Great need of the church today is to feed the flock and get our people into the word of God

Grant R. Osborne, professor emeritus of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, author of numerous books, including The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, and multiple commentary volumes, including the Osborne New Testament Commentaries (Lexham Press) says

one of the great needs of the church today is to feed the flock and get our people into the word of God. It seems there is less and less of the Bible in church life. Some pastors even believe down deep that the Bible is somewhat boring, and that expository messages don’t cut it. I want to show in my classroom that this isn’t true, and that God’s word preached correctly is scintillating and meaningful.

Preach

Too many people who call themselves Christian do forget who Jesus really was and which tasks he had given to his followers. Today true Christians still should follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and should proclaim the hopeful message of the coming Kingdom.

Real Christians should be heralds of the Gospel, eager to tell the people about the Good News, of salvation and about the hope for mankind given by the Grace of God.

As forerunner or herald Christians should be portent or indicators of something important or calamitous about to occur, perhaps an omen in the eyes of many, but for others an insurmountable event to look forward even when it might bring lots of suffering and an incredible violence. therefore we should warn the people of that last and third world war which is insuperable.

By sharing the agape love and bringing more people to see that Jesus is the way to God and the way to life, the Christian herald shall be able to make many stronger and secured against the coming disaster. Out of love for others we should tell others about the love of God, about what Jesus has done, but also about the return of Jesus and what to expect of that time of his return.

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To remember

• Greek word most often translated as ‘preach’ is κηρύσσω – kérussó (Strong’s 2784) = Koine = ‘to be or act like a herald’ or ‘to proclaim’.
• role of a herald or Old French heraut from Frankish via herewald, literally ‘war-ruler’, > martial or commander > 3 distinct contemporary meanings:

1. A messenger
2. A harbinger
3. A steward (of heraldry -a rank/position at the College of Arms)

•  ‘preacher’ of the Gospel, = entrusted (stewardship) with a message of coming of the Kingdom of God.
• ‘to herald’ =  ‘sing the praises of’
• idea that a Christian should ‘preach the Gospel’= frowned upon. >  conjures images of street corner evangelists ranting at passing ‘sinners’
• Christian organisations involved in social action ministry > running night shelters, to discourage volunteers from speaking about Jesus – some even require a signed commitment to not proactively mention the Gospel.

What has gone wrong?  To paraphrase Peter (Acts 5:3), how has Satan so filled the hearts of Christians?  How is it that Christians feel confident enough to defy God and disobey the Great Commission?

Go into all the world and proclaim (kérussó) the gospel to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15)

‘preach’ is not:

• convicting people of their sin and telling them they are bound for hell
• talking down to people from a position of self-righteousness
• a slick presentation, a hectoring declamation or a well-honed argument.

Preaching = heralding = speaking joyfully of Jesus, singing his praises; telling people of how people are transformed in Christ, and how they can be also, through faith.

best witnesses to Christ = demonstrate love +  speak of its origin, which is Jesus; perhaps the Great Commission was given as command because Jesus knew that it would be challenging.

If witness speaks from love about hope + declares that Jesus = source of hope => herald will have done his work faithfully.

 

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Additional reading

1. Two new encyclopaedic articles
2. Breathing to teach
3. “I Die Daily”
4. To create a great journey

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Related

 

1. What is meant by awareness, or witnessing?
2. Witnessing the Destruction of Nature around the Planet.
3. Man I sure wish I would’ve had one of my witnessing cards just now to send with a man.
4. A witnessing prayer
5. Witnessing the Secret Creator
6. ” Witnessing “
7. As the clock strikes 12…
8. Hope is an anchor
9. Reject And Correct Christian propaganda
10. Families embrace their community for the gospel
11. Bold to Witness
12. Being a One Talent Church
13. Come and see…
14. Hold Up The Light
15. Are You An Ambassador For Christ?
16. Are You Ready for the Harvest?
17. First Things First
18. Talking About Jesus
19. You Are Ready To Go – By Laurence Torr
20. Christianity’s Most Essential Verse

God Breathed Words

Raphael’s depiction of Paul preaching in Athens

Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.  (1 Thessalonians 2:9)

The Greek word that is most often translated as ‘preach’ is κηρύσσω – kérussó (Strong’s 2784).  The word in the Koine

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Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #3 Cyberwars and prophesy

There are people who think people are and/or should be free to call onto Allah or to say  “Allahu akbar”, but more and more we see all over the capitalist world antagonism. The hostility we can find mostly in Alt right and Neo nazist groups but also by the very conservative  (not to say “fundamentalist Christians”). Those fundamentalist Christians have the pretension to tell others what words they may or should use even in languages which are not their own. Others, like atheists, look at them and laugh with them, certainly when there are shootings in a church and everybody calls unto their god and is not helped by him. those who look at such shooting might question then

Does god exist, and if so, is jesus christ/christianity, the correct and factual representation of god? Now, anyone sane knows god does not exist, but put that aside for the purpose of this essay, and let’s consider the question to be legitimate. {Seven Days Later: The Fundamentalist Christian Dictatorship of amerikkka}

The “Seer of Forbidden Truth“, creator of “The Manifesto of Forbidden Truth”, as a believer in other things than God, naturally finds it a joke  what happens in this world, because he does not know or does not understand what God gave to the first human beings and what the Plan is of God. She (or he) is not the only ” anarchist, atheist, Immortalist, virgin for life, lover of Self, hater of humanity” {About Me} and is a good example of several youngsters of this capitalist world, where there is no place for God, who think they have all knowledge with

thousands of different uniquely brilliant insights into humanity and the human condition of existence, recognized and articulated by Me within The Manifesto of Forbidden Truth. {About Forbidden Truth}

Maliciously misinformed websites spread quickly, and on social media lots of people wanted to help spread false messages and took every opportunity to say bad things about lovers of God. Certain religious groups, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses seemed to work as a red cloth on a bull. They were left holding the baby. Not that they would have been so eager to be a sitting target, but for many who call themselves Christian they are the scapegoat. Often we could see that Roman Catholics tried to get the attention away from their paedophile priests by using the Jehovah’s Witnesses as the fall guys, as if they are an organisation letting children molested by their elders. In several countries former Jehovah’s Witnesses got together to go against that organisation, but in some cases also against the believes of that group. Several ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses having turned their back to God and often also against other non-trinitarians. A problem with many ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses is that they often quit faith and start using a terrible language which undermines their sayings as well, because it takes away a lot of credibility and gives the impression they got so cross and frustrated because they did not get what they wanted. All the hate language we can see by those ex-JW is not helping the advancement of the preaching of the Kingdom of God. The Jehovah’s Witnesses Organisation also denying they made several prophesies which did not come to a reality, undermines also the value of that organisation and of the people who follow in the footsteps of that church.  A big problem also seems to be that lots of people in that organisation are not taken serious and

more half-truths and obfuscations*are spouted by these so-called ‘Men of God’, in defense of the indefensable, and it’s about time they were called out on it. {This is the main reason that I left the Jehovah’s Witnesses . . .}

Some of those ex-JW became very strong opponents of the true faith in Jehovah. Many joined the trinitarians who found some strong fighters against the Biblical truth and people who could help in the message of hate. It is even incredible to hear what those so called christians use against the ones who belief in only one God and not want to make their Jesus in their god.

Trinitarian or non-trinitarian Christian, every reader of the bible should know that those preachers who tell that Jesus has come already should be aware that they should be cautious for false teachings because:

“23 Then if any man shall say unto you, ‘Lo, here is Christ,’ or ‘there,’ believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 25 Behold, I have told you before. 26 Therefore, if they shall say unto you, ‘Behold, He is in the desert!’ go not forth; or ‘Behold, He is in the secret chambers!’ believe it not. 27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the vultures be gathered together.” (Mt 24:23-28 KJ21)

Even Jesus could not tell when he would be coming back. In case he is God, he naturally would have known and than he would have told a lie, though you should know that God does not tell lies and that Jesus did not sin and as such also did not tell lies. Human beings and human organisations can tell many lies and can spread fake news, but God is a God of truth, God of reliability and a God of order and not a God of confusion. His language is clear and not confusing. When He says something you should take it as what it says.

We all hear from time to time that the world is about to end.  The most famous case in recent years might be 2012, when the Mayan calendar ended and thus many thought the world would end in that year also.  (Yet we’re all still here.) {Matthew 24:35-36: “But Of That Day And Hour No One Knows…”}

writes Jon Mitchell in his Weekend Bible Reflections. He also remembers hearing that this was it, back in 2008 when the economic crisis was happening.

‘Follow the shepherd‘ who takes himself a false god but also recognises that

Ever since the beginning of the Church, there have been people who have risen up claiming to be the Messiah or the only way to Heaven. But we know from God’s Word that there is one way, one truth, one life, and that is Jesus. Scripture is very clear and very serious about the exclusivity of Christ and the Gospel. {Stay Woke [A Look at Matthew Chapter 24]}

and continues

Head’s up: false teachers are coming. They’ve been around for ages, actually; people who go around looking to deceive the Church. They’re wolves in sheep’s clothing and false messengers of an unbiblical and false gospel. This is a tool Satan has used for centuries that will culminate with the rise of the Anti-Christ in the last days. Don’t be misled! Look around; stay woke. Let your foundation be built on the truth of Jesus and that He is the only way to salvation. {Stay Woke [A Look at Matthew Chapter 24]}

Some people do not like it when some one comes at their door to talk about their faith. Stevie Turner is such a full time writer, who was a member of a church choir, and came to question why so many children are made to follow their parents’ religious views, and writes

I’ve had Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhists and Baptists at my door trying to convert me to their way of thinking. Why? Why can’t I be left in peace to follow my own beliefs? I don’t go knocking on people’s doors telling them which religion to follow. My philosophy is – if you want to believe in God, then believe in Him. If you don’t believe, then that’s fine too. {A Little Bit of Controversy Now & Again…}

Did she ever think it could have been of interest in her and her future, and out of love for her that people came to her door to talk about their faith?

For sure we are told that by the time we come closer to the end times there shall be more preaching in the world. But we are also warned that the world shall be in a terrible godless state.

“36 But of that day and hour, knoweth no man, no, not the angels of Heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark 39 and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left. 41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left. 42 “Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.” (Mt 24:36-44 KJ21)

That world which does not want to know about God loves to use the internet platform to wage a cyberwar to divide society and to bring more hate between people and their religious groups. With that “cyberwarfare” we not only think of the use of digital attacks by one country or nation to disrupt the computer systems of another with the aim of creating significant damage, death or destruction. {(Ranger S., 2017 August 29)} Though we must be aware that it is not aimed uniquely at military or conflicting purposes. In a time when a cyberwar is a ‘bigger threat than terrorism’ people should know that the internet is by several people used to undermine the system and the stability in communities, countries and states.

When most people think of warfare they conjure images of combat on the front lines that are often depicted in historical war films. However, cyberwar is becoming an increasingly terrifying weapon. {Cyberwar}

Everywhere we can find groups who find themself superior to the other and who like to disparage the others.

Jesus who described his coming as similar to when the flood came, should have to make us wondering if we are prepared, or if we are just like when the flood suddenly came upon the people in Moses time (Matthew 24:37-41).

The world got the promise of God that there would never again be such a flood that the whole world would be under water. He warned that tsunami‘s and earthquakes would come more frequently and become stronger. The more frequently recurring natural disasters would get us closer to the time of Christ’s return and the to the rapture. And the time close to the return of Christ shall be a time of a lot of disorder, stress, nation fighting against nations and religions fighting against religions. when people would come to see such signs they should be prepared and not be like the foolish virgins or  the bridesmaids in the parables of Jesus. Even Jesus did not know the hour when it would come. In case he is God naturally he would have known but also would have lied when his disciples asked him when it would come. Therefore please make sure you are on guard and are ready for when the day would come. Take heed to yourself, so that your heart not become burdened by excessiveness and drunkenness and anxieties of life, and that Day comes on you unexpectedly. We must know God gave us His word to come to recognise the signs, but many shall be taken by it. For as a snare it will come on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. when we are willing to recognise that Jesus is the way to God and the way to salvation, the way to life, and worship the Only One True God we may count on the liberation by Christ and on his work as mediator between God and man. Therefore let us not become weak and be taken by false teachings and fake news but be on the watch-out, every day praying that we may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen and to stand before the Son of Man. (see Matthew 24:36-44; Marc 13:32-37; Luke 21:34-38; Matthew 25:1-13).

