Podcasts about pastor harris

Send us a textIf the religious leaders of the church thought they had an issue with Jesus when he was alive, well boy they have a bigger issue now! It's kind of like one of those sci-fi movies when you chop the little monster in half and it basically multiplies and creates two more little monsters. That is exactly what is happening.  All of the sudden, Jesus is no longer here physically, but he has multiplied in the believers.Now there are 300, 600, 1000, 2000, 10000 and this thing is completely out of control.  And that is what the book of Acts explains, it explains how this all happened.  It was not by chance or circumstance it was absolutely planned.  This is what Jesus referred to when Jesus said to the disciples that it was necessary that I go, but you will not be alone. You are going to have me with you, in a slightly different form.This is another personal sermon. Jesus was not just talking to the disciples, he was talking to us.  The reality of Christ living in us is exactly what Pastor Harris's teachings are all about. He always teaches relationship, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and how it manifests itself.  In this teaching Pastor Harris will teach on the events that happen on the Mount of Olives as Christ left after 40 days.  We call it the ascension, because that is exactly what he did, if you recall as soon as he ascended the disciples and believers are standing around and looking up and suddenly there are two more of them.  These two guys are all dressed in white and they are obviously angelic beings of some kind and they are saying men of Galilee, why are you looking up into heaven, the same Jesus you just saw go up will come again in the same manner.  That is obviously our hope and we know that to be true.Support the show

Send us a textAt Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, the week preceding that we typically focus on the events leading up to the cross. That was the culmination of the perfect life of Jesus which was sacrificed for all of us. Now in this series we will focus on the other side of the story.  If you can imagine, just for a moment, it is AD 31, 32, maybe and we are believers, maybe we are one of the 11 disciples that remain, perhaps we are one of the several hundred believers, or maybe we are one of the several thousand people that actually saw Jesus when he was living and he performed a miracle in front of our face and we believed he was something special, maybe we didn't know quite what it was but we experienced it.  We are in Galilee and we hear that he's dead.  There is no instant communication, so maybe it's been a week or two. Maybe it's a rumor, we just aren't quite sure, we are devastated and we don't know what to think.The disciples were in disarray, we know they were at least until resurrection day.  The several hundred believers were probably despondent at the news. It seemed like to us, to the believers, that the vail that had fallen as Christ was dying was still there. The sun was up but the vale was still there. We didn't know what we were going to do.Suddenly the Church emerges.  In this series, we are going to study how this happened. Our reference will be the first chapter in Acts which many of us are familiar with. However, as Pastor Harris always does, he will give us the details and insights that will make it come alive.We know that Acts was written by Luke.  Luke, as Pastor Harris will point out, Luke wrote more of the New Testament than any other person.  We think of Paul as the primary author of the New Testament but Luke was very instrumental in the writing of our gospel. Luke was not one of our 12 disciples, sometimes you will ask people, “who are the 12 disciples?” and they will throw Luke in there, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and you know… but nope, he was not a disciple.  Luke was from the area above what is now known as Greece called Macedonia. He encountered Paul on one of his missionary journeys and became a believer through Paul and apparently Luke and Paul became very close.  From there Luke will take on the role of early church historian. By profession Luke was a physician, he was a learned man far more educated than most of the disciples.  Maybe not as educated as Paul, but close. So here you have these two deep thinkers together and they begin to share with us the history of the church.  We invite you to follow along as Pastor Harris tells us the details of the birth of our faith in this series titled, “The Birth of the Church”.  So let's kick it off  with the first teaching in this series titled, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit”.Support the show

Send us a textIt is truly hard to believe that we are approaching the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. As many of you are well aware at this point, Pastor Harris, was the pastor of First United Methodist Church, which is situated directly east of the OKC bombing site.  Pastor Harris was at the church that day, and we have shared his story both in audio podcast as well as video on our YouTube channel.  However, in this episode we will hear from Kris Skinner, a cherished family friend and a former employee of First Church that was there meeting with Pastor Harris at the moment the bomb went off on that day that for many has been frozen in time.As a reminder, we have published several OKC Bombing related episodes over the life of this podcast. Four that I will mention specifically. There is episode 50 which features the sermon Pastor Harris delivered April 16th 1995, just three days before the bombing, this would be the last sermon that would be delivered in that 100 year old sanctuary. In episode 51 we hear from Pastor Harris as he tells his story of the day of the bombing. In episode 52 we feature an interview we had with OKC Bombing Survivor, Arlene Blanchard who was in the Murrah Building when the bomb went off. Arlene had attended “Loves & Fishes”, a lunch Bible Study that First Church facilitated and Pastor Harris taught for many years. In this discussion with Arlene, she reveals one word that Pastor Harris taught on that gave her the strength to persevere. And finally, in episode #100 we feature the story of a surprise concert that Rich Mullins himself gifted the people of First United Methodist Church.Support the show

Send us a textIn the first three episodes of this series, Pastor Harris touched on one key topic in each teaching. In episode one, “The Performance Snare”, Pastor Harris discussed the topic of Justification and that we are completely forgiven and have become fully pleasing to God.  We no longer have to fear failure.  In the second episode, “Approval Addiction”, Pastor Harris touched on the topic of Reconciliation and that we are totally accepted by God and we no longer have to fear rejection. In the third episode, “The Blame Game”, Pastor Harris delivered a message of Propitiation and that we know we are deeply loved by God and no longer have to fear punishment nor do we have to punish others.Jericho was in the Roman province of Judea, the very wealthy lived here including King Herrod and he stayed there five months out of the year so it had to be pretty nice. In and around Jericho there were other palaces as well. The reason it was so popular had to do with the weather and its geographical location. It's situated some 833 feet below sea level in what is now known as the Jordan River Valley. It's the site of the world's largest oasis supported by the world's largest natural spring. In addition, its climate is ideal, it is virtually summer time all year round. Date palms can be found everywhere and citrus fruits of all varieties abound. The fences and the trellises are covered by flowers. The city was and is a tropical paradise. This is true even today, and was also true in the time of Jesus.  Even the great Egyptian Queen Cleopatra vacationed there in the winter. However, not only was Jericho very beautiful, it was also very prosperous. Some of this had to do with the tourism the city had attracted. Yet that was only a small part of it.  The vast majority of its wealth had to do with a great highway that passed through the city. The great trading caravans of antiquity made their journey there from India and Arabia. Crossing into the lands of Judea at the forge of the Jordan River located three miles east of Jericho.  Here in this city, the great caravans would stop and resupply and remit their border tolls making it the tax center of Judea. The tax collectors and publicans of Jericho were very wealthy but paid a huge price for their wealth.. They were hated by everyone in their country and they should have been hated.  For the most part they were all dishonest and crooked, it is not hard to imagine that these tax collectors had a real image problem.  Many of them wanted to change but they had believed the fourth great lie that Pastor Harris will talk about in this episode, and that is this, “I am what I am and I cannot change.”Support the show

