The Bible is one of the most fascinating books ever written. It is simple enough to be understood by a child, yet profound enough to occupy the attention of scholars for a lifetime. At first glance, it appears to be a collection of stories, poems, prophecies, letters, and historical accounts. Yet beneath all these lies a single, unifying message: God’s redemptive plan for humanity through Jesus Christ.

From the opening chapters of Genesis to the closing verses of Revelation, Scripture tells one grand story. Every promise, every sacrifice, every covenant, and every prophecy points toward Christ. The Old Testament anticipates His coming; the New Testament reveals Him in fullness. What was once concealed in shadows becomes unmistakably clear in the person of Jesus.

When we arrive at the New Testament, the story begins to unfold with remarkable clarity through the four Gospels. Here, the promised Messiah steps into history. We witness His birth, hear His teachings, observe His miracles, and ultimately behold His death and resurrection. Through His earthly ministry, Christ accomplishes the work of redemption and entrusts His followers with the responsibility of carrying that message to the ends of the earth.

The Message of the Gospels

Although there are four Gospel accounts, they tell one story. Each writer presents the same Christ, yet each writes with a distinct audience and purpose in mind.

Matthew primarily writes to a Jewish audience and presents Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. From the very beginning, he establishes Christ’s royal credentials by tracing His genealogy through Abraham and David, reminding his readers that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. Matthew’s Gospel repeatedly demonstrates that Christ is the King whom the prophets foretold.

Mark approaches the story from a different angle. Writing to a Roman audience, he presents Jesus as the Servant-Messiah, a man of action carrying out the urgent mission of redemption. The narrative moves quickly, emphasizing what Jesus did rather than lengthy discourses. Here, Christ is portrayed as the obedient servant who came not to be served but to serve.

Luke, writing to Theophilus and a broader Gentile audience, presents Jesus as the perfect Son of Man. Unlike Matthew, who traces Christ’s genealogy to Abraham, Luke traces it all the way back to Adam. In doing so, he emphasizes a powerful truth: Jesus did not come merely for one nation or one people group. He came for all humanity.

Because Matthew, Mark, and Luke share many similarities in structure, content, and perspective, they are often referred to as the Synoptic Gospels. Yet standing alongside them is a Gospel that feels remarkably different.

The Gospel of John.

Simple enough for a new believer to read, yet deep enough to occupy a lifetime of study.

What Makes the Gospel of John So Special?

John’s Gospel is unlike the others.

While the Synoptic writers focus primarily on the events of Christ’s ministry, John is deeply concerned with revealing Christ’s identity. Every conversation, every encounter, every miracle, and every discourse is carefully selected to answer a single question:

Who is Jesus?

The opening verses leave no room for uncertainty.

Before introducing Jesus as a teacher, miracle worker, or Messiah, John introduces Him as God Himself. It is a staggering claim. If Jesus is truly divine, then the evidence must support that claim. John understands this burden and structures his Gospel accordingly.

Toward the end of the book, he reveals the purpose behind everything he has written:

John makes it clear that his Gospel is selective. He is not attempting to record every miracle Jesus performed. Rather, he carefully chooses specific signs that reveal the true identity of Christ.

These signs are not merely demonstrations of power. They are revelations. They point beyond themselves to a deeper reality. They are evidence intended to lead the reader to faith.

In Jewish thought, the number seven often symbolizes completeness or perfection. It is therefore significant that John highlights seven major signs during Christ’s earthly ministry. Together, these signs form a compelling testimony that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be.

Many theologians divide the Gospel of John into four major sections:

1. John 1:1–18 — The Prologue

2. John 2–12 — The Book of Signs

3. John 13–20 — The Book of Glory

4. John 21 — The Epilogue

The resurrection of Christ is sometimes considered an eighth sign because it stands as the ultimate confirmation of His identity. Likewise, the miraculous catch of 153 fish in John 21 remains a remarkable miracle. However, both events occur after Christ’s glorification and are generally distinguished from the seven signs that shape the Book of Signs.

The Signs of Jesus According to John

From the very first chapter, John boldly declares the divinity of Christ. Yet he does not expect his readers to accept that claim blindly. Instead, he invites them to examine the evidence.

Each sign serves as a witness.

Water is turned into wine.

A dying boy is restored.

A crippled man walks.

Thousands are fed.

The blind receive sight.

The dead are raised.

With every sign, the question becomes harder to ignore.

Who is this man?

Who speaks with authority over sickness, nature, creation, and even death itself?

John’s answer remains consistent throughout the Gospel: Jesus is not merely a prophet, teacher, or miracle worker. He is the Christ, the Son of God.

The signs are not recorded to inspire amazement. They are recorded to produce belief. They invite every reader to look beyond the miracle and behold the One performing it.

For John, the greatest miracle is not that water became wine or that Lazarus walked out of a tomb.

The greatest miracle is that through these signs, men and women come to recognize Jesus for who He truly is and find life in His name.

Action Point

Perhaps the greatest invitation of this study is not merely to learn more about Jesus, but to know Him more deeply; not merely to understand His works, but to trust His heart; not merely to admire His power, but to surrender to His Lordship.

As you read through the Gospel of John this week, ask yourself: Who is Jesus to me? Have I reduced Him to a teacher, a helper, or a miracle worker, or have I truly come to know Him as the Son of God and the source of life?

Take time to prayerfully read John 1 and reflect on the claims John makes about Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to you afresh—not simply as a subject to be studied, but as a Saviour to be loved, followed, and obeyed.

May this study lead us beyond knowledge into intimacy, beyond curiosity into conviction, and beyond admiration into wholehearted devotion.

In the next part of this series, we will examine each of the seven signs in detail and explore how every one of them reveals a different aspect of Christ's divine nature, ultimately leading us to the same conclusion John intended from the beginning: Jesus is the Son of God, and in Him alone is life.

You asked. We answered. Part 2. 🙌🏽

In Part 1, we covered drawing closer to God, dreams and spirituality, consistency in Bible reading, marriage, and appointed times for growth. If you missed it, the link is below.

In Part 2, the team goes into the harder questions. They trace the full history of head covering—from Deuteronomy 22, through the Greco-Roman world, through Tertullian and the early church fathers, through the Catholic Church’s 1917 Canon Law mandate, all the way to Vatican Two and the 1983 revised Canon that made it optional. They show you what Paul actually said and why context changes everything.

Then they answer a question about a heart that has grown hard and hateful, and Omonokhua answered it in a way that is going to stay with you.

