Newsletter Archive Blog | WORD Center Ministries | Sharon Jensen

Spotlight on: BEZALEL Gallery Art

Mon, 04 May 2015 18:48:53 -0400

Perhaps you have had (or currently have) this problem—you have a wall in your house that you know could use a picture or something but you don’t know what should go up there. You want something meaningful… but something that isn’t too cheesy or tacky… so you scrap your trip to the local craft store and the wall remains bare. But then… (insert dramatic fanfare)… WORD Center’s website comes to the rescue… where beautiful Scripture designs are offered as free downloads!

What is a Scripture design? It’s a graphically designed high-resolution picture from the exact text of a particular passage of the Bible arranged around a background of carefully selected colors to amplify the words—God’s Words! Whew! That was a mouthful! Anyway, all you have to do is simply download the Scripture you like (for free) and print it out for yourself (or take it to a printshop if you choose one of the larger designs).

We already have dozens of different Scripture designs available, but if there is a certain verse or verses that you have in mind which are not already in BEZALEL Gallery Art, we would be happy to design one for you. No kidding! And if you find one already in the Gallery which you would rather have in a different color scheme we can even do that. (Disclaimer: Although getting your design back to you is important to us, we cannot guarantee the timeliness of its completion—like, for instance, if you ask for Psalm 119 we might need a decade or two!)

Spotlight on: HIStory-From Event to Event the Bible is One Story

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 12:03:44 -0400

The Bible is, without a doubt, the most important book in the history of the world. Christians all over the world would claim that it is the source of their beliefs. But what is it about? What is the main point of the Bible? These two questions might seem simplistic to some, but they are actually crucial questions with vitally important answers.

There are many different misconceptions about the Bible. You hear all sorts of people say it has no coherent theme; that it takes too long to read; and that it is too hard to understand. Many people fervently believe these claims—but the fact remains that they are merely claims, and false ones at that. The truth is that the Bible has a coherent theme; it can be read in less than a year (in only 77 hours, by the way—which we’ve done at WORD Center as a group multiple times); and it most definitely can be understood if we come to it without trying to mold it into our own preconceived notions.

Spotlight on: The GOSPELs

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:46:00 -0400

The Gospels are familiar to most of us, right? Let’s see… there are miracles, parables, and sermons on mounts, plains, cities, and sea. Then there are the disciples, the Pharisees, John the Baptist, and the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That pretty much covers the important points, don’t you think? But do we know the theme of the Gospels (what ties all these different events, teachings, and characters together)? Hmmmm… maybe we don’t know this section of the Bible as well as we think…

The truth is that we probably only know different parts taken from the whole. It’s kind of like saying you know the history of the United States, yet you are only able to name a few of the presidents and a few of the main events—plus, you don’t know how any of them fit together. (Wasn’t there a declaration of some sort at the beginning? And I seem to remember something about a tall hat… or was that a tall man? What about that horse named Paul riding near a felled cherry tree? And didn’t most of it happen four-score and seven years ago?)

Spotlight on: PSALMS - The SONGS

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:39:38 -0400

Hey! Read any good Psalms lately? We hope so. Why do you go to the Psalms anyway? What do you expect to find in them? And, very importantly, have you ever studied them?

We hope you see the Psalms for what they are—not just a “feel good” book for times of trouble, but a book of prophetic songs and doctrine that God wrote because He wants us to learn indispensable truth from them.

In order to help inspire you to study them as you would any other book of the Bible, we are offering a new collection in our Observation Bible Study Guides series entitled Psalms—The Songs.

We cannot write them all at once (Psalms has 150 chapters, we’ve heard!) but we have decided to tackle this treasure trove one Psalm at a time. And guess what? That is exactly how you study the Psalms—one Psalm at a time! So far, we have Psalms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,12, 13, 14, 83, and 99 on board—with Psalm 15 in the works! Uhh… that’s ummm… 10.66666% of the book of Psalms finished! I guess that doesn’t seem like a lot when you do the math, but that many Psalms is a great start for any Bible study student who really wants to hear what God has said. Sixteen down—134 to go!

Spotlight on: ZEALOUS FOR HIS GLORY! Blog

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:54:02 -0500

In a previous newsletter, we told you about the Observation Study Series we are offering on the book of Revelation in Zealous for HIS Glory! Blog.

