Sharing the teaching of Relational Grace through the lifelong ministry of Pastor Nick Harris who teaches that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. Supplemental content at RelationalGraceBlog.com. Learn more at ArielMinistries.com.
Focusing on the first chapter of the book of Acts. The church, the body of Christ was transferred from his physical body and the church was transferred to us and we become the church. In this teaching we will discuss the betrayal of Judas. Many of us have our own theory of Judas, maybe when we were younger we formed this opinion based on a lot of the artistic renderings of him with the scowl and so forth.
However, mayb...
If 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 t...
At 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...
It 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...
In 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 to...
In 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 tota...
Last 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 othe...
To 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, characte...
In II Corinth 2:14 there is a verse that speaks directly to our Pastor’s present series of sermons. It reads as follows:
“Thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumph and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.”
These words sum up what the Christian life is all about. The apostle Paul wrote these words, after a terrible experience in which he had been abused so badly that he fea...
As we saw last Sunday, the cry of Esther as she appeared before the Emperor for the second time was similar to the cry of the apostle Paul in Romans 7. "Oh, wretched man that I am…” She cried, “Oh wretched woman that I am.” Then she added something like this: “Who will deliver me and my people from this law of sin and death that has been uttered in the Emperor's name and cannot be revoked?"
But...
We have traced the events which have led up to a climactic point for Emperor Ahasuerus, Queen Esther, Mordecai, and Haman to the point where the Emperor's eyes had at last been opened. He could now clearly see the true nature of Haman, and the deception which he sought to perpetrate. The king knew that his enemy was the person he once thought to be his closest friend.
Of course, Ahasuerus struggled migh...
We humans frequently manifest a strange urge for timelessness; we possess an instinctive need to be remembered after we are gone. The idea that we will be forgotten is a pain we can hardly sustain.
Yet, in all of human history there has been only one truly timeless, eternal event; it was the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus Christ marks the hinge moment in human history and it passes judgment on eve...
The book of Esther is known as one of two books in the Bible that does not contain the name of God. It seems strange that a biblical book should never mention God; so what is the book about? Well as we have seen, it is really a story of palace intrigue in the ancient empire of Persia, an historical incident taken out of the very distant past. But we should not look for direct teaching from this book, but indirect tea...
The story of Esther is a story of the Emperor of ancient Persia, who married a beautiful Jewish girl named Esther who had been raised by her cousin, Mordecai. The latter two persons were captives, taken from the city of Jerusalem and brought over into the kingdom of Persia.
In the court of this Emperor was a very slimy character named Haman who became the Prime Minister of the kingdom. As time passed, antagon...
At his current place in the=is series of sermons from the story of Esther, our pastor has now introduced to us an Emperor called Ahasuerus. He was the grandfather of Cyrus the Great. This Emperor had married a young Jewish girl named Esther, a captive taken from the city of Jerusalem, years earlier. Her cousin Mordechai later became a judge in the city of Susa the capital city of the Persian Empire.
In the co...
In this series of sermons, our Pastor has introduced us to four characters that play a role in the book of Esther. The first was Emperor Ahasuerus of Persia. He was a young man of about eighteen years of age when the events recorded in the book of Esther begin.
The second was the Queen of Persia, a woman named Vashti. The Emperor deposed her and for the next three years he lived without a queen. But, when the...
Last week, our Pastor began a new series of sermons taken from the book of Esther. In his introductory sermon, he introduced us to three persons, the first being the emperor of Persia, AHASUERUS. Our Pastor suggested that this man represents each one of us. He also introduced two women, a pair of queens, named VASHTI and Esther. Pastor suggested that VASHTI represents our spirit person when it is dormant; dead in tres...
We are beginning the book of Esther, which may be the most neglected book in the entire Bible. You see, very few people have ever attempted a sermon series on it or even a few single sermons from this book because the truth is very few people even read this book as devotional material.
Perhaps this is because this book is different than anything found in the New Testament. In fact, it’s much different from what is fou...
In the last episode we were in 2 Samuel 20, now we are in 2 Samuel 21 and something interesting happens. We get a rather large time flashback. In fact the events we discuss in this episode may have occurred more than 30 years before chapter 20. There are many reasons why this may have happened and why the ancient historians wrote it this way. One might be that we have had quite enough of David and all of his weaknes...
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 thou...
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
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