And they close with a question about anger at God. Kareem answered it from the deepest place of his own life. Losing his mother. Starting over with nothing. The darkness he walked through. And what he found on the other side.

This is not the end of your story. God is still writing it.

References

Concerning Leadings and Perceptions — Pst Chris Segun Onayinka

Now Are We in Zion — New Testament Ministry of Angels — Pst Chris Segun Onayinka

Supernatural Burdens in Prayer — Bible Study with OBS

Capite Velato

The OBS Team is currently writing a research paper on the covering of the head in a fuller cultural and historical context. We will be posting the link on our Substack once it is ready.

And if you have more questions, the form is still open. Bring them.

Submit your question here

You asked. We answered. 🙌🏽

Last month, we opened a form and told you to bring your questions about God, faith, the Bible, or anything. You did. And today, Jesutoni, Kareem, Omonokhua, Ayo, and Joshua sat down to go through them together.

They talked about why drawing close to God can feel like the hardest thing in the world and why that feeling is not always telling you the truth. They unpack what your dreams do and do not reveal about your spirituality. They addressed whether it is a sin not to want to get married. And they took on the question of whether there is an appointed time for your spiritual growth—and why waiting for it is not the answer.

This is what OBS exists for. Bring your questions. The Word of God is big enough for all of them.

We put our answers in a document. You can download it from the link below.

OBS QA Responses May 2026

References

Concerning Leadings and Perceptions — Pst Chris Segun Onayinka

Now Are We in Zion — New Testament Ministry of Angels — Pst Chris Segun Onayinka

Supernatural Burdens in Prayer — Bible Study with OBS

Capite Velato

The OBS Team is currently writing a research paper on the covering of the head in a fuller cultural and historical context. We will be posting the link on our Substack once it is ready.

And if you have more questions, the form is still open. Bring them.

Submit your question here

Have you ever been in a room, a conversation, or a quiet moment alone, and a question about God, faith, or the Bible crossed your mind — and you just did not know where to take it?

You are not the only one.

Some of the most important conversations in the history of the faith started with someone being brave enough to ask. Nicodemus came at night with questions. The Ethiopian eunuch was reading and did not understand. The disciples pulled Jesus aside after the crowds left and said, explain this to us.

Questions are not a sign of weak faith. They are often a sign that something real is happening inside you.

At OBS, we are creating a space for exactly that. A space where your questions meet Scripture, where nothing is too basic, too bold, or too complicated to bring. Our team will go through every question submitted and respond with answers grounded in the Word of God and led by the Spirit.

If there is something you have been carrying, now is the time to drop it.

Submit your question here: https://forms.gle/jJgAtXUreZdLq6h37

What actually happens when you pray?

In the final episode of their prayer series, Jesutoni and Kareem are joined by a guest, one of Jesutoni's closest friends, Ifeoluwa Ilori, and together they answer that question with stories that are almost impossible to believe except that they happened.

A woman on a prayer walk who entered an uncompleted building and found a man about to take his life. A dream about a girl with a mental illness and a borrowed pen returned to a chapel that led to meeting that exact girl the very next day. A man healed of a hernia after Jesutoni prayed for someone with stomach pain and did not know the two were connected. A stranger on a roadside was healed of a growth on his head in three minutes. A man on a Sunday evening who had no reason to go out and pray and came home with fried rice and a testimony.

They also talk honestly about the times prayer did not produce what you expected. About a friend who fasted ten days before a meeting and felt God did not show up the way she had envisioned. And why what God did instead was actually the point all along.

The episode ends with James 5:16. The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. When put into action and made effective by God, it is dynamic and can have tremendous power.

Prayer has results. Every single time. Even when you cannot see them

The Great Commission makes God’s instruction unmistakable: every believer is called to share the gospel. Evangelism is not a task for only pastors or missionaries but is a calling for all who follow Christ.

We might think it requires special talent or perfect knowledge, but Jesus gave this command to ordinary people: fishermen, tax collectors, and everyday followers.

Jesus also gives a promise alongside the command:

This means we go in His authority and presence, not in our own strength.

It is important to remember that the pressure to convince does not rest on us. Our role is not to change hearts. Our role is to faithfully proclaim the message. God alone brings conviction, and God alone saves.

Where do I start from?

Jesus’ final words to His disciples were to go into all the world. But in Acts 1:8, He says something that must not be skipped over.

He does not begin with the ends of the earth. He begins with Jerusalem, the city they were already in. Then Judea, the surrounding region. Then Samaria, the next territory. The uttermost parts of the earth, referring to the Gentile world, come last. And if you trace the book of Acts, you will find that this is exactly how it unfolded.

In Acts 1:4, the disciples are in Jerusalem.

In Acts 8:1, persecution scatters them into Judea and Samaria.

From there, Paul preaches at Damascus in Acts 9

The gospel reaches Caesarea in Acts 10, a Gentile nation.

By Acts 13:13-14, Paul is at Salamis, Paphos, and Antioch.

Acts 14:1,8-9 takes him to Iconium.

Acts 16:11-12 to Macedonia and Philippi.

Acts 17:1,10,16 to Thessalonica and Athens.

Acts 18:1,7-8 to Corinth.

Acts 19:1 to Ephesus.

City by city. Region by region. They moved from where they were to the next place, and then the next.

The disciples did not receive an express instruction to book a journey. They started where they were. And so must we. Your community is not a waiting room until you find a bigger platform. It is your Jerusalem, and it is where you begin.

What if I am a shy person?

Here is the beauty of the gospel message — it is not about you. You are not being asked to tell your own story. You are telling His. The story of a man who died and rose again for the justification of all mankind. That takes an enormous amount of pressure off the messenger.

And for the moments when shyness still feels like a wall, the Bible has a direct answer: pray.

Pray for supernatural boldness.

Not charisma. Not a personality transplant. The boldness the Bible speaks of is not a human trait — it is given by the Spirit of God when you step out to witness in His name. In Acts 4:29–31, the early church found themselves under threat and did not retreat. They prayed. “Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” And after they prayed, the place shook, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word boldly. The boldness they needed was not inside them. It came from above.

Pray for supernatural utterance.

Utterance means speaking as you ought to speak — the right words, at the right moment, for the right person. Paul himself asked for it. In Ephesians 6:19, he writes: “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.” And in Colossians 4:3, he asks again: “Pray that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.” If Paul needed to ask for utterance, so do we. And when God grants it, your witness about Christ may speak directly into things about a person’s life that you could not have known on your own.

