The purpose statement contains this key "The Words of Jesus should be the final authority for formulating rules and developing criteria of conduct in the Christian community."
The Bible contains the revelation of God to man. One should read and study the Bible from cover to cover. However, to make a statement that all scripture is equally RELEVANT is ridicious! If you think that a deep study of the Book of Numbers compares with a study of the Words of Jesus you are out of balance and this website will do you little good. Go through the "Importance" menu if you haven't done so yet.
Some will say the Old Testament scriptures are no longer valid or important to Christians so they focus on the New Testament only. And then, for many, the focus is on the writings of Paul, viewing the Words of Jesus as almost leftover Old Testament "Jewish" material. Again, we belive such views are out of balance and dangerous. We believe the focus of one's reading and scripture study time should center around the Words of Jesus. Other scriptures can then be properly studied through the lens of what Jesus taught.
Most of the studies here have ONLY the Words of Jesus in them. The surrounding material of the gospel commentators (where things happened, who else is involved, etc.) is generally left out. This is by design to focus only on the Words of Jesus on a topic. We only have limited study time. Let us use it to the maximum! At times the verse references on the left side of a study will reflect a larger passage of scripture than what is shown on the right where only the words of Jesus are shown.
Many of the studies here utilize a modified (somewhat paraphrased) version of the Combined Gospels (see separate Resource item). It is logical that if you can study a topic with the Words of Jesus in a combined form from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John you will save time and can focus more on the words themselves. If you miss this point the website may appear confusing at times to you. Commentary by WOJ Ministry staff are generally minimized on the studies to let the reader focus on the words of Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to provide any interpretation that may be required.
This website is designed for dynamic adjustment of both screen size and font size as desired by the viewer. You can simply adjust the browser window size from screen maximum down to a smaller window and the text should adjust accordingly (within reason). If you want to view the text itself larger or smaller use the following depending on the browser.
Internet Explorer 7
Select the Page Menu
Point to Text Size
Select your choice of Largest, Larger, Medium, Smaller, Smallest text sizes.
Or by keyboard:
ALT + P (for Page)
X (for Text Size)
Use arrow keys and Enter key for actual size selection.
Internet Explorer 6
Select View Menu
Point to Text Size
Select the text size that best meets your needs
Or by keyboard:
ALT + P (for Page)
X (for Text Size)
Use arrow keys and Enter key for actual size selection.
Firefox 2/3
Just use CTRL with + or - to increase or decrease the size respectively
CTRL with 0 (zero) will reset to the default