 

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Preceding

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #1 Abrahamic religions

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #2 War on God’s Plan, Name and title

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Additional reading

1. Creator and Blogger God 9 A Blog of a Book 3 Blog about Prophecy
2. God’s Plan, Purpose and teachings
3. The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 1 Flooding and Water-waves
4. Profitable disasters
5. Facing disaster fatigue
6. At the closing hours of 2016 #2 Low but also highlights
7. Are Christianity and Capitalism Compatible?
8. Social media a destabilisation tool in the Middle East and Syrian conflict
9. A busy 2017 #3 Fake, gossip and real news
10. I have not hidden …
11. Today’s thought “Sun, moon and stars” (January 22)
12. Date Setting
13. Signs of the Last Days
14. Signs of the the last days when difficult times will come

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Related

1. Muslim writer wants his “Allahu akbar” back
2. Seven Days Later: The Fundamentalist Christian Dictatorship of amerikkka
3. Why (Fundamentalist) Christians Hate Atheists
4. On Jehovah’s Witnesses 
5. Of Yehovah and Jehovah’s Witnesses — Dr. Michael Heiser
6. FaithLeaks, a ‘Wikileaks for Religion,’ Releases Documents On Sexual Abuse Among Jehovah’s Witnesses
7. My Last Defense
8. Jehovah’s Witnesses Exposed! Jordan Maxwell and Santos Bonacci
9. This is the main reason that I left the Jehovah’s Witnesses . . .
10. Waking Up Jehovah’s Witnesses With Proactive Activism in Poland
11. Jehovah’s Witnesses and False Prophecies
12. Watch: Gracefully Broken-Why We Left The Jehovah’s Witnesses
13. Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Wrong: 14. God Gives Eternal Life
14. My Story: Leaving Jehovah’s Witnesses at 15
15. A Little Bit of Controversy Now & Again…
16. The two Jehovah’s Witnesses
17. Cult Programming That Causes Parental Alienation is Absolutely Dangerous
18. Sad Note to the Jehovah’s Witnesses series
19. How to Rescue Your Family from the Jehovah’s Witnesses?
20. Why We Believe What We Do? You Sure About That? I Bet Not…
21. A reply from a child molester. 
22. Nancy Pelosi defends Al Franken and John Conyers but attacks Donald Trump and calls Roy Moore a child molester
23. A Child Molester or a Democrat?
24. Donald Trump is defending homophobic child molester Roy Moore
25. “>Trump endorses accused child molester Moore for Senate
26. An open letter to anyone who would vote for a child molester…
27. Oh Alabama, You Hurt Me So…
28. Moral Compass
29. Online Predators
30. Cardinal Law, central figure in church abuse scandal, dies
31. Metropolitan Opera House Accused of Ignoring Reports of Child Molestation Involving Icon James Levine
32. Hypocrisy on high alert
33. Genesis 6:5
34. “Life wasn’t meant to be Easy”
35. Religion
36. Understanding Shame growing up in a High Control Religious Group / Cult
37. The Church and Survivors of Fundamentalist Religions
38. I’ve been Published!
39. Sexist Attitudes in the Church
40. “I’m not coming back”
41. Needing to Belong
42. The Trials And Tribulations Of Life With Mental Illness
43. Hmm…Dreams…
44. Social Media and Democracy
45. Cyberwar
46. Cyberwar a ‘bigger threat than terrorism’
47. We’re at Cyberwar
48. Politicians Intermix Cyberwar, Information Warfare, And Fake News
49. Sounds of a CyberWar
50. Contribution to Cyberwar Attacks
51. Tomorrow when the Cyberwar began
52. Hacking and Cyberwar
53. Army strategizes for victory in cyberwar
54. End Of The World? Again?

The Reformation shows us why we need expository preaching

In Christianity pastors or preachers should be followers of Christ Jesus and spread the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God. Their first and most important book in their preaching should be the Greatest Book of all, the Bible.

It is not bad to look back at the several people who also tried to be a servant of Christ or to be a servant of God. But the main focus of the preaching may not be on the words of those previous preachers, but always should focus on the Words of God. Too often that is forgotten in several churches, where they shout only a few quotes from Scriptures and fill the main service with their own words and with music, in the hope to entertain the people in their church.

Today we have to ask all those elders, presbyters, expositors to come to preach That Most Important Word. all those who hope to have some mega church running should better remember those who did their best to bring the Word of God to the people: The evangelists in the Second and First Great Awakenings and the Reformers who preached the Word, like the apostle Paul preached followed Jesus who also preached the Word, him following Isaiah, Ezra and so many man of God who where not afraid to preach the Word of God.

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To remember

Martin Luther  = main spark to Protestant Reformation <=  95 Theses  > because the Word was unleashed.

William Tyndale, John Hus, + many others executed for translating or preaching the Word in people’s language.

Roman Catholic Church prevented Catholics from reading the Word themselves + from possessing a Bible > restricted for a thousand years.

Read word for soul’s health > solace

expository preaching > involves exposition, or comprehensive explanation, of Scripture => presenting meaning + intent of biblical text, providing commentary + examples => passage clear + understandable ==> expose meaning of the Bible, verse by verse.

 

Knowing the blood of the martyrs soaks the ground under thousands of stakes, how dare we insert our own words, opinions, fads, and stunts onto the pulpit? Men died for this Word to be preached. Jesus as the Word suffered and absorbed all God’s wrath for the elect so this word would go out and be preached.

 

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Further related

1. The Reformation shows us why we need expository preaching
2. St. Luke: An Expositional and Devotional Commentary” by William Klock
3. How Relevant is Your Church?
4. 1810 5vols The Family Expositor or A Paraphrase and Version of the New Testament
5. The Protestant Reformation and the Reformers: The Truth Restored
6. Was the Reformers’ Gospel something new?
7. A Swiss Reformer
8. The Human Reformer: Martin Luther Struggled With Depression and Nightmares
9. Scripture Alone, for the Reformers and us!

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Related articles

• Shan George tells pastors what to do with tithe
• Serve God diligently and obey the law
• Chinese House Church Leaders and Toddler Arrested After Singing in Public Park

With the 500th year anniversary of the Reformation coming upon us October 31, many people are looking to history and learning Martin Luther and his the men that came before him.

Martin Luther is generally acknowledged to have been a main spark to the Protestant Reformation. Protestant comes from the word protest, which Luther’s 95 Theses sparked against the Roman Catholic Church’s excesses of indulgences (sin absolution for hire) and other abuses.

The Reformation didn’t happen because Martin Luther put the 95 Theses on the door to Wittenberg Chapel. It happened because the Word was unleashed. ~Mark McAndrew, North Avenue Church

Here, John MacArthur explains in a 1:33 clip How unhindered access to God’s Word changed history.

William Tyndale, John Hus, and many others were executed for translating or preaching the Word in the people’s language. The Roman Catholic Church prevented the Catholics from reading the Word themselves and…

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Preaching as Public Speaking

Jesus has given his followers the task to go out into the word to preach the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God.

2020 years after the master teacher his birth the Church has gone fare away from his teachings. In many church-groups or denominations we can find that human doctrines have won and that the people in the congregation or church community prefer to keep to human tradition instead of holding to the biblical teachings and Godly holy days.

“I want to preach a sermon. . .” – NARA – 514567 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Disappointed by the many contradicting teachings, ideas and having seen so many pastors, ministers and priests not living according to the Law of God and the law of human decency, lots of people got enough of the hypocrisy of those churches. Today we can only see (nearly) empty churches all over West Europe.

For sure the Body of Christ needs some fresh blood and some good ‘Punch’. Anno 2017 it looks like the church is gone ‘pubering’ again and in need of some acné products, trying to get rid of the puperal pimples or the sickness of the capitalist world where man has increased his position to godly status, so many thinking they are god themselves and play for god.

This world need preachers or speakers who are not afraid to give those immature consumers a tick on their bum. some even can use some figurative slap in the face to wake them up.

Most important to come over as some one sincere and credible is that the one who wants to speak for God he or she, himself or herself beliefs in the Most High and in His only begotten son. In the preacher has to burn the light of faith before he can go to others for trying to convince them to see that light in the darkness.
First there has to be conviction and persuasion in the preacher’s heart, glowing very strongly, to have the fire in the eyes, with such a kind and sweet heart that people would become eager to taste that sweetness and listen to what that person has to tell.

With the hate and vile language we can find lots of Christians spreading today on the internet and in common speech on the streets, they shall not be able to attract others to love them or to love what they tell.

Today we also find lots of Christians who preach there has a war started by the Muslims against the Christians. They forget that lots of Christians are setting themselves against the Islam. They do not see they have fallen in the trap of the false Muslims who not only have done a lot of damage to Islam but also want to destabilise the whole world.

It is up to the preachers who call themselves Christian to show the love of Christ and to share that agape love with all people around them, atheists, other believers (be them Muslims or from an other faith).

Without the love of Christ and without the burning fire of faith in the own heart, the preacher his gained ‘technique’ shall be quickly uncovered by the truth, so let him first get to the core of the Bible and teach that biblical Truth instead of human doctrines, and let he or she be unbiased, open to all people and not to just a few of a certain race or group.

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To remember

• preaching = divine task + form of public speaking
• preaching involves spiritual dynamics + oratory skills = technical aspect of preaching < form of public speaking => skills revolving around use + proper utilization + creative use of voice, eye contact, facial expressions, gestures + movements.
• no methodology holy
• Only written words of God in Bible are holy

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Preceding articles

Several Christians fail to recognise the Chosen ones of God and are not taking on a Christian attitude

To proclaim the day of vengeance

What makes you following Christ and Facebook Groups

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Additional reading

1. The business of this life
2. The task given to us to love each other
3. Parish, local church community – Parochie, plaatselijke kerkgemeenschap
4. People who know how to pray to move God to take hold of our affairs in a mighty way
5. Pulpit reserved for the pastor
6. Notification and news feed for Facebook users
7. Bring praise to the Creator
8. The essence of church

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Further reading

1. Why are Christians so nosey about other peoples affairs
2. What, we agree? Compatible issues in a disagreeable world
3. Is a Religious War in Europe Imminent?
4. Bias, and Disagreeing with Something
5. Can we not be civil and simply disagree?
6. “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give”
7. Are you ready for this?
8. You Summon and Send Us, three prayers based on Matthew 10
9. Bearing Witness
10. On the Power of Hospitality…
11. “When I Could Stand it No Longer….”
12. Being A Witness for Christ
13. Proclaim
14. Politics and Preaching
15. Good enough for ministry?
16. What builds the Church?
17. Back to Baby Steps
18. Book Blurb: Biblical Preaching
19. 3 Steps to Make the Message Stick
20. 5 Lessons from the Mission Field
21. Owen on Preaching, Sinclair on Children and Christ
22. Speech
23. Finding My Voice
24. The Foolishness of Preaching
25. Jonah — Belief Contradicted by Behavior! (Part 3)
26. Calvin: Ministers Ought Not to Steal
27. J.C. Ryle on “Jelly-Fish” Sermons
28. Unfurling the Word
29. Let’s keep our message offensive
30. Let’s keep our message offensive, part two
31. Preaching to the Late Modern Mind: Five Cultural Narratives to Know
32. Preparing to Preach
33. Preaching and Faithfulness
34. The Courage to Preach
35. Pastoral Theology
36. Reflections
37. Care for Others
38. Faithful Congregations Share the Good News
39. Charles Spurgeon on Spiritual Gleaning
40. The Dispensation of Grace
41. Stirring the Pot with Grace…
42. Psalm 64:9 Pondering God’s Work
43. How to Have a Successful Ministry

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Related articles

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• Muslim radio host says gay people have a right to be angry at Islam: “Don’t try and tell me that our religion doesn’t have a history of homophobia”
• Attack On Ndigbo In the North Is An Attack On All Christians, Say Arewa Christians
• It makes no sense to compare religious majoritarianism in India and Pakistan – Publications – AEI
• Tillerson is now calling ISIS slaughter of Iraqi religious minorities ‘genocide’
• Anti-immigrant group confuses bus seats for women wearing burkas
• Muslim Terrorists Butcher Two Chinese Christians For Preaching The Gospel To Muslims
• BELLWETHER: Now he’s sorry! California imam preaches sound bites of hate
• Exclusive: Islamist preacher who cited a Nazi comparison of Jews to ‘fleas’ to speak at Palestine Expo event in government building
• You may not understand His plans, but the results will prove that His way is right

Worship and the Christian Life

True, preaching is a divine task, yet basically it is also a form of public speaking. A true preacher will eventually realise that as much as preaching involves spiritual dynamics, it also certainly includes oratory skills. These oratory skills constitute the technical aspect of preaching.

Before I tell about this technical aspect of preaching, or the oratory skills, which make us realise that preaching is a form of public speaking, let me tell first some important points to consider.

The first point is that though the technical side of preaching is important, still the spiritual side is more important. Preaching is firstly divine, then secondly it is public speaking. Preaching achieves eternal spiritual fruits, something that ordinary public speaking can never produce.

The second point to consider is that no methodology is holy, no matter how helpful it is in preaching. The techniques of delivering a sermon are never holy…

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What makes you following Christ and Facebook Groups

When we look at the world around us we do find an incredible amount of people who are flying each other in the hairs about controversial versions about their religion and faith.

After the Nazarene master teacher had experienced all of his trials on earth, his impalement and resurrection, we find one of his close friends writing words from above – a final message from Jesus his Father’s side in Heaven to those who are to follow him. Somehow we come to see that the curses in Eden on the earth and mankind are reversed by the end of Revelation and that the dreams and visions in the book of Daniel are confirmed and expanded upon.

• Many of the signs and symbols in Revelation are in fact used in the rest of Scripture so you will find them de-mystified! This means that the message of the book becomes accessible and valuable to you as the Lord Jesus intended his servants to find it. {Revelation Steps}

Who Would Jesus Bomb? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In recent times we have heard a lot about religious groups fighting against each other. All the news about bombings or terror acts, are not exactly a sign for us that there would be soon a condition of real peace. On several Facebook platforms one can find people calling each-other names and using a language which may belong to small frustrated kids and uneducated poor of mind adolescents, though seemingly it would be adults using such ordinary and awful words. Often those speaking at those many platforms or Groups do a lot of damage to the religious group they think they are defending. By their attitude they do so much damage to those groups because can come to believe that those Muslims and Christians are really such hate mongers.

It makes many wonder who might be those who follow the prophet Jesus and those who follow the prophet Muhammad. There are even guys who say the other have no right to claim Jesus, one part saying because he is a Christian and belongs to the Christians only, the other part saying he is a Muslim and belongs to the Muslims. Both groups seemingly to forget that the Nazarene Jesus his real name is Jeshua and was a devout Jew (belonging to the Essenes like his mother Miriam/Mary/Miryam/Maria) and not a Christian.

When those claiming that man from God use such abominable language one may wonder how they can call that man, who was s preacher of peace, as their example and their name bearer?

The Nazarene preacher also asked his followers to unite and to have peaceful fellowship, companionship, and a sense of belonging. One would think those claiming to be Christians to become part of a family, which works together, and looks after all members’ needs: spiritually, materially, and socially (1 Cor 12). When looking at what goes on on many Facebook Groups we do get the opposite impression. Instead of finding people who show their love for each-other and want to help each-other in building up their faith, we can find quarrelling (even nearly fighting) people who do not seem interested in forming a Christian family where it is a place of fun, friendship, and (as with all families) falling-out-and-making-up-again! It more often looks like one enters a battlefield.