Shyness is not a disqualification. It is simply an invitation to depend on the one whose message you are carrying.

How do I start a conversation?

Paul gives us a masterclass in conversation starters.

In Acts 17, he arrives in Athens and immediately reads the room. He does not preach to the Athenians the way he preached to Jewish audiences. He does not quote Hebrew Scripture to people who do not recognise its authority. Instead, he does something remarkable — he uses their own culture, their own laws, and their own literature as his entry point.

Rather than introducing what could have been dismissed as a foreign, unauthorised deity, Paul points to something already standing in their city: an altar with the inscription, “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.” Ancient historians confirm that Athens indeed had altars to unknown gods, built out of a fear of accidentally offending a deity they had failed to name. Paul walks straight through that open door. “You are ignorant of the very thing you worship — and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:23). He did not break their laws. He fulfilled their own curiosity.

The point is this: it does not always have to start with John 3:16 or a Heaven-and-Hell ultimatum. Context matters. People matter. Here are some conversation starters to get you going:

• On suffering and pain: “I have been thinking about how people deal with loss and hardship. Do you think there is anything that gives life meaning when things fall apart?”

• On purpose and identity: “I genuinely believe every person is here for a reason. Have you ever thought seriously about why you exist?”

• On morality and justice: “It is interesting that every culture, no matter how different, seems to agree that some things are just wrong. Where do you think that sense of right and wrong comes from?”

• On the afterlife: “Everyone I know has a different idea about what happens after we die. What do you think?”

• On personal experience: “Something happened in my life that completely changed how I see the world. Would you be open to hearing about it?”

• On culture and spirituality: “I noticed you said something interesting about faith earlier. What does spirituality mean to you personally?”

The goal is not to win an argument. It is to open a door. Ask a genuine question, listen well, and trust the Spirit to take it from there.

What If They Say No?

They will. And that is something we need to make peace with before we begin.

Not everyone Jesus preached to said yes. Not everyone the disciples approached welcomed them. In Matthew 10, Jesus Himself prepares His disciples for rejection, telling them plainly that some homes and towns would not receive them and that when that happens, they should shake the dust off their feet and keep moving.

There was even a Samaritan village that refused to let Jesus enter their city at all.

The book of Acts is, in many ways, a record of nos. Peter and John were commanded to stop speaking in the name of Jesus and refused.

The apostles were flogged, ordered to be silent, and walked away rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the Name.

Stephen preached, and they covered their ears, dragged him out of the city, and stoned him.

Paul was stoned in Lystra, left for dead outside the city, got up, and walked back in the next day.

And then Paul himself, in 2 Corinthians 11, sits down and counts the cost of his nos. Flogged five times. Beaten with rods three times. Shipwrecked three times. A night and a day adrift at sea. In danger from rivers, bandits, his own people, strangers, false brothers. Hungry, cold, sleepless, and still going.

These were not people who gave up at the first rejection. Their attitude was doggedness — a settled, Spirit-fuelled refusal to stop.

So yes, people will say no to you. But what if there are more yeses than nos waiting on the other side? You will never know until you try.

Why do people say no? How do I respond?

The answer goes deeper than personality or preference. Paul tells us plainly that the preaching of the gospel is warfare between two kingdoms. When we preach, we are not simply sharing information or making an argument. We are announcing the kingdom of the Son into dark territories, and darkness does not yield quietly.

This is what is actually happening when we preach. Every argument, every resistance, every hardened heart is a stronghold being confronted by the power of God. And when someone says no, Paul explains exactly why.

The devil is responsible for the blindness. He has built strongholds in hearts to keep the light out. The person rejecting the gospel is not ultimately your enemy. They are a captive of one.

What is our response?

We pray. We pray for God's light to break through into their hearts, and we pray that more doors are opened for the message to go forward. Paul modelled this consistently.

Scripture gives us no instruction to curse those who reject the message, or to treat them as enemies. Our posture toward them is prayer, and our confidence is in the one whose light no darkness has ever been able to overcome.

Do I have to go alone?

No. And the pattern Scripture gives us suggests that going together is actually the preferred model.

In Matthew 10 and Luke 10, Jesus sends His disciples out in pairs. In Luke 10:1, He appoints seventy-two and sends them two by two ahead of Him into every town and place He was about to go.

Throughout the book of Acts, the apostles consistently went out in company, not in isolation. There is wisdom in that. Accountability, encouragement, and the covering that comes from shared prayer and shared faith.

That said, it does not mean you cannot preach the gospel alone. Philip went alone to the Ethiopian eunuch.

The point is not a rigid rule but a healthy posture — go with others where you can, and trust God to go with you when you cannot.

Do I have to lead them in the Sinners’ Prayer?

Not necessarily. Paul is clear that it is faith in the heart that makes a person saved. The confession of the mouth follows from what has already happened on the inside. So no prayer formula, however sincerely repeated, is what saves a person.

That said, the Bible does show us a structure. When Philip led the Ethiopian eunuch to faith, there was a moment of declaration, a point at which belief was expressed and confessed. So while the prayer itself is not the mechanism of salvation, leading someone in an expression of their faith is a beautiful and entirely biblical thing to do.

If you would like a guide, you can lead them in something like this:

“Lord Jesus, I believe you are God. You became a man and died for my sins. You were raised again for my justification. I believe you are alive and working in me. You have forgiven my sins, and with you I reign in life.”

Simple. True. And more than enough.

Do I need to know the whole Bible before I can preach the gospel?

No, you do not.

And the question that usually follows that one is: what if they ask me something I cannot answer? It is a fair concern, and the honest answer is that it is perfectly fine not to have all the answers. What matters is that you are willing to take your time, go back to the Scriptures, and return with what you find.

Paul models this for us in Acts 17:2–3. He did not deliver one sermon and move on. As was his custom, he went into the synagogue and over three Sabbath days reasoned with people from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. He took his time. He worked through the questions. He kept coming back.

You do not need to know everything. You need to know Christ, and you need to be willing to keep learning. The rest will follow.

Personal Testimonies and Evangelism: The Example of the Apostle Paul

Your personal testimony is one of the most powerful tools you carry into evangelism. A testimony is simply the account of how God has worked in your life — a living demonstration of the transforming power of the gospel. It does not have to be dramatic. Moments of answered prayer, comfort in hardship, or quiet growth in faith can reach someone who is searching in ways that a theological argument simply cannot.

