Point of Reference

This episode opens with Pastor Jack Bannister's resurrection poem "Temporary Tombs" — a bold declaration that every grave is only temporary for those who walk in Christ's steps — before continuing the series on God's enemy with Part Four. Pastor Jack identifies three methods Satan uses to defeat believers: first, accusation — whispering campaigns designed to get us accusing o...

In this third installment of the series, Pastor Jack Bannister turns to the book of Job to illustrate Satan's continued existence and method of operation. Walking through five movements — Satan taunting, testing, tempting, tormenting, and ultimately being trounced — Pastor Jack shows how God was sovereign over every step of Job's trial: He initiated the conversation, set the limits, and us...

Continuing the series on the origin and fall of Lucifer, Pastor Jack Bannister completes the seven points of his excellency before Ezekiel twenty-eight — the sixth, that he was a living pipe organ carrying all the harmonies of heaven; and the seventh, that he was perfect in his ways until iniquity was found not in his deeds but in his desires. Pastor Jack then draws five sobering lessons from Luci...

In this first part of a multi-part study, Pastor Jack Bannister opens by asking a pointed question: do you really know your enemy? Drawing from Ezekiel chapter twenty-eight and Isaiah chapter fourteen, Pastor Jack takes us back before the garden of Eden — before man was even in the world — to examine the origins, fall, and ongoing power of Lucifer. He walks through five of seven points of excellen...

on faith, emotions, and obedience. Pastor Jack opens with two of his own poems — a vision of the Christian race and a meditation on prayer times — before Andrew Zarda leads the main study, "The Faith Life," exploring why we study the Bible, the difference between Logos and Rhema, and what it truly means to live by faith rather than feelings or appearances. Donna Bannister follows with a...

In this concluding part of the Nine Fruit Trees series, Pastor Jack Bannister completes his rich word study on the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit from Galatians chapter five, walking through the final six characteristics: Longsuffering — the God-given endurance that does not retaliate; Gentleness — the grace that mellows all that is harsh and austere; Goodness — virtue in action, Christ reproduced...

In this episode, Pastor Jack Bannister opens with his poem "Mountains of Faith" — tracing the great summits of Scripture from Abraham's mountain of obedience to Moses at Horeb to Mount Calvary itself — before launching into a rich word study on the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians chapter five. Pastor Jack unpacks the first three of the nine fruit: Love, with its three Greek expres...

In this concluding part of a two-part study, Pastor Jack Bannister continues his examination of the Rapture of the Church — and whether rank within the Body of Christ determines who is taken first. Drawing from Philippians, First Thessalonians, and the book of Revelation, Pastor Jack walks through the seven churches of Asia — Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea...

Issue 310 of Point of Reference opens with Beula Clark's cover poem "Victory Through Grace" — the grace that God promised is always enough — and A. S. Copley's stirring hymn "Ready for the Rapture," calling the Church to be spirit, soul, and body prepared for the upward call. Pastor Jack Bannister's main teaching challenges the popular notion that every believer wil...

Issue 309 of Point of Reference opens with two versions of Pastor Jack Bannister's poem "My God" — a brief declaration of who God is to us, and a fuller meditation on walking with Him in daily fellowship toward the grand eternal shore. The main teaching, "Christ the High Priest," works through seven outstanding features of Christ's priesthood from the book of Hebrews: i...

Issue 308 of Point of Reference opens with two poems by guest contributors — Ruth Clock's soaring cover poem on creation and new birth, and Lorene Clopp's tender "The Secret Place," a meditation on abiding under the shelter of God's wings. Pastor Jack Bannister's main teaching, "God's Emotions and Ours," opens with Scripture's clear testimony that God ha...

Issue 307 of Point of Reference opens with Pastor Jack Bannister's creation poem — "When God made man, He spoke to Himself" — and his poem "Loaves and Fish," setting the stage for the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. Lois Bannister teaches the main study, "Perfect Provision — Nothing Lost," drawing from all four Gospel accounts to show that Jesus waste...

Issue 306 of Point of Reference opens with a bold declaration of Christ's supremacy — greater than any ruler, mightier than any warrior — and Pastor Jack Bannister's hymn-like poem "Jesus Is My Friend." The main teaching, "Crossing the Rubicon," draws on Julius Caesar's irrevocable decision to cross the Rubicon river in 49 B.C. as a mirror for the believer's cal...