Send us a textIn the first two episodes of this series, Pastor Harris touched on one key topic in each teaching. In episode one, “The Performance Snare”, Pastor Harris discussed the topic of Justification and that we are completely forgiven and have become fully pleasing to God.  We no longer have to fear failure.  In the second episode, “Approval Addiction”, Pastor Harris touched on the topic of Reconciliation and that we are totally accepted by God and we no longer have to fear rejection.In this episode Pastor Harris will walk us through the third or four lies that Satan tells us. This third lie can even be seen as a game we play.  Pastor Harris refers to this as “The Blame Game”. When playing this Blame Game we may tell ourselves lies like this, “I am not responsible for what I do, someone else is.”  Has anyone out there listening ever played this game?  Hopefully Pastor Harris's insights can shed some light on this game we play and how we might win, lose or simply choose not to play as we all work to move forward.Now before we kick off this teaching, I wanted to give those listening a heads up that about 12 minutes into this original recording, something altered the recording speeds which in-turn altered Pastor Harris' voice a touch.  Fear not, it's not your device, the issue has to do with the original recording from 10 years ago. It's a small issue but we can't let these small issues get in the way of publishing these important teachings.Support the show

Send us a textLast week Pastor Harris started a series of sermons in which he will examine four of the major lies that Satan uses to destroy the lives of far too many people.  We looked at the first of these lies in the last episode which is this, “I must meet certain standards of behavior so I can feel good about myself.”  In this episode, Pastor Harris will deal with the next lie which is this, “I must be approved by certain others to feel good about myself.”  This leads to a condition Pastor Harris refers to as Approval Addiction.  This condition is totally linked to the fear of rejection that is one of our deepest human fears. We do not want to feel rejected.  We seek approval from others and we do this because we are biologically wired with a longing to belong.  We fear being cut off, demeaned or isolated. In other words we fear being alone and above all else we dread change.  The greater this fear becomes the more we experience a need for acceptance and it really can become an addiction. Our problem relates to the fact that we often seek approval from the wrong source. Those sources are often those around us, they can often ignore or reject us. So rather than turn to them, we should really be turning to someone who can love us unconditionally and that someone, as we all know, is our God.  Right now because of the condition of sin, a state in which we are born, we find ourselves alienated from God, the only one who really counts in our lives.  And that is why we have such an oppressive fear of not belonging. That problem is sin, we begin to overcome these fears when we realize that we need God more than we need other people. When we call upon him he will never reject us and he will never forsake us.  In theological terms we call this process reconciliation.  And that will be Pastor Harris's remedy to Approval Addition that he will be teaching today.Support the show

Send us a textTo say 2025 hasn't kick off how I had hoped would be an understatement. No, I am not talking about politics or anything like that, who knows, maybe it is the tribulation Pastor Harris mentions in this teaching that is needed, time will tell. But spoiler alert… here shortly you will here Pastor Harris mention how tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and amazingly enough, character produces hope. All the sudden, I am starting to think that maybe a little tribulation is just what I needed to kick off 2025.  Who is going to turn down a little hope?  Better yet, a lot of hope!  Not this guy. I feel like I say it all the time in these intros, I continue to be fascinated how these teachings remain so relevant. Once again, Pastor Harris's teaching in this episode really hit me right where and when it needed to.  As dad used to say, “He read my mail.”  Well my mail really got read here.  I sure hope this teaching hits those of you listening right when it needs to just like it did me, and it is my family's prayer that it continues to do so for years to come!I am excited about this brief little series.  Although little and brief, I know it's going to pack quite a punch.  I believe it can be life changing for those that need it. In this episode we kick off a four part series where in each teaching Pastor Harris will share one of four lies that Satan sews in our lives. I can relate to all of these and I am sure many of you will as well.Support the show

Kamala can't handle yelling at her rally, and Trump is working at McDonalds? What is going on??

Kamala can't handle yelling at her rally, and Trump is working at McDonalds? What is going on??

Kamala can't handle yelling at her rally, and Trump is working at McDonalds? What is going on??

At the end of the last episode we saw that the war was over and Absolom was dead. Remember that before the battle, David was willing and wanting to risk his life and lead his troops into battle. He wanted to do this for two reasons, first off, it was what kings did, lead their troops into battle.  And secondly, he hoped that if he could enter the battle it would help save his son Absolom's life.  David's warriors though, especially his commander in chief Joab thought differently. Joab was convinced that David must stay alive for his kingdom to continue.  If he entered the battle and a stray arrow accidentally pierced him he would be dead and Absolom's forces would most assuradly take over and they would crown Absolom as king.  Joab knew that David's life was essential to the cause to keeping his kingdom alive so he knew he could not enter the battle he had to say out but Joab also believed that it was crucial that Absolom be killed. There could not be two kings of Isreal, the rebellion had gone too deep.  Absolum must die and David must be kept safe. Politically it was too late for reconciliation between father and son, Absolom had to die. The truth is this. During this entire affair wtih David he had not acted as a King, he acted as a doating father. This is kind of ridiculous when you look at his reactions.  He did not treat Absolom's rebellion as a rebellion at all.  He treated it like a small minor domestic affair that could be settled with a nice group hug between the patries involved.  He failed to see Absolom's as a traitor, a rebel who has caused tons of a pain, hurt and suffering to David, his family and the entire nation at large. And that is to say nothing for the 20 thousand men who had just died in a fierce battle in the Woods of Effram. The death of Absolom was good news to the Nation of Isreal, it was good news for David the King, but it was the worst kind of news for David the Father.  We remember David's statement from last episode where he said, “Would I had died instead of you Absolom my son, my son.” These were the words of a bereaved and tormented father. The loss of another son, his third son, deeply hurt David and gave him intense sorrow.  Yet he was the king, he could not forget his duty, his responsibility to his people, there had been a huge loss, a huge battle, a rebellion, an insurrection in his own kingdom. It was time for reconciliation, it was time to bring the kingdom back together, it was time to be king, to step up and be the king that all his valiant warriors who had just died had fought for, to be that king.  Much had to be done and a lot of bitterness had to be taken care of.Joab, who had personally killed Absolom, was frustrated with the way David was acting, he did not like it, and in fact he calls out David to his face.  This will be the topic of Pastor Harris's message. Support the Show.