Paul repeatedly used his own story as part of his preaching. Before King Agrippa, he did not open with doctrine. He opened with his life. “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth… On one of these journeys I saw a light from heaven… ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’” (Acts 26:9–15). And in 1 Timothy 1:15–16, he explains why his story mattered beyond himself: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy, as an example for those who would believe in him.”

He did not hide his past. He held it up as evidence of what grace can do.

Your story carries the same weight. People may push back on theology, debate doctrine, and argue with Scripture. But a transformed life is difficult to ignore. Tell your story. It belongs in the conversation.

What Do I Do After Someone Says Yes?

That is a great question, and it deserves a full answer. We will be covering exactly that in our next article — what comes after salvation, discipleship, and how to do a proper follow-up. Stay with us.

Someone once told you the Bible is just a white man's book. Or that Constantine cooked it up. Or that it cannot be trusted because it is too old, too translated, or too edited.

This episode is our response to all of that.

In our latest audio series, Kareem, Ayo, and Obaloluwa, members of the OBS Bible Study Intern team, sit down to build a compelling case for the reliability of the Bible, and they present evidence.

They start with manuscripts. Julius Caesar has ten. Aristotle has fewer than ten. Homer’s Iliad, the gold standard of ancient literature, has about one thousand nine hundred. The New Testament has over twenty-four thousand manuscripts, in multiple languages, all coherent and all consistent, with no core doctrine of the Christian faith under dispute. The reliability of the New Testament from manuscript evidence alone sits at well over ninety-nine percent.

They then move into prophecy. Isaiah 53, written centuries before the cross, describes the suffering, rejection, beating, and burial of Christ in detail that could not have been staged. Psalm 22, written over a thousand years before crucifixion existed as a practice, describes the piercing of hands and feet and soldiers casting lots for garments. Daniel 9 calculates the exact time frame of the coming Messiah, landing at the birth of Christ, written four hundred years before it happened. And Isaiah 45 names Cyrus—a king not yet born—as the one who would restore Israel, confirmed today by the Cyrus Cylinder, now held in present-day Iran.

And they look at the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in 1947 in a cave, predating the Septuagint by centuries, containing the very books people claim were tampered with exactly as we have them today, long before Jesus walked the earth.

Faith is not blind. It is well-founded. And this episode will give you the language to say so.

References

Were the New Testament Manuscripts Copied Accurately? By Joseph Holden, Ph.D.

Bibliology and Canonization By Portland Bible College

Predictive Prophecy as Evidence of the Bible’s Divine Origin By Chris J. Aebi

What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls? A look back at 75 years of Dead Sea Scrolls research By Nathan Steinmeyer and Megan Sauter

The first thing the believer must acknowledge and submit to in the journey of faith is the Lordship of Christ.

It is the consciousness of Galatians 2:20,

The believer must live to serve and represent his Lord, to know and to make him known, and to listen to and to obey his Lord. This is what it means to be a messenger and ambassador of Christ. This is what the apostles meant when they introduced themselves as servants and bond servants of the Lord Jesus.

This mandate is commonly referred to as the Great Commission.

In these verses, Jesus recruits every believer to the most important task at hand, making disciples of all nations and, in other words, preaching the gospel. The process of preaching the gospel is known as evangelism, derived from the Greek word “euangelion” which means gospel or good news.

What Does It Mean to Preach the Gospel?

• To preach the gospel is to proclaim the good news that salvation is available to all men through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To preach the gospel is to help a sinner see and acknowledge the helplessness and hopelessness of man whilst pointing to Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life.

• To preach the gospel is to explain the origin of sin, the consequences of sin, and the brutality of death, whilst emphasizing the free gift of eternal life, the inexplicable love of God, and the wonders of his grace.

• To preach the gospel is to clarify that sinners are damned. Jesus is the one who saves a man from damnation.

  John 3:16 & 18, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Are We All Called to be Evangelists?

The simple answer to whether or not we’re all called to be evangelists is clearly stated in 2nd Corinthians 5:18

From this scripture, we see that the ministry of reconciling sinners back to God is not reserved for a select few. It belongs to every believer. God first reconciled us to Himself, and then He entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation—the simple, weighty task of getting other people reconciled with God.

While there are those specifically called to the ministry gift of an evangelist, every believer carries the responsibility of sharing the good news. And we must be honest about what that means. Preaching the gospel is not a side project. It is not something we fit in when life slows down or when the moment feels right. It is a core pillar of our faith. If the will of God, as recorded in 1 Timothy 2:4, is for all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, then indifference toward lost souls is simply not an option for us.

How Do We Preach the Gospel?

We don’t believe the gospel because we finally understand it; we believe the gospel because we encounter a love so extravagant we cannot help but bask in it. In all honesty, the gospel makes no sense. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul establishes the fact that the gospel is counter-culture. For a world that is driven by intelligence, how can something as ridiculous as the gospel lead to salvation?

We do not rely on eloquence or human wisdom to preach the gospel, because the gospel is not a human message. It is supernatural. It is a supernatural message, uttered by supernatural men, enabled by a supernatural God. What we carry is beyond us, and that is precisely the point.

The gospel is not philosophy. It’s not anthropology. It’s not science. It’s not biology. It’s Romans 1:16, “…the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes…” Therefore, the only way to preach the gospel is by absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit of God.

Why Must We Preach the Gospel?

We must preach the gospel because it is the only way the good news spreads.

Paul puts it plainly in Romans 10:14–15

The chain is unbroken. Sending leads to preaching. Preaching leads to hearing. Hearing leads to believing. And believing leads to salvation.

And in 1 Corinthians 1:21, he goes further: it pleased God, through what the world calls the foolishness of preaching, to save those who believe. The world looks at preaching and sees weakness. God looks at preaching and sees His chosen strategy.

If the gospel is God’s strategy for salvation, and preaching is the only means by which lost souls can hear it, then we have no choice but to preach.

Action Point

Every person who pledges allegiance to the risen Jesus is commissioned to preach and teach the gospel in His name. This is not merely an inheritance to be received. It is a partnership with the risen King to claim more territories in His name.

In our subsequent articles, we will be writing on practical steps for how and where to preach and how to do a proper follow-up, depending on your context.

In our previous article, we noted that Jesus coming to save us was not an afterthought. It is the heart of God, visible from the very first pages of Genesis. The message is good news precisely because the fall is not the end of the story. Victory marks the beginning of our new story.

Today, we turn to the New Testament, where everything the Old Testament pointed toward finally steps into the light.

