My New Video Ministry on YouTube

Hey Blogger-World Internet Friends!!

I think that real people may read this with their real eyes and so perhaps this isn't a vain pursuit.  Stevenwaynejones is my new YouTube channel and you can access this at

YouTube.com/user/stevenwaynejones

This new channel will have a variety of videos including short teachings from the Bible that hopefully uplift you and bolster your faith.  I also am sharing with the public my creative gift of Slam Poetry.  If you haven't heard of Slam Poetry just imagine a human taking a poem and then slamming it with their inflection etc.

I want to reach the world with Jesus Christ and so my videos may also include apologetical responses to some of the questions people have about faith and God.  Lastly, I would like to include some goofy and fun things that may entertain and balance my channel offering a lighter side to the weightier topics covered.

I hope that all of you reading this get an opportunity to peruse my channel and if you like my videos then please hit like, click subscribe, and write comments below the video to tell me you are watching and provide any feedback.

I love you guys with the love of Jesus Christ,

Steve Jones

Click here to watch my latest Slam Poem entitled "Overcoming Sin".  It is a heavy one!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpqW7UDpSHo

One Year at LUC Boys Ranch

The last year has been a glorious testimony of God's grace and mercy of Him working in us and through us.  He is doing a work in our lives and preparing us in some unknown, but special ways.  Marilyn and I have enjoyed the opportunity to serve at Lives Under Construction (LUC) Boys ranch for just over a year now.  We are on an Ozark adventure and enjoying God's leading us here.  Marilyn, along with volunteering at the ranch, has also been enjoying her time here as a college student at College of the Ozarks.  She is seeking a double major in Dietetics and Chemistry, which has been tough for even her.  She is such a wonderful student and remains on the president's dean list after two semesters.  I have been working full-time at the ranch primarily as a teacher.  I am learning so much about so much here at the ranch.

The LUC program is so unique in various ways which really defies the world's methods and gives great glory to God.  We truly learn here that God's ways are far above our own ways and His thoughts are far above our thoughts.  One way we see this is that we won't give up or dismiss a boy.  Many boys come here after getting kicked out of other programs and here they find stability and security knowing that we are willing to work with them as long as it takes.  Another credit to God's ways are how we confront the pressure to medicate America's youth.  The thought that a pill (or a dozen pills in some cases) is an effective way to mitigate negative behaviors or temperaments is simply erroneous.  We are losing our youth by chemically altering their personhood.  Our boys at the ranch get off their meds when they come to the ranch and as one boys recently explained, "It is so good to feel like a real person again."  He was referring to the refreshing ability to again express emotions, experience pains and joys, and escape the artificial nature of previous prescriptions.  The mind-altering, and mind-numbing drugs that we give to our kids are demonstrating our lack of ability to properly handle our nation's troubled youth.  False diagnosis is a crutch and is doing nothing but providing excuses to bad behavior.  There are other ways to confront these behaviors than with a doctor's diagnosis followed by pills.

I could go on and on at the neat thing God is doing at the ranch, but I will cut it short only to say that God is doing a special work in these young men's lives and when they surrender to Jesus Christ it is a special joy to see a boy graduate as a radically changed person.  

This last year I have taken up a new hobby of gardening.   I adopted an orphaned greenhouse and revived the soil back in January.  I also chose a small plot of ground fifty feet from our apartment where I prepped the ground in February.  Since then I have met great success and a few failures in producing quite a few crops.  My drive to be in the garden has dwindled some lately due to the terrible heat here in southern Missouri.  I still am able to water and harvest, but it seems like I am always behind the care needed in my garden.  Marilyn and I are loving, however, the ability to eat a meal that we have grown ourselves.  I think God may use this drive to garden in some exciting ways in the years to come.