Looking at those Groups we only can wonder what makes some of those people calling themselves Christian or Muslim. We also wonder what their real intention might be at such forums; If they think to converse others with the way they are speaking they are totally on the wrong site of the road, and do have no idea about preaching and trying to win people for their camp.

Hearing them speak it also seems to turn more around their own ego and we can not get the impression they ever would like to convince the other what the first and foremost benefit of following Jesus might be, because they concentrate most on blowing fire and showing their hate for the other. Perhaps they think it shall be of a personal benefit for them by threatening other thinkers and other believers!

Clearly lots of those on several Facebook Groups their life is not about surrender to a God-focused life, with all the sense of purpose that brings (1 Cor 10:31). But for outsiders and we should let insiders also know that, this allows Christians to recognise and, in a sense, embrace the futility of life (Ecc 2:11) but also how people behave, how they act and speak, should give others an impression how much they want to be a child of God and in how far they do succeed to become really under that Most High God His Wings.

Let us remember

Peace and forgiveness. Life can be troubling, and Jesus offers us safe harbour, forgiveness of sins, and certainty in an uncertain world (Psa 103:12, Isa 43:25, Col 1:13-14). {Weighing the costs and benefits of discipleship}

And let us know exactly where the boundaries of human decency are and how a person of God, be it a Jew, Christian or Muslim must stand and how to behave.

As human beings created in the image of God we should show to be a worthy image of That Most High Elohim. In case Christ would have still been in his grave he would probably would have turned around many times.

We should be aware how important it is to show others in which way we want to be under Christ and want to be under God. As human beings living in a mixed world, an amalgam of people of all sorts of races and ideas, we should know that there have to be certain rules and regulations to provide a sense of security and a way for living together in peace.
When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive, offering a generous 7 times, Jesus’ response would have taken him aback I expect (490 times – Matt 18:22). Clearly, this wasn’t a quota of forgiveness – Jesus’ point is that our capacity to forgive should be without limit, just like God’s (Isa 43:25-26, 1 John 1:9). And to forgive so much there has to be a place for an open mind too, and today there are too many who show they are only willing to have a very limited mind with only place for their thought and no other visions.

When looking at several Christian Facebook Groups we can only question where where does all the teaching of that master teacher Jesus Christ leaves those so called Christians in living out their Christianity?

Are boundaries useful at all in terms of our fellowship, worship, and services? There is certainly some guidance in the Bible to suggest that boundaries can be useful in some of these areas – but where we choose to set them may be more a product of our cultural context than absolute ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. {Boundaryless God}

Worldreligion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Please read also:

• Weighing the costs and benefits of discipleship
• Boundaryless God
• “…and they shall dwell safely all of them” Ezekiel 38:8
• The Coming Peace in Israel
• Revelation Steps
• The essence of church

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Preceding

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Several Christians fail to recognise the Chosen ones of God and are not taking on a Christian attitude

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Additional reading

1. Are you looking for answers and Are you looking for God
2. Notification and news feed for Facebook users

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Further reading

1. Gods & religion
2. Good Without God, or Elite Background
3. Disagreements
4. Islamic State Answers Pope Francis: Ours Is a Religious War and We Hate You
5. 10,000 church members leave the Church of Denmark in 3 months amid atheist
6. ISIS wing claims responsibility for Minnesota mall attack in U.S.
7. Assholes are Overrated
8. Chechnya’s Jewish community is angry at Israel… but doesn’t seem to exist
9. The Storms of Life
10. no one can answer, but the Lord
11. The Olympic Trials of Life…By Faith And Not By Sight by Ciera Rankin
12. In All Things, Give Thanks
13. After the Storm
14. He Lifts Me
15. Gladness in trials
16. The list of wars
17. Revelation: The Sixth Trumpet.
18. Is a Religious War in Europe Imminent?
19. Iraq: Suicide Bomber Strikes At Crowd at Prophet Mohammad’s Grandson Event (Arbaeen) — Islamic State Suspected
20. Contention 62 (Eleventh Contentions)
21. Honor Authority…
22. The Whole Truth (Almost)
23. Can we not be civil and simply disagree?
24. Bias, and Disagreeing with Something
25. How to respectfully talk about deep disagreements
26. What, we agree? Compatible issues in a disagreeable world
27. The more ignorant a person is the more his disagreement increases
28. Reflections on ‘Why I am not an Atheist’
29. How Should I View Others Who Serve the Lord Differently Than I Do? – CCC Discover

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• Killed Filipino Jesuit in Cambodia on road to sainthood
• Author Vilma Ramdhar’s Newly Released “The Ten Commandments vs Baal Worship” Guides Readers to the Lord Jesus Christ, His Wisdom, and Salvation
• The Al-Aqsa Fraud
• ARMM gov, imams hit proposed Muslim-only ID
• How a journalist’s journey to being a secular Muslim in India began at home and in school
• The Character of God from the Book of Romans
• In the End, It’s All a Matter of Aesthetics:

Go and make disciples of people of all the nations

Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations.—Matt. 28:19.

Consider the preaching of the good news that Jesus would have his followers do.

Zinzendorf preaching to people from many nations (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The method and the scope of the preaching work were new. In earlier centuries, people of the nations were welcomed when they came to Israel to serve Jehovah. (1 Ki. 8:41-43) That was before Jesus gave the command found in today’s text. Jesus’ disciples were told to “go” to all people. On the day of Pentecost 33 C.E., there was an early evidence of Jehovah’s changed strategy — that of a global evangelizing work. His holy spirit empowered about 120 members of the new congregation to speak miraculously in different tongues to Jews and proselytes. (Acts 2:4-11) Next, the territory expanded to the Samaritans. Then, in the year 36 C.E., it was further expanded to include the world of uncircumcised Gentiles. You might say that the field of preaching enlarged from a “pond” of Jews to an “ocean” of mankind. w16.03 4:12

A man from Jews for Jesus handing out flyers in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Dutch version / Nederlandstalige versie: Gaat daarom en maakt discipelen van mensen uit alle natiën

Preceding articles

What Should I Preach ?

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Crisis man needed in this world

Refusing to Be Silent

Go Ye!

To proclaim the day of vengeance

Proclaiming: a task given to Christians

Go! Proclaim! Testify!

Scriptures and Thoughts about: Proclaim

Summer holiday time to knock and ask, and time to share

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Additional reading

1. Necessity of a revelation of creation 8 By no means unintelligible or mysterious to people
2. Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
3. Blogging in the world for Jesus and his Father
4. Sharing thoughts and philosophical writings
5. Going deep into cultures to reach lost people
6. Engaging the culture without losing the gospel
7. How do I know if I’m called to ministry?
8. Priest, scribes and others with authority
9. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
10. Oratory Style
11. What Should I Preach ?
12. When not seeing or not finding a biblically sound church

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Further reading

1. An Imperfect Man Writing the Perfect Message of God
2. The Courage to Preach
3. Street preachers in the UK win their appeal
4. Peddlers of God’s Word or Preachers of Christ?
5. Biblical Preaching: For the LoveSend Josh to London to preach
6. Don’t Just Pray for Your Pastor
7. Resources from the Wilderness
8. Ebenezer Porter and Homiletics
9. Some Ideas For Preaching God’s LoveWhen They Just Don’t Get It
10. Choosing Wholeness – Sermon Transcript
11. Ten Steps You Can Take to Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better! (Part 6)
12. Ten Steps You Can Take to Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better! (Part 7)
13. Ten Steps You Can Take to Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better!” (Part 8)
14. Ten Steps You Can Take to Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better! (Part 9)
15. Ten Specific Steps You Can Take to Make Your Sermons and Preaching Better! (Part 10)
16. 7 Things Preachers Never Say – pt.2
17. 7 Things Preachers Never Say – pt.37
18. Things Preachers Never Say – pt.4
19. Thinking out loud about Women, Preaching, the Bible and 1 Timothy 2
20. Exhortations to a Christian worker (2 Timothy 2)
21. Called to be Watchmen—Preaching Repentance
22. The Senders Are Sleeping
23. Confessions of a Young Preacher
24. Believe and Confess (Part 4 of 7)
25. Feed My Sheep
26. Keep it Simple
27. Meet People Where They’re At

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• Benjamin Netanyahu gives in to ultra-Orthodox pressure and stops Western Wall deal to allow men and women to pray together
• Sunday reflection: Matthew 28:16-20 and John 17:1 – 11
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Related articles

Summer holiday time to knock and ask, and time to share

In the daily Bible readings our chapter in Matthew today unfolds to reveal powerful personal lessons – principles we must live by, though in the chapters of the first book of Samuel we also see that it was not always easy for the preferred one of God, David! He also was victim of human jealousy [v.8-12].

In these summer-months we do have time to examine ourselves and the situation we are living in at the moment. We can check if we kept to Jesus his sayings or if when we had certain needs or wanted to receive knowledge if we did ask like Jesus advices us. Often when we are at work we do not have time enough for God’s Word. It might not always be easy to have us every day to pick up the Bible and to read in it and to take time enough to let our thoughts wonder over the Biblical text. Now when the Summer holiday comes to us we have no excuse. Now we should have enough opportunity to read in the Bible but also to talk to others bout different things, including the Word of God.

Summer time often gives us opportunities to come at other places, where nobody might know us, where we do not have to fear talking about our faith and to show others how we love God.

We can ask God to help us to get insight ourself but also to give us strength and opportunities to give others insight in His infallible Word. We might be assured when we dare to ask Jehovah God will provide, when our heart is in the right place with Him.

⁷ “·Ask [Keep asking], and ·God will give [^Lit will be given; ^Cthe passive verb implies God as subject] to you. ·Search [Seek; Keep seeking], and you will find. ·Knock [Keep knocking], and the door will open for you. ⁸ ·Yes, [^LFor; Because] everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who ·searches [seeks] will find. And everyone who knocks will have the door opened.

⁹ “If your children ask for bread, which of you would give them a stone? ¹⁰ Or [^Lwhich of you] if your ·children ask [or son asks] for a fish, would you give them a snake? {Matthew 7:7-10 Expanded Bible (EXB)}

When we long to have knowledge in the Holy Scriptures God is not going to withhold it. He is not going to detain us and leave us without Biblical knowledge if we really want to have such knowledge. Though in such circumstance God wants us to open our mind and when we encounter matters which we have learned at school or in the past in our religious environment, but which are based on human doctrines, God wants us to choose for the Biblical doctrines and to put those human and false teachings aside. We have to show to God that we are willing to learn what He wants to say to us and what the Bible puts openly in front of us, words black on white and no misty myths of the world.

For many it may not be easy to put away all such false human teachings, but that is what God requires, not to be of the world but to belong to the world of God.

Knowledge will be given to you when you are prepared to seek honestly and with the will to learn Godly Truth. When you open your mind, ask God to help you, He will provide and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.

Keep Pursuing What You Need From God. He Will Give You Good Things

⁷ “Be asking, and it will be given to you; be seeking, and you will find; be knocking, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone asking receives; and the one seeking finds; and to the one knocking, it will be opened. ⁹ Or what person is there from-among you whom his son will ask-for bread— he will not give him a stone^[a], will he? ¹⁰ Or indeed he will ask-for a fish— he will not give him a snake^[b], will he?

1. Matthew 7:9That is, something useless.
2. Matthew 7:10That is, something harmful. {Matthew 7:7-10Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)}

For everyone, also you, who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. So you only have to be prepared to be willing to find and to ask God to help you find it. But you too should help others to find it. So what you have uncovered may not only be your secret. Even when we will realize our failure to see the Biblical truth because we wanted to hold fast so much to denominational teachings, noticing it so late in our life, we better accept it that it is better late in life than never, to come to the Biblical truth.

Out of compassion and love for the other, we should try to let others know the Word of God and show them what is really written in it. One of the tasks given by Jesus was to go out and preach. When we do understand what the Nazarene man Jesus has really done, we should tell others of this incredible act of self-renunciation. We should tell others about his self-sacrifice and how he is not the God we should worship but the Way to God, the Only One True God of gods Whom is the Only One to be worshipped and praised above all.

Jesus expects everyone who hears these words of him to do them!

²⁴ Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and is doing them will be-like a wise^[a] man who built his house upon the bed-rock.

1. Matthew 7:24Or, prudent, sensible. {Matthew 7:24Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)}

Let us be wise in the Lord and show the world how we want to be partakers of the Body of Christ and follow the same God as Jesus had. In the knowledge that the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, we should be aware that though salvation is given to all the world also shall have to see that those who find that entrance to the Kingdom of God shall be just a few. We should know and let others know that wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss.

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. [^LBecause] The gate is wide and the road is ·wide [broad; spacious; or easy] that leads to ·hell [^Ldestruction; ruin], and many people enter through that gate. ¹⁴ But the gate is small and the road is ·narrow [or difficult; hard] that leads to true life. ·Only a few people [And there are few who] find that road. {Matthew 7:13-14Expanded Bible (EXB)}

For those few we have to invest our free time and do what Jesus expects from us, making sure that we are not a foolish person in his eyes, because he shall watch us and in the end days shall judge over us. Let us listen to Jesus his words:

Matthew 7:25-29Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)

²⁵ And the rain came down, and the rivers^[a] came, and the winds blew— and they fell against that house. And it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the bed-rock. ²⁶ And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. ²⁷ And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds blew— and they struck-against that house. And it fell, and the falling^[b] of it was great”.

The Works of The King: Divine Power In Action²⁸ And it came about that when Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astounded^[c] at His teaching. ²⁹ For He was teaching them as One having authority, and not as their scribes.

1. Matthew 7:25 That is, rivers of flood waters.
2. Matthew 7:27 Or, collapse, downfall.
3. Matthew 7:28 Or, overwhelmed, amazed, astonished.

