My purpose in writing this text is to draw attention to the ministry of encouragement that should be the highest calling of any Christian towards a sister or brother! In this respect I see Barnabas as a ROLE MODEL! THE EARLY CHURCH In Luke´s history of the Early Church – the Acts of the Apostles – Barnabas appears for the first time in chapter 4. From then on, there are scattered references to him up until chapter 15. References to…
The title of this blog is not about bricks and mortar, but about men and women, girls and boys! And then, more specifically, about Christian brothers and sisters! I taught young people for nearly 40 years. I must have marked thousands of maths tests, English essays and other tests over the years, and taught around 2000 kids in my career. I had been fortunate enough to study at one of Britains top universities, and after completing further study in Norway,…
Today, I am starting a small number of blogs on the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. The word in Greek for a spiritual gift is χάρισμα/charisma – hence the word charismatic for gifts of this nature. In the New Testament there are 3 principal lists of such gifts, in Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12-14 and Eph. 4. MODERN CHARISMATIC HISTORY The first major return/revival of such gifts to the Church in modern times, was the Pentecostal revival that started in…
Having looked very briefly at the Holy Spirit in the Bible, let us now turn specifically to Jesus’ teaching on the Paraclete in John ch. 14-16. The passages in question are 14,16-17; 14,26; 15,26; 16,7-15. Some important points follow below: ANOTHER COUNSELLOR – ANOTHER HELPER “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth”. (John 14,16) Up until this time Jesus has been there to answer…
THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY Ask any Christian about Jesus Christ, and you will get a full answer. Likewise, if you ask about God the Father! However, ask about the Holy Spirit, and many will be hard pressed to explain much; let alone witness to any experience of his presence in their lives – though he is most certainly there! This should not be! A careful reading of the Acts of the Apostles and the letters, reveals what a…
Originally posted on April 12th 2020 This is the second post I have written this Easter on living the Christian life, the first being “Walk Before Me and be Thou Perfect” (of 4 days ago). The two should be read together as they compliment each other! The former is concerned with the principle governing the Christian life. The present post is concerned with the power to live the Christian life; it will have its focus on the Easter message! The…
6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. 7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” 8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.10 For whoever…
INTRODUCTION With my last blog, I entered the general area of healing! We looked at Isa. 61,1-3, and the role of the Messiah. Today I want to continue, by looking at Luke 4,18. And I will end with a later blog on Acts 10,38. I am thus holding these three scriptures together as summarising the ministry of Jesus: Isaiah 61,1-3, Lk. 4,18 and Acts 10,38. But before I get onto Luke 4,18, I need to clear the way for some…
In this blog, I want to pick up the story again from my blogpost called ‘The People of the Messiah’. I explained there why Paul chose that word εκκλησία/ekklesia, and what it means. Before we discuss the term “body of Christ”, I need first to mention two ways in which εκκλησία is used: The εκκλησία is both the universal church, as in Eph. 3,10, and the local church as in 1 Cor. 1,2 – where the local church in Corinth…
I am currently writing a blogpost about the body of Christ. Before I publish that, I want to share something from John’s Gospel. It’s about the Holy Spirit. In John chapter 4,13-14, Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman by the well says: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a…
In my recent blog posts, I have been approaching the subject of sanctification by an indirect route. This was certainly true with 1 Corinthians, and to a lesser extent with Romans chapter 8. I know that the words ‘law’ and ‘obedience’ can evoke sometimes traumatic emotions in people; often dictated by the kind of atmosphere in the home we grew up in – by the relationship we had with our father, or our parents. Such traumatic emotions can become effective…
In the last blog post, we talked about sanctification as being a) a consecration – a setting apart – a separation; for the purpose and the service of God (see 1 Cor. 1,30; 6,11; Rom. 1,7; Phil. 1,1 etc.), and b) a process, whereby we are being conformed to the image of his Son. In the mind of Paul, it was unthinkable, but that the latter should be the outcome of the former; that we are set apart for him…