I am happy to report that Marilyn and I are still in love and our marriage is strong.  This is only a testament to the transforming work of His Spirit.  Our continued patience with one another stems from Marilyn and I both staying immersed in the Word of God where we are then able to reflect God's unconditional love to one another.  When we take our eyes off of Jesus or neglect the Word of God then we are doomed to operate in our selfish human nature.   We must both keep coming back to His Word.  I trust that as long as we stay close to God in the keeping of His Word we will have a wonderful and fruitful future together.  We can do nothing apart from Him.

The school year is about to start and though I still don't know what classes I am teaching I am excited to get back to the school.  Marilyn is excited to start another year as well.

May God richly bless you all as you come to know Him deeper.   May you all surrender to His will knowing that the Word fo God is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword able to discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts.  May God's word fill your heart richly and may you all be doers of the Word and not just hearers only.   May you all shine as lights in this dark world.

The Reliability of the New Testament

              The Bible is the most read and yet likely the most assaulted book to ever have been written.  Many assume, along with popular opinion, false notions about the Bible.  Many of those who reject the Bible affirm such comments as, “the Bible is riddled with contradictions,” or “The Bible is only a fairytale written to control people with religion.”  Many others assume that because science is true the Bible must be false. Often times statements such as these are espoused by individuals who have done no homework in this arena. These people are simply regurgitating opinions heard by popular media sources such as Bill Maher or other ultra-cynics void of good research on the matter.  Popular as they may be, many individuals who hold such cynical views of the Bible ironically have never opened up one of its pages.  When one honestly approaches the Bible in an intellectual way, specifically the New Testament, one will find mountains of support across the board in the fields of science, archeology, history, and manuscript evidence.  The evidence for the reliability of the New Testament continues to increase as experts continue to analyze ancient manuscripts, delve further into the human genome, build bigger telescopes to explore our cosmos, and dig up yet another layer of buried ancient artifacts.  Presuppositions of the Bible being false are crumbling as these discoveries continue.  One needs to explore these findings and weigh the evidence honestly to see if there are good reasons to believe the scriptures to be reliable.  If the Bible is the Word of God, than an eternal consequence awaits the skeptic who does not at least take the time to see if their assumptions may be in error.  

One of the most impressive and convincing proofs to corroborate the writings of the New Testament is what is called manuscript evidence.  Skeptics often assume that since the Bible is so old it could not have preserved what the original authors intended.  The assumption is that it was likely distorted centuries later by megalomaniacs of the Roman empire.  This could not be further from the truth.  One way to test an ancient document like the Bible is by comparing the copies of the documents made across the centuries and across geographical barriers to see how similar they are.   One would need to cross-examine and analyze the copies of the New Testament that were written following the times of Jesus Christ.  

The number of copies is also an important factor with manuscript evidence because, if there are only a few copies dated centuries later, for example, then the likelihood of the copies being distorted increases immensely.  The Quran for example does not even have a manuscript in possession that is dated prior to the eighth century.

  On the other hand, the Bible has literally thousands of such manuscripts, and when compared to the Quran’s big zero you can evaluate the  likelihood of the Quran having not been well preserved from the original.  There is no other ancient text which even compares to that of the Bible in the area of manuscript evidence.  “While Christianity can claim more than 5,300 known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, 10,000 Latin Vulgates and at least 9,300 other early versions, adding up to over 24,000 corroborated New Testament manuscripts still in existence (McDowell 1990:43-55), most of which were written between 25-400 years after the death of Christ (or between the 1st and 5th centuries) (McDowell 1972:39-49), Islam cannot provide a single manuscript until well into the eighth century (Lings & Safadi 1976:17; Schimmel 1984:4-6).”

  

One may say at this point, “Who cares; I am sure that the copies are all full of mistakes, distortions, and manipulations.”  This assumption is also false.  The men who copied these ancient texts carried on the traditions-of-old in copying sacred texts that made any significant errors or distortions virtually impossible.  Modern day textual scholars have inspected these copies letter-by-letter to investigate if indeed Roman megalomaniacs wrote-in their political agendas.  Surely the later copies would bare the marks of distortions when compared to the earlier copies.  These assertions are utterly false.  Secular and non-secular experts of ancient manuscripts hold the New Testament up as the pinnacle example of a well preserved ancient document.  The only errors made across the board of these 24,000 plus manuscripts involve minor errors such as a spelling error here or an inserted participle there and the manuscripts all agree to a 95% to a 99% level of accuracy.  There was no funny-business involved when it came to the copying of the New Testament.  