{Matthew 7:25-29Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)}

When having found Jesus his words and having gone deeper into them, finding the Words of his heavenly Father, we should build our own life on them and create the foundation for ways for others also to come closer to God.

There are many ways – travel in our world has never been more readily possible, but whether nearby or further afield, we must, as we read two days ago in Matthew 5,

¹⁶ In the same way let your light shine ·before others [for people to see], so that they will see ·the good things you do [^Lyour good deeds/works] and will ·praise [glorify; give honor to] your Father in heaven. {Matthew 5:16 Expanded Bible (EXB)}

Take some time this holiday to have some work done for Jesus and his God that they and the world may see your good works and glorify your Father in the heavens.

Let us also make sure that we tell others what is in the Word of God and have us honestly trying to have our faith in God shine as a strong light before others, so that on that day when Jesus returns we do not have to be ashamed and do not have to say like many who will say to him

… Lord, did we not prophesy (preach) in your name…?”

Having Jesus to look at them and responding that they have to depart from him because he does not want to know of them.

²² On ·the last day [judgment day; ^Lthat day] many people will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, ·we spoke for you [^LDid we not prophesy in your name…?], and ·through you we forced out demons [^Lcast out demons in your name…?] and did many ·miracles [^Lmighty works in your name…?].’ {Matthew 7:22 Expanded Bible (EXB)}

We do not have to show extra-ordinary things to others, not doing miracles. We only have to honestly tell them what we believe and show them what the Bible says.

These days when we might have more free time, let us make sure that we take some free time for God and to show our love for God to others.In the knowledge that “many are called, but few are chosen” let us belong to those “few” that will hear the words we read today in Isaiah 62,

Isaiah 62:11-12 Expanded Bible (EXB)

¹¹ The Lord ·is speaking [announces]
    to ·all the faraway lands [^Lthe end of the earth]:
“·Tell the people of Jerusalem [^LSay to the daughter of Zion; Zech. 9:9],
    ‘Look, your Savior is coming.
He is bringing ·your reward to you [^Lhis reward with him];
    ·he is bringing his payment [his recompense/reward is] with him.’”
¹² ·His people [^LThey] will be called the Holy People,
    the ·Saved People [Redeemed] of the Lord,
and Jerusalem will be called ·the City God Wants [^LSought After],
    the City ·God Has Not Rejected [or Not Abandoned; Deserted]. {Isaiah 62:11-12 Expanded Bible (EXB)}

If you knew how much God loves you, you would be happy to receive and share His love with others and would be pleased to have others also coming to know Him and His great Love.

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Preceding articles

Summer holiday

May we have doubts

Facing our existence every day

What Are You Seeking?

High time to go out telling the world about Jesus

7 Ways To Become A Better Christian

What Should I Preach ?

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Crisis man needed in this world

Refusing to Be Silent

Go Ye!

To proclaim the day of vengeance

Proclaiming: a task given to Christians

Go! Proclaim! Testify!

Scriptures and Thoughts about: Proclaim

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Additional reading

1. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
2. God let my compassionate affection be tolerant and kind
3. Do You Expect God’s Answer
4. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #17 Sorts of prayers
5. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #18 Fulfilment
6. Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
7. We should use the Bible every day
8. Bible in the first place #2/3
9. Loving the Word
10. Necessity of a revelation of creation 8 By no means unintelligible or mysterious to people
11. Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
12. Atonement And Fellowship 6/8
13. Not about personal salvation but about a bigger Plan
14. Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26
15. Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still
16. Obtain favour from Yahweh
17. The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places
18. Blogging in the world for Jesus and his Father
19. Sharing thoughts and philosophical writings
20. Going deep into cultures to reach lost people
21. Engaging the culture without losing the gospel
22. How do I know if I’m called to ministry?
23. Priest, scribes and others with authority
24. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
25. Oratory Style
26. What Should I Preach ?
27. When not seeing or not finding a biblically sound church

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Further reading

1. Here for a cause, anointed with a message the world needs to hear
2. Motives behind Criticism are often more Important to deal With then the Criticism itself.
3. Special Sundays!~Matthew 7:7~
4. Which Story Do You Want To Live?
5. Share Jesus
6. Are you judging people by what they look like?
7. Do to others…
8. There is a wolf nipping at your soul
9. “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need.” ~Jesus
10. Matthew 9 – Stepping forth in courage
11. Matthew 11 – Praise and trust
12. Matthew 14 – Prayer, Faith & Action
13. By His Grace
14. The Journey of Love and Commitment 
15. Strengthen Yourself In Your God
16. “Following Jesus” (Matthew 4:18-22 sermon)
17. “What We Have Seen … We Proclaim”
18. “Reaching, Teaching, Caring: Following the Footsteps of Jesus” (Matthew 4:23 sermon)
19. A Day in the Park
20. The Goodness of God
21. Count Your Blessings
22. The call to serve
23. See you next time
24. Christianity is a Learned Experience
25. Biblical Application
26. Biblical Revelation Knowledge On Spiritual Warfare
27. The Gospel of The Kingdom
28. Do We Really Know God?
29. Bible Study: Insights on the Sermon on the Mount: The Contrasts
30. Awaken
31. 8. Doors and Destinations
32. Meditation – Choices
33. The Path of Love
34. Life’s Narrow and Wide Gates
35. Love, Entering the Narrow Gate.
36. The Narrow Way
37. Religious Theology – The wide gate!
38. Shifting Sand
39. Exodus 10, Job 28, Luke 13, 1 Corinthians 14
40. How to choose between the wide and the narrow
41. The Narrow Gate
42. against the stream
43. Taking responsibility – the narrow gate that leads to life
44. How to choose between the wide and the narrow:part 3
45. Difficult is the Way that Leads to Life
46. Those Who Find It Are Few.
47. Guard My Feet Lord ~
48. Two Gates
49. The Narrow Gate
50. The Protestant – Catholic divide – The Narrow and the Wide Gates
51. The Crumb That Turns Stale With Time
52. Only dead fish swim with the stream
53. The narrow gate and the postmillennial hope
54. The Grand Reception
55. Lord, will only few people be saved?

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Related articles

• What is a cult?
• Get ready for God’s restoration
• The Growing Hatred Against Biblical Christianity
• Dreisbach: Founders drew on Bible in quest for independence
• How should a Christian view climate change?
• New Flemish tryptich for those who want to know more about God
• Do you purpose that your mouth will not transgress
• Asking the Most High for forgiveness of sins and ignorance

Go! Proclaim! Testify!

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Preceding

High time to go out telling the world about Jesus

7 Ways To Become A Better Christian

What Should I Preach ?

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Crisis man needed in this world

Refusing to Be Silent

Go Ye!

To proclaim the day of vengeance

Proclaiming: a task given to Christians

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To proclaim the day of vengeance

The Christadelphians do follow a Bible reading plan called The Bible Companion. Their first reading for today July the 5th is 1 Samuel 17 where is seen “the day of vengeance” of Israel upon the Philistines due to the wonderful faith of a youthful David.

David had his three eldest brothers watching him. Throughout the stories of the Bible we are given example after example of how we should not fear even the strongest of men if we fear the Most High God.We are also given examples of people of God who think they can do nothing. Lots of people may think like the ones in our first reading

17:33: ³³ And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.

and of Numbers 13:31 saying

‘We be not able to go up against this people’.

we come to see that Saul had fallen into the trap of the nation of Israel when they were at the border of the land for the first time.Also in our world today many have fallen in the trap of the adversary of God (the satan) and do believe they can not do anything against those who do not believe in God

We do live in a world where ‘goliath of godlessness’ is filling the earth and defying and destroying human thinking, as is evidenced in nearly all human talking, attitudes and activities. Just switch the television on and you can see how the world has gone far away from the godly way of living.

Our soul may rejoice in our Adonai for He has clothed us in salvation, but what may we do with that salvation if we do not show it to others? We have the the covering for our sin – that which allows us to stand before God’s throne and be classed as righteous by His grace. This covering is our salvation. It is good that we are reminded of it in so many places. But we should know that we also should remind others of it.

In the second reading of today we hear Isaiah telling the world

61 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

² To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

Also Jesus comes to read that passage in the synagogue, which we can read in Luke 4:18,19.

¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

¹⁹ To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

But Jesus only read as far as

“… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”.

He stopped and did not read the words that followed – but he is returning soon

“to proclaim … the day of vengeance of our God” (verse 2).

We are not talking here about the six-issue comic book limited series written by Bill Willingham, with art by Justiniano and Walden Wong, published in 2005 by DC Comics the “Day of Vengeance” – #1, (June 2005), cover art by Walt Simonson.

This was not the purpose of his first coming! But will be the purpose, to begin with, of his second coming! And we know how much our world deserves this “day of vengeance”!

Jehovah God has put His Spirit in the master teacher Jeshua (Jesus Christ) because Jehovah appointed the Nazarene to tell [proclaim; preach] the Good News [Gospel] to the poor. [^Lanointed; ^Cat Jesus’ baptism he was anointed by the Spirit as the Messiah, meaning the Anointed One] He has sent us to ·tell the captives they are free [proclaim liberty/release for the captives/prisoners]

God asked Jesus also not to forget to tell the blind that they can see again [Is. 61:1] and not to overlook the deaf, letting them become aware of the message which has to reach all people all over the world.

The Nazarene master teacher tells the people around him that it is Jehovah God Who has sent him to free those who have been treated unfairly [the oppressed; Is. 58:6] and to announce [proclaim] the time [year] when the Most High Elohim will show His kindness [favour; Is. 61:2; ^Can allusion to the release of slaves during the Jubilee year; Lev. 25].

Isaiah 61:6 King James Version (KJV)⁶ But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

When you are calling yourself a Christian, are you really a follower of Christ Jesus and willing to follow up the tasks he has given his disciples?

Are you willing to be called “the Lord’s priests”? We when calling ourself Christian should be worthy followers of Jesus Christ, adhering the same God as Jesus worshipped (his heavenly Father, the God of Israel) and should present or offer ourselves as

“slaves or ministers of our God”.

We should put on that the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that we and those around us might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3)

Oak at Schönderling

In Flanders we can see the strong oaks in our woods. They are masters of stories, telling a long history. We should be like them “Trees of Justice”, not allowing ourselves to be carried away by worldly temptation and favouritism. As those oaks are mostly not standing on their own in solitude, we too should make sure that we have many brethren and sisters around us proclaiming the Good News, so that those called and taught by us might be called terebinths of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that He may be glorified.

Everyday we should work at it to have “trees” planted to show Jehovah His greatness [glory; ^Cmanifest presence]. Like we use the vegetable juices and oils of several trees in our surroundings for our healing, we too should bring people around us

“the oil of gladness … the garment of praise … that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified” (verse 3).

so that they may be healed from the wounds of the ungodly actions.

When Jesus first stood up to address his Jewish brothers he introduced himself with the reading of Isaiah, giving an indication that he was a sent one from God coming with His authorisation to tell the people he came to proclaim

“the day of vengeance of our God”.

In stopping where he did, he brought the audience onto his side. The record says that they “marvelled” at the things he said, and the way he said them. Yet Jesus had an ace up his sleeve. Suddenly, when the audience was at it’s most appreciative, marvelling at the way he opened up Isaiah’s prophecies to them, he deliberately turned on them, pressing what he knew to be a sore spot: even the gentiles are more worthy of the Messiah than you are!

Why did he do this? Well, the answer as always is in the prophecy he was quoting. Verses 1-2 speak of the year of Jubilee. We know this because of the reference to a specific year where liberty would be proclaimed. In quoting this passage Jesus changed one of the words:

“to set at liberty those who are oppressed”.

This is because he was specifically referring to the year of Jubilee and what it was designed to liberate. Have a look in Leviticus 25.

“You shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land” (v10). “You shall not oppress one another” (v14)

and again in v17

“you shall not oppress one another”.

We should not be afraid to go kindly to others and to tell them in a friendly way what we might expect and how we can avoid troubles in our life today and how we may prepare ourselves for a better life. Never need we to put pressure on others. We can tell them what the Word of God says; They may believe it, take it or ignore it. When they do not want to hear it we should allow it to be so, and let them be with their own thoughts. Perhaps by giving them (lots of) time they may be gained by the Word of God and in the end may come to see the Truth. We should show patience all the time.

The Jubilee was designed by God to be a year where all the land and property of a man was returned to him. Thus, if you bought a man’s field, you were in effect only renting it from him for the remainder of the current 50 year cycle. This ensured that the inheritance of the poorest people still remained with them, and that the rich didn’t oppress the poor in taking away all their livelihood.

“The day of vengeance” will be turned into victory for those who truly serve their lord today – until he come. Let us help each other in doing this, having laid up for ourselves “treasures in heaven” (as we read today in Matthew 6:19-21) which Jesus will bring with him (Revelation 22:12) – learning the lesson every day that

“where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

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Preceding articles

Justification – salvation is by grace through faith – JI Packer

Is being a humanitarian enough to convey the full love of Christ?

High time to go out telling the world about Jesus

7 Ways To Become A Better Christian

What Should I Preach ?

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Crisis man needed in this world

Witnessing because we love

Refusing to Be Silent

Go Ye!

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Additional reading

1. We should use the Bible every day
2. Bible in the first place #2/3
3. Necessity of a revelation of creation 8 By no means unintelligible or mysterious to people
4. Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
5. Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26
6. Blogging in the world for Jesus and his Father
7. Sharing thoughts and philosophical writings
8. Going deep into cultures to reach lost people
9. Engaging the culture without losing the gospel
10. How do I know if I’m called to ministry?
11. Priest, scribes and others with authority
12. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
13. Oratory Style
14. What Should I Preach ?

