The Asbury revival has garnered the attention of many. As a result, some pastors and young leaders are looking at this phenomenon as the norm and primary goal of their ministry. However, we must look at revival as a means to an end, not the end itself. Historically, charismatics have been “all in” on revival. …
6 Reasons Why Revival is Not the New Testament’s Focus Read More »
Note: In this brief article, I will not deal with the various historical views regarding the essence of Holy Communion. Nowadays, many evangelical churches interpret “sola scriptura” to mean that they can do whatever they want as long as there’s some adherence to the Bible. We fail to realize that the early church observed certain …
7 Reasons Why the Church Should Celebrate Weekly Communion Read More »
In this article, cessationism refers to the doctrine, practice or belief that the ascension ministry gifts and the manifestations of the Holy Spirit ceased with the early church and do not function in the present church age (Eph. 4:11-16; 1 Cor. 12: 4-11). The charismatic and Pentecostal world believes in all the gifts of the …
Read Time: 4 Minutes 9 Seconds Last week I began a series regarding reasons for your personal stress and depression. For the first five points, please refer back to that article. Here are five more reasons you may find yourself buried in personal stress and depression: 6. Stress management and the “Ball in a box …
5 More Reasons Personal Stress and Depression Can Haunt You Read More »
Read Time: 3 Minutes, 40 Seconds Many people are entering a new year with anxiety because of general societal uncertainty, financial instability, relational instability, and challenges with their physical and emotional health. According to The American Institute of Stress: “About 33 percent of people report feeling extreme stress. 77 percent of people experience stress that …
Read Time: 4 Minutes 14 Seconds The scripture teaches us that all humanity (at least subconsciously) knows God, which is why no one will have an excuse before the judgment seat of Christ (Rom. 1:20). God has also set an intuited sense of eternity in every human being’s heart (Eccl. 3:11). In light of this …
7 Different States of the Human Condition Related to God Read More »
Read Time: 4 Minutes 7 Seconds Being involved with pastoral and apostolic-type ministry for more than three decades, I have attempted to prioritize building relationally through covenant and mentoring. This experience has shown me that in order to be successful, I must discern between three types of people: protégés, partners and parasites. The following are …
Understanding the Differences between Protégés, Partners and Parasites Read More »
Read Time: 5 Minutes Genesis 1:28 and its New Testament counterpart, Matthew 28:19, have been used by some to justify Christians exerting top-down dominion over society. While a case can arguably be made for cultural influence, we need to interpret said passages properly to not justify erroneous methodologies. In Genesis 1:28, God blessed mankind and …
Deconstructing Passages Used for Cultural Dominion Read More »
Our greatest privilege is to represent God to this world! The following are some of the criteria the Bible lays out regarding this: 1. We are called to speak the oracles of God. Paul the apostle said that he was called to manifest the word of God through preaching that was entrusted to him (Titus …
Read Time: 4 Minutes 44 Seconds Since the dawn of the “positive thinking” message of Norman Vincent Peale in the 20th century, there has been an avalanche of preachers teaching variations of this message. (The “health and wealth” prosperity gospel, “name it and claim it,” along with various modes of motivational types of preaching.) When …
Read Time: 5 Minutes 3 Seconds The writer of Hebrews says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation” (2:3, NKJV). The Greek word for neglect, (“having neglected” in its original tense in Greek), is “amelēsantes.” This means to pay no attention to, to make light of or to be negligent of. …
Paul said he was a “drink offering.” This meant that he offered his very life, spirit, soul, and body, to the Lord and to His church as a “living sacrifice” (Num. 15:4-10; 2 Tim. 4:6; Rom. 12:1-2). He also said he not only “spent” but “was spent” for the gospel (2 Cor. 12:15). When you …
During the days of Nazi Germany, there arose a Confessing church movement that rose against the German church movement, which became the religious arm of the Fascist Nazi Socialist movement. Of the 18,000 pastors in Germany during that time (from 1933 to 1945), less than 5,000 were aligned with the Confessing church. Hence, only a …
8 Contrasts Between the Confessing and Compromising Church Read More »
One of the greatest needs in the body of Christ is to release the spirit of sonship (Rom. 8:15). Since the nation of Israel and the church were modeled after the biblical family structure, its leaders were supposed to function more as spiritual parents than corporate executives. The apostle Paul said that we have only …
Although the definition of an atheist is one that denies the existence of God, in this article, I use the word to depict those identified as Christians who live as though there is no God that they are accountable to. Unfortunately, in my estimation, a considerable percentage of Christians live as functional atheists. The following …