In addition to all the manuscript evidence are thousands of quotes preserved from early church fathers who knew the apostles and followed directly under their tutelage.  There are so many quotes preserved by these ancient writings that the entire New Testament could be reconstructed by these quotes alone.  A serious skeptic could look at these early quotes and see if they cross-referenced well with the manuscripts of the first few centuries.  As it turns out, they all line up magnificently.  Yet again the Bible triumphs as an ancient document of impeccable integrity.   When one honestly looks at the facts surrounding the ancient document of the New Testament, one must conclude that at the very least, it is an incredibly well preserved account of early Christianity. 

At this point a person may assume something else about these early writings like, “Didn’t these writings get passed down so long after Jesus’ death to be tainted with folklore and myth?”  This assumption is based on extreme liberal scholarship and very minority opinion among experts.  Most respected scholars who study the New Testament concede that the New Testament was written by primarily first-hand eyewitnesses. Also, all 27 books of the New Testament are dated within the first century.  With the exception of Luke, who intended to make an “orderly” and accurate account of interviewing first-hand eyewitnesses, the gospels and the remainder of the New Testament were written by men who followed Christ personally, or in Paul’s case claimed to have personally met the risen Christ through a supernatural encounter.   These men then wrote down their eyewitness testimonies soon after having witnessed the teachings and life of Christ.  

A skeptic may be impressed with the thousands upon thousands of manuscript copies for the New Testament and decide to drop their preconceived negativity they carry against the Bible.  The area of science however, still limits many skeptics from believing the Bible’s claims.  Many atheist and agnostic individuals have enormous hangups over the Bible because they assume that the scientific community, specifically those who promote evolutionary biology, is giving the most likely and accurate explanation for man’s origin.  The Bible is thus thrown out as outdated religion and science is ushered in as the new means of establishing truth claims.    We must at this point ask, “Are science and the Bible diametrically opposed to one another?”  Can both science and the claims of the bible coexist as truth, or can an individual not have one without throwing out the other?  This must be carefully evaluated by the skeptic because if they have miscalculated their assumptions then judgment may await them if they are indeed wrong.  Such an error should be carefully examined.  

Science has limits, which need to be carefully examined before throwing out the Bible as a possibility for truth.  Science, for example, cannot prove or test in a laboratory whether or not a historical event actually happened such as the Holocaust or a car accident three weeks ago.  Evolution therefore is severely limited by scientists who wish to test in a laboratory all the events that took place over what they claim to be billions of years.  Studies such as multiplying fruit flies in a laboratory thousands of times have been conducted to reach some observance of mutations in an effort to test and witness evolution, but no conclusive evidence has resulted.  Extrapolating these results of fruit flies to then deduce that every organism is a result of natural selection, punctuated equilibrium, or a cambrian explosion is a far cry from science in the sense of the scientific method.   The jury is still out when it comes to whether or not the evolutionary theory is indeed true.  Cataloging billions of years of history is extremely problematic for scientists, and the holes remain too profound for one to jump into the evolutionary camp presumptuously.  One would need to suspend judgment on the theory of evolution and explore other plausible explanations.  Further study is needed to explore the lack of transitional forms, the empty fossil record of these forms, and biological concepts such as irreducible complexity.  Many biologist and geneticists are turning to an ideology of intelligent design in response to what science has discovered in the past few decades.  

