BSB Bible Study Episode 1

Hello all,

I pray your still doing well. we’re excited to announce the first episode of our Bible Study series. We go through Luke 1:1–25. We hope you enjoy and are edified by this episode. This also shows the general format of our study episodes. We’re going to go through the text in chunks.

Please don’t forget we’re entirely crowd funded and if you would like to support us you can do so on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/BelieveBetterMinistries.

Also, if you would like to buy a copy of the Berean Study Bible you can do so here: https://bereanbibles.com/shop/.

Watch the Episode:

BSB Bible Study Series Episode 0

Hello all,

I hope you are doing well! We’re excited to finally post the first episode of our new weekly show. The BSB Bible Study series is starting now. Praise the Lord! We’re excited to be bringing you the first episode of this new series.

Please don’t forget we’re entirely crowd funded and if you would like to support us you can do so on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/BelieveBetterMinistries.

Also, if you would like to buy a copy of the Berean Study Bible you can do so here: https://bereanbibles.com/shop/.

Watch the Episode:

ANNOUNCEMENT: BSB Study Series

Hello everyone,

I have a little bit of announcement regarding the new BSB study series set to come out in 2022. I’m having to adjust the date at which it is coming out. The original plan was the first episode of the series (the introductory episode) coming out on the 1st of January (that would be this Saturday), the first Bible reading episode coming out on the 3rd, and the first study episode on the 6th. Now, we are moving the series back by one month. The intro episode will be coming out on the 3rd of February, the first reading episode on the 7th, the first study episode on the 10th.

This will be the plan for the series moving forward. We have changed the plan, rather than one month off at the end of the year (December), we are taking both December and January every year. Everything else announced will stay the same, it will just be the months we’re taking off, and when we’re starting. You can look for episode 1 (our intro episode) on February 3rd. We’re excited and we hope you are excited as well!

As always we pray we’re helping you to believe in something Better.

Believe Better Ministries 2022 and Beyond

Hello everyone!

This ministry is not forgotten! It has not been abandoned. I – RB – am working heavily behind the scenes. I have three big projects in the queue right now. The first being a book (our first to be published) titled The God Who Cares, the second and third being books as well (one a basic presentation of the Gospel and Christianity, the second is a commentary). However, I have changed my position in my local assembly. I am now one of those in rotation for teaching at my local assembly. You can see some of these if you go to our YouTube Channel.

This brings us to the major point of this update: We will be utilizing our YouTube Channel much more heavily starting in 2022. We’re going to be starting a new series starting the first week of January 2022. It will be a Bible Reading/Study series. We are tentatively titling it the Believe Something Better Bible Study Series. It will be two short videos a week. The first being a reading video (tentatively titled: “Read w/Me”) where I will read aloud a portion of the Bible (usually no shorter than a chapter). This video will be followed by a short expository/exegetical video later in the week (tentatively titled BSB Study). The plan is to continue this from the first week of January through the last week of November. You see we will not be putting out a video in December. This will be our season break so as to spend time with family.

We hope you will enjoy this series. This series does not mean I will be stopping other projects. It simply means I will be putting more time in on the ministry and more time into visible projects for the ministry.

Finally, we have also have a new BSB Reading plan coming out on December 15th, 2021. We are thinking of this as the BSB Reading Plan 2.0. It is not to replace the original Bible Reading Plan we put out earlier this year, but a second one to add to your rotation. We have spent the year beta testing this new plan and feel it is a great different plan from the one we already were using and put out. We look forward to you getting it in your hands in time for you to use it next year.

That is it for our update. We hope this finds you well and we hope and pray now as always that we have helped you to Believe in Something Better.

Believe Something Better Bible Reading Plan

Download the Bible Reading Plan by Clicking Here.

We’re very excited to be bringing out our first ever Bible Reading plan!

This is our first plan and we’ve spent quite a bit of time working on the specific order, and timing of the plan. This is a one year plan which takes you through the Bible in a year. We read, approximately, two books in the Old Testament then one in the New Testament. This isn’t exact, because there is not exactly half the number of books in the New Testament as in the OT. However, in our minds the more important part of this plan.

