It was around 1988 that I heard a preacher on the radio by the name of Steve Brown; he has a ministry called “The Key Life Network”. I listened to Steve for a lot of reasons but one of those reasons was his foghorn voice. I once wrote to him and said that I could play his tapes and sleep very well. That was actually a compliment; he has this comforting sound that I just love.
It took me a while to be able to understand many of things that Steve would say; it seemed that he preached over my head. He used a lot of terms that I wasn’t familiar with so I found myself looking in a dictionary as I would listen to him preach. He would send out free tapes of his sermons once a month and now he still does that only you can receive them in CD format.
Key Life Network http://www.keylife.org/
Steve Brown Etc. Steve’s Talk Show http://stevebrownetc.com/
The Old White Guy Blog http://stevebrownetc.com/category/blogs/the-old-white-guy-blog/
Steve is a member of the clergy in the PCA Presbyterian Church in America, there is a good bit of difference in his denomination and the PCUSA. Steve is what I would consider a conservative bible teacher and preacher. Being Presbyterian he is also Reformed and that is somewhat different form what Baptist and Methodist believe and teach as far as those who are saved. Reformed theology says that we are predestined while Methodist Theology says we have a Free Will. That is a theology that I struggled with for years and many in the churches where I have served have struggled with some of the same issues. If you tend to struggle in this area, let’s talk. After my trip to Israel in 2007 many of my questions were answered.
Steve preaches and teaches the bible, book by book and verse by verse and I believe that is the best way. To gain a Biblical world view we have to understand the story of the Entire Bible and how it all fits together.
Steve is the one who taught me to understand that we are saved by Grace through Faith and not by being good enough. As a matter of fact Steve has a book entitled “When Being Good Isn’t Good Enough” and it was a life changer for me. I read many books and only a few have life changing impact, this was one of them and I recommend it highly.
I will always remember one illustration that Steve Brown uses and it goes like this. You can only forgive to the extent that you have been forgiven and until you understand how bad you really are you have a hard time forgiving others. Steve says he wishes that we had to go to church on Sunday morning with a sign tied around our necks that list our 3 greatest sins. I don’t know about you but that makes my skin crawl. But Steve says, you wouldn’t have to worry about others seeing and reading yours, trust me, they would be too busy trying to cover theirs.
You can only forgive to the extent that you have been forgiven. Thank you Steve Brown.
There are many people in churches today that have never really accepted the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and they are haunted daily by their past. I want to say to you on the authority of Scripture, In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
Ronnie