Last episode Pastor Harris taught about Absalom, the son of David and his planned assault on the city of Jerusalem. He planned to surround the city, take it, and kill his father David and ascend to the throne of Jerusalem. David had two options therefore, he could stay and let Absalom's army lay siege and try and fight them off and this would most likely meet the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, David's beloved city, or he could flee and go to a place that Absalom might have difficulty trying to reach him. It broke David's heart, but with limited choices, David chose the second option, which we learned in the last episode. Fleeing his beloved city, and betrayed by members of his family, including one of his best friends his best counselor, and it broke David's heart and was a very humbling moment in his life. But at this moment, God chose to act and he sent a gentile, who was a friend and swore fealty.  He swore to go with David till death, he told David that he believed in him and he was his friend. That kind of love and friendship at David's worst time strengthen him on his journey ahead and he began to have hope. With that David left the city and climbed the Mount of Olives to his ultimate destination. Somewhere along his ascent David looked back at the city and he wept. About this time he was approached by Ziba servant of Saul, who brought him donkey's laden with supplies for his journey. With this David made his way across the Jordan River valley. We saw here that all the things that David had been through had began to soften his heart and gave him a new level of tenderness and gentleness and love for the Lord and from these we see some of David's most Amazing Psalms, and one of these was glorious 63rd Psalm. That is where we finished in the last episode and this week a test is coming. Somewhere on the far side of the Mount of Olives a man came running toward David. His name was Shimie and he would test David to the core, and that is what Pastor Harris will talk about in this episode.Support the Show.

Welcome to the Relational Grace Podcast where we share the teachings of Pastor Nick Harris who taught us that Christianity is not a religion; it's a relationship. I'm your host Jamie Russell, Pastor Harris's son.Last episode Pastor Harris talked about Absalom, Son of David, as he made his plans for a coup d'etat against his very own father.  He left Jerusalem making his home in Hebron, which was the first capital city of David. Apparently David found nothing curious about this, he had no suspicion as to Absalom's move.  He was totally unaware when the coup erupted. This seems really odd, as it takes a great deal of time organizing a revolt, in fact, Absolom may have spent as much as four years time planning it and yet David had not the smallest inkling of an idea that he was planning it. Absalom was extremely shrewd in his dealing with the revolt. Somehow Absalom had begun to win all the hearts of the people of Israel. He had somehow made them think that a man who had just taken revenge on his brother and had killed him was a man devoted to justice. He seemed to convince people that words were more profitable than actions.  He was even able to lure 200 of Jerusalem's best citizens to Hebron to join him. Therefore cunning and deceit seemed to be some of his best qualities. He used them many times in his dealings leading up to the revolt and during the revolt.  He used them to induce the majority of the men of Israel to turn against his very own father, their great King David.  Even David's own tribe of Judah was ready to abandon David and follow Absalom.  This man was capable of much.  For this reason and many others, he proves though that he was not fit to be king of God's chosen Nation.  But his father does not come out of the story looking that great either.  In fact, he gets had by his own son who was able to pull the rug right out from under him without even seeing it.  He didn't smell the revolt for the four long years that his son was in Hebron. So David does not look that great either, in fact he looks quite complacent. For this reason it looks like he was out of touch; it left room for Absolom to come in and steal their hearts. A big lesson learned here is this: It  is essential for good leaders to remain in touch with the people of their nation. All this said, neither David nor his son were the most ideal leaders.  But at least David was a man after God's own heart and he showed this when Jerusalem was about to be laid under siege he fled and protected it.  And Absalom, as Pastor Harris will demonstrate, cared nothing for people, he did not care how many people died as long as he remained in power.So let's jump into the seventeenth episode of The Saga of David series, titled, “David's Sons Revolt”.Support the show

Remember back to the last episode, David was confronted by Nathan about his sin with Bathsheba and Nathan had some stunning words to say on God‘s behalf to David. We can only think that these works played on David's mind again and again. David and Bathseba had eaten bread in secret, but Nathan on behalf of God knew the truth and he had these things to say to David, he said, “I anointed you King over Israel and delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah and if that had been too little, I would've given you much more, why have you despised the commandments of the Lord to do evil in his sight.  You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, you have taken his wife to be your wife and you have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and taken the wife of the Hittite to be your wife. Behold, I will raise adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before you eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of his son.  For you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all of Israel and before the son.However, there were many years and this prophecy did not come to pass, in fact David ruled righteously and successfully and his kingdom grew and became quite strong.  However, this did not shield David from what was coming. He would face the greatest challenge of his entire life in the fulfillment of this coming prophecy because it would come from someone inside his own family.  It would feature lust, it would feature incestuous relationships, it would feature a vengeance killing and I coupe de ta. In addition to all this David would lose his closest friend and advisor.The lesson to be learned is this. Bread eaten in secret can be sweet, sin may bring pleasure in the short term. But it also can be very costly.  David would learn this first hand in the fulfillment of this prophecy.  Like many people, the great King found that it was fun to dance but not often fun to pay the band.  Pastor Harris will discuss these issues in this episode.Support the show

In this teaching Pastor Harris will deal with the topic of midlife crisis.  He covers this through discussing three weaknesses of David Ben Jesse.  In the first place, David could never control his desire for women.  Secondly, David's allowed himself to have too much idle time on his hands.  And thirdly, David began to delegate his divinely oriented responsibilities to others that he should have been doing himself. Let's listen along to Pastor Harrs as he walks us through these things that would sadly lead to King David's own demise.Support the show

In this teaching we will learn more about Saul and David.  Saul had two daughters, Miram and Michael (we call her Michael instead of MiChal). At the time, Israel had a problem with the philistines. They did not like Isreal or the Jewish people.  One day the army of the Philistines were camped on one hill and the Isrealites were camped on the other.  It was a standoff. The Philistines had a clever little plan, they ha a giant of a man, eight or nine feet tall. He was more than likely twice the size of any man at the time. The Philistines had a big idea to go down to the middle of the valley and they told the Isrealites to send their best guy to fight their best guy.  This fight will determine who should win.  We know that the young David shows up to deliver food to his brothers who were in the army. David is appoled at this vile person who is down in the valley making fun of his people.  The Israelites said it was the philistine giant.  Saul, the King of Isreal, had promised the hand of his daughter in mariage to anyone that would go down and beat the giant Philistine.Saul was sure that someone was going to go down there and fight the giant philistine because his daughters were beautiful. No one showed up to take on this challenge until David showed up. But David wasnt fighting for the girls hand in marriage, he was fighting for his God.  Well we know what has happened.  David was indeed victorious, and now he had earned the right to marry Miram the oldest of the two daughters.  One day Saul hears the common people singing the praises of this young man that had defeated the giant. He was extremely jealous, he thought, “am I going to have a son-in-law that people are going to sing praises about?” So Saul promises his older daughter to another. This would leave Michael available for David.  This was OK with David because he preferred Michael.  Saul thought he knew his daughter better than David.  This will be where Pastor Harris's teaching picks up today.Support the show

