Sophos + moros. Wise fool. Our immeasurably wise Author and Finisher has ordained that we go forth with the power of a foolish message to win the inhabitants of His earth from the power of His enemies. 1 Corinthians 1: 22 Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to […]
Category Archives: Ministry
Testing Your Effectiveness
When Jesus instructed that someone could be known by their fruit (Matthew 7:16 & 20) He was referring to false prophets. When He taught about pruning, He was referring to branches that were in Him (John 15:2). Branches that don’t produce fruit are removed, and branches that produce fruit are pruned, so that they produce more fruit. In Acts 14:8-20, Luke described a fierce day in the lives of Barnabas […]
Soldiers?
Why do we tell our converts that they are joining God’s army, when the meetings we take them to are more like the VFW?
Defragging the Church
If you have a laptop or desk model personal computer, it has a hard drive. That’s the place where what you save is stored and where the information that makes your programs run is stored. If you save a picture, or a music file, or a letter or other document, the hard drive spins through its list of unused space, and records the thousands or billions of bits of your […]
On Being Awesome
Being well rounded with regard to your education and social preparation for life may make you less offensive, or better equipped to converse at parties, but it doesn’t lead to awesomeness. It is really maybe just being mediocre at many things. In order to attain awesomeness, you become offensive on days. Challenging on days. You can’t even stand yourself on days. It is because having purpose and passion (that means […]
Leaving Something
Most of the people who are remembered after they die are remembered in terms of what they built. All building isn’t measured in terms of “buildings,” but sometimes in terms of what was happening that needed to stop, or a process that was created, or a freedom that was established. I haven’t counted, but it seems that the percentage is at least large, of people whose investment in the earth […]
The Focus
We should be focused on Jesus. That shouldn’t be news. While we stare at His face in wonder and love, we should note what He is focused on, though. One day His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, like John had taught his disciples to pray. He responded with a model prayer. One day, He was looking at what He was focused on, and out of His […]
What About the Castaways?
What responsibility do we have regarding the large crowds of people who are leaving the church in search of Jesus? Every week, many go to their last Sunday Morning Service. Isolated by being seated facing lots of people’s backs and one person’s face, if they are looking for fellowship, they just leave still lonely. If the preacher really is a pastor, and they are looking for instruction on how to […]
A Love Song
Some descendants of Korach wrote a love song that we have preserved as Psalm 45. The writer of the New Testament letter to the Hebrews quoted a couple of verses of it, and declared that Yahweh spoke them to Jesus, His Son. The next time someone doesn’t like your interpretation of some Scripture that you have received understanding about through God’s Spirit, and says, “You’re taking that out of context!”, […]
Leading Well
You are a leader. Your preparation as a leader may not be complete yet, though. Your relationships with the people you lead may not be clearly defined yet, so that anyone could look on and see that you are leading them or someone else. Some people we are leading away from what we would like to lead them toward. Our presentation was unconvincing, or they are stubbornly committed to the […]