Every Word: A Dad’s Desire to Share with His Children the Importance of Knowing God Based on His Word

By Stephen Beechwood

Stephen Beechwood is a Sunday school teacher. He attended and led Bible studies and delivered both children sermons and adult sermons when a guest preacher was needed to fill the pulpit. He is excited today to share his passion for God’s divine Word. But that wasn’t always the case.

As a boy, Stephen’s dad had a clever way to get him to attend Sunday school. His dad said, “If you don’t go to church with us on Sunday morning, you will not be allowed to play baseball with your friends on Sunday afternoon.” Needless to say, Stephen had near-perfect attendance all those years. The Sunday following Stephen’s eighteenth birthday, his dad came to him and said, “You are now a legal adult and can make up your own mind whether or not you want to attend church.” Stephen was already dressed for church that morning, so he went, but rarely did he do so again except for weddings (including his own) and funerals.

Ten years later, on a Saturday morning, his seven-year-old daughter asked, “Is that our church?” She asked the same question each time they drove past one while out running errands. The following day marked the beginning of attending church again, and a new relationship developed between Stephen and Jesus Christ.

“Writing a book was never an item on my bucket list. What I wanted to do instead was to simply jot down some notes that would help my children understand what I know to be true from my years of reading the Bible. As I began gathering my notes from my personal studies, group Bible studies, and commentaries and sermons I’ve heard over the years, I realized I had lots of notes that somehow needed to be organized. My logical conclusion was to organize them according to the outline of a book even though I had no intention of sending these pages to a publisher for consideration.”

“My hope from the very beginning was, and continues to be, that you may benefit from my journey with God when you begin your own journey based on reading His Word.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973662051

Stephen Beechwood

Stephen Beechwood has been a Sunday school teacher, attended and led Bible studies, delivered children’s sermons, and delivered adult sermons when a “guest preacher” was needed to fill the pulpit. He is excited today to share his passion for God’s divine word … but that wasn’t always the case. As a boy, Stephen’s dad had a clever way to get him to attend Sunday school. His dad said, “If you don’t go to church with us on Sunday morning, you will not be allowed to play baseball with your friends on Sunday afternoon.” Needless to say, Stephen had near-perfect attendance all those years. The Sunday following Stephen’s eighteenth birthday, his dad came to him and said, “You are now a legal adult and can make up your own mind whether you want to attend church.” Stephen was already dressed for church that morning, so he went, but rarely again except for weddings (including his own) and funerals. Ten years later, on a Saturday morning, his 7-year old daughter asked, “Is that our church?” each time they drove past one while out running errands. The following day marked the beginning of attending church again, and a new relationship for Stephen with Jesus Christ.

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Copyright © 2019 Stephen Beechwood.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from the Good News Translation (GNT) in Today’s English Version- Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6204-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6205-1 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 6/18/2019

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

1   A Perfect World

2   The Importance of Reading Your Bible

3   Those churchy words

4   That churchy statement

5   Your human nature

6   Your soul

7   Your spirit

8   Your heart

9   Your new battle

10   Trust

11   Final chapter

This book was originally going to be

dedicated to Ashley, Adam and Courtney. However, because organizing my notes has spanned several decades, it is now also dedicated to their spouses, Michael, Jen and Aaron, their children and, if the Lord tarries, their children and grandchildren.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Adam for making the time and taking the time to edit each chapter of this book. His attention to detail found typos that the spell-checker missed and his recommended rewordings brought the clarity I had intended.

Preface

There is no end to the writing of books, and too much study will wear you out. After all this, there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey His commands, because this is all that we were created for. (Ecclesiastes 12:12-13)

If there is no end to the writing of books and too much study will wear you out, why am I writing this book? Primarily because my experience has been that there are not too many people who are reading the one book from which to learn reverence for God, i.e., the Bible. For years, whenever someone mentions that they are in a book club, I ask them if the club has ever read the Bible or, since Bible means books, if the club has ever read one of the books of the Bible, e.g., The Gospel According to Mark. The answer to both questions is always, No. So, if people are reading other books, perhaps they will read this book and then consider reading God’s books found in the Bible. My assumption is that you already have a favorite author and desire to read everything she or he has written. My hope is that by reading this book, you will discover a new favorite Author and want to read all His books.

1

A Perfect World

Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good; He came to make spiritually dead people alive! ¹

A perfect world

Several years ago, on a warm summer afternoon, several friends (couples) joined Susan and me in the gazebo in our backyard. As we sat around the table in the center of the gazebo, someone shared some information about a friend. The reaction to the news spanned the full spectrum from some who said, I already knew to shock, disbelief and denial among