PASTOR STEVE'S BLOG

I Kings 19:8-16 Elijah the prophet had just come from Mt. Carmel where he had destroyed all the prophets of Baal. Immediately following this great victory, he heard a rumor that the Queen was going to take his life. The man of God ran in fear.  An angel of God came to minister to Elijah and fed him with heavenly cake, which I like to call "angel food cake". The angel said he would need that heavenly food to strengthen him for his journey. We, too, need strength for the journey, and God's Word is our Heavenly Food. Next, Elijah came to a cave at Horeb where the Lord spoke to him. "What are you doing here, Elijah?" His perception was that he alone was left to serve God, and that his life would soon be taken away. "I'm by myself", he thought, "I have been faithful and zealous for God, but I am the only one left." Then God said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord". The Lord passed by and a great windstorm ca...

Luke 1:57-66 When Elizabeth brought forth her son, whom we know as John the Baptist, the people rejoiced with her. Later, Jesus spoke of him as the greatest of all the prophets, yet John worked no miracles. Have you ever considered the miracles surrounding his birth? His father Zacharias was serving in his division as a priest before God. People were praying on the outside of the temple, while inside the angel Gabriel appeared to him. Gabriel announced that Zacharias and his wife would have a son in their old age; his wife Elizabeth was barren. The angel named the child to be born, saying "You shall call his name John." When Zacharias acted with unbelief, the angel pronounced the consequence for not believing. He would be mute until the birth of the child: "Because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time." Zacharias emerged from the holy place mute. The child John was born just as Gabriel had predicted, and on the eighth day ...

Luke 6:14-21 In the sixth chapter of Luke, Jesus returns to His hometown, Nazareth. He enters the synagogue and is asked to read from the scroll of the Book. He opens to Isaiah 61 and begins to teach. The anointing of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of God's Word were at work together, and Jesus declared that He had fulfilled six of the prophecies He read to the people that day from the scroll. (The rest of Isaiah's words would come to pass later.) Have you ever taken a close look at the wonderful things that Jesus has come to do? The Holy Spirit had anointed Him to 1) preach the gospel to the poor, 2) heal the brokenhearted, 3) to proclaim deliverance to the captives, 4) recovery of sight to the blind, 5) to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and 6) proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. When Jesus closed the Book, He told them how this portion of the Scripture was fulfilled in their hearing. Then they fixed their eyes on Jesus. These promises from God are st...