Are there any reasons to believe that the Bible supports science?  The field of science was birthed out of Christian men seeking to explore and understand God’s creation, so perhaps there is something that the Bible and science can share.  The Bible does in fact make many scientific statements of how our world operates and actually aligns with scientific knowledge in a miraculous manner.   For example, Dr. Lisle in his article “Taking Back Astronomy” writes how the Bible has said for centuries facts about our cosmos that we have only known about for a few hundred years or less.  “It is interesting that many of the Bible’s statements about astronomy went against the generally accepted teachings of the time. Undoubtedly, many of these verses would have seemed counterintuitive, and may have been difficult to believe when they were first written. However, modern science has confirmed what the Bible has taught”

 (Lisle, 2008).  Lisle goes on to describe verses in the Bible that talk about the earth being round, suspended in the universe, and how our universe is expanding.  Such knowledge was unheard of in the times the prophets wrote some of these things.  He also writes about the stars in the sky being innumerable.  This was never a believed concept by the scientific community until our recent age.  The stars in the sky were not only numbered, but named.  Scientists counted them all and had a fixed number, which went against the Bible.  This, however, as we know was debunked with the discovery of a telescope, and science now aligns quite well with the Bible when it says that the stars are more than can be numbered.  

Antagonists of the Bible have also often times spoken out about the places and people listed in the Bible being contrived out of colorful myths to later have their mouths stopped by a man or woman who dug something up in Biblical lands.  The archeological discoveries made in the last two centuries that agree with the scriptures have reached the thousands and are growing almost daily.  Artifacts are unearthed to prove places, people, ancient customs, dates, and events of the ancient world that all coincide perfectly with the biblical account.  There have in fact been no archeological discoveries to contradict scripture, which is a profound notch on the Bible’s historicity belt.  Other religions such as the Book of Mormon have been utterly embarrassed by the fact that none of the peoples, places, or events have ever been discovered in the archeology of the Americas.  Whole civilizations are simply nowhere to be found by archeologists.  This lack of support destroys the credibility of the Book of Mormon almost utterly. The findings of the Bible on the other hand greatly increase its credibility of events being based in good history and accurate geography.  The Bible has been used by more than one archeologist as a map of sorts to find certain locations.  It is truly a remarkable book of history and can be verified through these archeological finds.  A list of some of these cities can be read in detail in Carm.org’s documentation.

An example of how the Bible has been proven in its history and archeology is with the people called the Hittites.  The Hittites are described in the Bible as a whole race of people.  For decades up until the 19^th century, Bible antagonists have touted the Hittites to be proof that the Bible is made-up folklore.  There was nothing known about this civilization except for what was in the Bible.   The Hittite nation was first discovered by a British archeologist named A.H. Sayce in 1876.  In the years to follow, the archeologists unearthed thousands of artifacts including stone tablets containing information such as a treaty between a Hittite king and King Ramses II.

   A whole Hittite city was unearthed and the Hittite people were put on the map officially through this monumental find.  The Bible was confirmed once more by archeology. 

Sodom and Gomorrah is another example of a ridiculed Bible story getting discovered.  The land was unearthed through the early and mid 1900’s by renowned archeologist Dr. William Albright.  The discovery confirmed the Biblical account of a city being burned by fire when they unearthed a massive layer of ashes and burned bodies throughout the city.  Though skeptics may mock the Bible with such accounts of a city burning down as a judgement against sinful people, the evidence of modern discoveries actually confirms this account as being legitimate, factual, and historical.   Archeology has proven thousands of places and people in both the Old and New Testaments.   Archeology has given enormous credibility that the stories in the Bible are not merely stories of tradition, but a recording of what took place in real time; in literal, physical history.  

If skeptics would decide to give the Bible a chance and search to see if its claims are reliable, then they would likely conclude that the men of the New Testament did see Jesus die on a cross and come back to life three days later.  It is likely that their reports of supernatural miracles actually did happen.  The places and times of the Bible can be visited today, and if one looked at the facts with an objective lens and an open heart for truth, then the New Testament would be a document that would likely lead a willing soul to new life found in placing their faith in Jesus Christ.  Through manuscript evidence, scientific agreement, archeology, and history one would be wise to trust the New Testament as a valuable recording of Biblical times.  If the testimonies of the New Testament are in fact true then the result would mean all men everywhere would need to repent and put their trust in the living, risen Savior. 