In this episode Pastor Harris reminds us about the prophesies of Nathan and provides a lot of back knowledge leading into this topic.  More specifically Pastor Harris reminds us that God sent the prophet Nathan to David with certain instructions and a grave warning. That warning was this, just because a temple to God stood in their midst, it did not mean that his presence would always dwell in that temple. Pastor Harris will explain more about this warning in this teaching.NOTE: To save any confusion, please note that Pastor Harris does indeed tell the story of the tapestries he saw in the vatican.  He told this same story in episode #114 which is also the first episode of the Saga of David series.Support the show

Last episode we discussed David's plan for spiritual renewal for the nation of Israel.  It was a fairly simple plan. He was going to introduce a worship revolution. It was going to be something the Hebrew religion and the world at large had never seen. The plan really focused on the Ark of the Covenant that he considered to be Israel's greatest treasure. It needed to be transported to Mount Zion, which was formally Mount Moriah, and placed in a tent that would come to be known as the Tabernacle of David.Here the Ark of the Covenant could be seen by anyone who would like to.  The flaps of the tabernacle would be open and people could see the Ark there.  On top of bringing the Ark to the top of Mount Zion, David had gone about a massive allocation of resources, people and time to create a 24 hour praise and worship experience. He had done this by appointing three men, Asath, Heman, and Ethan to lead a group of 24 thousand men in three different groups of eight thousand each for 24 hour worship.  This continued for 40 years, 40 years of 24 hour perpetual worship with 24 thousand men.But first, the big problem with this plan was that the worshippers were ready, the tent was ready, the mount was ready… but they didn't have the Ark. The Ark was eight miles west of Jerusalem where it had been for the past 60 years in the house of Abenidad, in the village of Penrith Jerun, and to actually get the Ark from point A to point B was far more complicated than you may have first thought, and that is the topic of Pastor Harris's message in this episode.Support the show

Following the exodus when Israel had come into the land of Canan the priests brought the Tabernacle to the town of Shiloh.  The Tabernacle would remain here for 200 years.  In time, there was a battle with the Philistines over a Hebrew highway. The high priests were in charge of the tabernacle and these high priests were the sons of Eli. When the Israelites were in this battle they wanted the Ark of the Covenant to give them the power to win.  So they sent messengers to go ask the high priests to see if they could have the ark of the covenant with them to have God's power to win the battle.  As they brought the ark of the covenant out to the battle God did not go with it.  His presence was in the Holy of Holies when the Ark of the Covenant was there and when it was brought out to the battle, it was said that the presence of the Lord had departed from the Holy of Holies.In this episode, Pastor Harris will teach on how the Ark of the Covenant departed.Support the show

Last teaching Pastor Harris discussed David returning after he had defeated the Amalekites. At the same time David was returning to Ziklag, Saul had met his end and been defeated by the Philistines.  Around that same time a different Amilkite arrives with a message that Saul had been slain along with a conflicting story.  Last episode we heard that Saul had fallen on his own sword and committed suicide. This Amilkite claimed that he had actually helped Saul commit suicide.  He believed that since Saul had tried to kill David so many times that he would be rewarded for helping Saul committ suicide and reporting the great news that Saul was dead.  Another odd thing was that he also had the crown of Saul and brought it to David.  The response of David was quite opposite to what he was expecting.  He was expecting honor and approval and maybe a position as David's right hand man.  Instead David turned and killed the man on the spot!The way David saw it was this.  God was going to bring God's anointed David to be King in his own time.  No person could force that to happen outside of God's timing. It appeared this Amilkite had taken matters into his own hands and had slain God's anointed and it deserved death.What was surprising is that upon David killing this Amilkite was David's response.  He wrote a quite fantastic poem, and I'll go ahead and read this to you.Thy glory oh Israel is slain upon by high places.  How the mighty have fallen. Tell it not in Gath. Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exalt.  Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely, in life and in death they were not divided, they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel weep over Saul who clothed you daintily in scarlet, who put ornaments off gold on your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of battle. Jonathan lies slain upon the high places.  I am distressed for you my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant have you been to me, your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.  How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished.It's very odd to hear such beautiful words from someone who was supposed to be Saul's sworn enemy. But obviously David was a man after God's own heart and he could see things in Saul others could not see.  He loved Saul.  However, now the crown of Saul is in David's hands, Saul is slain, David is God's appointed and is to be the new King of Israel.  This is the topic of this episode's message.Support the show

Last episode we talked about David and his big battle with the Amalekites in the Negev.  While that was going on with him, the exact opposite was going on with Saul. Saul was encountering Israel's old enemy the Philistines.  They had amassed a massive army and to this point the Isrealites had been successful in defeating them by fighting them off as they had always engaged them in mountainous terrain. But the Philistines had pushed and manipulated the battle so they could fight at the Valley of Jezreel which was flat land.  This was beneficial to the Philistines because they had iron chariots. Any military strategist would say that it looks as if the Isrealites would be slaughtered.  The reason this battle was so crucial and that Saul had to fight it, was because they were at a place called Beth Shan and if the Philistines were to take this location they would cut Israel in half. This location was too crucial, and Saul was forced to take the Philistines on in open combat, in flat terrain, taking on their iron chariots. It seemed suicidal, God had abandoned Saul for David.  So Saul turned to a medium.  Saul himself had outlawed the use of mediums. It was outlawed in the law of God, but Saul was driven to the very brink of his insanity by havinfg to hold things together by the giant adversity that faced him having to fight the Philistines.  When he saw this medium, he disguised himself because he knew if the medium recognized him as King Saul that the medium would not consult upon evil spirits.  We know today that spirits guided through mediums are not through the Holy Spirit but are evil spirits. To Saul's dismay the medium conjures up the spirit of Samual the great profit.  Although Samual had been dead for many years he spoke truthfully  to the situation at hand.  He said that Saul would in fact fight this battle, and Saul, his sons and many of his army would suffer a very tragic defeat.  Saul's dilemma was over, he looked into the future, the future was clear there was only disaster and death for him and his kingdom. Meanwhile David waited back at Ziklag unaware of what was going on.  This is the topic of Pastor Harris's teaching in this episode.  The death of Saul and the ramifications of that day.Support the show