Issue 305 of Point of Reference opens with a poem by Beula Clark on the nearness of Christ's return, and Pastor Jack Bannister's poem "God of Glory — God of Grass," a warm reminder that God's fingerprints are on every living thing, from the grass to you. The main teaching, "Job's Three Friends," profiles Eliphaz (the voice of religious experience), Bildad (the v...

ssue 304 of Point of Reference continues the Job series with a rich theological study on what Job's children represent as a principle of fruit-bearing. Pastor Jack Bannister opens with his poem "God's Family" — a meditation on redemption and the new creation — then unfolds three movements: The Principle (fruit-bearing is cut back so it can be raised to a higher level, as with Mos...

Issue 301 of Point of Reference is entirely devoted to the theme of love — its origin in God, its expression through Christ, and its call upon every believer. Pastor Jack Bannister opens with the anonymous poem "Love's Ministry" and his own poem "Song of the Bridegroom," then teaches through "Living Love" — a rich exploration anchored in John chapter three, verse...

Issue 302 of Point of Reference opens with two poems by Pastor Jack Bannister — "Attitude of Job's Friends," a wry look at the comforters who got it wrong, and "Hidden Ministries," a meditation on Christ's silent years in Nazareth and Paul's Spirit-redirected journey to Macedonia. The main teaching, "The Man Job," is a detailed character study drawn from t...

This landmark three-hundredth issue of Point of Reference opens with Pastor Jack Bannister's bold declaration "God Can Do" and his poem "The God of Love," before Lois Bannister teaches the main study on God's Superlative Grace — a rich Greek word study on  huper  and  huperballo  drawn through Romans, Ephesians, and Second Corinthians, defining grace as unearned, unmeri...

In this issue of Point of Reference, Pastor Jack Bannister opens with a quick-fire survey of seven Pauline churches and what each needed to hear, followed by Grace L. Ferris's moving poem "The Refining" — setting a tone of suffering, gold, and divine completion. The main teaching, "The Day God Became Vulnerable," draws from Isaiah fifty-three and Mark fifteen to explore the...

In this issue of Point of Reference, Pastor Jack Bannister opens with his own identity poem "What I Am" — a quiet, firm declaration that he is simply a follower and lover of Jesus, nothing more and nothing less. A poem by Beula Clark, "Thoughts on Psalm Twenty-Three," sets the devotional tone before Pastor Bannister walks verse by verse through the twenty-third Psalm in the mai...

In this issue of Point of Reference, Pastor Jack Bannister opens with two original poems — "Freedom Facts I and II" — celebrating the liberty every believer has through Christ's sacrifice. The main teaching, "Violent Faith," draws from Matthew chapter eleven to define a pressing, uncompromising, seizing kind of faith that refuses defeat and lays hold of God's truth no m...

In this issue of Point of Reference, Pastor Jack Bannister opens with a bold declaration over Jehovah Rapha and a moving poem — "Paul's the Prisoner" — setting up a central paradox: the man most bound was the man most free. The main teaching unpacks seven dimensions of what it means to be a doulos — a love slave — of Jesus Christ, drawn from Romans chapter one and woven through Phili...

This issue of Point of Reference is taught primarily by Lois Bannister, who walks through the full life of the prophet Elijah as a study in faith under pressure — from his bold confrontation with Ahab, to the ravens at Cherith, to the widow at Zarephath, to the fire on Carmel, to his weary collapse in a cave on Mount Horeb. The teaching draws out the consistent pattern: God meets His servants in t...

In this landmark one-hundredth issue from recent years, Pastor Jack Bannister opens with a majestic declaration — "Jesus is greater than any ruler, mightier than any warrior" — and his own poem "Jesus Is My Friend," setting a tone of total devotion before the main teaching begins. Drawing from Philippians chapter three, Pastor Bannister uses Julius Caesar's irreversible cro...

In this issue of Point of Reference, Pastor Jack Bannister takes us deep into Second Timothy chapter one, introducing us to a largely overlooked figure named Onesiphorus — a man who traveled from Ephesus to Rome at great personal risk simply to refresh the imprisoned apostle Paul. Through this study, Pastor Bannister draws on his own experience of abandonment by fellow ministers and reveals how hi...