Lenten Devotional #3 • Justin Whitener

Read Luke 11:29-32 Bill Engvall was a hilarious comedian I could relate to growing up in the mid 90’s.  Here is one of his jokes: “a trucker gets his truck stuck under an overpass, and the responding policeman asks “Hey, you get your truck stuck?” Without missing a beat, the trucker answers, “No sir, I was delivering that overpass and I …

Lenten Devotional #2 • Ana Schweikert

Read Matthew 6:7-15 and Habakkuk 3 When I first chose to write a devotional about the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:7-15), I didn’t know a revival was about to break out among university students in America. I didn’t know young people who were normally bored with chapel services would suddenly linger at the altar for hours, praying and weeping over their …

Lenten Devotional #1 • Jonathan Pugh

Read Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus begins Matthew 25 with two parables that speak of the reality of divine judgment. In the parable of the ten virgins, he speaks of five who are prepared and waiting for the bridegroom to come. The other five virgins are unprepared and are shut out of the feast that was supposed to be a celebration of …

Galatians 1:1-5 Discussion Guide

Some scholars believe that Galatians is one of the first, if not the first, of the New Testamentbooks to be written. There is zero debate among any Biblical scholars. that it was written by theApostle Paul and that it reflects his concerns for the church in his day. Even some of the mostradically anti-Christian skeptics who study the New Testament …

A Redeemer and a King

Today’s sermon and discussion guide will tie together to conclude all of the multiple layers of themes that we have seen in the short book of Ruth. Take time in your group to review some of the things that we have learned so far. Today we will focus on the many ways that God provides for his people. He has …

Love is Patient

In the first two chapters of Ruth we have seen the loving characters of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. The love they exhibit is not tied strictly to feeling or emotion, but to faith in knowing the character of God.  In Ruth 3 we begin to see some action taken out of the preexisting character of love that is already seen …

New Trustee Appointment

We’re blessed at Venture to have Trustees who have the spiritual maturity and special skills and experience to help plan, execute, and monitor our finances rigorously.  As a group, they work diligently throughout the year to help us ensure we’re being God-honoring and wise in our finances. The Pastors of Venture enthusiastically recommend Eric Plemmons to the church to serve …

Defining Love

We live in a culture where people claim very much to adhere to the concept of love. Love is still the number one subject of popular songs. People still watch movies and TV shows that are love stories.  Despite all the professed “love for love” that is in the world, we have a great lack of understanding for what love …

How Are You Living?

This week is the last week in which Venture is learning from 1 Peter in our sermon series. The context of 1 Peter has been to churches living in community with one another as they are being cancelled by the outside world.  Remarkably, most of what Peter has to say to the believers under pressure has very little to do …

Pastors in 1 Peter

Many people have commented over recent years that in the western world there is a crisis of understanding the nature of the church. It could also be said that wherever there is a crisis understanding the nature of the church that there is usually also a crisis in the understanding of the role of a pastor. While there are stories …