This episode kicks off the Relational Grace Podcast by telling listeners more about what to expect from the ongoing teachings of Pastor Nick Harris who we sadly lost in 2020 just short of his 80th birthday. We also tell more about what to expect from Ariel Ministries, Pastor Nick and Crystal Harris's ministry, as we move forward without Pastor Harris. We consider it a responsibility to continue to share his great teachings and foundational message of Relational Grace. Visit the RelationalGraceBlog.com for more supplemental details and visuals.

We use the majority of this podcast to dive into a family conversation with Pastor Harris's wife Crystal, oldest son Deak Harris, daughter Amy Moffiet and youngest son Jamie Russell. We start from the beginning with a story of abandonment in Tulsa, Oklahoma and move through his adoption, education, career, and ministry. We wrap up with some key themes we have identified over the last several months that we feel tie our blended family unit together.

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Many years ago Pastor Nick Harris wrote a book that introduced the idea of Relational Grace, hence the name of our podcast. This book features the story of Mepobisheth and touches on the blood covenant and the many types and shadows found in this story. Pastor Harris says it himself, this is the clearest picture of salvation that he could find in the Bible. We thought it would only be fitting to lead off our podcast efforts with this foundational Relational Grace message. For context this message was recorded at Ariel Chapel in Norman Oklahoma ten years ago in 2011.

On a lighter note, and for our listeners that are new to Pastor Harris’s teaching and personality, he loved detective and sleuth characters and narratives, at one point in his ministry evolution he coined himself the Great Herqu Puaro of all things Biblical. He was always very proud to brag of this self proclaimed title.

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Pastor Harris kicks off a message series where he breaks down the six steps up to Solomon's throne and how they relate to everyone listening. Pastor Harris's goal in this series is to help everyone listen to live an exciting Christian life. A life that is victorious, a life that is overcoming and a life that is powerful.

Years ago Pastor Harris was honored to receive a gift of an incredible model, built true to scale, of the magnificent Temple of Solomon.

Along with this model of the temple, he was also given a model of Solomon's Throne with it’s gorgeous six steps. This elaborate throne was known to have sat inside of Solomon’s amazing temple. In his teachings, Pastor Harris often uses the model of Solomon's throne as a teaching tool, and as he studied this throne, he discovered many types and shadows and spiritual truths. This throne and it’s six steps leading up to the seat, were the inspiration of this teaching, and as you will see, each step has a distinct meaning and still relates to the experiences of every person listening today.

For your reference, we have created a blog post at RelationalGraceBlog.com for this series titled Six Steps to the Throne where we feature photography of this amazing model. You will also hear in this teaching, Pastor Harris reference a diagram that features the Body, Soul and Spirit, we always called these his “circles”. For your reference we have also included one of these circle diagrams in that post. We look forward to sharing more of Pastor Harris's circles in many episodes to come.

We hope that by taking one step per episode that everyone enjoys this six part series as we journey upward to the throne together. We will start with step 1’s message titled, “Crucified with Christ”.

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