In Jesus’ Name – More Than Words
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would […]
Paul Answers the Five Most Basic Worldview Questions in Athens (Acts 17)
If you are unfamiliar with what worldview is…it is the underlying assumptions that we have formed that drive what we believe about the world. Some have called worldview the glasses we see the world through. Another way to look at it is our meta-narrative…the story that runs under all the other stories that we tell […]
The Earliest Gentile Missionaries (Pre-Peter/Cornelius)
Peter is often given credit as the first to reach out to the Gentiles but that is not the case. You might find this interesting: Jesus’ outreach to Gentiles The Syrophoenician woman in Tyre (Mark 7:24-30) The deaf and mute man in Sidon (Mark 7:31-37) Feeding the 4000 (Mark 8:1-13) The formerly-demon-possessed man (Mark 5:1-20) After […]
Peter Took Him By the Right Hand and He Helped Him Up
3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he […]
Debriefing: A Powerful But Underutilized Ministry Tool
There is a big difference between talking about what might happen and what actually happened. In Christianity, a lot of us teach toward an event but don’t often teach from an event. We give reasons, scripture, background and purpose as to why we think people should be involved in something but miss the powerful conversation […]
The Holy Spirit’s Role in the Coming of Jesus
We often associate the Holy Spirit with the beginning of the church in Luke’s second volume, the book of Acts. What is interesting is that the Holy Spirit also played a key role in kicking off Luke’s first volume, the Gospel of Luke: Luke 1:15 – John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy […]
The Book of Acts And the Shaping of the Church
Ever since I can remember growing up I have heard that the book of Acts is the model for the church. A lot of people say (correctly) that we are a 21st century church in a 21st century world and that means there are going to be some differences between the church we read about […]
“Witness”…Making Personal Things Public
“My religion is a personal thing, deeply personal, but it’s not private.” – J. Mack Stiles in Speaking of Jesus, p.13 There is a belief out there that deeply personal beliefs should be kept private. The thought is, they should be kept private because deeply personal beliefs often have a lot of strings attached. When […]
John The Baptist’s Baptism Was for the Forgiveness of Sins
You have undoubtedly heard that John the Baptist’s baptism was a baptism of repentance and that the difference between John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism was that Jesus’ baptism took it a step further by adding the effect of the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Well, was anyone even reading Mark 1:4? “And so John the […]
Help From You Guys With Accordance or Logos – What is the most common command in the Bible?
I had an email discussion yesterday with a buddy about what the most frequent command in scripture is. If you google it you will find “do not be afraid” comes out on top. That is at least the theory but I can’t find really any evidence that backs it up. They say it occurs 365 […]