The Gospel in the New Testament

1. Jesus Christ

In John's gospel, Jesus leaves no room for ambiguity. He preaches the gospel consistently and with clarity, making it plain what the message is and what it demands. In John 3, He sits with Nicodemus — a religious leader, a man of standing and learning — and tells him plainly that salvation comes only through accepting Christ. Not through heritage, not through religious observance, not through sincerity of effort. Through Him alone.

In John 6, Jesus again shows what God considers pleasing. He gives the good news of the kingdom to his listeners.

The gospel is not about how much work we can do, but how much we can trust in the work Christ has done.

From the message of Christ, we see plainly that the gospel hinges on no one else, no other revelation, but on Christ alone. It is not new; it was prophesied in the Old Testament, and Christ affirmed the message.

2. Acts of the Apostles

In Acts 2, Apostle Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, preaches the first sermon after the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The result was the conversion of 3,000 people. But what exactly did Peter preach? It was a message on the redemptive work of Christ, and by believing, the promised forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost are received through Christ.

3. Phillip

In Acts 8, Philip encounters an Ethiopian eunuch on a desert road, a man of considerable influence who is sitting in his chariot wrestling with Isaiah 53. He is reading, but cannot find his way into it. Philip draws alongside him and, starting from that very passage in the Old Testament, preaches Christ to him.

It is a beautiful moment. The same text that had pointed forward for centuries becomes, in Philip’s hands, the doorway through which a man meets his Saviour

4. Peter and Cornelius

In Acts 10, Peter is sent to Cornelius. The Bible describes this man as devout and God-fearing, a person of genuine uprightness and sincere reverence. And yet, for all of that, he still needed to hear the gospel. His character could not save him. His devotion could not close the distance. The message of Christ was not optional for Cornelius, and it is not optional for anyone.

But what was the good news that was preached to him?

5. The Synthesis: Apostle Paul

Throughout this article, we have established the message of the gospel from the Old to the New Testament, seeing the promises of God from Eden, even beyond the day of Pentecost. However, the most explicit rendition of the gospel is in the latter part of Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

By joining this with the message that we have seen from above, we understand that the gospel is the message of how Jesus Christ came into this world, died for our sins, was buried, and rose again for our justification. Apostle Paul puts it in another way in Romans.

The gospel message is two-fold: first, that our sins are forgiven, and also that we have been made righteous. This was the foundation of the prophecies of the Old and the anchor of the Christian faith today.

The gospel is a message that saves us from our sins and makes us right with God.

How do I Appropriate the Gospel?

In Romans 10:9-10, Apostle Paul once again harmonizes the message and how to receive it.

Salvation is a product of the heart, accepting what God has done, and the mouth confessing that same reality. It is not earned, not achieved, and not the result of human effort. None of us deserves it. It has simply been given, freely, by the grace of God.

We are heralds of this message, and we are responsible for carrying it. Scripture makes it clear that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. No one gets saved without a preacher. And so even though an angel appeared to Cornelius, Peter still had to come and speak. The angel announced. But God reserved the preaching for a man.

That is not incidental. It is the pattern. God has given us that honour as His partners, and it is one we must not take lightly.

What the Gospel is Not

Throughout this article, one truth has remained constant: the gospel is the message of salvation through faith in Christ alone. It is not about saving ourselves. It is about beholding the Saviour. The serpent's sting brought death, and the solution was never to outrun it or overcome it by human strength. It was simply to look up at what God had lifted before us.

• The gospel is not that we are saved by our good works. The gospel is that because of what God has done, doing good becomes our nature. The order matters. The works do not produce salvation. Salvation produces the works.

• The gospel is not about changing your bad behavior so that God will accept you. Rather, it is about accepting the life of God, which in turn changes us to fit into God’s perfect standards. From here, we are empowered to live as God wants. Without accepting the message of the gospel, it is impossible to live righteously. It is a message that beckons all men to come as they are to a God who can change them.

• The gospel is also not merely an acknowledgement that Christ Jesus was real or that He lived a remarkable life. Some religions will grant Him that much. But mere acknowledgement is not faith, and it is certainly not salvation. Consider this: the demons recognised Him too. They knew exactly who He was, and it did them no good at all.

Claiming monotheism (the idea of one God) still does not mean a man is justified, for even the devils believe the same, and they even tremble at that knowledge.

Whatever we profess is not enough unless we believe the message of the gospel. It is also not enough to believe that Christ died for the sins of the world. The gospel is personal and will only apply to those who have believed, as the prophet Isaiah also wrote:

It is he who has believed this report that experiences God’s mighty arm in salvation.

Have you believed our report?

Action Point

When it comes to salvation, the most personal decision any of us will ever make is standing right in front of us. Growing up in church, reading the Bible, being familiar with the language of faith — none of it, apart from a genuine acceptance of the gospel, can make us right with God. The gospel is God’s best and only way to salvation, and it must be received, not merely admired.

And if you are already saved, the responsibility does not end with you. You are now God’s arm extended toward the world. Reach out to someone today, tomorrow, and always with this message. It is the greatest gift you could ever place in another person’s hands.

Words have a way of drifting from their origins. Over time, through culture and common use, they collect new meanings that can take us further and further from what was first intended. The word “gospel” is no exception.

Even within the church, we can find ourselves using the word in ways that fall short of its full weight. Outside of it, people say things like “Let me tell you the gospel truth,” borrowing the word as a stamp of certainty. Others reduce it simply to any piece of good news. Both use gestures at something real, but neither quite arrives at what Scripture means when it uses the word.

The word ‘gospel’ derives from the Greek ‘euangelion’, which means ‘good news’ or ‘good tidings.’ As we will see in this article, the word is used to refer to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and the message of redemption through faith in Christ Jesus.

To understand the message of the Bible, there is one thread that must never be lost: the central message is Christ and His redemptive work. Theologians have long put it this way—Jesus is concealed in the Old Testament and revealed in the New. The Old Testament scriptures lean forward, anticipating a coming Messiah, the captain of our salvation. The New Testament turns and shows us that He has arrived.

Old Testament Roots

When Jesus was resurrected in Luke’s Gospel, he met some disciples on the way to Emmaus. He unveiled Himself to them from the scriptures, beginning from Moses to the prophets, showing that the Old Testament was indeed attesting to a coming messiah.

In this piece, we shall consider the gospel message from the Old to the New Testament, from Moses, David, and the prophets

The Gospel in the Pentateuch

1. Genesis 3:15: Protoevangellion

The gospel did not begin at the cross. Its first whisper is found in Genesis 3:15, where God promises the woman that her seed would bruise the head of the serpent. In the New Testament, we see that promise fulfilled in Christ, born through the virgin Mary.

