Bible

2 Years of Silence by Believe Better Ministries

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

Well, hello!

It has been over – well over – two years since I updated this ministerial page. I must apologize. I have allowed this to slip over the past two years. Let me start off by telling you what I have been doing over the past two years:

Since, about, 2019 I joined the speakers rotations at Willamette Bible Chapel. I have noted this before here and you can see some of my sermons on the Believe Better Ministries YouTube Channel. However, this has caused me to have a lot more time dedicated the study and exegesis of the Word at the local level, rather than having time to write, blog, and record videos. I would like to have more time to do these things, but I simply cannot. I plan in – Lord willing – to return to some of these things in 2025. I hope to get better at putting more info, both as articles (i.e. blog posts) and videos in the upcoming year, but we will deal with this later.

I have continued to write, but most of it has been personal studies. I am still working on my commentary series and other things, but haven’t had much time. Also, many of you know I am a father of young daughter. I am currently a stay at home dad, and we have 9⅓ acres out in the country which is a lot of work. As I think of ’22, ’23, and ’24 I think a lot of the local context. This has been my major focus. As things in life change, I have had to minimize my focus down to what is needed. I have had to turn focus to family – both blood relations and spiritual relations – in order to see the Lord’s movement. To that end the project here has fallen by the wayside. I apologize for that. It was not intentional. I looked through my journal the other day and ruminated on the past three years. (2022–2024). I have had three main focus points: Studying the Word of God, Family, and writing. Some of the wiring is spiritual and I will share it here – eventually – a lot of it is fiction.

If you didn’t already know, I have deep love for science-fiction. I have wanted to be an author my whole life. I have tried to keep my spiritual Christian writings separate from my fictional writings. However, most of what I worked on over the last few years has been fictional. I am working on a few Christian things, but most of my writing has been as an outlet while the rest of my time has been eaten up by taking care of family and studying.

Well, that about sums up the past several years. As we look forward to the next several, I’m excited. The Lord has done so much in my life over the past few years. I’ve seen miracles not just in my spiritual growth, but also in my health. I’ve been so touched by the Lord and has work. I want to express as much of that as I can. This means I hope to put more writing out on the subject. I have some ideas. We’ll see where the Lord leads. I, also, want to get back to the BSB Bible Study series. My current plan for that is to start from square one and redo the whole thing.

Well, that is my quick update which doesn’t adequately cover what has been happening over the course of the past couple years. I hope this finds you well. As always I hope you are in the Word and you are being encouraged to Believe in Something Better.

Believe Better Ministries 2022 and Beyond

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

Hello everyone!

This ministry is not forgotten! It has not been abandoned. I – RB – am working heavily behind the scenes. I have three big projects in the queue right now. The first being a book (our first to be published) titled The God Who Cares, the second and third being books as well (one a basic presentation of the Gospel and Christianity, the second is a commentary). However, I have changed my position in my local assembly. I am now one of those in rotation for teaching at my local assembly. You can see some of these if you go to our YouTube Channel.

This brings us to the major point of this update: We will be utilizing our YouTube Channel much more heavily starting in 2022. We’re going to be starting a new series starting the first week of January 2022. It will be a Bible Reading/Study series. We are tentatively titling it the Believe Something Better Bible Study Series. It will be two short videos a week. The first being a reading video (tentatively titled: “Read w/Me”) where I will read aloud a portion of the Bible (usually no shorter than a chapter). This video will be followed by a short expository/exegetical video later in the week (tentatively titled BSB Study). The plan is to continue this from the first week of January through the last week of November. You see we will not be putting out a video in December. This will be our season break so as to spend time with family.

We hope you will enjoy this series. This series does not mean I will be stopping other projects. It simply means I will be putting more time in on the ministry and more time into visible projects for the ministry.

Finally, we have also have a new BSB Reading plan coming out on December 15th, 2021. We are thinking of this as the BSB Reading Plan 2.0. It is not to replace the original Bible Reading Plan we put out earlier this year, but a second one to add to your rotation. We have spent the year beta testing this new plan and feel it is a great different plan from the one we already were using and put out. We look forward to you getting it in your hands in time for you to use it next year.

That is it for our update. We hope this finds you well and we hope and pray now as always that we have helped you to Believe in Something Better.

New Year’s Thought – 2020

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

Today’s thought is not merely a New Year’s Thought but a New Decade’s Thought. Most of my day has been given over to thinking over the last decade and looking forward to the next. As I think of this last decade, I see the bounty of the Lord God in my life over this time. I see how the Lord fulfilled so many things and answered so many prayers (even secret prayers)*. My marriage, my daughter, our house, and my being in ministry are the largest ones I think of, but there are really too many to count when it comes right down to it.

The Lord has been so gracious to me. But when I think of this next decade, I’m saddened. I see trends which as I look at the previous two decades started when I was still a child. I see these trends continuing even as I pray over them with tears flowing down my cheeks. The first issue I am thinking of is the preeminence of culture over the preeminence of Scripture in the Body of Christ (the Church). This one is a huge one for me. I love the Word of God. I am in it daily and am continually learning more and more about it.

This trend has brought in so much pain and will bring more. It won’t stop, but I fear it is going to continue to the Lord Jesus’ return. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:3: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,” (NKJV). This apostasy from the Body will first take place within the Church and this is what we are seeing, and it breaks my heart. We need to stand firm on the Word of God as we come into this third decade of the third millennium.

Now, let us remember how we are to go about this. To be clear truth (which could also be called doctrine) is important! However, love is the primary doctrine. We must make sure we speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). I want to repeat that: We must make sure we speak the truth in love. Staying silent is not loving someone. Staying silent is allowing someone to run after the lusts of flesh rather than the Spirit. At our assembly, we are in studying through Romans. In Romans 8 we see the difference between someone the mind on the flesh and the mind on the Spirit.

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8 ESV) This is what is so important for us to see. Are we focused on our rebellion – our sin? Or are we focused on the Spirit – that is God?

Let us focus on this as we move into the new year and the new decade. May we see a beautiful returning to the Word of God on which we must stand firm. We cannot give up the Word for our culture. If we take the culture over Scripture how soon will it be before we give up Christ as the only way to the Father? Or give up our ability to call people to come to Christ? Let us remember the history of the Church and how in early centuries they found trouble for themselves because they would not say, “Καῖσαρ κύριος” (Caesar is Lord) but instead said, “Ἰησοῦς κύριος” (Jesus is Lord). Can we admit we are submitting ourselves to the Lord Jesus’ will – which is to do the will of the Father – when we bow our knees to the secular culture of the day?

Beloved, speak the truth in love and stand firm on the Bible. Maybe we will see a revival in our day and people returning to God rather than a continued apostasy!

*          To be clear I believe God answers all prayers, but what I mean at this moment is
answered the way in which I asked, or answered in the affirmative.