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Further reading

1. Here for a cause, anointed with a message the world needs to hear
2. Scriptures and Thoughts about: Proclaim
3. Go! Proclaim! Testify!
4. Power from Heaven for Believers
5. Proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes back
6. To the Unknown God
7. I Was Singing This When I Woke Up
8. Two Different Ways to Look at the Great Commission
9. Share Jesus
10. High mast as I give allegiance to Jesus my King…the breeze carries far for all to hear echoes of His salvation
11. All for Jesus
12. June 30 – Ruth 4

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• God Of Your Breakthrough
• Mormon church now allows female employees to wear trousers
• Archbishop Kaigama Tasks Christians To Be Agents Of Peace
• Once Saved, Forever Saved?
• Sunday reflection: Matthew 28:16-20 and John 17:1 – 11
• Bishop Advises Students To Shun Cultism, Idolatry
• Evangelical Outreach Provides Easy to Print Free Gospel Tracts and a Free Ministry Packet
• Get ready for God’s restoration
• From the Explanations of the Psalms by Saint Ambros
• I AM: 40 Reasons to Trust God

Reflections on Existence and Teaching

Maria Gianna Iannucci at her blog Reflections on Existence as an educator at Mercy High School in Middletown, CT.  has written courses in Astronomy and Cosmology, Neuroscience, and Medical Botany for the High School level, wonders why she came to teach.

Betonwerksteinskulptur “Lehrer-Student” von Reinhard Schmidt in Rostock (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lots of educators do feel they have a calling. You might even call it a drive which brings them to put themselves at the site at the service for others. Many may have different reasons why they choose to become a teacher. But for sure one can not be a good teacher when one does not love the matter or subject one chooses to bring over to others. In a certain way the one who wants to teach properly must be

in love with God’s new creation. {Why I Teach…}

Every year again the teacher gets to see youngsters which have many questions and lots of aspirations, but also many who do not see the reasons of existence any more and do not know where to go to. It is up to the teacher then to show them some light and many reasons to go forward.

With each generation that moves forward on the earth, hope is born.

when one teaches in class or comes to write a blog, sometimes an other way of teaching and preaching,

It takes contemplation, inspiration, creativity, consistency, and commitment…all those things add up to one thing…love. {A Note To All My Followers}

Without commitment and love for the other one can not bring such life in teaching that can inspire others to continue to do further research and to grow in the knowledge of science, arts, and so on. Without the commitment to the good of others, wanting to give oneself to the other  and to give as much usable information as possible. This free giving, with the knowledge that one can not know everything, that each of us is limited, but by sharing information we all can grow.

As teachers we do also have a mission which should make us to do our utmost best to fulfil the mandate given to us. Our direction should inspire those in front of us and should make us to want to go further than our generation.

Sometimes at the expense of your own wishes. I am committed to holding space for peace and real love in a world that often does not understand what that means. Our behest should also be to bring knowledge and peace, living for the moments “when our students wake up and look at us with new eyes”

as the universe expands beyond their capacity to comprehend. {Why I Teach…}

Maria Gianna Iannucci stands with the young at the threshold of possibilities, when they begin to realize their true purpose.

They catch a brief glimpse of a Love so expansive it leaves them breathless and in awe. I teach for the moments when they see in each other a reflection of the cosmos and the Love that animates it. {Why I Teach…}

I teach to awaken those who slumber, to comfort the grieving, to rejoice with those who dance, to bring hope to those who believe they live in a meaningless world. {Why I Teach…}

for many it may seem a meaningless world, and today with not many prospects. But by opening their eyes to the past and showing them it is a continuous act of reflecting back to mankind and to each of us, individually and in group, that we may come to see much more clear and see that there can be a line of continued hope.

A special education teacher assists one of her students. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The female writer might, like I have done throughout the years I was teaching them, trying to show her pupils the beauty of our world, always referring back to the master Hand behind it,

so that they see with clarity, the beauty of the gifts they were given by the Eternal One. {Why I Teach…}

I can only hope students remember something from what their wanted to teach them plus from what he or she wanted to show them how we as human beings had to move on in this world. I sincerely hope that

Maybe my students will remember the unconditional love and respect, the feeling of being safe and cared for, being known and cherished for who they really are …and carry that out into the world. {Why I Teach…}

Whatever our purpose here on earth, we having been placed here, have to be fostered, guided by others, who want to guide us thorough our growing up process. even when many do not want to know that

We are brought into existence together for the purpose of growing into the very Love that created our hearts and the stars {Why I Teach…}

each educator has to show that way, with lots of patience and hope for the future.

Maria Gianna Iannucci one of her aims of her classes is to show young people the value of the plants for food and medicine to help keep these spaces free. When we look how far people have grown away from nature this is essential. We should have more teachers showing kids how man should be united with nature.

It is sad that nature is not appreciated in its own right, that we have to extract something from it.

Educators should continue with their unending efforts of trying to bring the parts of the chain of knowledge to youngsters and showing them the tools to handle everything that comes in front of them.

I always hoped that by personal endurance or forbearance I could bring some sparkle to lighten the brains of those in front of me and to get them to look for new ways of building up their own life and a new future. Sometimes our way of looking at things, or way of speaking, perfidies that we are a teacher.  (Even on holiday so many asked me if I was a teacher.)

“Once a teacher, always a teacher”

is how Steve Schwartzman see and I it.

The blogster ends her article

To teachers past and present who have dedicated their lives to the restoration of earth and the cultivation of the human. Why I Teach…

with a quote from the French philosopher and paleontologist known for his theory that man is evolving, mentally and socially, toward a final spiritual unity, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

“As soon as humans have woken to explicit consciousness of the evolution that carries them along, and begin as one to fix their eyes on the same thing ahead of them, are they not, by that very fact, beginning to love one another?”

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Additional reading

1. The first question: Why do we live
2. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #7 Education
3. Too many pupils for not enough teachers
4. Passion and burn out of a teacher
5. A learning process for each of us
6. For those who make other choices
7. Fools despise wisdom and instruction

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Further reading

1. Live List of Education Books
2. The Simplest Question Needs the Simplest Answer
3. Science: A Great Source of Metaphor…
4. Teaching ruminations
5. What My Student Teacher Taught Me
6. Oh, The Power You Have…And Yet May Not Even Use.
7. Banning teachers from work
8. 5 Educational Concepts We Need To Eliminate In 2017
9. In memoriam George Aditjondro
10. Thoughts About How I’ve Just Finished School Forever
11. Reflects the core values of Career Toppers
12. An Open Letter to My Firsts
13. What Is a Traditional Teacher?
14. Lesson Plan: Teaching Emotions
15. Critiques of Groupwork in ESL Classrooms
16. Native Speaker Privilege and Unprofessionalism within the ESL Industry by Kevin Hodgson 
17. Conversation with my favorite teacher 
18. Worried
19. There is Only One First
20. Elitism is the enemy of merit
21. Shakespeare and High School English Teachers
22. Tempest-uous Spring Planning
23. The Girl on the Piccadilly Line
24. Dear Students
25. A Day of Giving
26. About Me (miss Natalia)
27. About Me (miss Lindsey)
28. Teaching the Pre-Modern Post-Election
29. Organisational Challenges are Usually Technology Related
30. From business administration to midwifery education: Sara’s midwifery journey
31. The little school in Huilongguan
32. Feedback – perfect this and everything else falls into place!
33. grading
34. Internet Roundup: Education Part 7
35. Teacher “number 4”
36. Shock! My blog has been neglected again.
37. Clashes with Colleagues.
38. I have applied for a new job.
39. Let’s Sum Up – My First Term.
40. First Semester Down #madeit
41. Maybe Sunday School Would Be Better If It Were Actually School
42. Grateful the Time is Near
43. I’m sure what you meant to say in that email critiquing my repertoire choices was thank you…
44. New Day, New Start, TEFL wobbles stabilised
45. Why are languages being taught like math?
46. First Semester Review
47. One Year
48. Empathy and Global Awareness
49. Life lessons from the land of cheese and wine!
50. Time to recharge
51. A Tale of Two Educators
52. Teaching Others about Jesus

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• Answering Jacobs’ Questions On False Teaching and Teachers
• Education Update with Dr. Duke Pesta, Freedom Project Academy
• We Don’t Just Teach Curriculum
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• Being Thankful In Everything
• Top 10 Characteristics of a Great Instructor
• Character of the week: Teilhard de Chardin
• ‘A teacher is an actor, writer, doctor, lawyer, politician, painter and director – who wouldn’t want that?’: Teachers around the world share their stories
• The discursive positioning of graduating teachers in accreditation of teacher education programs (2016)
• Happy National Teacher Day! Five Tax Tips to Educate You on Tax Savings

Save

When looking for God or wanting to relate to the Most High Divine God

For those who want to look for God, want to find the way to God and want to connect to Him when they found Him, there are two new English and three Dutch websites to help them on their road to a peaceful life full op hope.

On March the 9th of the year 2016 the small community of God loving people in Belgium, united under the Cornerstone Christ Jesus, presented “Relating to God” on a Weebly site and “Relating to God – Blog” on WordPress.

Relating to God (Christadelphian Weebly site) by the opening 2016 March 9

Openings article for the WordPress Blog “Relating to God” on March 9, 2016

Both sites could be considered siblings. together they form one unit, offering people all over the world the possibility to find more about our relationship with our surroundings (nature and people around us) and with the Source of all the things around us (the Divine Creator).

We also want to show people the Way to God, the Nazarene Jeshua who managed to put his own will aside to do the Will of God. Like him we should try to put our own will aside and to make us strong enough to leave the human traditions and human dogma’s for what they are preferring to stick to Biblical dogma’s, set-apart teachings of men of God, listening to the sacred Words of God Himself.

We do hope several people may come along and find some interesting material which can help them on their quest to God or to find assurance to be on the right track. Together we should help each other to find comfort in Biblical teaching and support each other in the preaching of the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God.

In Dutch similar content is presented in a triptych. Each individual website concentrating on one subject: 1. Looking for God: Op zoek naar God; 2. the Way to God: De Weg naar God; 3. Finding God: God vinden.

We kindly invite you to come along, visiting those sites and perhaps leaving some note behind or subscribing to some of them.

Yours truly,

Relating to God

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The Grange, Omagh In every grown-up man there’s a small boy wanting to get out. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Is being a humanitarian enough to convey the full love of Christ?

We always have to speak the truth and shame the devil in a kind manner loving God’s Word more than the words of human beings.

The task given to his followers, by Jesus, is one which should have our hearts burning with a kind lovely fire, attracting those who want to hear the call of the Lord.

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To remember

• God gives us a three ingredient recipe to be successful evangelists. [Taking Ownership of Grace]

to receive full benefits of Christ’s completed work on the cross => declared righteous, acceptable, freely + fully forgiven

reality of Christ made known through God’s Word + revealed through transcendent grace = moment where  invisible became visible through change of a hardened man into a tender + active soul

grace means undeserving love

• concept of universal justification = God’s way of saying “You have won the lottery! Now, come and receive the prize!”
• Faith = only winning ticket that is considered redeemable <= Faith alone receives that gift
• by faith, we receive the free + full forgiveness of sins.
• Come + claim prize = Believe in Lord Jesus Christ + you will receive gift far greater than anything that the earth can produce.
• Share gospel to listening ears = speak truth prompted by love + concern for the soul
• Demonstrations of love =one of those ingredients that God mixes together with truth + speak => one of these ingredients forgotten or not used = ruins whole recipe.
• Not enough for a Christian to be a humanitarian, nor is it the role of an evangelist to meet people’s needs. To fully love our neighbour means to share message of salvation + rescue them from the eternal consequences of sin.

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Preceding

Preaching Christ Is Not Enough

Witnessing because we love

Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news

Preaching by example

A Christian has to have eyes and ears and a tongue to use in good ways

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Related articles

• Time to let you go
• What Must I Do?
• True Friends
• The People’s Manifesto of Barbados
• Scripture Verse of The Week ‘Romans 5 Verse 1’
• A Life of Peace Overflowing out of an Experience of the Grace of God
• Respect For All
• Hope
• I Want To Know Christ….And Experience The Mighty Power That Raised Him From The Dead
• Be Known By Your Fruit

WITNESS WELL

Jesus’ greatest command is for Christians to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

We see images of destruction caused by natural disasters and are dismayed by the loss. Homes are destroyed. Families are left with nothing. Prompted by love, we extend a hand by offering financial support or materials goods to help those in need. Some are even willing to travel long distances to help pick up the pieces.

Are these demonstrations the type of love Christ is looking for, or is He calling on Christians to do something more?

In this growing impersonal and materialistic world being enveloped by today’s technology, perhaps Christians have lost touch on what Christ means to love our neighbor.

View original post 551 more words

Which is worse–works without faith, or faith without works?

Rob Heijermans, who says is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and believes that God has spoken

— in fact, the universe itself is a product of the voice of the Lord. The phrase, “And God said…,” appears nine times in the first chapter of Genesis alone. {Is Anyone Listening?}

He also knows he has ever deceived himself and looks at James, Jesus’ younger half-brother, who knows all about self-deception.

Though the writer wrongly thinks James deceived himself for many years,

“denying that Jesus was God in the flesh.” {11 Self-Deceit 101}

Having grown up with Jesus in an Essene family he probably got to know Jesus as well as God very well. He also knew what Jesus had told others and to whom Jesus prayed, like they at their family, at home, prayed to the only One true God, the God of Israel. Jesus did not pray to himself, but to the God of Abraham, about Whom he taught people to pray to as well.

The apostle James warns us in Verse 22  of the first chapter that if we are hearers of the word–the Bible–and not doers, we deceive or ensnare ourselves.

James 1:22 EWB-CB  But become ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Much too often Christians do forget Jesus’ parables and the warning of James. We may not delusively content our selves with being of the audience, but have to put what we hear in practice.

The writer of the blog UpStream writes

James says it’s like looking into the mirror on the morning of an important interview, seeing some serious bed-head, lots of stubble and a smudge of last night’s hot fudge sundae, and just walking away without taking action. {11 Self-Deceit 101}

Too many Christians make it themselves very easy, thinking because they are saved they do not have to do anything any more.

