Bible Insights For Making Life Work
Hi, I’m Brian Jones- author, Bible teacher, and founding pastor of Christ’s Church of the Valley near Philadelphia. I’m the author of four books, and for 36 years, I’ve helped people meet Jesus, grow spiritually, and live lives that matter. Subscribe to my twice-monthly newsletter at pastorbrianjones.substack.com and get my free eBook Why Some People Will Never Be Happy.
Oswald Chambers wrote, “It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. Through every cloud He brings our way, He wants us to unlearn something.” What’s the main thing that God is wanting you to “unlearn” in the midst of your current difficulties? And better yet, are you taking the necessary steps to unlearn those things and replace them with new habits and ideas?
Worry is nothing more than losing sight of the fact that God is in control. God never promised that everything would be perfect, but He did promise to always be with us. If worry is your default mode in times like these, this message is for you.
In times of trouble and uncertainty, where do you turn? Psalm 46 gives us the road map to follow, each and every time we are afraid.
Throughout his journeys, the apostle Paul faced opposition in every single place he went. But he kept going because he knew – even in a place like Corinth – when the power of God is at work, people respond to the gospel.
When you find yourself in a difficult spot, what’s your natural reaction? Do you shrink back, do you lash out, or do you…approach God in worship? We look at the example of how the Apostle Paul reacted in the face of hardship, and what that means for us in 2020, during week one of, “This Is How I Fight My Battles.”
A lot of marital heartbreak can be avoided if, before you say “I do,” you consider what the Bible says are four “musts” your future spouse ought to be. If you’re single or dating, and hoping to get married at some point (or if you know someone in this situation), this message is for you.
Anyone can build a great marriage. As those of us who are married know, that’s way easier said than done. For marriages that last, there’s ONE choice that couples make that makes all the difference. Not making this choice results in bitterness and in most cases, leads to divorce. I share that one thing in week two of our teaching series, “Love, Dates and Heartbreaks.”
Whether you’re in a romantic relationship, want to be in one, hope to be and are trying to figure things out, you know this to be true: relationships can be complicated. The ones that last, though, are the ones where the people in them practice not quitting.
How to uncover the real meaning of Christmas so we can approach this season the way Jesus would want us to.
To be the kind of parent God wants you to be - and that your children need you to be - requires you to learn to handle (and express) your anger the right way. I talk about what that looks like through the words of James in week two of our series, “Deal With It.”
When we get to the end of our lives, what will matter? Will the car we drove or the house we lived in or the things we bought for ourselves be what matters? Or will it only be the people that we reached for God’s Kingdom that will last for eternity? Jesus challenges us to use our resources and ‘make a splash’ with our lives as we conclude our series “Cannonball.”
What if...? What if we obeyed Jesus’ words and went “all in” to follow Him? What if we took a leap, gave sacrificially, and did the things we once did to reach people for God’s Kingdom? Here’s week three of our teaching series Cannonball.
When’s the last time you were truly excited about your faith and about being a part of Jesus’ church? Over the past 20 years, God has used the people of CCV to accomplish some incredible things – over 2500 people baptized, that many baptized in churches we’ve helped start around the world, homes built, lives restored. But what if the best was still to come?
The difference between the life we’re living and the life we’ve always wanted to is doing the right things over and over again. It’s replacing the wrong things with the right things, and (with God’s help) being consistent in those right things. Here’s week one from our teaching series, “That Thing You Keep Doing.”
One of the biggest barriers to faith is the absolute “certainty” many people have about there not being a God, Jesus not being real, the stories in the Bible being made up, etc. But what happens when you are introduced to a new insight, a new understanding, that changes the way you think? We examine what it looks like when those types of experiences occur in week two of, “The Case For Christ.”
There are lots of different viewpoints on who Jesus is. Some think he’s an outdated religious idea from a long-passed era. Others think of him as a strong-arm tactic to get people to do what they would otherwise not want to do. Maybe you think of him as a “grand fairy in the sky” who will give you stuff when you really need it or when your back is up against the wall. All of these ideas of who Jesus is are popular and widely held, but are just plain wrong. Looking for the real Jesus? It starts b...
Here's Brian's message from August 25, 2019 - week two of our teaching series "Redemption Story."
What type of family did you grow up with? And how do you think that family shaped the person you are today? Here's Brian's message from Sunday, August 18, 2019 as part of our series, "Redemption Story."
Here’s my message from Sunday. Sometimes in life we make the right decisions. Other times, we need to look at the wrong decisions we’ve made and make them right.
One of my favorite children’s stories is Dr. Seuss’ 1940 classic, “Horton Hatches the Egg.” In there is the famous line that Horton repeats over and over: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent.” This level of faithfulness is displayed in the Old Testament narrative of Ruth. Ruth is a model for how we ought to view the relationships we have with the people we love. Even if you haven’t always been a model husband/wife/father/mother, etc., you’ll ...
There’s a direct connection between what we allow to enter into our minds, and what goes on inside of us. Jesus says it this way in the Sermon on the Mount: “If your eye is bad, your whole body will be in the dark” (Matthew 6:23). Here’s what it looks like for you to rise up against depression in week two of our series, “Rise Up.”
1 John 2:6 tells us that, “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” I’ve always understood this verse to mean that Jesus’ followers must act (morally speaking) the way Jesus acted – loving the poor, evangelizing the lost. But what would it look like if every area of our lives was spent emulating how Jesus lived his life here on earth? I explain what I mean, and the implications for all of us, in this first message from our new series, “Rise Up.”
There’s one spiritual discipline that often goes overlooked, and yet might be the most powerful way to change your life, your outlook, and your current situation: fasting. Here’s why you should consider fasting, when and how you ought to do it, and what happens when we give something up in order to hear from God.
God has a dream for every single one of us. A lot of times we think it’s a certain destination. But what if it’s more about the journey? And what if the things you’ve experienced up to this point were all meant to lead you to exactly where you find yourself now? We look at the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis, and the way God works in all of our lives in week one of our series,” What is God’s Dream For My Life?”
After Jesus rose from the dead, he sent his followers out and the early church exploded with growth. There was ONE THING that could stop the spread of the gospel in its tracks – and it almost succeeded. We explore the Apostle John’s response to this challenge (and what it means to us today) in week one of our series, “Can’t Buy Me Love.”
In his gospel, Matthew captures what Jesus' followers experienced as they discovered that he HAD INDEED raised from the dead. My favorite part of this message? The response of a whole bunch of people who made the decision to follow Jesus and be baptized. What a way to end to an amazing Easter at CCV!
