Our Founder

Credibility on the Internet is an enormous problem. Entire websites are dedicated to checking the facts that get shared, tweeted, or published online.  When everyone with an internet connection can create content on the web without any form of accountability, it is vital to know who is writing and publishing what you are reading.

  • "Are these people honest and honorable?"
  • "Do the authors know what they are talking about?"
  • "Can I trust the information I find on this site?"

 

This page seeks to answer your questions about the founder of the Psalm 119 Foundation, Brady Stephenson.

Hello.

Brady Stephenson

I'm Brady Stephenson. I was born and raised in the western part of the state of Texas in the good ol' US of A.  I currently live near San Antonio, Texas with my wife, Amy, and have two adult children.  I'm honored that you have visited one of our sites and I pray it has been a blessing to you.  This is my testimony and an account of how I have arrived in my current walk of faith.

If you still have questions after reading this then please contact me and ask. :)

 

Please know that I don't claim to have all the answers.

The answers I do have are based on my current understanding of Scripture which is rooted in a trust in Messiah that all believers are all called to live out with reverential fear and trembling.

In 1996 I was "born again" and came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior while attending Harvest Fellowship Community Church (a non-denominational congregation) in San Antonio.

I was involved with children's, usher's, car maintenance, prayer, altar, and other ministries. In 1999 I was asked to serve as a deacon at the church due to my active ministry involvement.  In 2001 my wife and I shifted our focus to lead a weekly Bible study for the college- and career-aged young, single adults.

After several wonderful years in this ministry, it seemed as if the group had reached a plateau in their spiritual growth... as had I.   In 2004 my wife and I began praying that G-d would move in a mighty way in our lives and in the lives of our students.  We prayed that He would remove whatever sin or stumbling blocks that were in our lives that prevented us from knowing Him better and having a closer walk with Him.  We prayed that He would change whatever needed to be changed, fix whatever needed to be fixed, and move us in whatever direction was pleasing to Him.  We weren't struggling—our faith was strong— we just wanted more of our Lord.

We continued in this prayer for weeks... months... a year.

In the fall of 2005, after almost a year, the Lord answered our prayer in the form of two young men who visited our weekly Bible study.  They arrived unexpectedly and quietly listened to our discussion.  They thanked us and promised to return the following week.  They did so and again quietly listened to the study but began asking very polite yet pointed questions about what I was teaching versus what the Bible actually said... especially regarding Jesus and who He is.

The goal of our group was to study the Word for the purpose of developing a closer relationship with the Living G-d through His Son, Jesus.  The young men challenged some of my teachings as being unsupported by Scripture.  I pointed to the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, teachings from the Council of Nicea, and other, similar sources.  These young men claimed that some of the teachings of the early church fathers contradicted Scripture and the historical person of Jesus.  After researching their claims for several weeks, I found they were true.  I was shocked and ashamed that I had been so mistaken and had taught these errors to others.

During my research I was challenged to strip off centuries of accumulated dogma, bias, and error that had crept into the teachings of most churches today and instead examine my Savior in His context of His life: the context of the first-century Jewish Messiah who lived out a Jewish faith in a Jewish nation and had twelve Jewish men as disciples.  In that context what did the faith of the disciples look like?  What was their relationship with Messiah like?  Did that match up with how I was living and teaching others to live as disciples of Christ today?

If not, what changed and who changed it?

When?

Why?

And by what authority?

  

After weeks and months of examining Scripture and history, I found that I had not been living according to the ways my Lord and Savior established when He walked the earth.  It has been (and continues to be) a great joy and honor to study the ways of the Lord whom I have come to know by the name He was given by his parents: the Hebrew name Yeshua.  I find great joy in sharing what I have learned with others who are on this journey to know Him as He is revealed in Scripture.

Check out the article I wrote titled Working Out My Salvation.  It is a collection of the initial questions that I wrestled with and the answers I found that led me to the place where I am in my faith today.  I welcome any thoughts and feedback that would help correct or clarify it.

If you've made it this far, I definitely want to thank you for your time.  :)

May the Most High bless you out of His great abundance.

- Brady

 

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