{"id":5496,"date":"2016-09-26T09:50:48","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T15:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/?p=5496"},"modified":"2020-09-23T15:14:42","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T21:14:42","slug":"it-all-points-to-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/26\/it-all-points-to-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"It all points to Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5497\" src=\"http:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image-1.jpg\" alt=\"image-1\" width=\"1400\" height=\"932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image-1.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image-1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image-1-1200x799.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a>A chronological and systematic approach to presenting the Bible&#8217;s message is not only invaluable for leading unbelievers to understand the gospel. It is also a powerful means of establishing believers in their faith and preparing them to share the gospel with others. We recently heard of a pastor who recognizes this. As a result he has used <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/by-this-name\"><em>By This Name<\/em><\/a> to disciple his congregation.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Craig* started by using <em>By This Name<\/em> as the springboard for a 14-week sermon series. He wrote to us: \u201cI had the congregation read a chapter of <em>By this Name<\/em> each week as well as scriptures related to the topic of the chapter. I preached on scriptures related to the chapters. Each home group discussed what they were learning from the book and the scriptures they were reading.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This sermon series was an Old Testament survey\u2014with the specific goal of revealing Jesus Christ in clarity and simplicity. Pastor Craig titled the series \u201cIt All Points to Jesus\u201d to emphasize that the Old Testament is not just a conglomeration of random stories, but the critical basis to understanding the identity and work of Jesus.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u201cThe newer believers loved the series. Some said it was too basic,\u201d Craig wrote. \u201cBut I emphasized from the beginning that this is a way to see how the entire Bible flows together as one story, and we need to understand the background of the gospel to share it clearly with those who don&#8217;t know Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As an outflow of the series and study, Pastor Craig encouraged his congregants to find unbelievers or new Christians and read together <em>By This Name<\/em>. The church offered copies of the book in the back lobby of their church and they sold more than 300 copies. One man bought ten copies to give to all of his family members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen there was a new believer in our church, I would have someone read <em>By this Name<\/em> with them,\u201d Pastor Craig said. \u201cI also read <em>By this Name<\/em> with several individuals to encourage their faith. I truly love the book!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is exciting to hear of a church being equipped to share the good news of the gospel. If you are interested in how GoodSeed tools and resources can help your church in its evangelism and discipleship initiatives, check out: <a class=\"urlextern\" title=\"http:\/\/goodseed.com\/how-to-train-your-church.html\" href=\"http:\/\/goodseed.com\/how-to-train-your-church.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">How GoodSeed tools can help you train your church in the gospel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>(*Names changed as per GoodSeed policy.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A chronological and systematic approach to presenting the Bible&#8217;s message is not only invaluable for leading unbelievers to understand the gospel. It is also a powerful means of establishing believers in their faith and preparing them to share the gospel with others. We recently heard of a pastor who recognizes this. As a result he &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/26\/it-all-points-to-jesus\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;It all points to Jesus&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,43,14,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-this-name","category-discipleship","category-give-away-the-gospel","category-testimonies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5498,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5496\/revisions\/5498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodseed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}