The events of first samuel chapter 26 and first samuel chapter 24 look very similar if not identical, but in fact they are remarkably different.  Where they are similar in both instances Saul, the King of Israel is pursuing David.  Saul fails, and God delivers him into the hands of David, who chooses to do nothing about it and to release him because he is his king, and he is God anointed. In fact, in the second instance, David's men come alongside him and say, they have got to do something, they've been running from him, they felt they needed to kill him! David still stays committed to what he knows to be true.The thing that is interesting and is pretty bad for Saul. Given these two instances, God had revealed that he had withdrawn his protection from Saul. He had been given over into the hands of David now twice, this could not make it more clear to Saul.  David realized that this cat and mouse game couldn't last forever. It was wearing out his men and they wanted to kill Saul, and that was wearing David out. David previously had fled from Saul by going into the land of the philistines and now he had to face the terrible idea of doing that again, leaving the promise land. So he decides to go to the land of Gath and place his warriors at the disposal of the King of Achish. This King however did not like the idea of having someone so powerful in his midst so he placed David in a town called Ziklag.  And this will be our setting for Pastor Harris's message today.Support the show

We continue to follow the life of David in our current series. In this episode we will touch on the topic of vengeance. The need for vengeance is as old as human nature. Vengeance can be overwhelming. Let's listen to Pastor Harris as he walks us through how David handles vengeance against King Saul.  Finally Pastor Harris will provide us three things regarding  vengeance that will help us understand it and in turn deal with it. Support the show

Have you ever experienced exceptional success in life like that of David? After what David accomplished by saving his entire nation from slavery and bondage by conquering the undefeatable foe. Who knows what it would be like to experience such success and fame like David did.  In the last episode Pastor Harris talks about five crutches that got knocked out from under him.  One was his job, the commander of Saul's army.  The position of King and High Priest may be the only better jobs at that time.  Secondly, his wife was stripped away.  His pastor was taken away as well, Samuel was one of the top profits ever known and was taken away from David.  Then Jonathan was taken away, David's best friend.  These are serious crutches that were taken away from David. It was like winning the lottery and finding out the next day you in fact did not win the lottery.  All he had left was his self respect and his self worth, we won't get to it in this episode but eventually he will lose that as well.It's hard to understand what all David was going through mentally, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. At this point his back is against the wall and Saul is coming after him.  At this time David runs to Nob where he takes the sword of Goliath.  He does not realize the trouble that will cause others, and it is at this point that we find David in the cave of Adullem.Support the show

As we continue on with our second episode of this new Saga of David series I continue to think about episode one and how Pastor Harris focused on Samuel and the strange circumstance he found himself in when it came to anointing the next king of Israel. It was an interesting approach to kicking off a teaching about the life of David.  Similarly, one of the obvious stories from the life of David would be that of his victory over the giant Goliath. However, Pastor Harris chooses to diverge from the standard teaching route and come at it from another unique aspect. Definitely not what I expected, but I was by no means surprised.Support the show

This new series is a large and in-depth study of Pastor Harris's which covers the man after God's own heart, King David.  As always, Pastor Harris's approach to the life of David is very unique and we hope will touch the lives of our listeners, teaching after teaching.  This series is over 20 episodes in length and rightfully so, there is so much to learn from the story of David's life, much more than his run-ins with the likes of Goliath and Bathsheba.  Matter of fact, it can more accurately be defined as a “saga” than simply be referred to as a life story. I'm sure dad knew that far too well, so well that he titled this series very simply, The Saga of David.Support the show

This episode wraps up our current series titled “Courage and Confrontation” which follows the life and times of Elijah.  This has been a truly amazing series and has come with God's perfect timing.  I hope these teachings have encouraged everyone who listens. I have to tell you all, I love this specific episode, I think it really places things into context not only from a ministry standpoint, but as a way to approach various aspects of life. Dad talks about his early days in ministry well before I was born or dad had even made it to Ponca City where he met my mother Crystal.  As always, we would love to hear from you all any way you like, email, facebook, instagram, etc. We love hearing how these messages resonate with you, it encourages us and keeps and energizes us to keep pushing out new episodes and content.So let's get into the introduction of our final episode.  Prior to the Prophet Elijah's encounter with King Ahab over Naboth's vineyard, he had been walking through an agricultural area in Israel and he spotted a young man plowing his field. There were eleven teams of oxen plowing in front of this man and he was plowing with a twelfth team of oxen. The sensitive spirit of the prophet Elijah instantly saw something in this man so he walked over to the young man and threw his mantle around his shoulders. Elijah would later discover that the name of this man was Elisha, the son of Shaphat. This farmer turned from his team of oxen, and said to Elijah, "Please let me kiss my father and mother and then I will follow you." Elijah agreed.What Elisha did at this point was fascinating. He kissed his father and mother, then demonstrated his commitment to following Elijah in that he slaughtered his team of oxen, his sole means of support. Then set fire to his plow and yoke, his secondary means of support. He proceeded to cook the meat of the oxen and shared it with the people of his village and his family so that they could all enjoy one final meal together. Then, he followed Elijah from that point onward, serving him in any way that he possibly could.That is the last we hear of Elisha for several years. Then, he reappears with Elijah at a place called Gilgal, the place where Israel camped upon first entering the Promised Land. He had seen many things since he had begun to follow Elijah. For one thing, he had been with Elijah when King Ahaziah of Israel had sent a captain with fifty men to place Elijah under arrest. He watched as the prophet called down fire from heaven and those men were utterly consumed. He was also present when the king sent another group of fifty to arrest the prophet. Once again, he heard the prophet call down fire from heaven and saw those men consumed. Then, when another group of 50 came, Elisha heard the captain of the group appeal to the prophet to save his life. No doubt, the young prophet heard the voice of the angel of Yahweh, the pre existent Christ, tell to Elijah to save this captain and his men and to go back to Samaria with this captain and confront the King. This was a dangerous proposition, but Elijah did as he was told.At this point, Elijah was aged. It is time for him to leave this earth, but he has a few things to do before that could occur. For one thing, he would take a quick ministry tour of the area, then, God would take him. This is the background for Pastor Harris's teaching in this episode.Support the show