Even in the moment of judgment, God was already announcing victory. The fall was not the end of the story. Redemption was always coming, and in the end, it would prevail.

2. Abraham

Paul, writing to the Galatians, makes a striking claim — that God preached the gospel to Abraham. Long before the cross, before the law, before the prophets, Abraham heard good news from God and believed it. And the result of that belief was remarkable: God declared him justified. Not because of what he had done, but because of what he trusted God to do.

3. The Bronze Serpent

In John 3, Jesus draws our attention to the story of the brazen serpent, reaching back into the writings of Moses.

Israel had sinned against God, and the judgment that followed was an invasion of snakes. Moses cried out to God on behalf of the people, and what God instructed next is worth pausing on. He told Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and lift it on a pole so that anyone bitten could look up at it and live. The sting was still real, but there was now a way through it.

Jesus tells us plainly that this was always pointing to Him. As the serpent was lifted in the wilderness, so the Son of Man would be lifted so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. The wound is real. But there is one who has been lifted, and all that is required of us is to look to Him.

Hence, the good news here is that although, by the serpent’s deception, man fell into sin, leading to a separation from God, we have the antidote in Christ.

4. The Psalms

David and the Psalmists also prophesied about the coming messiah, treating the gospel as a future promise. In Psalm 22, David gives one of the most accurate descriptions of a suffering messiah yet in the Old Testament, culminating in our eventual redemption.

In Psalm 32, David also writes about the promise of the gospel, foretelling the gospel’s effect, a man to whom God will impart righteousness without works.

Apostle Paul further quotes this to describe the working of righteousness in the gospel.

What the Psalmist shows us is that the gospel has always rested on one thing—a Messiah who suffers on our behalf. And it is because of Him, and Him alone, that God counts righteousness to us apart from works.

The Prophets

The prophets rose in a time of rebellion. Israel had been given the law as a kind of constitution, a definition of God’s moral standards for His people, and with disobedience came the inevitable consequence of judgment. As Israel continued to break the law, God raised prophets to sound that judgment clearly and without apology.

But here is what must not be missed. In the very midst of judgment, the promise of redemption was never absent. The gospel was always there, woven into the warnings, carried alongside the severity. God could not speak to His people about what their sin deserved without also, somehow, pointing them toward the one who would bear it.

1. Isaiah

Isaiah progresses in the same vein, bringing judgment on the people, and then progresses from around chapter 40 to prophesy about the coming messiah. In Isaiah 53, the most obvious rendition of the gospel is made.

Notice that the 10th verse talks about how justification will come. The promise is that through the knowledge of the Messiah, many shall be justified.

2. Jeremiah

In Jeremiah 31:31-34, Jeremiah also speaks about God’s promise of a new covenant, promising to write His laws in our hearts and to be merciful to our sins.

3. Ezekiel

In Ezekiel, God promises us a new heart and a new nature that delights in pleasing God.

What the prophets foretold, taken together, is this: the gospel is a new covenant. Not a revision of the old, but something altogether new, hinged entirely on God's own promise. A promise to create us anew, to grant us forgiveness by His mercies alone, and to empower us to live the life that the law could only ever demand but never produce.

Action Point

Jesus coming to save us was not an afterthought. It is the heart of God, visible from the very first pages of Genesis. The message is good news precisely because the fall is not the end of the story. Victory is where our new story begins.

In part two, we will be looking at the gospel in the New Testament and what the gospel is not.

But for now, hold this close: the gospel is a simple truth. God loves you so much that He wants to save you from every weight of guilt, shame, and sin you have ever carried.

Have you ever woken up at three in the morning and couldn’t explain why? Have you ever felt a heaviness in your chest that would not leave until you prayed? Have you ever cried without knowing exactly what the tears were for?

That is a burden. And in this episode, Jesutoni and Kareem talk about what burdens in prayer actually are, where they come from, and what you are supposed to do with them.

They open up Romans 8, tracing Paul’s use of the Exodus narrative to describe the groaning of the Spirit within us, and show that the groanings which cannot be uttered are not random spiritual noise but a testimony of the redemption that is coming. They look at Hebrews 5:7, where Jesus himself prays with strong cries and tears. They look at Luke 22:44, where Jesus is in agony in Gethsemane. And they draw on Colossians 4:12, where Epaphras is described as always laboring fervently in prayer — the Greek word being “agonizomai,” the same root as “agony.”

They also get deeply personal. Jesutoni shares different moments where he had different urges to pray. Kareem shares about waking up at 3:16 a.m. three nights in a row, about praying for a sister he did not know was in danger, about a Muslim girl in his compound and the word of knowledge God gave him for her, and about the friend who told him as an unbeliever that God said not to make a certain decision—because people were already praying for him before he was even saved.

The episode closes with a simple but profound challenge: respond to the burden. Do not talk it away. Do not scroll it away. Pray.

Key Themes

• Burdens in prayer — what they are and where they come from

• Romans 8 and the groaning of the Spirit in the context of the Exodus narrative

• Prayer as agony in Colossians 4:12, Romans 15:30, and Luke 22:44

• How to respond to a burden even when you do not know what you are praying about

• Intentional intercession — carrying people on your heart before they ask

• Jacob wrestling with God—heightened emotion as the best time to pray through

This is Part 2 of our series on Adventures in Prayer. If you missed Part 1, check it out on our Substack.

Click to download audio transcript

One of the most important words in the Christian faith is Incarnation — God becoming a man in the person of Jesus Christ. It is not a peripheral doctrine. It sits at the very heart of what reconciliation means, because the only way God could save humanity was to enter it.

He did not attempt our rescue from a distance. He stepped in. He took on flesh, lived the life we were incapable of living, and in doing so became the sinless, perfect sacrifice that our condition required. This is what makes the Incarnation so staggering, not simply that God appeared among us, but that He became one of us, with a purpose.

A beautiful symmetry is woven through Scripture, helping us see this more clearly. It was a man, Adam, who first brought sin into the world. And it was a man, Jesus, whom Paul calls the last Adam, who brought reconciliation. What the first man broke, the second man restored.

And so we arrive at something worth sitting with. Because of sin, humanity was estranged from God: separated, unable to close the distance on our own. Jesus stepped in, fully God and fully man, and became the bridge between them. He stands between the Father and us, not as a compromise, but as the only one qualified to hold both sides. This is why Scripture calls Him the Mediator.

Paul captures this beautifully.