Rob Heijermans is aware that

sitting under the teaching of the Scriptures and not doing what they say is an act of self-deceit. Studying the Scriptures for ourselves, gaining an understanding of their meaning, but not obeying God’s Word, produces knowledge that makes us arrogant but yields no fruit in our lives. It is self-deceit. Even more serious is purporting to be a teacher and either teaching what is false or not doing what is true. James will deal with this more later in his letter. {11 Self-Deceit 101}

We should come to get to know what is written in the Bible and may not twist around the words of it. As such when is written “the son of God” we may not say “god the son“. We should clearly take the Words of God into account and take them serious.

In this world many have made their own gods. A lot also made Jesus in to their god, like Rob Heijermans has done. He also preaches about hell as a sort of place of eternal torture, whilst forgetting that the Divine Creator is a God of Love, who is an eternal Spirit Who can not be seen by man, but is with man, telling them no lies and saying they shall have paid for their sins with their death.

But this God of gods tells also about His sent one, the Nazarene Jew Jeshua, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Jesus on this earth tried to make his heavenly Father known and showed the way to the Kingdom of God. His brother knew also very well the importance of Jesus’ teaching about that Kingdom. He had to loose his brother at the wooden stake and see his mother cry, being full of grieve. But he had also come into the hope Jesus preached and wanted to share it with others, like his brother had asked it.

That preaching James had taken up is also an act we should do. It is one of the works Jesus asked his followers to do.

Twice, the writer of Hebrews mentions “dead works.” (Heb 6.1, 9.14) Now, James writes of “dead faith.” In the subsequent verses of Chapter 2, he mentions that even the demons believe in God–and tremble before Him!–so simply believing facts about God is not saving faith. James then cites two Old Testament characters whose faith was demonstrated by their works: Abraham, the Iraqi father of the Jewish nation was not content simply to tell God he was willing to sacrifice Isaac. He unsheathed his dagger and was about to plunge it into Isaac’s belly when God stopped him and provided a substitutionary ram. Rahab the whore did not stop at believing that God was conquering His enemies through the Israelites–she protected their spies, knowing the awesome power of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. {14 How to Work Your Way to Hell}

Lots of Christians have forgotten Who that God of the Israelites is and why we should take Him as our Only One True God, like Jesus also took Him as His Only One Most High Almighty God. But not only did they take the ransom offer of Jesus as the final act for them, misleading themselves that they would not have to do anything more because they are saved by the Blood of Christ.

Strangely enough the blog writer seems to know that

On some occasion, James probably heard his Brother say that God is glorified when we prove we are His disciples by producing fruit. (John 15.8) {14 How to Work Your Way to Hell}

In many parables Jesus had told how we have to get a good relationship with the heavenly Father. How He is willing to take us up as His children, but also how we can loose the entrance to the Kingdom of God. James came to understand those teachings of his brother and knew how important it was when people came into the faith how they had to change themselves and had to work on themselves continuously.

We may not assume that it are only our works that can get us some where.

the second half of James 2 demonstrates: just as it is vain to think that my works–religious duty, outward devotion, social activism, neighbourly consideration–could possibly get me to heaven, so also is it vain to suppose I am truly a child of God while my life manifests nothing of my faith. As Jesus said, a fruit tree with no fruit is cut down and burned. {14 How to Work Your Way to Hell}

When having come into the faith we have to water our own tree. (By reading and studying the Bible.) Then we do have to let the food of the earth and food of heaven feed ourselves, so that we can bear good fruits. For getting good fruits we need good pruning. We need to do a lot of work. Without the work there shall be no good fruits and when we are not willing to prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God we shall be too late like some young girls who did not prepare themselves or thought they had enough time. Please do not postpone. Take care that you are ready for when the day comes.

When procrastinating you will be surprised when the day comes you shall have nothing done what had to be done and will miss the boat.

Some things may be hard or difficult, like changing sides, or putting away human doctrinal teachings, like the trinity a.o.. but God wants from His son an his followers truthful worshippers of God who are faithful to Him, the Adonai Jehovah, and to His commandments. When we do not follow God’s commandments it will be like ignoring God’s Wishes and not wanting a good relationship with Him. Keeping to those commandments shall demand works we shall have to do with pleasure because we do believe in Christ, the son of God, and in his heavenly Father we also want to love.

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Preceding articles:

Leading people astray!

Restitution

Comments to James remarks, about Faith and works

Luther’s misunderstanding

January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works

Our life depending on faith

Romans 4 and the Sacraments

Is Justification a process?

Justification – salvation is by grace through faith – JI Packer

Faith itself not the cause of justification – Louis Berkhof

Letter to the Romans, chapter 3

Letter to the Romans, chapter 4

Additional comments to the 3rd Letter to the Romans

Additional comments to the Letter to the Romans 4

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Please find also to read

1. God of gods
2. God is one
3. Sayings around God
4. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
5. Jesus Messiah
6. Jesus and His God
7. the Trinity – the Truth
8. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
9. Bearing fruit
10. Faith Alone Does Not Save . . . No Matter How Many Times Protestants Say It Does
11. Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness
12. Christ’s ethical teaching
13. Being Justified by faith
14. A Living Faith #3 Faith put into action
15. Faith and works
16. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #8 Prayer #6 Communication and manifestation
17. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #16 Benefits of praying
18. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word
19. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
20. Be holy
21. She who sows thistles will reap prickles
22. Love for each other attracting others

 

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Further related articles

1. Count on your desire to procrastinate
2. Sermon Redux – Part 4 of Doing Our Best for God’s Church – “Rejoicing in the Brutal Truth” – 1 Corinthians 12:4-7
3. Boast in God’s Grace for You- Joseph Prince
4. The Parable of the Two Sons
5. Rewarded for Doing Good?
6. Rewarded for their Labor? (1 Corinthians 3:8)
7. Judged for What We Have Done
8. Rewarded for What We’ve Done?
9. 2:24 – You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
10. Chapter 2:23 – And he was called a friend of God.
11. Four Panel Philosophy
12. James 2:20-22 — Dynamic Faith
13. Show Me Your Works

+++

Related articles

• Hope
• Faith is the Key
• What Must I Do?
• Respect For All
• NTEB Street Preaching Update: News From The Front Lines
• Uk Church Pastor Jean Clements Now Performing the World’s First-ever Transgender Baptisms
• RCCG OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL DATE: SATURDAY 23RD JANUARY 2016 THEME: DIVINE TRANSFORMATION I -By Pastor E.A Adeboye
• Time to let you go

What climate activists can learn from Sunday School leaders

Preaching is not so easy as many think. Trying to convince people of certain matters is even more difficult.

Those who believe God created the world do know that they have to take responsibility in a wise way for the creation of the Most High, which we only have in loan. Christians do have no excuse, the should all they can to keep our universe as best as possible, taking care not polluting it and not wasting the precious material we our given by the Most High.

But Christians also do have the task to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God and to try this world in the meantime a nice good place to live in peace. For that reason they should try to convince others also to take care of this planet.

When we see how our world is evolving it is high time Christians do something for the environment and get as many people involved in the protection of the weaker and those who have no voice humans listen to (animals and plants)

*

To remember

Robert White = development economics and planning consultant based in London = considers need for increased public support of emissions mitigation policies + encourages everyone to play their part.

• We can’t all be ‘young heroes’ => everybody can inspire change
• To make a difference =/= need to fly to Paris, work for a green start-up, or get teargassed by the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité.
• Charles De Gaulle airport Terminal 2E seems incredibly mundane compared to the energy of the COP21 centre at Le Bourget.
• influence country’s leader as a voting citizen
• learned in Copenhagen > leaders may need assistance in details > need to balance ambitious climate policies with citizens’ other demands
• what is at stake with climate change = much bigger problem > leaders < If short term economy = top of peoples’ priority lists => leaders’ hands are tied.
• 15% of people think climate change = one of top three issues facing UK in the next twenty years
• 34% included the economy
• To seriously mitigate emissions = people to shift from green consumption to less consumption + accept trade-offs => Higher taxes  to discourage high carbon consumption + pay for green infrastructure
• need to increase public support of emissions reducing policies if we want to see change
• achieve increased support for low emissions policies = couple of transferable ideas from old Sunday School teachings
• climate change mitigation.
• 1: need to get out there + engage.
  Evangelising =/= insular group.
  Church goers + environmental movements > become comfortable > attendance being more about socialising than sharing faith
• 2:  engaging often better at personal level than a preachy one
  Demonstrations + Facebook posts = not good enough
• 3: practice what we preach + demonstrate our conviction through our day to day actions
  People more inspired to act <= see similar person to themselves actually living out what they say
  Take the plank out your own eye
• Winning voters’ minds = difficult = important area that we can all make a difference

+

Preceding

The natural beauties of life

First man’s task still counting today

Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth

Senator Loren Legarda says climate change not impossible to address

Away with it oh no! – Weg er mee, oh neen

God’s wisdom for the believer brings peace

 

++

Additional reading

1. Taking care of mother earth
2. Facing disaster fatigue
3. Self inflicted misery #1 The root by man
4. Time to consider how to care for our common home
5. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
6. First man’s task still counting today
7. Being fit to take care of a garden
8. Three pillars of sustainable development, young people and their rights
9. Pope Francis Raises Hopes for an Ecological Church
10. Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you

+++

Related articles

• Coursera Welcomes First African Partner: The University of Cape Town
• BCCI-K on U.K.’s Climate Change Act
• The Paris Deal Will Need Climate QE
• Equity doubted in REDD+ programmes
• RALLY FOR THE PLANET > Post-climate-conference event draws upward of 1,000 to Chico City Plaza.
• Breakthrough as climate change accord adopted
• Liberia gets EU support for climate change mitigation
• The catwalk calls on world leaders to make paris work
• Enhanced rock weathering could counter fossil-fuel emissions and protect our oceans
• From lab bench to green bench

Crisis man needed in this world

On Saturday the 10th of October Christadelphians come together at Dudley College in the United Kingdom to talk about the diminishing congregations in the United Kingdom. But it is not only there ecclesiae are struggling to make the ends meet and to have enough believers in Christ and in God in their meeting.

Many denominations in Christendom are victim of these times of ungodliness. It is also mainly that ungodliness that shows up in the families and in the behaviour of man. the difficulties people have in conversations and the wrong going communications have provided our world with many difficulties and lots of broken families and divorcees.

Lots of people who call themselves Christian are afraid to show others who they love and what they are standing for. Lots of Christians are afraid to let others know they are Christian. Less people are even willing to proclaim the Word of God and preach the Gospel of the Good News.

Our world urgently need men of God who are willing to go out in the world and preach that Gospel of peace and of hope in the future.

This world in crisis needs many “crisis man”. In this world where many want to be famous we need people who want to be more than a very well know figure and more than just a milepost-a marker on the road to destruction. A real follower of Christ should love it that people would be able to see Jesus in them.

Real followers of Christ should not be afraid to face the confrontation with non-believers or haters of God. They want them to be confronted with the decision to accept or reject the furious love of God.

A missionary to Ethiopia, Ramon Mayo, pastor of a multiethnic Vineyard church, has now become a writer/editor in the South Suburbs of Chicago and probably sees a lot of problems in the poorer communities over there. Being rooted in blackness, following Jesus and embracing the world he is very well aware that everyone in the world is not like him and that the Church may be a bunch of people who are not like him worshipping the same God.

Like him we should know that everywhere may be different cultures and that around us we may find people who are not like us, act and behave differently than us. But somehow we should come to see that we all part of this world and that we all come from the same origin, the Base and the same divine creation.

In this world we may live and come to do things. We also have feelings for those around us and even for the place where we live in. But we should not forget where we want to place our loyalty.

Is it towards your country of origin or towards the new citizenship you have in God’s kingdom? {Are you an American or a Christian?}

Too many people have lost track of the main or the right road. It would be best if we could see some more people who are willing to help others to get back on track. Guides are needed to show people the Way again.

When the rubber hits the road and the values and priorities of America (or whatever country. You fill in the blank.) clash with the values of Jesus who wins out.

For me my loyalties lie with Jesus. The hard part is sorting out which values are his and which ones are part of the current government and culture I live in.

It’s hard to be in the world but not of it. {Are you an American or a Christian?}

We have looked hard for interested people who would like to join this platform writing about the way of life and preaching about the future hope, the Kingdom of God. But no other preachers showed up, who did not want to get paid like the other writers presented from the start. Most people want to receive a reward now and want to get paid for their writings. But preaching demands the love of giving to others without willing to receive something for it. Preaching is a free gift, for the free gift of grace we all have received. It is a way of showing thankfulness and appreciation for what Christ Jesus has done for us. Preachers should know and continue the task Jesus has given his followers.

In this ungodly world it is high tie we get more preachers on their feet and that those who call themselves Christian really show to the world what it means to be a follower of Christ.

if I believe Jesus is the way,the truth, and the life and without Him our lives are condemned and we are doomed then easy or hard the choice is simple. {Make me a crisis man}

We wonder who wants to come up for Christ and show others the Way. How many want to answer the call of Jesus Christ? how many want to be an encourager?