In this episode Pastor Harris picks back up with Elijah returning to the kingdom of Israel after his sojourn at Mount Sinai, at least two and maybe three years had passed before Elijah made a reappearance. We can determine this from several situations that are recorded in I Kings.In the first place, in I Kings 21, we find a vineyard thriving in Jezreel which means the effects of the three and a half years of drought had now been overcome. This would take at least a year or two to occur. In the second place, after Elijah's return to Israel, the nation fought several brutal wars with Syria, all of which occurred before the events recorded in I Kings 21. These wars lasted over four at least two years.That which brought Elijah on the scene again was criminal conduct on the part of King Ahab, the most wicked ruler Israel had ever experienced up to that time, and his even more wicked wife, Jezebel. These two persons would commit a dastardly crime against a godly citizen of Israel. This act provides all the proof we need that, evil was still flowing from the throne of Israel. So, Elijah was sent by God to confront Ahab.We should note, however, that a bit of tranquility had come to the land of Israel in Elijah's absence. There had been a lull in the conflicts with Syria, and, as we said, the land seems to have recovered from the three and a half year drought. King Ahab now had some time to sit around in his palace in Jezreel and think about things he could do to improve the place.This palace was not the main residence of the king and queen. The capital and main palace was found in the city of Samaria. The palace in Jezreel was a kind of Camp David for the royal family. Such residences were located in places of great natural beauty in biblical times. Ahab, a well-known builder, was interested in improving the grounds and the landscape. Next to the palace was a vineyard that belonged to a man whose name was Naboth. He had taken very good care of the vineyard, something that had caught the eye of the king.So, one day, Ahab went to Naboth and made an offer to buy the vineyard and that offer is the subject of Pastor Harris's teaching for this episode.Support the show

Before I jump into this intro.  I think it is important that we all remember that these teachings we are listening to, even the introduction I am about to read were delivered back in 2011.  It continues to be so interesting how many of these thoughts we are about to hear remain true still today.We all know that we live in strange and troubling times. Someone once called this “the age of anxiety,” and it is. Hurricanes are striking odd places. Catastrophic floods and catastrophic droughts are found worldwide. There are devastating earthquakes leaving tens of thousands of people dead in dozens of countries. There are senseless terror bombings happening across the globe. As of 2011 when this was written, there was a horrible war in Afghanistan and continuing violence in Iraq. Of course in the current day we have a war happening in the Ukraine and many geopolitical situations of courcern around the globe.Taken together, this creates a spirit of fear, and this spirit of fear makes us angry, uptight, tense, hostile, sullen, and very impatient with each other. We see this in the increasing incidences of road rage, domestic abuse, and criminal acts. The sad truth is this: we Americans appear to hate each other equally.Anger seems to lie just beneath the surface of every human being, but this anger is just another symptom of society's ills.  In fact, the Bible predicts that in “the last days” God will shake the nations so that “those things that cannot be shaken will be shaken” (Hebrews 12:26-27). When Eugene Peterson paraphrased the last part of verse 27 in The Message, he said that God will shake the earth, “getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.” Unshakable essentials---that says it all. God is shaking the earth so that we will figure out what matters most.But this situation is not totally unique to our times. The prophet Elijah felt many of these same strains and stresses, so much so, that he virtually had a nervous collapse. Pastor Harris will discuss his circumstances in this episode.Support the show

As we dive into another episode of the “Courage and Confrontation” I wanted to remind everyone that you can visit Courage.ArielMinistries.com for more details and aggregate content around these teachings on the life and times of Elijah.In this episode we follow along as Elijah's fear sets in and he takes flight from the evil queen Jezebel. Pastor Harris will walk us through Elijah's thinking and actions here.  Although Pastor Harris admits along the way that this action bothered him personally, he also explains why we shouldn't be too hard on Elijah here.Support the show

In the last episode, we left the prophet Elijah deep in what can only be called Gentile country. If you remember, God had sent him to the Phoenician village of Zarephath which was located less than 10 miles from what the people of Israel believed to be Satan's headquarters on earth, the city of Tyre. In fact, on several occasions Satan is called, "the King of Tyre." This is especially true in the book of Ezekiel.The prophets of God believed that the people who lived in this area actually worshiped Satan. However, they believed had disguised himself as the god BA'AL, the God of the storm. He was depicted as a powerful bull, usually made of gold, but beneath the powerful image, and the extensive gold, was Satan. The great prophets of Israel stood behind all false religion; all I worship.As we saw last week, when God had appeared to Elijah at the Wadi Hareet and told Elijah that he was to take up residence in the village of Zarephath, the prophet must've said, "Oh no!" Without question, this is one of the last places on this planet that the prophet of God wanted to go. It was not only because this village was located in Gentile country, and it was not only because Satan was worshiped there, disguised as BA'AL, it was because he lied to knew the meaning of the name of this place. The word ZAREPHATH in Hebrew means this: "the place of the refiner's fire," or "the place of purification."The man of God could certainly read between the lines. He could see that God was sending him to this place to eliminate all his inner impurities, and that can be a painful process. And that is why the prophet probably shuddered at the thought of living in this village. But he went to Zaraphath, anyhow!Once he had settled himself into his new environment, he was surprised; things were not nearly as bad as he had imagined. Think about this! God had provided him with a place to stay in the house of a local widow and her son, and they are God was miraculously feeding him. Everyday his hostess would they cornbread from meal that she had taken from the bottom of her flour barrel and with the last few drops of cooking oil from her jar. But the next day the same amount of meal and oil would miraculously appear again. So, while other people were starving to death, these three people, the prophet, the widow, and her son had enough to sustain themselves. And the good news is this: the provision continued for many months.But, trouble was on the horizon. Satan would not allow the activities of God to go unchallenged as we shall see in Pastor Harris's message in this episode.Support the show