The more important part of this reading plan is the fact, it allows you to have make up days. You’ll notice every month you only have assigned readings for twenty-five (25) days of every month with the last five (or six) days of the month are make up days. If you don’t need make up days, you can use these days to get ahead, or just rest.

This is for all those who have tried, year after year, to read the Bible only to miss a day due to illness or some other reason and therefore given up. We hope you will find encouragement to make it through, Genesis through Revelation, and therefore learn to Believe in Something Better.

A Perspective on Ravi Zacharias

In response to the scandal now coming out around Ravi Zacharias, we merely wish to say: It is deeply troubling, heartbreaking, enraging, and sickening at the same time, and for many different reasons. If you know me (RB) then you know I taught martial arts for a long time, and one specific avenue of martial arts in which I heavily focused was self-defense. To the point, I took my own training to people who had worked with law enforcement agencies and specifically looked at violent assaults. We had an acronym for the system we were working within that time, called S.H.A.R.P. This acronym stands for Sexual Harassment, Assault, and Rape Prevention and the people who put the system together had looked through the darkest studies on the Earth. Learning this stuff was not easy, it was inherently edifying at the time of learning, but as I was able to teach men and women how to defend themselves it became much more edifying.

When you start to study the information around sexual harassment, assault, and rape you start to see really what is wrong. First, the victim did nothing wrong! There are so many who, sadly, put the blame on the victim (even when they do so unintentionally) with words like, “Well, if she hadn’t gone there,” “If she hadn’t worn that,” or many other epithets. But, the victims have done nothing wrong! The perpetrator carries all blame, whether they are psychologically sick (needing psycho-therapies), or merely the perpetrator of the vile deed. It is only they who are guilty, the victim bears no guilt nor should be treated as such. This information brings us to the scandal around Ravi Zacharias.

I, as a fellow Christian, will not judge whether or not he was truly saved, that is between him and the Lord God, however, I am totally sickened by his perverse, predatory acts. In my mind, there is a divide, between the speaking, writing, and apologetics work he did and the acts which he committed. However, this is not acceptable. I agree with what many have said: The actions he committed do not make what he said wrong. However, several people I highly respect have put the nail in that particular coffin: He was not the only one to have said what he said. In two thousand years of Church history, this is nearly an impossibility. According to the open letter from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) Board and the report they made public (which I highly recommend you read all of it) Ravi Zacharias was not merely a sinner in the typical sense of the word but was a sexual predator. And, barring any further evidence which may come forth, he went to his grave as an unrepentant sexual predator.

The Church has no right to use the materials of such a person. He wrote books on all topics, some of which are hypocritical in light of what has come forth. There is a difference between a repentant sinner and someone who is keeping a secret life. When we look at the lives of believers, they are supposed to marked by one important thing: They don’t reflect the world, but their Lord Christ. This is mentioned several times throughout the Scriptures. Most significantly we see it in Romans. We know God is active in conforming us into the image of His Son (8:28) and we need to continually be active in our transformation (12:2). We also know a believer is washed, regenerated, and renewed (Titus 3:5) at our conversion. The story of Ravi Zacharias shows just how important it is we take these things seriously. Again, I will make no judgments on the man’s status before God, I am not God, I can only look at the fruit which is now so publicly on display. The Church and specifically among Christians should be the safest places for people to be. We have seen, however, how much corruption is within the Church over the past decades. Rich and powerful personalities have fallen consistently. Between Catholic Priests to mega-church pastors, through to televangelists. So, many people have been put in places of power where those under them felt as if they couldn’t speak out.

We need to make the Church a safe place for these people. The Church should be a place where the light shines. All actions should be visible and open to everyone. This doesn’t mean all things, should be completely open. If someone is receiving private counsel form the leadership their privacy and confidence should be kept, but what it does mean is actions are clear. We are to abstain even from the appearance of evil, living quiet and peaceful lives, protecting each other. Sadly, something like this brings reproach upon the name of Jesus, and to His Church. These victims should be able to find their greatest, safest place being in a relationship with God, and by extension within His Body. However, these actions hurt and turn people away instead.

