I am a student of God’s word the Bible and love to learn about the history, culture, and context of its contents. It is very exciting to me to gain understanding of the Scriptures because I realize that it is the Holy Spirit’s job to lead us into all truth and give illumination to the Scriptures.
I believe that the Scriptures are inspired, inerrant, and preserved in the original languages (Greek and Hebrew) through God’s power.
I believe that translations of the manuscripts into the English language are useful tools to help us understand the meaning of the Scriptures, and that some may be better than others, but they all should be checked against the original languages.
I primarily use the New King James Version for teaching and preaching, but I refer to other translations as well when I find them helpful. I want to honor the Scriptures as God-given in my teaching and preaching.
I also believe that the Scriptures are the authority for faith and practice in the believer’s life, and that all believers, including the pastor or preacher, are accountable to the Scriptures. I want to honor the authority of the Scriptures in my teaching and preaching.
I teach and preach through the Bible in the church that I pastor. We are going through the Old Testament on Wednesday nights and the New Testament on Sunday nights. We look at every chapter and every verse. We don’t skip “the hard stuff”! What I have found is that there is an incredible balance to the Scriptures and that as you travel through it, you will see that the pieces fit together, and that you are always building on the foundation that Scripture has previously laid. I have also found that this way of teaching opens up the Jewishness of the Scriptures, and reveals God’s great promises to Israel through His covenants, and how He has made a way for Gentile believers to enter into the New Covenant with Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah. I put an emphasis on culture and meaning so that we can understand what the Scripture is saying to us.
I will be posting teachings from our church services for you to listen to. I hope that you find them helpful. It’s my desire to present the Scriptures in a balanced way and “rightly divided”. You can access teachings and sermons on the SERMONS tab in the Menu above.
So that is my philosophy of teaching and preaching. I am a Christian (perhaps born-again believer is a better term), a Baptist, a pastor of a small church in the deep south of Mississippi. And yes, I am very country, as my accent will reveal! I am not very polished or professional in my presentation, but I hope that you can sense in the messages my heart for people and my love for the Lord and the Holy Scriptures. It’s what I call “down home style”!
May God bless you as you seek Him!
Bro. Joseph Beall
“Pastor In Plaid”