Last week we watched as the story that supplied water for the prophet Elijah dried up, and the ravens which brought him bread and meat ceased to appear. It did not take Elijah long to realize that this phase of his life, the training phase, was now over. And as he stood there gazing along the great Wadi Hareet, the voice of God spoke to him again, and this is what God said:"Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. I have commanded a widow there to provide for you."Without question, this was not the message that Elijah had expected. In fact, it appears that these instructions from the Lord left the prophet shocked and speechless.Now, Elijah would not have been shocked if God had said to him, "Go to the desert wastes of Paran," or "Go to Mount Sinai, the mountain of my glory." The truth is this: both of these locations were places where God was known to dwell. His holy presence, His KAVOD, His SHEKINAH, was found in those places.However God did not tell Elijah to go to either the Desert of Paran or to Mount Sinai. Instead God said, “Go to the village of Zarephath.” Why would Elijah be so shocked by that divine directive? There was a reason! Zaraphath was a village in the region known as Phoenicia, which was Gentile territory. In fact, it was as Gentile as it gets.This village was located in the very heart of the land from which the evil queen Jezebel of Tyre came. It was a demonized land, a land where the god Ba'al was worshiped; a place where Israel's God was scorned, so this message made no sense to Elijah. He was at war with this Phoenician god and the very last place he thought a man of God should be seen was in the heart of the enemy's stronghold.But this much can be said for Elijah; he may not have understood what God had said and what God did at times, but he was usually willing to obey what God told him to do, no matter how difficult it seemed. Pastor Harris will focus on this tendency this morning.Support the show

This series will be titled Courage and Confrontation. Pastor Harris will follow Elijah the Tishbite.  We will follow him from insignificance and we will watch God take him and turn him into one of the giants of the Biblical era. The Bible will remind us that Elijah was more like us than we could even imagine.  It is important that we all recognise and accept that God can use us all mightily, even despite ourselves.This series is dedicated to not only the current membership of First United Methodist Church in downtown Oklahoma City.  But to all those who have and continue to love the ministry of First Church over the years, whose lives were changed for the better due to this over century long ministry. I pray that we would be encouraged, and empowered with what Pastor Harris refers to as “a Holy Boldness” to be the new group of Elijah's that he hoped would appear on the scene and say “Here I stand” and that will refuse to back down. Support the show

This episode marks the final teaching of the Spiritual Gifts teaching series. What a fascinating teaching Pastor Harris has saved for the last. I have to admit I have probably listened to this teaching over five times to fully understand everything Pastor Harris was trying to get across to us.  In this Pastor Harris will cover the nine manifestations of the Fruit of the Spirit. I can't wait for everyone listening to learn now the Fruit of the Spirit work within us as believers.Support the show

In this episode Pastor Harris will be continuing his teaching on the topic of the manifestation gift of tongues.  More specifically he will begin this teaching discussing the function of the gift of tongues and he will end it by discussing the final manifestation gift which is the gift of the interpretation of tongues. There is quite a bit of detail Pastor Harris has to unpack on this episode so I hope everyone is ready to provide your undivided attention.Support the show

Pastor Harris will continue on in his teachings on the Spiritual Gifts.  Specifically his teachings on the Manifestation Gifts. In the last episode Pastor Harris taught us about the gift of prophecy as it relates to the idea of manifestations, he also covered the gift of discerning spirits. In this teaching he will begin covering the eighth and ninth manifestation gift which is the gift of tongues and the manifestation gift of the interpretation of tongues. Get ready… because just as Pastor Harris reiterates, you are really going to need to focus on this lesson as it goes pretty deep into this topic.Support the show

In this episode we will continue learning more about the individual Manifestation Gifts.  In the last several episodes Pastor Harris has taught us about the manifestation gifts of the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, faith and healing. In this teaching Pastor Harris will discuss three more of the Manifestation Gifts. He will cover the gift of miracles, the gift of prophecy as it relates to the idea of manifestations, and finally he will cover the gift of discerning spirits. Like the previous gifts he has taught on, Pastor Harris will give real world examples of each of these gifts, some of which are very personal to him.Support the show

In this episode Pastor Harris will continue teaching on the eleven Manifestation Gifts.  More specifically he'll cover the gift of Faith and the gift of Healing. Not only that, he will use two stories from his life to illustrate these gifts.  I won't give much away on these stories but I will tease them by saying they may or may not include a Volvo and a bottle of vegetable oil.Support the show

In this episode of our teaching series on the Spiritual Gifts, we will continue to dive into the final category of gifts that Pastor Harris refers to as the Manifestation Gifts.  The first category consists of the seven motivational gifts, the second category consists of the eleven equipping gifts, also called ministry gifts. There are a total of nine Manifestation Gifts and in this teaching Pastor Harris will touch on two of these gifts. One being the Manifestation Gift of the Word of Knowledge and the other being the Manifestation Gift of the Word of Wisdom.

As we continue this Spiritual Gifts teaching series, Pastor Harris has made his way through what he calls the Motivational Gifts and then into the Equipping Gifts, which as a reminder are also referred to as the Ministry Gifts.  We'll now dive further into another subsection of the Equipping Gifts which Pastor Harris reluctantly refers to as the “minor” gifts.  Now there are eleven Equipping Gifts total, of course there are the “five-fold” gifts or “major” gifts which are covered in the last two episodes. These refer to the gifts of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers and pastors.  Now the six minor gifts include that of the miracle workers, healers, helpers, administrators and languages or as we most often here them referred to as tongues. You will quickly notice that languages is broken up into two gifts, speakers of languages and interpreting languages.  I don't know about you, but as Pastor Harris takes us through these different gifts I continue to find it interesting when I compare my initial understanding of each of these gifts to my understanding of each after his explanation. In other words, I am amazed at how much I didn't know about each of these topics.

As Pastor Harris continues to walk us through the Spiritual Gifts, in the last episode he completed his teachings of what he refers to as the Motivational Gifts, or in the Greek, these are referred to as the CHARISMATA.  In this episode he will get into the Equipping Gifts, or in the Greek, these are referred to as the DOMATA. Being equipped, as we are all becoming very aware, is one of three things we all need to be successful in any task.  To help with any confusion you may have as we all try to keep these many gifts straight, I will point out that Pastor Harris also uses the term “Ministry Gifts” synonymously with what he calls Equipping Gifts.Pastor Harris will break down these 11 equipping gifts or ministry gifts in two groups.  There are some he will refer to as “major gifts” and others he will refer to as “minor gifts”.  I love Pastor Haris admits he doesn't really like how he uses the word “minor” here to describe a gift as they are all so crucial.  This just goes to show how his teachings were continually evolving.  I guarantee if he were given a chance to iterate this teaching one more time he would have adjusted that aspect for sure, but given where we are today, I think we can all let that one slide. Now, in this teaching Pastor Harris will specifically discuss the gifts of the apostles, the gift of the prophets, and the gift of the evangelists.One final note before we dive into this teachings.  Please pay special attention to how Pastor Harris opens this teaching. If you are like me, as you have been going through this study you are wondering what gifts you have.  What is your dominant and subdominant gift?  Well, Pastor Harris walks us through a very simply exercise to understand a little more clearly what our gifting truly is. I hope this helps get you hone in on your specific God given gifts as it did for me.

