Bruce Snavely

Whereever GBTF travels to teach classes around the world, one of our joys is to share practical tools with the pastors and church leaders we encounter.  Most of them have not had the training they desire for ministry and yet in many case lead significant churches in their local areas.  One of the practical tools  the foundation shares with them is how to read the Psalms.  The book of Psalms is in the poetry section of the OT and is a great storehouse of wisdom for everyday living. The Psalms are some of the most experiencially rich literary sources in the OT.  The Psalms or Songs were written by everyday people who had something important to say about their life situation or a parrticular event or trial through which God had brought them.  The Psalms are varied and were often written by individuals who recorded not only their emotions but critical life lessons they had acquired in the midst of their experiences. One of the reasons people don't read more...

Since creation's morning mankind has sought to exercise ultimate sovereignty over his world without restriction.  We all know where that pursuit ended up for the first couple and how it has ultimately affected us today.  For believers, this pursuit has not ended just because we are Christians.  In fact, if we are not careful, self autonomy can still bring us a lot of confusion and chaos.  We still suffer from a sin nature bent on satisfying self instead of God and living our lives without consideration of how our attitudes and decisions affect others.  We often interpret the "curtailing" of our choices to a direct loss of happiness or joy in life.  Actually, just the opposite ought to be true!  Let me explain. In I Corinthians 10, Paul introduces the church at Corinth to the subject of Christian liberty.  You see the ancient Corinthian Christ followers were no different than we are today.  Many of them were still young in their faith and ha...

For many Christians, there is a diminished understanding, perhaps even a lack of understanding regarding the spiritual battle in which we are engaged as believers.  In some cases it may be a matter of a lack of teaching, for others it may be a world-view that is out of focus.  Whatever the situation, we may need to take notice of the facts regarding the spiritual conflict going on around us and come to a fresh understanding of our role in the fight.  Paul the apostle knew the importance of engagement when he said in 2 Corinthians 2:9,11: For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything......so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; we are not ignorant of his designs. In this passage Paul is stressing the need for simple obedience to God's Word in our lives, but ignorance can also be a willful indifference.  The apostle reminds us in I Peter 5:8: Be sober-minded; be watchful.  You adversary the devil prowls ar...

Let me begin today by asking a very simple question.  Should churches use their missions money wisely in fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ?  I’m sure everyone agrees that the answer is yes!  Let’s go a one step further.  If there are numbers of indigenous believers on the ground on any mission field, why would we send a western missionary family halfway around the world to plant churches in that place at great expense to them and their children?  If you add the extreme costs of maintaining them when there are nationals who can accomplish the same things more effectively at pennies on the dollar, you begin to answer this question!  Yet, for many churches, perhaps more than you know, this model is repeated year after year with the mission dollars people give to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.  You know what?  Nobody in business would ever run a company like that.  It doesn't make good sense and is not good ...

There is not a day that goes by when a Christian can forget about the requirement for personal holiness.  This couldn't be more true than it is today.  Our age is one which celebrates sexual freedom from almost every establshed moral code.  The societal changes this has created has placed a whole new burden upon us as we attempt to privately and publically attempt live out the Biblical responsibilities for purity. In many ways, American culture reflects the moral relativism of the ancient city of Corinth, one of the most popular seaport locations of Macedonia in Asia.  Corinth was so sinful in its celebrations of sexual corruption that the name Corinthian became a synonym for promiscuity.  It's no wonder then that Paul admonished this particular congregation of believers to rid themselves of sexual sin, impurity, and the destructive results which that lifestyle produced.  In 2 Cor 7:1 Paul said, Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ours...

Global Baptist Training Foundation is now in its ninth full year of operation.  God has allowed us to expand the ministry of training indigenous pastors into 12 countries on three continents in that time.  It has been an amazing journey of faith and hard work.  Over fifteen hundred pastors have been trained or are presently being trained for ministry all over the world.  GBTF trained pastors have started scores of churches with hundreds more planned over the next five years. In late 2019 I wrote a new book aimed at not only chronicling what has happened through GBTF but also challenging churches and church leaders to consider the concept of training nationals as a key component of their missions outreach and Great Commission philosophy.  Many of our mission fields have existing populations of Christians who do not need to be reached with the gospel.  These nationals simply need to be trained and then commissioned to reach their own cultures for Christ! T...

We live in an unusual age.  It is no longer normal to see God's broken laws or the transgressing of God's laws as sin.  We call it by much more respectable terms such as illness, sickness, addiction, gender confusion, alcholism, pro-choice, etc, etc.  One of the problems is that we no longer put human behavior in the right perspective.  Morality has been successfully severed from the God who gives it reality. This is evident in a multitude of ways, but allow me to digress back into the OT story of Ruth to provide a classic example of how the unexpected consequences of sin can overwhelm us as we lose our moral bearings. The story of Ruth is a prime example of what can happen in believers’ lives when they allow themselves to be influenced by a culture which fails to recognize God's moral authority. The story takes place in the time of Israel's judges when "every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). It was a precarious, unpredictable period ...

I don't really like horror movies that much so if you think this blog is about a horror movie with a similar title....you are wrong.  In fact, I will tell you why I don't like them.  I saw the Wizard of Oz when I was four or five years old for the first time.  I was having a great time until the appearance of the wicked witch of the west.  When her face took up the entire tv screen I decided then that I would never like witches forever.  I saw witcbes for many years following that awful scene, and in all the wrong places! No, the watcher to which I'm referring are those who are watching my life.  We all have watchers who are guided by the reactions we have toward the good and bad things that happen to us in life and the subsequent decisions we make regarding our trials.  If you are a parent than this is never more evident than it is with our children.  They are watching us all the time, especially when we wouldn't think they are.  Why? ...

As a Christian it is important that you understand how temptation works in the life of a believer and how God uses it for our good and His glory.  As we approach this subject we need to be clear about something right from the start.  It is vital information to know that God is sovereign but He is not the author of temptation!   James told us, Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God", for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (Js 1:13) God is not to be blamed for the things that tempt us.  Those desires come from within us not from the outside.  Our heart is the culprit which leads us to sin.  Parents often will blame other kids for their own children's sinful behavior when the problem is really the heart of their own child.  That being said,  Bad companions corrupt good morals ( I Cor 15:33) But there is something else very...