Journey to The Journey

One thing that we learned while studying through 1 Timothy is that doctrine is important. Not everybody perks up when they hear the word doctrine but what you believe & understand about God's word will have a HUGE impact on how you worship Jesus.

Our time together in the book of 1 Timothy was such a blessing to us at The Journey. As mentioned at the beginning of the series, anywhere that the advancement of the Gospel has been compromised by worldly behavior, the letter of 1 Timothy has profound relevance. With that said, this letter is useful and applicable... well, anywhere. So if you're looking for a book of the Bible that calls us to a godly lifestyle for the sake of the Gospel, look no further.

Written by a disciple of Jesus, in John we find the "cliff notes" on the life of Christ and the "encyclopedia brittanica" of what these events mean to our lives. Set apart from the synoptic gospels, John plucks 20-21 days out of the life of Christ to compel his readers to examine the evidence of Christ’s life, put faith in His works, and live a life led by God the Holy Spirit.

With that said, on December 23rd we are starting through the Gospel of John! Perhaps we can view this new venture as a Christmas gift to our church family. Though any book of the bible would be profitable, after much prayer, thought, and counsel I’m thrilled about the treasures of wisdom that await us down this path.

Praying these simple thoughts encourage people towards Jesus.

On one hand, I get it. The church is full of sinful people (Romans 3:23) and anytime you consistently gather sinful people together they will inevitably sin against each other. So this anti-church mentality does come with a bit of "righteous" anger since we are instructed to hate sin. Nobody enjoys being sinned against.

The Journey Kids ministry team is eager to help disciple your kids and the ESV Children's Bible is a great tool for both parties to utilize. We'd encourage you to pick one up. I found a great used one on amazon.com for $10.

Let me warn you, preaching verse by verse through this book will undoubtedly be received as offensive to some. The reason for this letter's offensiveness in Paul's day is that it's teaching went against the grain of their ancient culture. With that said, make no mistake, this book will seriously clash with the expectations of our modern day culture as well.

With that said, we are now working on the next phase of outreach and discipleship. During the remainder of September and beginning of October we are launching several Journey Groups. Our first Journey group (college guys) launched 2 weeks ago, we have another group (for college girls on Marietta College's campus) launching tomorrow, and 2 more groups (for families) launching in 2 weeks.

Several doors opened and several doors shut during our search for a launching location. However, God is faithful and we feel as though He has led us to just the right spot! We couldn't be more excited to start here and feel as though this location will greatly assist our proclamation of the Gospel in the Mid-Ohio Valley.