In the last four episodes, Pastor Harris has been teaching about each of the spiritual gifts, gifts that he refers to as the “motivational gifts”. In this teaching, he'll cover the last two of those motivational gifts, which include the gift of administration and the gift of empathy.  It has been great taking a deeper dive into each of these gifts and learning about the intricacies of each.  I know that it has been enlightening for me to cover each gift one by one.

n this teaching Pastor Harris will follow a similar format as our last episode, this time he'll cover the motivational gift of exhortation and will then cover the motivational gift of giving. He'll walk us through what both of these gifts entail, and will wrap up each one listing seven dominant characteristics for both of these gifts.

In this teaching Pastor Harris will discuss two more Spiritual Gifts, two that he has categorized as motivational gifts.  One is the gift of servanthood, and the other is the gift of teaching. It really is fascinating to listen to these gift bearer's descriptions.  Hopefully you all are having a similar experience as I am, learning about your own giftings.

As always we hope everyone enjoyed our introductory teaching on the Spiritual Gifts.  I for one am very intrigued with the three categories of gifts that Pastor Harris has provided for us.  Of those three categories I am referring to, one contains 7 motivational gifts,  another contains 11 equipping gifts and another contains 7 manifestation gifts.  I am looking forward to digging into these with Pastor Harris as he unpacks each of the life of this teaching.  In this episode Pastor Harris we review the ins and outs of the motivational gifts answering questions like; when do we get assigned our gifts?  Are some gifts more dominant than others? Can you earn gifts or are there reasons that you would deserve a gift?  Pastor Harris will then cover the first of 7 motivational gifts to us, the specific gift he will cover in this episode will be the gift of prophecy.  

In this episode we kick off one of our largest teaching series to date; Pastor Harris is going to walk us through the Spiritual Gifts. What are the spiritual gifts?  How many of them are there? How do we know which gifts we have? There are so many questions to be answered on this topic. In this episode Pastor Harris will examine these God given abilities through the lens of none other than the Apostle Paul and you know that is going to make for some great teaching.

Given the nature of this podcast and how it is dependent on past recordings, it is inevitable that we are going to run into instances where we simply don't have the full recording of the teachings.  Well sadly on this final teaching of dad's 2017 Advent series it seems that the entire teaching was not captured successfully. However, I say we don't let that get us down.  I say this Christmas we all put on our Hercule Puaro caps Pastor Harris taught us to wear for so many years, and we do our best to deduce where he was coming from leading up to the end of this teaching as we listen to the final 6 minutes and 45 seconds of his message.  I think there is so much that can be taken from this small snippet of teaching that I couldn't help but go ahead and share it to wrap up this series.I mean… leave it to dad to be able to teach The Christmas Story from the Gospel of John.  He proves that you don't need wise men or shepherds or angels to tell the story of the miracle of Christmas.  I hope you are able to take away as much insight as I did from this very brief teaching.

This episode marks the third week of this Advenseries.  It is that time when we remember God's decision to become a man, and when we look ahead with anticipation to his second coming to establish his kingdom on earth. The magnitude of this first aspect of Advent, God's decision to become a man is truly incredible. Just think about it! The one true God, the God who brought the world into being by the words of his mouth, chose, decided, willed, to become a human being. Can you imagine?The facts are staggering. Almighty God willingly chose to put on this corrupt human flesh of ours, choosing to live in one of these bodies of sin. It truly is “mind-boggling.” Then, when we add to all of that the fact that by His own free choice, He subjected Himself to all the limitations that you and I experience, it is difficult for anyone to comprehend.However, if we think this is difficult for us to understand, imagine how difficult it would have been for the ancient Hebrews to understand. For them, the idea that God would become flesh was the surest lunacy; it was unthinkable. After all, they saw God as being “wholly other,” and the very thought of Him associating with the likes of us, much less becoming man Himself was considered to be blasphemous.Yet, there were a few men who dared to express such a thought, and this morning, Pastor Harris will point to these special men, and even name them. Their boldness set the scene for that great moment when God became flesh and dwelt among us. 

In this episode we will jump into the second episode of our Advent series this year titled, “The Christ of Christmas”. Pastor Harris will tell us more about the “Little town of Bethlehem” which was made famous by the great Christmas carol that we all have sung so many times. Bethlehem is located some six miles south of the city of Jerusalem near the chief north-south route that links Jerusalem with the town of Hebron. The word Bethlehem means “house of bread” and its significance lies in the fact that it is located in a fertile region characterized by an abundance of grain, especially barley and wheat, thus “house of bread.”The town was originally called Ephrathah, which means “fruitful.” The first biblical mention of the site is that it was the place where Jacob's wife, Rachel, was buried after her untimely death, so the city must have existed as early as the time of Jacob and perhaps earlier.In the prophetic book of Micah, Bethlehem is given its crowning glory. The prophet declares that this village will be the birthplace of Israel's Messiah. In fact, Micah 5:2 reads as follows:“But you, Bethlehem, though you were little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting.”Ever since the first century AD, Bethlehem has been a place of pilgrimage and throughout the following centuries the city has continued to be a sacred site for Christians worldwide. There, we find the very ancient Church of the Nativity, perhaps the oldest church building in existence, which is located in the middle of the town. Beneath this church is a grotto, a cave, and it is here where the Lord Jesus Christ was born. In this teaching, Pastor Harris will be making reference to this cave and to the One who was born here. 

Now if the Bible clearly teaches that when Jesus entered the life of this world, He was born in a land, and to a people who enjoyed a unique relationship with God. We would imagine, of course, that these people would welcome Him with open arms. Unfortunately, none of these things would prove to be true. Rather than being received with open arms, He was rejected and hated, not adored.When God saw this He was heartbroken. Here was a nation of people who have been longing for a deliverer to appear, and when that occurred they rejected Him.  However, the Jews were not alone in this rejection of the highest and best.Tragically, this is the sad story of the entire human race. There are so few of us who are willing to accept all that God has for us. And millions even billions of people reject His greatest gift, the Christ of Christmas. Yet this much can be said. Some of the Jewish people did accept God's gift; and that gift empowered them to become everything God created them to be. As John will write, “To all those who did receive Him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God.”John 1:10-12 will set the stage for Pastor Harris's message as he speaks of “the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us.”