Let us pray we will finally learn from this scandal rather than continuing to perpetuate this problem. It is so important for people to be under Biblical leadership who will be able to admonish and teach, removing the dross and polishing the gold.

These are my broken, rambling thoughts. In whatever you do, or say in regards to this, think it through, before you say it. Bring no harm. There are victims who have been horrendously abused. Take care of them! It was not their fault a sexual predator took advantage of them.

If you are looking for more info, I highly suggest you watch the video of Mike Winger, of BibleThinker.org.

Winter 2021 Update

Hey All,

So, we’ve been laboring behind the scenes not producing much content. This is unfortunate, but it is so. I’ve been working on studying God’s Word, as the last two years, I’ve become one of the speakers on the rotation at Willamette Bible Chapel. This has become something I’ve been doing more and more which has taken much of my time. It has helped me to cherish more, and more, those brothers who preach week after week with nearly no break. I am only preaching once every four to five weeks which is, still, is very exhausting. You can see something of these sermons on the Believe Better Ministries YouTube Channel by going up to the menu and clicking on “Video”.

So far, we have the two-part sermon on Romans 9, the sermon 1 Corinthians 3 and 1 Corinthians 11. I hope you enjoy them. We have plans to put up pretty much every sermon I’ve ever given, and I hope to edify you through them. If you have questions or comments feel free to e-mail me at RB.May@believebetterministries.com. I look forward to your comments and questions. I have been working on articles to put up here on our website. Some works coming down the pipe: Study on Dispensational Methodology (a paper on consistent hermeneutics), Biblical Hermeneutics (a paper on properly interpreting the Bible with examples), and two books (Believe Something Better a basic book on being a Christian and what it means, and The God Who Cares a small work on theology). These will be coming down the pipeline soon. I’m almost finished with the first drafts of most of these works, while the Dispensational paper has gone through two drafts and will be running through edits for a third draft then published here.

This is what you can look forward to in 2021. I’m hoping to see the books published by the end of the year. (At least The God Who Care which is almost finished with the first draft.) If we can get these done I will be very excited to see these put forward. I also hope and pray, as I always do, these works will edify you and lift you up, to help you believe something better.

Finally, before we move on to enjoying the beginning of this year, I want to deal with U.S.’s most recent election. I want all my Christian brothers and sisters to remember God decides who will be in their positions of power. We have the job to pray for them, and to live a peaceful and quiet life before all men. I hope and pray for you all in this time that you are not having a crisis of faith. At this time, I am always open to discussion and to help my brothers and sisters. If you are having troubles and are in need of discussion. Feel free to call Believe Better Ministries at ‪(458) 216-0049. I am not guaranteeing you will get us when you call us, but I am promising I will call you back and get back to you. So, now if you agree with the new President of the U.S. be humble and take care of your Christian brothers and sisters who do not, and if you disagree with him, be humble and take care of your Christian brothers and sisters. We are not saved by politics (or political parties or persons) we are all saved through Christ. There are enough heresies trying to creep their way into God’s Church to worry about politics.

Now, as you go, I hope and pray for you. I pray the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, and we are helping you to believe in something better.

Update Fall 2020

Hello all,

We’re working to have content available for you on our website and on Youtube. Currently, we’ve been having a lot of problems as things go. If you haven’t heard about the fires on the west coast of the United States, well that is where I live and where Believe Better Ministries is headquartered, and this is just the most recent issue to take place in my life.

However, I am thankful for the Lord and how He has taken care of me and my family. During this time I am studying, and working on things. We plan on coming out with a book which is the first five years of Believe Better Ministries. I am also working on a book about my point of view on Theology and (more specifically) Soteriology. This book is called The God Who Cares and it will deal with quite a few things and I hope to clearly point out my point of view. Finally, I’ve been working on a study of Dispensational Methodology (more commonly called Dispensationalism), which will be posted here for all of my audience to read. These things and preaching have been keeping me busy.

