A brief history of United by the Cross:
When I started this site, I wanted to share resources to help people in their walk with Jesus Christ. I shared daily Bible versus from well known Bible translations and even made audio and videos that I shared as a podcast. Unfortunately, most of the resources available, even if freely available, are not free to share due to copyright.
The first problem was when my own church sent me a takedown request for sharing videos they made, meant for small groups. These videos were publicly available and being shared by them and other churches. When I made a video playlist for people to watch without joining a group, they pointed out that I didn’t have permission to share the videos. They wanted to control how their videos were presented.
My next experience with copyright was when I made Bible Scripture videos, using royalty free stock footage. The videos were taken down by Sony, because they claimed that they owned the rights to part of the video.
Christian videos, music, and even Bible translations are often protected by copyright, meaning that you are likely to have content removed from social media if you use their content in your posts.
This is why I’m making all of the content I create free for anyone that wants to use it and will do my best to give attribution to indicate when I don't have full rights to material. I want to share the gospel and I don’t like the idea of some random AI taking down everything I produce. I’m not a preacher, programmer, scholar, writer, or musician, but everything created by UnitedbytheCross.org is Creative Commons (See the Creative Commons Page for more information). As state previously, non public domain content will be linked back to the owner, so there’s no question about ownership or permissions.
I do not use ads, request any form of payment, or want any data from you. I don't even have Google Analytics, though Google is probably still tracking everything and just not telling me about visitors. Regardless, what the LORD has blessed me with, I want to share with you.
About the author:
A long story, short(ish)
This card was the first tract I ever shared because it told my story, but I have to redact one of the entries because I can not, in good conscience, recommend people to this group.
My beginning
I was raised in church, but I never knew God. The "god" that I believed in was a caricature, based on the way others had experienced and explained their version of "god" to me. Just so we're clear, the definition according to Lexico is “a picture, description, or imitation of a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect”.
I never read the Bible cover to cover, but I knew the stories, so I thought I understood it. I thought of the Bible as a history book with a bunch of rules. I thought that the King James Version was the only reliable Bible, and all the others were "translated" from it. I believed that every word in the Bible was meant to be taken literally. I understood that the Bible was written by God through man, but this partnership wasn't clear. I believed that people had likely twisted parts of the story to control others. I thought the Bible and science were mutually exclusive and incompatible. This was a shaky foundation to build from, and eventually, I outgrew my faith.
I was agnostic for years and around 2014 I decided that I was atheist. I was afraid to tell anyone because everyone I knew was Christian. I thought they would disown me or try to change me. Either way, I was done with religion. I wouldn't try to convince anyone that they were wrong, but I finally knew what I believed. To explain it like court shows, I thought the evidence I had collected over the course of my life had proven that God didn't exist. It turned out that my evidence was hearsay, but it took a few years to figure that out. Thankfully, a conversation with my son brought the subject of belief into the light. There was a lot of long talks about what I thought, and why I had lost my faith. My wife and I had to resolve what it means to be married to someone that disagrees with the other's fundamental ideas about life.
Church of the Highlands
My wife knew my position, but in 2019, she asked me to come to church with her. I decided that I would have an open mind and go where the facts lead. It was a "nondenominational" church called Church of the Highlands. I was raised Pentecostal, but the Baptist church I had visited was nice. I used to want to learn from the different kinds of churches and find what made them different. Anyway, the whole nondenominational thing made me curious. It turned out that the "church" was a high school, and it was only one of about twenty locations where the message was broadcast each week. As we pulled into the parking lot, there were people directing traffic. They were smiling, waving, and welcoming us from the time we turned off the road. Then we were greeted at the door and welcomed. At first, I was confused by what seemed like a concert. At the end, no one tried to lay hands on me or call me to the alter. They took an offering, but said it was only for the people that called Highlands home. If you were visiting, it was their gift to you. The system that Church of the Highlands uses is all about next steps. Whether you're far from God or baptized yesterday, there's a next step waiting for you. They say the purpose is to "Know God, Find Freedom, Discover Your Purpose, and Make a Difference." It was a different take on church for sure, but the more I learned the more I was interested.
As an update, I no longer go to Church of the Highlands, and while I would recommend choosing a Bible teaching church, I will say that this was a good starter church. It was good at what it did, which is ease people into the proverbial waters of faith, using a carefully scripted experience. The service is milk and the meat is expected to come in "small groups".
YouVersion
The pastor mentioned a Bible app, with daily devotionals, called YouVersion. This app changed my life forever. I was searching for topics around being skeptical and I found devotionals that would lead me on the path to learn about apologetics. The questions that I had my entire life had answers and not only that; the answers created new questions, and those had answers too! I no longer needed to believe in spite of evidence, but my faith was made stronger because of the evidence.
The ministry that got me started is the one I redacted due to the fact that the pastor has lost his way, but I'm happy to report that there is a much better resource.
Got Questions
The Bible Project
Then, I found devotionals from The Bible Project and discovered that I never understood the Bible. This wonderful group has taught me more about the Bible in the last couple years, than I learned in my first twenty. I don't know which was the first video I saw, but this was one of them:
6 Days
For thousands of years, Jewish people have daily prayed the "Shema.” It’s a prayer that calls God’s people to respond to the divine love with faithfulness and devotion. This 6 day plan will explore the Hebrew words contained in the "Shema" to better explain its overall theme.
The beauty of the Bible Project is the way they can make something that seemed complicated so easy to understand.
This is episode 1 of an ongoing series that explores the origins, content, and purpose of the Bible. Here you'll be introduced to a condensed history of how the Bible came into existence, and the different forms of the Bible in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christian traditions.
I watch every video they put out, and now they have an app to help people learn how to read the Bible.
Join Tim, Jon, and other BibleProject team members as they reflect on the last seven years of BibleProject and look forward to the future. This conversation includes an exciting announcement about BibleProject’s plans for 2022 and beyond, including the launch of the BibleProject app on January 1, 2022.
You can see their announcement above or get the app here:
Android: BibleProject
Apple: BibleProject
I know this is longer than our short attention spans are used to, but this is also something that I felt deserves a proper explanation. So, while I have more to say and would love to discuss it with you, I'll end this page here.
Gold or silver I do not have, but what I do have I give to you. Acts 3:6
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