Reconciliation, at its root, is God’s idea.

The Greek word behind it carries the image of an exchange between two parties: something given, something received, a transaction that changes the standing of both. In the context of salvation, that exchange is breathtaking: our sin, our guilt, our separation, met by the love, kindness, mercy, and forgiveness of God. What we deserved was wrath. What we received instead was grace.

And the one who made that exchange possible was God Himself. He did not simply declare reconciliation from afar. He authored it, entered it, and paid for it. Your life before God is not a performance designed to impress the one who authored your salvation. It flows from the staggering reality that He was already impressed enough with you to become a man and do what you could not do for yourself.

The God-Man Role in the Ministry of Reconciliation

Man is not a footnote in God’s plan of salvation. He is central to it. And if you have ever wondered whether your life matters to God, the sixth day of creation is a good place to start.

In the Ancient Near Eastern context in which Scripture was written, the sixth day represents the climax of physical creation — the arrival of humanity and the establishment of a foundation for work and divine-human connection. Bible scholars note that just as the number seven signifies completion and perfection, particularly as it relates to God, the number six falls one short of that. It speaks of imperfection—the imperfection, sin, and weakness that belong to man.

Yet it is this same man, marked by imperfection, whom God calls into partnership.

God does not merely create man and leave him to exist. He invites him into the garden, commissions him to till the ground, and establishes something we must not rush past — the earth itself requires a human-divine relationship to be fruitful. You are not incidental to God’s purposes. You are instrumental to them.

The ground was waiting for man. Creation was incomplete without him. Let that settle for a moment.

Then sin entered, and the partnership was fractured. But what is striking is what God does next. He does not abandon the design. He begins to reinstate it, calling person after person back into a covenant relationship. Enoch. Noah. Abraham. Moses. The children of Israel. Each one is an invitation back into the partnership that was lost, each one pointing forward to its ultimate fulfilment.

That fulfilment came in Christ Jesus. God becoming man, the perfect partner, the one in whom the human-divine relationship was finally and completely restored. And then, in Matthew 28:19, He turns to us and states

The one who fulfilled the partnership in Himself now invites us to participate in it, to go, to disciple, to till the earth together with Him.

The great commission is not a new idea. It is Eden, restored. And you are invited to participate in God’s work on the earth.

This is a New Genesis. A commission to go into the earth and preach and teach what God has done; a reconciliation message—the announcement that God exchanged wrath for love, mercy, and forgiveness.

You may wonder whether Matthew 28:19 was spoken only to the disciples and apostles who stood with Jesus in that moment. It is a fair question. But read through the book of Acts and watch what happens. Eden begins taking root among the nations. Gentiles, people far outside the original covenant community, hear the message and decide to partner with God. The invitation spreads. The garden expands. What began with twelve men in a room becomes a movement that no geography could contain.

This is the pattern of God. He has always worked through people who said yes. And the commission that went out to the disciples is the same commission that reaches us today: to carry the reconciliation message, to till the earth, and to invite others into the partnership that Christ made possible

Action Point

You are not a waste in God’s plan.

Your life matters to Him. So much so that He did not send a representative or issue a statement from heaven. He became a man. He entered your world, wore your humanity, and in doing so showed you exactly what He thinks of you. His love, His mercy, His character, all of it made visible in the person of Jesus Christ, for you.

And having done all of that, He does not simply ask you to sit and receive. He invites you into something. To partner with Him, to till the earth, to expand His garden. The same God who breathed life into Adam and set him to work in Eden is the same God who looks at you today and says, “There is still ground to tend, and I want you with me in it.”

You are loved. You are seen. And in the economy of God, you are anything but unnecessary.

What if prayer was never meant to be a performance, a demand, or a religious duty? What if it was an invitation?

In this episode, Jesutoni and Kareem sit down to talk about prayer, not as a topic, but as a lived reality. They call it what it is: an adventure. And they open up about what God has been doing in their own hearts over the past few weeks to shift the way they see it.

They talk about prayer as a partnership, drawing from Genesis 18, where God invites Abraham into his plans before acting on Sodom, and from Exodus 32, where Moses intercedes for a people who had already broken the covenant. They look at Psalm 34 and James 5, and show that prayer is not about changing the mind of God but about aligning with what God is already doing and permitting his will to have full effect on the earth.

Kareem also shares a story that stopped us in our tracks. A night of groaning in prayer, a word he could not fully understand, and a sister who woke up on a Sunday morning, suddenly well. And how the invitation to pray was not announced with a vision or a voice from heaven, but with a burden in his heart.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt that prayer was something God demands of you. It is not. It is something God invites you into.

Pray. Something is always happening.

Resources cited:

• Background Music - ⁠Touch of Heaven by Hillsong Worship, Aodhán King⁠.

• ⁠Adventures in Prayer by Pastor Chris Segun Onayinka⁠ (A four-track series on prayer).

• ⁠The Fatherhood of God by Pastor Dolapo Lawal⁠( A teaching that explains how the revelation of God’s fatherhood gives the basis to prayer).

• ⁠Consistency 101: Rekindling Your Devotion fire 🔥 by OBS Studio

You can also listen to this series on our Spotify channel.

⁠We hope we were able to stir, re-stir, your heart to partner with the living God.

Click to download audio transcript🥹❤️

This is a first for us. 🥳🥳

For the very first time, our Bible Study Intern team, Kareem, Ayo, and Joshua, sat down together to record an audio series. And they chose one of the most important questions in the faith to start with.

But what does that actually mean? Is Jesus really the only way? And how do we explain that to a world that finds exclusivity offensive?

The team works through John 14:6 carefully and honestly. They trace the I Am statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John, unpack why sin is a universal problem and not a cultural one, and show how God’s plan of salvation was never limited to the Jews. It was always for everyone. From Genesis 3 to Romans, from Abraham to Ruth, the thread runs straight to Christ.

They also talk about what it means that truth is not a principle but a person, and why a faith built on one way has no room for factionalism or division.

Have a great time listening.

What is Salvation?

‘Salvation’ is an English word meaning ‘deliverance’ or ‘rescue’. And nowhere in Scripture is that picture painted more vividly than in the story of the Israelites under bondage in Egypt.

Every act of deliverance carries within it three important components: the person in need of a saviour, the situation or problem they cannot escape on their own, and a saviour who is actually capable of rescuing them

In the context of Exodus 3, God is the saviour who delivers the Israelites from the oppression of the Egyptians. And what makes His intervention so significant is the very thing that made it necessary: the oppressed had no power to save themselves. A Saviour is needed because the oppressed are incapable of self-rescue.

