Steve Murrell's Blog, page 15

Finish What You Start

Happy New Year. I hope you had a great time of consecration during our annual week of prayer and fasting.

As we start a new year, I’ve been thinking about how we finish. The creation account in Genesis includes an important aspect of how God finishes something: he rests.

I hope today’s video helps you see how rest is blessed, holy, and godly.

Christmas Messages

As we continue into this Advent season, I want to reshare a couple of videos about the Christmas mission and the blessing of giving.

From the very beginning, the Christmas message is “good news of great joy” and “for all the people” (Luke 2:10–11). Jesus died for all people, and it’s our mission to spread the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth.

May this good news of great joy overflow your home, and may it grow into a passion to reach your cities, campuses, and the nations.

“We Stand in Awe” by Every Nation Music

I have been listening to it since it was one of our songs of the day during our week of prayer and fasting. Worship teams need more banjos.

Lights a Lovely Mile: Collected Sermons of the Church Year by Eugene Peterson

Before Eugene Peterson was a professor and author, he was a preacher. For decades, he faithfully preached in a small church in Maryland in the United States. This book is a collection of his sermons following the church calendar.

View book here →

My belief is quite simply that it is going to take place. Jesus said he would return—­Paul believed it, the early church believed it, and the great majority of Christians ever since have believed it right down to our own day. And I believe it.

Preaching Romans 13:11

“Abide in You” by Every Nation Music | Live at Go 2023

This song off of the Generations album was recorded live at Go 2023. It was wonderful being able to worship with our Every Nation family from around the world.

Discipleship & the Power of God

Church: Trinity Dallas

2024 Prayer & Fasting Playlist

Our Every Nation Music team has created an official playlist for our annual week of prayer, fasting, and consecration. I hope these songs from our Every Nation churches will encourage you as we focus on our 2024 global theme of Set Apart—A Biblical View of Holiness.

You can find charts for these songs on our Every Nation Music website.

Advent Devotionals

To “get in the Christmas spirit,” some people watch Hallmark movies, others drink burnt coffee out of red cups, but I read Advent devotionals.

This year, I’m going back and forth between these two: Watch for the Light and Joy to the World.

I recommend both, but personally prefer the one based on Charles Spurgeon’s sermons.

View book here →
And here →

The Word of Faith

In Romans 10, Paul writes about the “word of faith.”

That biblical phrase causes some people to react violently as if the mere utterance of “word of faith” is a damnable heresy. Others so abuse the phrase that it seems they think of God as their personal genie or banker.

In this week’s Think Like a Leader message, go straight to Scripture to see what Paul actually said about the “word of faith.”

Our job as leaders is to think Scripturally and preach the Word. I trust that you will not only walk by faith but will also preach faith.

“W.O.W.” by AWAKE84

Here’s the newest release from AWAKE84, a campus worship band from the Philippines.