Three Months Married and Ministry

I am now reflecting back on three months of marriage to Mrs. Jones and rejoicing in God for this new season. We are growing in our relationship to which I can thank God for His foresight and wisdom in selecting my helpmate. Marilyn is my best friend and I am so glad, for the short time we have here on this earth, to grow and learn with her. I am learning a lot from her such as: how to make homemade pizza in thirty minutes and how to decorate using whatever one can find at one's own house. She is an industrious and creative woman. I have lots more to say of this fine specimen, but I will stop here. I love the woman dearly.

Ministry is going well and I am learning a lot as I work as a youth pastor. I love the young humans here on this island and I am praying for God to do God-sized things through me while I am here. I am watching some young people really step up in their faith, which is highly encouraging. I am learning that my own relationship with God is the most important ministry to maintain. Seeking first His kingdom is a must. I am also learning that, as a friend recently told me, of how important it is for the kids and youth-leaders to know that I love them. And converse of that, it is not important that I know I am loved back. I think this reflects the heart of Christ. We have a wonderful leadership team that I am privileged to shepherd. Morgan, Heather, Chelsea, and Jon make a great team. We will dearly miss the ladies over the holidays as they head to the mainland. I pray that this strong base of youth leaders grows even more strong. We are having fun and hopeful for lots of good fruit to come in the coming months.

My work at Scotty Beachside BBQ presents such a dichotomy of monotony and spontaneity as I buss tables some days and do a wide-range of administrative tasks other days. I prefer the latter due to its diversity. And the former....well, I buss tables. I have great bosses and managers and love the ocean-view office I sit at regularly. It sort of pays the bills and I am so grateful to provide for my needs here on Kauai. Marilyn is working at the High School as a lunch lady and one or two days a week she works at Vitamin World. I can thankfully say that she really likes both jobs. This is a huge answer to prayer.

It is an odd thing still for me to live on Kauai. I didn't ever want to particularly live here. It is a blessed little island is so many ways and yet riddled with problems. I feel as a missionary adjusting to the weird environment of a quasi-american, behind-in-the-times, tropical-vacation hot-spot. It is a mix of deep hawaiian culture covered by a thin veneer of commercialism; A mix of aloha and globalism. I pray that God would help me to best help the people of Kauai as long as Marilyn and I stay here. I pray that I would go harder, die deader, and yield fuller to Christ's leading as I stay here. It may be ten months or thirty years, but for now I want to trust Christ with everything.

Married in under forty days

I haven't posted on my blog in about ten months. I have a lot to be thankful for over the past ten months. I am still growing in learning what it means to pastor as I volunteer at Calvary Chapel Kauai. I work at a sweet restaurant (Scotty's BBQ) and live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. I have a ton of reasons to give God thanks and praise. The biggest reason to thank God at the moment is the gift of a wife. "He who finds a wife finds a good thing." She is an amazing gift from God!!!! God is bringing me into the second biggest transition of my entire life: marriage. The wedding day is approaching fast. It feels as if the hourglass as gotten to that last little bit of sand, but continues to surprise you with how it keeps going. I haven't seen my fiancee in over seventy days and the distance is agonizing. It will be here soon enough, but the fact that she is still 6000 miles away makes it ever so hard. The distance has been a great opportunity to stay pure, focus on personal preparations, and as they say, "make the heart grow fonder."

I am learning a lot about the subject of marriage and I am prepared to be rocked to the core. I have read a few books on marriage, gone through biblical, pre-marital counseling, and prayed through a lot regarding my future with Marilyn Huelskamp (soon to be Jones). God has recently led us to find a place to live and this Sunday I can rightly say, "I am going to prepare a place for her." Being a Godly spiritual leader and a loving husband is going to be a great challenge, but all I can say is that "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Only with Jesus will I become the spiritual head God has designed me to be. I praise God for this calling and I can only cry out for His enabling as we take this venture of faith.