Do you want to just be a milepost or a fork in the road? {Make me a crisis man}

+

Continue reading: The Big Conversation

Preceding: 72 Synod Fathers on the topic “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world”

++

Additional reading:

1. World Agenda for Sustainability
2. Not many coming out with their community name
3. Atonement And Fellowship 3/8
4. Challenging claim 2 Inspired by God 1 Simple words
5. God who knows the heart
6. An anarchistic reading of the Bible—(1) Approaching the Bible
7. Why we do not have our worship-services in a church building
8. I remember you in my prayers
9. Meet the atheist … who believes in God
10. Called Christian
11. Be an Encourager
12. A Synod to speak freely and to listen without reservations
13. Let us make sure we are not stiff-necked
14. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
15. Preachers should know and continue the task Jesus has given his followers
16. Commitment to Christian unity
17. Fellowship
18. The Ecclesia
19. The Ecclesia in the churchsystem
20. The ecclesia or Christadelphian church
21. Who are the Christadelphians
22. Keeping an ecclesia in modern times
23. Christadelphian people
24. Christadelphians
25. Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews
26. My faith
27. A Living Faith #8 Change
28. Priority to form a loving brotherhood
29. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
30. What Christadelphians teach
31. About the Belgian Free Christadelphians
32. 19° Century London Christadelphians
33. Faith and works
34. Breathing to teach
35. Breathing and growing with no heir
36. Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach
37. Belonging to or being judged by
38. Good or bad preacher
39. Jehovah’s Witnesses not only group that preach the good news

+++

 

Related articles

• A Perfect Inheritance
• We stand together proudly
• Jesus Christ is not REAL to most Christians
• Victory
• Reflective Moment ‘The Greatest Gift Is Free’
• World Change
• Speech Paints Your Future
• Gospel group Iband Incorporated set for UK tour
• Are You an Unsalted Christian?
• I’m Sorry, Christian, But You Don’t Get to Make That Move

Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news

Rom 10:13-15 MKJV  For everyone, “whoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  (14)  How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without preaching?  (15)  And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!”

For they who do not believe should come to hear and should receive an opportunity to get to know the grace given to all people. People can only call on the Name of God when they do believe. Only then when we call onto God’s Name, Jehovah, shall we be saved. This is a condition to become saved which too many do forget. Also they who do not believe the Gospel as the record which God has given of his Son are missing a lot, and those who do believe are responsible for that, when they do not make the effort of preaching. But those who go out into the world to tell the Good News are recognised as people doing beautiful work, because how can others hear without preaching? Naturally there can only be preached rightly by those who believe and by those who are sent, showing others their faith and gladly willing to share the Good News they themselves heard and got convinced of.

The apostle turns from the responsibility of the seeker after salvation to emphasize the role that believers are intended to have in God’s plan for preaching the gospel. Calling on the Lord is meaningless apart from some assurance that He is worthy of confidence and trust, that He has something to offer that guilty sinners need. Calling on Him and trust in Him are two sides of the same coin. The verse suggests that calling on the Lord continues to be a mark of the believer, not simply the first step in the direction of establishing relationship to him.

1Co 1:2 MKJV  to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called out with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

One must hear the gospel before a person can be expected either to receive it or reject it. Without people preaching there can be no hearing. Without witnessing there can be no thought or consideration about what could be true or not, or people would not get to know. Certain King James Versions have “without a preacher” – which may be misleading, in that it implies (or it may be inferred there-from) that there is a special office of preacher. This is of course not the case at all: all God’s children are (or should be) preachers!

People do need to hear about Jesus, the son of God. They should come to know what that Nazarene man has done and who his heavenly Father is and for what that eternal Spirit is so important for mankind. Those who do believe should know the importance of their knowledge and out of love for the others they should want others to know that truth as well. When a person believes unto righteousness with the heart he shall be glad to be able to confess with with the mouth unto salvation not being put to shame knowing that when he calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Saint Peter preaching the Gospel in the Catacombs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The apostle Paul rightly observes that it all goes back to the preaching of the gospel, and preachers, those who profess the Word of God, must be sent – both by God and the Christian community at large. It does not have to be special university people, but men and women willing to share the Gospel in Jesus’ name. God’s “normal” way of bringing people to Jesus Christ is through the preaching of the gospel, which has to happen through faithful people who follow the example of Christ Jesus and do what he had demanded his disciples.

God’s cursing or blessing is upon us, also according to our faithfulness in preaching the Word. God has committed unto us, in our ministry, the word of His reconciliation.

2Co 5:17-21 KJV  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  (18)  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;  (19)  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.  (20)  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.  (21)  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

When we choose to become baptised in the name of Jesus we wanted to become in Messiah reborn, becoming a new creation. From then onwards our shyness in the world should be gone having the old things having passed away. Shyness refers to passivity, emotional arousal, and excessive self-focus in the presence of other people ( Jones, Cheek, and Briggs 1986). It also frequently involves negative self-evaluations, social avoidance, and withdrawal. (International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family, 2003). Being reborn we have received a new soul (being) not focusing as such on the self, but on the totality of union in Christ. Arousal and heightened self-consciousness in response to social threat can be put aside when one is confirmed about the truth and its value. The experiences of shyness are often sufficiently unpleasant to lead to withdrawal from or avoidance of many social situations, but they also compound the distress of shyness by distracting from skilled and self-confident social interactions. When a person his faith sits deep in him it will give him enough assurance to conquer that shyness to witness for Christ Jesus and for his heavenly Father, the only One God.

Facing all those new things which are from God we want to share with others that in Jesus Christ the Messiah Jehovah God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them; and He has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us.  We are by the baptism in spirit taken away from the doubt and fear from man and therefore should want to be ambassadors for Messiah, as though God were making His appeal through us.

The apostles and members of the first communities begged the community members on behalf of Messiah, to be reconciled to God and to share the Good News with others.  Though it was not easy, because many had seen what had happened to Christ Jesus, and knew that there were fierce opponents of the teachings of this master teacher. It was the Most High Almighty Elohim Who made the Sent One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. By his offering we are bought and are now facing freedom, if we want. It is not by deeds of righteousness which we had done ourselves, but because of God His mercy. It is by the blessing of Jesus his offering that we can become saved through the mikveh of rebirth and renewing of the Ruach ha-Kodesh,  whom Jehovah abundantly poured out on us through Messiah Jeshua our Saviour, so that being set right by his grace, we might become heirs with the confident hope of eternal life!

Tit 3:5-7 MKJV  not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,  (6)  whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  (7)  that being justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The Messiah or Christ was a man who did not want to do his own will but preferred to do only the will of his heavenly Father. He love God’s ecclesia and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. (Ephesians 5:25-26). Like Jesus took care that the dirt of the earth was washed away by the Word of God we also should where we come try to wash away the dirt of this contemporary world.

At baptism the believer becomes a part of Christ’s new “creation” (Ephesians 2:10;  4:23-24; Collosians 3:10). That new creation is so incredible and presents such a magic future we do not want to keep it for ourselves alone. Real believers in Christ do want to become like Christ sharers of the Good News. Being washed… sanctified, we are prepared to do the work for God. It is the will to get to know the Word of God better which should bring us to read it more and to share it with others. It is not be going to a special college reading lots of human writings and philosophies that we shall get more knowledge to bring people to God. God has given everything we need in His Word. All is there in that Book of books, the Bible, God His infallible Word which says all.

Without the faith in Jesus we shall not be able to succeed. We need to have faith in Jesus so that we can call on Jesus. And we need to call on Jesus because calling on Jesus, searching for Jesus, crying out for Jesus is what brings us salvation. Through calling on Jesus, we are saved.
So why do we preach?
So that we may be saved.

We need to be saved from our own captivity. We all need to be set free from something that may keep us away from our loving heavenly Father, the Divine Creator.

The world has to know what God provided. they should come to know that there is a possibility of real peace. But they also should get to know that it will be God Who rules.

Isa 52:7-10 MKJV  How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, making peace heard; who brings good news, making salvation heard; who says to Zion, Your God reigns!  (8)  The voice of Your watchmen shall lift up! They lift up the voice together; they sing aloud. For they shall see eye to eye, when Jehovah shall bring again Zion.  (9)  Break out, sing together, waste places of Jerusalem; for Jehovah has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.  (10)  Jehovah has bared His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

As in the time before Christ Jesus it was nice to see the messengers of God bringing good tidings. Now it is our time to bring such good tidings. We have hear them and we should be convinced of the importance of them.

4 days of Evangelism Training in Southern California provided by LivingWaters Ministry. Obeying the great commission of Jesus Christ. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to everyone” Mark 16:15 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Good Tidings publishes peace and brings confirmation about the sent one from God, who is the Messiah and fulfilled his duties here on earth. God reigns and has given Jeshua the authority to prepare His Kingdom and to reign on earth. We are looking for that Kingdom of God and belief that it is a reality which can be there for much more people than it is at the moment. Therefore we should be willing to show the way to Jerusalem, the physical but even more the spiritual Jerusalem. More and more we can see how the Plan of God gets shape and how we come closer to the execution of that Plan.

The freedom that awaits us has to be spoken off. But first we need to liberate us from our own weaknesses, bad things we are burdened with. We must see that we can make ourselves free from the bad things of this world first. There  may be things which are holding us captive. There  may be many things holding onto us.

Andy Burns, who believes the goal of life is to get so close to that light that we are breathing in the light and exhaling it out into the world, writes:

Maybe you’re dealing with a very real kind of captivity like addiction. Maybe you have an addiction to a physical substance-alcohol, drugs, those kinds of things-or maybe you’re addicted to something more abstract-your work, money, maybe you’re addicted to other people’s approval of you. And this addiction controls when you wake up, when you go to sleep, when you eat, where you work, where you go after work, how hard you work. You’re not free.

Or maybe you deal with an intensely personal problem like low self-esteem or self-doubt or depression. And maybe this controls you in ways that surprise you-you want a certain job but you don’t believe you can do it. You want to speak up but you don’t believe in yourself in enough to find the words. You want to get to know someone, but you don’t believe they could ever like you. You’re not free.

Or maybe you deal with some pain in your past. Maybe you’ve been seriously hurt-either physically or emotionally by their words or both. Maybe it was a parent, a friend, a spouse, a child. And maybe this old would is holding you captive, keeping you from enjoying life, making you avoid certain situations and people. You’re not free.

See, I think all need to be freed from something. We all need freedom and transformation in our lives. And according to Paul in our passage, this is the message that preachers are entrusted with. This is the reason we preach here. Preachers preach so that people can hear about Jesus. People need to hear about Jesus so that we may have faith in Jesus. People need to have faith in Jesus so that they can call on Jesus. And people need to call on Jesus so that we may be set free by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the message that we proclaim every week. This is what we all need to hear and what we all need to be reminded of, week in and week out. You can be free in Jesus Christ. {Stuff My Church Does I: Preaching}

People do have to hear about Jesus and each believer in Christ should take care of that. We do have to go out into the world and tell about the marvellous gift we received. We do have to invite others to share with us the grace which has been given to us.

What would it look like if we invited others here to hear the freedom of God proclaimed in the Word of God? What would it look like if we all brought this Word out into our community and saw it as our job to proclaim this freedom that everyone needs to those around us? Just think of the transformation that would happen. I think it would look pretty amazing. {Stuff My Church Does I: Preaching}

Let us all joining and be workers for the Lord, going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to everyone. (Mark 16:15 )

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Preceding articles:

A Christian has to have eyes and ears and a tongue to use in good ways

Your position about materialistic desires having conquered the world

Looking for a shepherd for the sheep and goats

It takes years to learn

Believe today and now!

When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation

What’s inside matters..

Not making yourselves abominable

Where are the female writers

Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Preaching by example

How To Get Started In Sharing Your Faith As a Christian

What Should I Preach ?

++

Additional reading:

1. Where is the edge
2. Remember the day
3. Gospel = Good tidings, good news, a good message
4. Counterfeit Gospels
5. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
6. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
7. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
8. Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
9. Hearing words to accept
10. Atonement And Fellowship 2/8
11. Missional hermeneutics 4/5
12. Missional hermeneutics 5/5
13. The Right One to follow and to worship
14. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
15. Hope by faith and free gift
16. Showing by the scriptures that …
17. Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #3 as a Christian
18. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation
19. Establish your hearts blameless in holiness
20. Looking for True Spirituality 7 Preaching of the Good News
21. Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
22. Breathing to teach
23. 2013 Lifestyle, religiously and spiritually
24. Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review
25. Stepping Toes 2014 in review
26. Looking on what is going on and not being of it
27. A prophet to restore
28. Imitate prophets and Paul
29. Oratory Style
30. Counting sands and stars
31. Which Christians Actually Evangelize
32. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
33. Bringing Good News into the world
34. Intentions of an Ecclesia
35. Holland Week of billing
36. Faith and trial
37. Faith a commitment to the promises of Christ and to to the demands of Christ
38. How should we preach?
39. The Rapture Wars
40. Not many coming out with their community name
41. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
42. Jehovah can make him stand
43. Our openness to being approachable
44. Different approach in organisation of services #3
45. Glory of God appearing in our character
46. A Society pleading poverty
47. Good or bad preacher
48. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #9 Prayer #7 Reason to pray
49. How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
50. Rebirth and belonging to a church
51. Of the many books Only the Bible can transform
52. Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships

+++

Also of interest

• 90 Days With Yeshua- Day 66: Reconciling the Banished Heart
• His name…
• Why I Don’t Celebrate Easter (and still love God… and still believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Messiah)
• The Lie That Made God Nameless
• Don’t Be Ashamed
• God Demands a Response to Jesus
• May 1: Does Your Life Bring Glory to God?
• Past, Present and Future of Salvation, Today’s Study of Romans 5
• Make your faith work
• “I Bring You Good Tidings Of Great Joy!”
• Trying to Make the Good News Better
• Romans 1:9-14 Questions (Good News Study)
• A Story for the Ages
• Romans 8:28
• A Personal Example Of Hope Fulfilled
• Praise and Worship to God Almighty in Any Language
•  Do You Who You Are? It is Based on the Word of God and Nothing Else.
•  Forget Public Opinion…Keep Your Eyes on God’s Opinion of You.
• The Only Place to Go When Life Gets Tough
• SOM: Blessed are the Pure in Heart
• So, You Think You Can Preach? Sigh . . .
• Jack Hyles Sermon: Fighting the Wrong War
• Preachers are held to a higher standard
• The time for delay is over
• A Better Message; A Better Messenger
• Acts 24 Reading Through the NT 2015
• What Do We Have To Sing About?
• Laboring in the Vineyard or Sitting on the Hillside with Jonah?
• The Spread of the Gospel
• Is Evangelism Dead?
• The Good News Message Of Jesus Christ
• If you got fuel, and you got fire, something’s gotta happen!
• The Smallest of All

Related articles

• I said “I do,” and received the gift of His Holy Spirit. We drank from the cup of the covenant, and then He gave me His name – (de9k2.wordpress.com)
• True Believers Are Completely Associated With Christ (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
• Listen: The Hopeful Christian in Hopeless Times (Pilgrim’s Progress According to the Bible #47 with Daniel Whyte III) (blackchristiannews.com)
• Scripture Verse Of The Week ‘Galatians 3 Verse 26″ (mylordmyfriend.com)
• A Christian Defined (butchdean.wordpress.com)
• The Truth And Nothing But The Truth… (thetruelight2014.wordpress.com)
• Mechanisms of the Spirit (brokenbelievers.com)
• ” The Fire Of The Word “ (stateofglobe.com)
• Your Word for This Day: “Glory Revealed” (thotam.com)
• Word of the Week: Romans 1 (NLT) (faithtemplechurch.wordpress.com)

Preaching by example

Too many Christians do forget that they are commanded to

“make disciples of people of all the nations.”