How does Salvation happen?

We are saved by Grace. The word translated "grace" in the New Testament is the Greek word charis, which is used to explain the undeserved favour of God, His love toward us that we did nothing to earn and could never deserve. And that love found its clearest expression in the death of His Son on the cross for our sins.

The act of Jesus Christ on the cross is grace made visible. We receive it the same way it was given — freely, through faith. Believing in the sacrifice of Christ is what saves us.

Salvation is God's gift to humanity. Not earned. Not negotiated. Simply given, at the cost of His own Son, for the sins of the world, so that whoever believes in Him alone is rescued from sin and everything sin carries with it.

Understanding Salvation in the New Testament

John 3:16 is perhaps the most familiar verse in all of Scripture, yet it carries a weight that familiarity can cause us to miss. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The verses that follow make the purpose unmistakably clear. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

So the natural question is: saved from what?

The text itself answers this. Those who believe will not perish; they will have everlasting life. The contrast is deliberate. Belief leads to life.

The absence of belief leads to perishing. And Paul, writing to the Romans, explains exactly why perishing is the default condition of every human being: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Every man. No exceptions. And the consequence of that sin, as Romans 6:23 states plainly, is death.

This is what salvation rescues us from. Not hardship, not poverty, not social oppression alone, but death itself, which is the rightful penalty for sin.

And so the same three components we saw in Exodus reappear, now in their fullest and final form. Mankind is the one in need of a saviour. Sin and its consequence, death, is what we need to be saved from. And the saviour is Jesus Christ, who bore that penalty in our place so that we would never have to

Is Salvation for everyone?

If everyone has sinned and is on their way to perishing, then a logical conclusion is that everyone needs saving. A common misunderstanding is that salvation is God’s plan for His Covenant people, which are the Jews- descendants of Abraham, but scripture shows us otherwise.

In this context, there are two categories of people, Jews and those who are not Jews- Greeks. God demonstrated His love towards all men. Those who are Jews and those who are not. As many as will receive Him and believe in His Son will be saved.

The Book of Timothy helps us understand something deeply important about the heart of God: He desires that all men be saved. Not a select few. Not a particular nation or class of people. His invitation is extended to all. Male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free, salvation is available to everyone who will receive Him.

Common Misconceptions about Salvation.

1. I can attain salvation by my good works.

If obedience to the commandments could save us, we would not need a Saviour. The very fact that God had to step in is the clearest possible evidence that man could not help himself. Salvation is a gift, received through faith alone in what Jesus has already accomplished. Not partially faith and partially effort. Not grace plus good behaviour. Grace alone — so that our boasting, if we boast at all, is not in ourselves but entirely in God.

2. Once I say a prayer, I’m saved no matter how I live

While the sinner’s prayer is necessary for salvation, for in it a sinner acknowledges his sin and ultimate need for a savior. However, it must flow from a heart of conviction. A man is not saved by muttering half-hearted words; rather, he is saved when he realises he is a sinner and cries out for a saviour.

A saved man is a changed man. Salvation brings forth a new life in Christ, and it produces fruit and good works. The Bible helps to understand that good works are an outward expression of a person who is saved.

3. Salvation guarantees wealth, health, and material prosperity

Jesus himself addressed this directly. In John 16:33, He told His disciples plainly: “In the world you will have tribulation.” Not might. Not possibly. Will. If the men who walked physically with Jesus experienced hardship and suffering, we have no reason to expect otherwise.

But that is not the end of the sentence. Jesus continues: “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” God is not unaware of our difficulties. He is a good Father who meets us in our trials, comforts us through them, and shapes us by them, so that we in turn can comfort others who are walking the same road.

In your moments of difficulty, God is present. And He is more than able to carry you through.

Apostle Paul, who wrote about ⅔ of the New Testament, speaks about experiencing persecution and hunger at some points in his ministry.

There is, and has always been, an economic imbalance in the world. Scripture does not pretend otherwise. The needy and the wealthy have coexisted in every generation, and the Bible does not support the claim that salvation guarantees material prosperity. What it does speak to is how we relate to whatever we have: generosity for those whom God has blessed with wealth, and contentment for those in every other situation.

John, writing here, prays that we be in good health and prosper, knowing that it is not a guarantee that all will experience that.

How do I accept this salvation?

Romans 10: 8-10

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”^[a] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: ⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Paul states that all you need to be saved is to believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead and confess with your mouth that he is Lord.

Thank you for making this decision to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. If you are making this decision, say this with me

We are happy you made the decision.

If you made this decision, feel free to write to us at our open bible house email. We are more than willing and eager to help. And yes, you can be informal in your approach.

We took a two- to three-week break, not because we forgot about you, but because OBS has been growing. New volunteers joined us. Bible study interns, voiceover artists, writers, creative writers, and a creative director. We held our very first volunteer cohort retreat. We ran a soteriology course. And then we came back to Spotify with something we believe is going to stay with you.

Part 2 of Streams of Joy picks up exactly where we stopped.

Jesutoni and Kareem talk about what happens when life targets you specifically. When the very thing you struggle with keeps showing up at your door. When joy does not feel like a realistic option, they trace it through the twenty-five-year journey of Abraham, through David's flight from Saul, through Joseph in a prison cell, and through Paul writing his most joyful letter from chains to a church that was also under persecution.

They open up the book of Philippians and show you that the word "rejoice" appears eleven times in a letter that had every reason to be a letter of despair. And they ask the question that matters: what does it look like when joy is not a feeling but a conviction?

Kareem also gets personal in a way he rarely does. Stories of having nowhere to sleep. Starting over with almost nothing. Losing his mother as a child. And how, looking back, it was not motivation or willpower that kept him going. It was Christ.

We also put together a joy playlist for you to listen to when you need to be reminded. You can find it in the episode description.

If you have been waiting for a reason to hold on, this episode is for you.

🎧 Tap the link for a full listen:

What if joy were not something you had to wait for?

In Episode 2 of the OBS Podcast, Jesutoni and Kareem explore what Scripture calls streams of joy: a joy that is not tied to circumstances, not dependent on manifestations, and not something the enemy can take from you.

They draw from Luke 10, Psalm 46, Isaiah 12, Romans 8, and Philippians 4, and they are honest about the moments when it was hard to rejoice, and why they rejoiced anyway.

If you have been waiting for your situation to change before you allow yourself to be joyful, this one is for you.

🎧 Listen here: Streams of Joy