Also, we do have a newsletter list, which we sent out an update on that this morning. Please sign up for updates directly in your e-mail. We used this in the past for Kalytero, and plan on using it for this again when Kalytero is relaunched for you to receive this.

Thank you all,
RB

Updates and News – 03/02/2020

Well, I need to apologize for the missing articles from the end of last year, and the beginning of this year. I had them loaded into the website, but had put the date of publication in wrong. I put had put the Christmas Thought for last December in and apparently scheduled it for 25 December, 2020 rather than 2019, the same thing with the New Year’s Thought (except for 2021). This issue is now fixed. They are now up and posted on the website viewable for everyone.

I have some plans for 2020. I don’t want to say what they are yet as I need to get things ordered so I can make sure I follow through with them. I am hoping some of the things I have done in the past may be able to come back. I am praying for the Lord’s leading in all things.

One thing I do want to announce is we are planning on putting a book out of the first five years of Believe Better Ministries. This is going to contain all the articles which have been posted on our website. We are calling it the first five years of Believe Better Ministries because it didn’t become such until 2014. So, this is exciting and we hope you will support the book when it comes out. I can’t believe it’s been five years, but it has. We hope we’ve edified you over the last five years (or more) and hope to continue doing so as we go forward as the Lord has called us.

Stay tuned for news on what we are working on.

RB

New Year’s Thought – 2020

Today’s thought is not merely a New Year’s Thought but a New Decade’s Thought. Most of my day has been given over to thinking over the last decade and looking forward to the next. As I think of this last decade, I see the bounty of the Lord God in my life over this time. I see how the Lord fulfilled so many things and answered so many prayers (even secret prayers)*. My marriage, my daughter, our house, and my being in ministry are the largest ones I think of, but there are really too many to count when it comes right down to it.

The Lord has been so gracious to me. But when I think of this next decade, I’m saddened. I see trends which as I look at the previous two decades started when I was still a child. I see these trends continuing even as I pray over them with tears flowing down my cheeks. The first issue I am thinking of is the preeminence of culture over the preeminence of Scripture in the Body of Christ (the Church). This one is a huge one for me. I love the Word of God. I am in it daily and am continually learning more and more about it.

This trend has brought in so much pain and will bring more. It won’t stop, but I fear it is going to continue to the Lord Jesus’ return. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:3: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,” (NKJV). This apostasy from the Body will first take place within the Church and this is what we are seeing, and it breaks my heart. We need to stand firm on the Word of God as we come into this third decade of the third millennium.

Now, let us remember how we are to go about this. To be clear truth (which could also be called doctrine) is important! However, love is the primary doctrine. We must make sure we speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). I want to repeat that: We must make sure we speak the truth in love. Staying silent is not loving someone. Staying silent is allowing someone to run after the lusts of flesh rather than the Spirit. At our assembly, we are in studying through Romans. In Romans 8 we see the difference between someone the mind on the flesh and the mind on the Spirit.

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8 ESV) This is what is so important for us to see. Are we focused on our rebellion – our sin? Or are we focused on the Spirit – that is God?

Let us focus on this as we move into the new year and the new decade. May we see a beautiful returning to the Word of God on which we must stand firm. We cannot give up the Word for our culture. If we take the culture over Scripture how soon will it be before we give up Christ as the only way to the Father? Or give up our ability to call people to come to Christ? Let us remember the history of the Church and how in early centuries they found trouble for themselves because they would not say, “Καῖσαρ κύριος” (Caesar is Lord) but instead said, “Ἰησοῦς κύριος” (Jesus is Lord). Can we admit we are submitting ourselves to the Lord Jesus’ will – which is to do the will of the Father – when we bow our knees to the secular culture of the day?

Beloved, speak the truth in love and stand firm on the Bible. Maybe we will see a revival in our day and people returning to God rather than a continued apostasy!

*          To be clear I believe God answers all prayers, but what I mean at this moment is
answered the way in which I asked, or answered in the affirmative.