And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength after being weak, became mighty in battle, and put […]
How far are we from learning that we each need the gifts of other parts of the Body of Jesus, and that we are responsible for living in a way that other parts gain access to part of His life through our contributions? How devoted are we to doing whatever we can to enable and encourage the rest of the […]
In Acts 3:16, Luke quoted Peter as saying that it was the name of Jesus that healed the lame man who was begging at the Beautiful Gate and made him able to walk. That means that the name has power. Paul, writing to the congregations in Colossae, instructed them to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians […]
I am convinced that the Holy Spirit has a difference of opinion with religious leaders regarding the concepts of clergy and laity being valid categories of church membership. Luke recorded the apostles’ reaction to a controversy about a ministry of feeding widows as not being important enough for them to do the work of fixing it (Acts 6 and Acts 8). […]
Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office. But because He remains forever, He holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them. For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, […]
If I am still unconvinced that the Scripture references to being members of the body of Jesus are speaking of identity and nature, and the references to the Kingdom are speaking of commandments, obedience, and judgement, I will not be able to properly find the truth in passages like Hebrews 6:4-12. The two judgements that will be faced by every […]
He entered Jericho and was passing through. There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since He […]
There are times when it becomes a prize-less fight to defend myself or my opinion. When my character or my doctrine are being challenged, what should move me to defend them? When should I refuse to invest in the argument? When someone accuses me of having made a mistake that someone else really made, when I have been misquoted, when […]
Now everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we […]