How they have to do that is never explicitly said. We should realize that there are different ways to make disciples or to bring people to come to know God.

For sure a bad way to get converts is to use pressure or force. Jesus’ commission was to

“tell good news to the meek ones,”

to

“bind up the brokenhearted,”

to

“comfort all the mourning ones.” (Matthew 28:19; Isaiah 61:1, 2; Luke 4:18, 19)

We may not forget the task Jesus has given his disciples

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations,+ baptizing them+ in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.+ And look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.”*+ (Matthew 28:19-20)

Real Christians should have their heart, their ears and eyes open for Jehovah’s Word and be willing to share that Word with as many people as possible. They should go looking for different ways to declare the good news from the Bible. We all should be obeying Christ by going out into the world and letting others know about the Divine Creator and His wonderworks.

Like the prophet Ezekiel of old, today real students of the Bible and followers of Christ should try to find those who

“are sighing and groaning over all the detestable things that are being done.”—Ezekiel 9:4.

We should make a positive effort to reach the public, just as Jesus did when

“he went journeying from city to city and from village to village, preaching and declaring the good news of the kingdom of God.”

His early disciples did likewise. (Luke 8:1; 9:1-6; 10:1-9)

As such we can go out on the streets, going from one place to an other, telling those we pass, about the good news which had reached us. We can share that what made us so happy and full of hope and are sure of will be bringing blessings also to them as it does to us.

We can invite people to come to our meetings and there we can share our faith with many.

23 Let us hold firmly the public declaration of our hope without wavering,+ for the one who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider* one another so as to incite* to love and fine works,+ 25 not forsaking our meeting together,+ as some have the custom, but encouraging one another,+ and all the more so as you see the day drawing near.+ (Hebrews 10:23-24-25)

Jesus giving the Farewell discourse to his eleven remaining disciples, from the Maesta by Duccio, 1308-1311. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes as lovers of Christ we should also consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. The the assembling or gathering is one way of showing to the outside world our unity or our family as members of the Body of Christ. There, at the meeting places, we should exhort and encourage or stimulate one another.

Sincerity, fullness of faith, the sprinkling and washing that come from repentance and baptism give the conscience freedom of access.

‘Let us approach . . . let us hold fast . . . let us consider each other ‘

are the three exhortatives which urge the practice of the three divine virtues. Hope particularly is founded on the fidelity of God to his promises, and charity must be social. Our faith is not something which has to stay in our own closed closet.

Today too much we see people who are afraid to show their faith to others. Discouragement has made them avoid community at the very time they needed it most. Forsaking fellowship is a sure way to give place to discouragement.  This discouragement festers where God’s people are not exhorting one another.

We may have the gathering together of the redeemed of the Lord at the day of judgement, but it is now we have to take care that as many can be saved. Our love should be full of the love of Christ who gave his life for all mankind. We do not have to give our life, but much of our life should be concerned about the others, those who not have found Christ.

We should make an effort to bring more people to Christ Jesus. It is up to us to let him be known by much more people.

Our life should be for Christ and like Christ being an example for others. When we tell others about our faith they should see it that we live according that faith.

A Christian’s being an example of right living says more than hours of sermonizing. This was pointed out to Christian wives who had unbelieving husbands:

“They may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives, because of having been eyewitnesses of your chaste conduct.” (1 Peter 3:1, 2.)

Therefore, let us try to recommend the good news to others in this way also:

by being exemplary in the Christian conduct that they recommend to others.

Let us remember that we should try to do unto others as we would have others do unto us.

12 “All things, therefore, that you want men to do to you, you also must do to them.+ This, in fact, is what the Law and the Prophets mean.+ (Matthew 7:12)

We do know we can not know everything, nor can we be perfect.  Being imperfect, we do not always succeed 100 percent. But it is the desire of our hearts to do good unto all people not only in telling them the good news of the Kingdom but also in extending a helping hand whenever possible.

14 Of what benefit is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but he does not have works?+ That faith cannot save him, can it?+ 15 If a brother or a sister is lacking clothing* and enough food for the day, 16 yet one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but you do not give them what they need for their body, of what benefit is it?+ 17 So, too, faith by itself, without works, is dead.+ (James 2:14-17.)

+

Preceding articles:

A Christian has to have eyes and ears and a tongue to use in good ways

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

How To Get Started In Sharing Your Faith As a Christian

Your position about materialistic desires having conquered the world

Looking for a shepherd for the sheep and goats

It takes years to learn

Believe today and now!

When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation

What’s inside matters..

Not making yourselves abominable

Where are the female writers

Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

What Should I Preach ?

++

Additional reading:

1. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
2. Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
3. Atonement And Fellowship 2/8
4. Missional hermeneutics 4/5
5. The Right One to follow and to worship
6. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
7. Counterfeit Gospels
8. Hope by faith and free gift
9. Showing by the scriptures that …
10. Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #3 as a Christian
11. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation
12. Establish your hearts blameless in holiness
13. Looking for True Spirituality 7 Preaching of the Good News
14. Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
15. Breathing to teach
16. 2013 Lifestyle, religiously and spiritually
17. Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review
18. Stepping Toes 2014 in review
19. Looking on what is going on and not being of it
20. A prophet to restore
21. Imitate prophets and Paul
22. Oratory Style
23. Counting sands and stars
24. Which Christians Actually Evangelize
25. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
26. Bringing Good News into the world
27. Intentions of an Ecclesia
28. Holland Week of billing
29. Faith and trial
30. Faith a commitment to the promises of Christ and to to the demands of Christ
31. How should we preach?
32. The Rapture Wars
33. Not many coming out with their community name
34. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
35. Jehovah can make him stand
36. Our openness to being approachable
37. Different approach in organisation of services #3
38. Glory of God appearing in our character
39. A Society pleading poverty
40. Good or bad preacher

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A Christian has to have eyes and ears and a tongue to use in good ways

When looking at the world which drifts further away form the knowledge of God, it becomes very important that those who do believe in the Most High Divine Creator let others know the Master Mind behind everything.

Living in this evolving materialistic world we also should bring the more spiritual important matters forward and present them to those around us. We should not be afraid to talk about the higher values and our great hopes.
Even when we may have the impression that all others want to stay blind and deaf, we should try to open their eyes and ears.

Jesus said,

“Having eyes, do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? …Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8:18,21).

Are we, who call ourselves Christian, really wanting to be true followers of Christ? Are we ourselves willing to have our ears and eyes open for the master teacher’s teaching? Let us apply our God-given intellect ever more diligently to what we read and then make sure we meditate upon it. A true blessing for us – every day – only by this means will we be

“wholly true to the Lord”.

And when true to the Lord we want to share the Good News and show our love for the Lord and His Precious Gift. Our thankfulness should be seen by our works. Our title of being Christian should mean we are following the teachings of Christ and are following up the tasks given by him to his disciples.

With the preaching work of Christ Jesus in our mind we also should not be afraid to go out into the world and preaching that Good News of the saviour.

Thought for August 13

“… wholly true to the LORD”

Solomon and the Plan for the Temple, as in 1 Kings 6, illustration from a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the end there can be no half measures in truly believing, and, as a result, having a daily relationship with our Saviour. The completion of this relationship leads us to more and more fully sense the wonder of the Creator of all things – and the unlimited nature of those “all things”.

In First Kings today we read one of the longest chapters in the Bible: it describes the awesome glory of the Temple in which just about everything was overlaid with gold. Solomon had just completed it and we read his words of benediction. First he offers an emotional prayer to God,

“that all the peoples of the earth may know your name” (8:43).

When he finishes his prayer

“he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, ‘Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel …’” (verse 56)

and we ponder how even greater, far greater, must be the blessing and the joy, and the greater “rest” when, as we will read soon, Jesus the greatest king of all opens

“the house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17).

Solomon brings his benediction to a climax with a petition to the Lord

“that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other”

and then utters the even more significant words,

“Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day” (verse 61).

Human nature is such that the challenge to be “wholly true to the LORD” is only accomplished when we have a real living relationship with Him and his Son, and how thought provoking is our chapter in Mark in showing us how the disciples failed to be fully committed, despite constantly witnessing remarkable miracles and hearing his teaching.

Jesus said to them,

“Having eyes, do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? …Do you not yet understand?” (8:18,21).

And for ourselves, having eyes, do we not read, and having brains, do we not yet understand? Let us apply our God-given intellect ever more diligently to what we read and then make sure we meditate upon it. A true blessing for us – every day – only by this means will we be

“wholly true to the Lord”.

– the Christadelphian

+++

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Preaching Christ Is Not Enough

Too often Christian preachers do forget that they also have to reach those who have no faith at all. So many preachers fail to appeal to the secular mind. So much so that most secular people write off the church because they think the Bible is an ancient relic that “speaks” only to the unenlightened or easily manipulated.

In the church-world we also do find lots of doom-preachers who frighten people so much they do not bother any more. Instead of showing the people the love of God and the love of Christ Jesus the saviour.

Also too many are seeing preaching as a one way one-directional, verbal proclamation of their words how they look at it all, instead of putting God’s Word in the forefront and focussing much more on the good things, instead of pointing out all the time to the bad things.

Too many do not see that the intent behind ‘preach the word’ be fulfilled in other ways than one person talking at other people for an extended time. To preach we not only have to think about a person standing there at the pulpit, everybody listening nicely or doing as if they are listening and following.

The preaching Jesus spoke about is the going out into the world without shame or fear and telling to others in a nice way about the works of the Most High Supreme Being. Showing others why it is important to follow Christ and to come to his heavenly Father as children of God.

The world may be still against those who love God. Nothing much is changed yet. The world belongs to the adversary of God (Satan). We do have the choice to belong to those who are against God or we can try to bring them over to God and to see why it is best to accept God as their Divine Supreme High Being.

The the prophetic voices may perhaps be stilled, but the endtimes nearing the work of the master teacher shall continue and progress, having more and more people bringing the Good News. They also live by that hope that when the time comes nearer all over the world shall be witnessed in the Name of the One True God, Jehovah.

It are not just 144 000 but millions or trillions who shall go out daring to speak and tell others their love for Christ Jesus and his heavenly Father, the only One God.

Merely preaching salvation by Christ is not enough: we must vigorously contend for the original faith; the faith of God’s people, Israel, who did worship the God of Abraham and not a three-headed god. There is really no other option, all should come to know there is only One Way and One God.

+

Preceding articles:

Your position about materialistic desires having conquered the world

Looking for a shepherd for the sheep and goats

It takes years to learn

Believe today and now!

What’s inside matters..

Not making yourselves abominable

When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation

Where are the female writers

Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

How To Get Started In Sharing Your Faith As a Christian

What Should I Preach ?

 

++

Additional reading:

1. Pulpit reserved for the pastor
2. Determined To Stick With Truth
3. Necessity of a revelation of creation 9 Searching the Scriptures
4. Necessity of a revelation of creation 14 Searching the scriptures
5. How to Choose a Bible for Preaching
6. Bringing good News in the world

+++

Further reading:

• The Gospel
• Bible in the first place #3/3
• Being A Christian
• Last days’ walk with Jesus: walking and thinking
• Live that they might see
• To the Praise of God’s Glory, we are Predestined to His Purpose – Ephesians 1:11-12
• Evangelism: Jesus’ Only Conference 2015
• Where is God’s Vineyard Today?
• When the preacher goes off tangent by making racist comments
• Let’s not be heathens again – Odd Walking Thoughts
• Pulpit, Podium, Music Stand or Bistro Table
• Pulpit
• Pulpit Authority
• Padding the pulpit
• Mizbe’ah ~ A place of sacrifice
• A Preacher’s Commitments Part 1: Starting New
• Woman in the Pulpit: Blogging the book
• Seven Plus Habits of Highly Irritating Preachers
• These Are A Few of Our Ministry Things
• How Does A Pastor Need Prayer?
• Political Correctness in the Pulpit
• When Pulpits Preach – Guest Post by Paul Records
• Dallas Pastors Swap Pulpits To Talk Progress & Race Relations
• The Polls on The Pulpits
• Same Old Sermon

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onechristblog

The book of Revelation speaks of a time when preaching Christ will not suffice. Early in its pages it sees the possibility of the total change in esteem true believers would hold towards church groups (with which they may have been previously associated) that doggedly persist in a different path from the original Way (Acts 9:2). We can detect this thought on a closer reading of Revelation 2:4,5, which says to the Ephesian church or congregation, ‘Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy [lampstand] out of its place, except thou repent.’

In the same vein, Revelation 9 suggests that men and their counterfeit contrivances would seek to hold true believers firmly within their ranks (like in a bottomless…

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