But did you know there is much more to this blog than the series on Revelation? This isn’t your typical soggy blog filled with foggy feelings and groggy analytics. (FYI Here is a list of the rhyming words that didn’t make the cut: cloggy, doggy, froggy, and smoggy.)

What you’ll find here is more of what you find in the rest of what we do, and that is expository teaching from the Bible. Sharon started writing Zealous for HIS Glory! Blog sometime ago as a way to offer short Biblical teachings online and we have been surprised to see just how popular it has become on our website. Hopefully the blogs will pique your interest to study the Word of God for yourself in depth!

There are many articles in a wide range of specific topics, but each is focused on one single purpose—the Glory of the One True God and His Son, Jesus Christ! Here is the link for Zealous for HIS Glory! Blog.

Revelation “Read-Thru” Blog Series Begins!

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 20:42:44 -0500

The mystery of the book of Revelation intrigues us, yet there is an incredible amount of misunderstanding and misinformation about it. How do you sift through all the false teaching and artistic liberties that pass for truth? You don’t. (Honestly, you really shouldn’t.) You need to go back to the WORD that God spoke and listen to Him—by studying it for yourself.

We are offering a series of blogs to help you walk through Revelation by means of expository teaching (the first ones just went up and the rest will follow daily, at least for awhile). While this is not meant to explain everything in the book (years can easily be spent studying this amazing letter) you will become acquainted with the main, plain things (which are much easier to see than you might have supposed!)

You see, God gave Jesus this revelation of the future—Jesus, in turn, sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John. John then testified to the WORD of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw, and wrote to the seven churches. (Revelation 1:1-2) Since God gave this to His Son to reveal to us the things which must soon take place, we absolutely know for certain we can understand this book!

UPCOMING! New MASKIL Album!

Tue, 18 Nov 2014 20:36:45 -0500

When we finally got to the end of producing MASKIL’s first album, Now I Will Arise, we knew we had something really special and unique. We put the first twelve Psalms to music in a way to amplify the meaning of Scripture, using all of the words straight from the text, to help people actually memorize the Psalms. Caleb Jensen, founding member of the band, had assembled the gear for the studio, set it up, and did the vast majority of the recording and programming. He learned a lot, so when he looked ahead to producing the next album he knew he wanted to improve the studio (which would involve a bit of renovation). The studio had been in an open area of the downstairs, right next to the stairwell, which brought in lot of noise (and retakes) to the recording zone. Building a soundproof wall to isolate the studio would not only reduce unwanted noise during recording, but would also improve the overall sound.

It took tons of time, bunches of thinking, and piles of effort, but a few months ago the wall was finally completed, the downstairs was finally cleaned (construction chaos), and we were ready to finally begin recording. It didn’t take long to realize just how valuable the investment of building the wall was. You see, Caleb had used an electric drum set for the first album and when he set it up in our new studio there were problems with the control module. What do you do? Well, since the room was isolated, Caleb decided to try recording his acoustic drums with microphones. The resulting sound was amazing and the electric drums were taken down.

Reintroducing Ourselves

Sat, 01 Nov 2014 20:16:34 -0400

Hey! Remember us?

You may have met us at a Worldview Weekend event in Branson, at a homeschool convention, just have come across our website, or perhaps you are acquainted with Caleb or Sharon Jensen. We are a ministry dedicated to teaching people how to study the Word of God inductively. Why? For the saved—studying the Bible gives them the opportunity to know God and obey Him in order to Glorify Him in their lives through sanctification. For the unsaved—it gives them the opportunity to find God in His Word and believe in His Son, Jesus, so they can be saved.

At the previously mentioned events, we were promoting our HIStory Bible Study Guide, our HIStory Timeline, an album of songs by Maskil (the musical outreach of WORD Center), and the abundance of other Bible Study materials available on our website including our blog—“Zealous for HIS Glory!!!”. Since we have last been in contact, many more audio teachings and study guides have been added (check them out here: http://www.wordcenterministries.org/bible-study/books-of-the-bible/). If you quickly browse our entire website you will find even more great resources like professional HD Scripture prints you can download for free—actually, almost everything on the website is free.