I have a myriad of thoughts I would like to continue with. I think I will just stop so blogging won't be a mountain to tackle. Maybe just some quick thoughts....

Hawaii Update: God's Calling

God has called me to pastor His church and I have been so blessed to lead a youth group here at Kauai Calvary Chapel. A timely quote from Pastor Chuck Smith crossed my path one day as I was praying where he said, "just get in and go do what God has called you to do." It was almost too simple, but refreshing to hear God speak to me and give me permission to do what was right. As a pastor, I give you permission today to go do what is right and to go do what God has called you to do.

God has been challenging me with learning to have a healthy and balanced life. I have juggled lots of responsibilities in the past and so this is nothing new to me, but it is all very new at the same time. With ministry, a girlfriend, full-time Bible college, and a part-time job I am learning to establish priorities and be faithful to the little that God has called me to do here. God says that to those who are faithful in the little things, He will make them faithful in much. I urge you to be completely faithful in everything God has put in your path this day. Nothing is little in God's eyes and He is pleased with faithfulness. God is so faithful to us and we get to emulate Him in showing similar faithfulness to the little He has called us to do.

Studying God's word has been amazing as well. God has been revealing so much of His love and character to me that it has driven me to a more meaningful and vibrant relationship with Him. I encourage any person reading this to pursue God through the reading of the scripture and through prayer. God desires a connection with His children more than His children will ever desire that connection. I also encourage you to confess your sins to God daily, remembering the cross and blood of Jesus which cleanses us from all sin. Lastly, I encourage you to offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and practice telling God all that you have to be thankful for. This will lift up your soul and produce great joy to practice thanking God.

If you are reading this and you have NO IDEA what I am talking about and have NO EXPERIENCE with knowing God like I described, then please be reconciled to God through receiving Jesus Christ and the gift of eternal life made possible through His substitutionary death and resurrection. Enter into a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ, God's only mediator between God and man.

Morning Devotional- 9-22-09

Luke 18:15-17

"Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when they saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the dingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."

Jesus says we all must come as a little child. What character traits does an infant possess that is necessary for the Christian to rightly approach Almighty God. The infant expresses utter dependence for his or her every need. We are to cloth our every need in prayer recognizing that everything we have including our next breath is given by God. The attitude of self-sufficiency denies that God knows our needs and denies that God supplies us with our needs in His own timing. Unless one always brings their needs before the Father they cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Another aspect of the infant related to the first is humility of position. The first may be called humility in provision. Humility of position, however, is where the young child clearly reognizes their weakness, smallness, and frailty when compared to the parent. We must see ourselves as we truly are if we are to rightly approach God. We are weak- God supplies us with power and strength via His Holy Spirit and apart from Him we can do nothing good in the Kingdom of God. Coming to God as an infant includes humility of one's position in recognizing we are weak on our own to do God's will. Our smallness also needs to be recognized. When compared to God we are the tiniest of creatures. Our pride would tell us that we are large and in charge of our lives, but Jesus says we must come as an infant- knowing our small stature and weak nature before an all powerful God. We must also, if we are to come to the kingdom of God, recognize like an infant does is our frailty. Even if we are capable of roundhouse-kicks to the face when facing other men; before Almighty God we could be crushed under the weight of His nose hair. God is big and you are not. Last but not least is the infant trusts and can do nothing but trust their lives into their Father's care. Self-willed individuals reject God by making their own plans and refusing to bring them to God in humble prayer. This individual also refuses to line up their plans with God's written revelation found in the Word of God. To recap:

Let God supply our needs

Recognize apart from God you can do nothing

Know that God is big and you are not.

Know that God is strong and you are not

Trust your life into the care of God. He knows better than you do.

Rather than growing up in your own pride, grow down and approach God as a little child. You will by no means enter the kingdom of God unless you do so.