fact is that we all exercise natural faith frequently in our lives. Every time we drive a car we have faith that the brakes will work. When we get on an airplane, we have faith in the mechanics of the plane and the skill of the pilot to fly the plane. One day our faith will be our sight and calm our fears and confirm all of our faith but until then the scriptures tell us that we walk by faith and not by sight and that without faith it is impossible to please God but what exactly is faith? It is a broad topic and could be preached on a full year and not fully understand what it is but this morning we will look at 3 areas faith in the life of the believer.

The New Testament uses several unique images to represent the person and work of the Holy Spirit. One image shows the Holy Spirit as fire. On Pentecost, following the sound of rushing wind filling the house where the apostles were staying, what appeared to be tongues of flame rested on each of them. They were immediately filled with the Holy Spirit, and their lives were changed forever. Fire is a wonderful picture of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Dub Karikker preaches a special and timely message on freedom to bring all things into perspective.

Our guest Judge Pat Evans preaches a powerful message for the church.

Jesus uses the metaphor of wind in John chapter 3 in explaining the new birth. A we look at the parallel between the wind and the Holy Spirit, we understand in a better way the workings of the Spirit.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have always been familiar, mysterious and ominous figures in culture, but practically what do they mean for us? Is there anything we can glean from the scripture that applies to our hope and future? Today, we’ll briefly consider how this frightful picture of impending judgment should reassure us that God will ultimately punish evil and encourage us in the meantime to remain steadfast in our faith in Jesus Christ.

Elictia Hart, having just finished her last class at Duke's Doctoral Divinity of Ministry program, ministers again at Bethel for His glory.

If you are feeling dry today, or long to see fruitfulness in your life again, the River of God-the Holy Spirit-can flow once more through your life. In this study we will look at several biblical insights about the River of Life. Numerous references to a river oflife are found throughout the bible. The theme begins in Genesis as four rivers flow through the garden of Eden and continues to the final chapter of scripture that describes a river, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God.

5.22.22 Sunday Sermon

The workings of the Holy Spirit are invisible, glorious, and gentle, and within them, He never tells us about Himself. He comes to glorify Jesus-helping us to see Jesus more, to understand Jesus better, to respond to Jesus more obediently, and to love Jesus with a deeper heart of commitment. So, the symbols of the Holy Spirit become essential to our gaining an understanding of what He's like, not only in an objective way of analyzing truth, but also in the subjective way that He comes to penetrate our lives. ---Jack Hayford

With God's guidance and her endowed wisdom and ingenuity, Jochebed, the mother of Moses devised a plan to save her son. It was her invincible and positive faith that gave her the strength, wisdom and courage to carry it out. God was preparing to bring Israel out of Egypt. God had a man; God had a mother to carry this out. She conceived Moses, she concealed him, she committed him, she cultured him.

Up to this point, God had fought for Israel. Israel was commanded to stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord; but the command now was to go out and fight. There is an immense difference between Justification and Sanctification. The one is Christ fighting for us; the other, the Holy Spirit fighting in us. Amalek pictures the old carnal nature. God did not destroy Amalek, but determined to have war with him from generation to generation (Ex. 17: 16). He was to dwell in the land, but not reign in it (Rom. 6: 11-14). The sin nature dwells in the Believer, but dwells and reigns in the unbeliever. Exodus 17: 12, gives us the blueprint for victory.

4/24/22

4.17.22 Easter Sunday Service Christ has won the Victory!

Special guest Stephen Arnold details how Jesus is evident in the Jewish Passover meal

04.03.22 Sunday Service

It is fitting that we end this series with the commandment not to tell a lie since the fall of man was based on a lie of the devil. It was that lie that Eve believed that separated man from God. It was that lie that led to sin that is at the root cause of violence, war, poverty, racism and all of the other social ills that our world deals with. A lie is defined as an untrue statement with the intent to deceive. It is the deception of the lies that God hates and that we as followers of Christ should avoid.

While most people including Christians would not go out and steal from a department store or from someone else, when we look at the broader implications of the commandment, we find many areas where even Christians justify theft. In our culture much of the theft and cheating comes from a desire to have more than we need or simply trying to keep up with the Jones. Even our government today fuels the divide between the "Haves" and the "Have Nots", feeding the sin of covetousness.

A few translations including the KJV state this commandment as "Thou shall no Kill". However, most translations read murder rather than kill. The definition of murder is the unlawful killing of another human being without justification or valid excuse and especially with malice. We will see in the scriptures many times when the killing of another human being was allowed but there was justification and it was never with malice. However, in our society today, the incidents of murder are ever increasing and there seems to be little to no value in human life. This is fueled mostly by the lack of a biblical worldview concerning life and who gives it, when it begins and who can take it. When we come to Christ and believe that all mankind are image bearers of God and have worth it begins to shift how we view life.