Although The Purpose Driven Church was written by Rick Warren in the mid-nineties, I would still include this in my list of recommended books for pastors as I think the church growth materials shared in this book are still very much relevant to our churches today in the 21st century. I love the fact that this book is not written by some theologian somewhere in a library, but Pastor Rick shares from the first-hand experience and what he has already applied and what has proven to work in Saddleback Church. The Purpose Driven Church is packed full of practical ways to increase your church’s membership and shows you how to see more people maturing from just ‘on the edges’ to becoming a core member of your church to build a strong and healthy church. Have you ever had the burden to start up a new church, but don't know how? Have you ever wondered if there were things you can do to better service the church? Have you ever wondered about new ways to attract people and make them feel welco
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Biblical Theology: How The Church Faithfully Teaches The Gospel (Crossway, 2018) by Nick Roark and Robert Cline is part of the 9Marks series that looks at building healthy churches. The authors begin with a strong statement that it is the responsibility of every Christian to help build a healthy church. That is the basic premise of the 9Marks series. In Biblical Theology, Roark and Cline look first at the need for Biblical Theology, then explain what it is, the Bible’s “big story,” and how Biblical Theology shapes both a church’s teaching and mission. The authors also believe, as do I, that Biblical theology helps guard the church and guide it into evangelistic outreach. It also helps Christians “read, understand, and teach the Bible way Jesus said we should.” Two of the major problems in the Church today are false gospels and false teachers. Roark and Cline list several of the primary offenders including “The Prosperity-Gospel Church” and “The Civil-Gospel Church.” I love the tone of
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). , Some people unwittingly allow every form of strife to take root in their hearts: bitterness, malice, anger, envy, hatred, and all forms of wickedness. But the Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 4:31-32, admonishes that we put away these things and walk in love: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” But the question is, “How do you consistently walk in love in a world where there’s so much hate?” Our opening text gives us the answer: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). When you walk in the Spirit, you see and walk differently; your perspective is different, and walking in love is natural to you. Being born again, you have the capacity
To declare the glory of God is to put all things in their proper place. Chaos and struggle are always the result of humanity trying to gain glory for ourselves. God alone is worthy. God alone was made to be above all else. And God alone can handle the weight of receiving glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” We were made to declare the glory of God. We were made to proclaim through word and deed the majesty, splendor, and worthiness of the God of heaven and earth. Proclaiming God’s glory to the world always begins by taking a look at our own hearts. We can’t declare that God is above every other name if we’re still on the throne of our hearts. We can’t proclaim his excellencies and then seek to gain success, approval, and affirmation from others. Declaring God’s glory starts with our own humility. It begins with living a life of sacrifice to the one who’s given up everything for us. When we remove ourselves fro
Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope A Review In Reading While Black, Esau McCaulley is Black, Christian, and committed to reading the Bible as God's Word and as relevant to the experience of Black people. McCaulley demonstrates how the intuition and habits of Black biblical interpretation and the Black ecclesial tradition can help all readers connect the Bible and theology with the pressing issues of the day. His book is a must-read for any pastor, undergraduate student, seminarian, or student of the Bible who is ready to reckon with and be awakened by McCaulley's fresh and constructive readings of Scripture. ow does the Black American experience fit into the Bible? At first glance, it may not seem like it does. American history has shown that the Bible has been used to promote slavery, segregation, and Black inferiority. To some Black Americans, reading the Bible may seem like an exercise in despair and subjugation. Dr. Esau M
Official Post of Grades. In the past 3 years, I have been pursuing a Bachelors's Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. I say it is a good time to say I made a 4.0 this semester and have finished with an overall 3.64. GPA. I would like to say thank you God and to all of my family and friends who have helped me throughout this degree. Everything must be done in God's time. It is official and I will be moving forward to complete my Master's from Liberty University Online. Praise God to all the Glory.
Believers Stand Firm by Putting On the Footwear of Peace and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. (Ephesians 6:15) When Paul talks about “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace,” he is picturing the footwear of a Roman soldier. They typically wore a half-boot with the toes uncovered and spikes coming out of the soles. The boots allowed “the soldier to be ready to march, climb, fight, or do whatever else is necessary.” The spikes specifically helped when hiking or on slippery surfaces. Similarly, there is appropriate footwear for believers to wear in spiritual battles. It is the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. As with the other pieces of armor, commentators are not unanimous on what this represents. It could represent several things, as outlined below. 1. The readiness that comes from the gospel of peace represents appropriating the believer’s peace with God. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore since we have be
Some say there are three kinds of wealth, others say seven. But regardless of how we define wealth, we know much of it comes from our non-material blessings. We have so much for which to be thankful, don’t we? To remind us that our blessings exceed those of millionaires’, we need the life-changing spiritual discipline of chronicling gifts. For what are you thankful beyond family and friends? Your health? Great blessings! But beyond these… Here’s part of my own list. I’m thankful for God. Where would we be without the Eternal Presence walking with us through ups and downs? How can an infinitely holy God deal justly with sin while also showing infinite love? I’m grateful that an infinitely creative God made a way. I’m thankful for my larger family of faith that has loved me for decade upon decade and for the local one that takes me to the throne of grace every week through word and song. I’m thankful for the cloud of witnesses and patriots who laid down their lives that I could enjoy b
Luke: A Handbook on the Greek Text is part of an expanding Greek commentary series by Baylor University Press that walks a reader through each word, phrase, and verse of the Greek New Testament. The body of the handbook offers an English translation of each section of the biblical text. Next, there is the full Greek text of a given verse. Then follows a word-by-word (and/or phrase-by-phrase) analysis of the Greek NT text. One advantage to this structure is that, without having to have recourse to any other books, the user of this handbook has the full Greek and English texts of Luke in front of them. There is also useful material at the back of the handbook: a glossary of nearly 50 grammatical terms and concepts, a bibliography, a grammar index (with grammatical concepts listed in English and words listed in Greek), and an author index. If I wanted to trace Luke’s use of the double accusative, for example, I’d see a list of verse references in the grammar index for further study. This
Matthew A Handbook on the Greek Text by Olmstead What distinguishes this series from other available resources is the detailed and comprehensive attention paid to the Greek text of the New Testament. Each handbook provides a convenient reference tool that explains the syntax of the biblical text, offers guidance for deciding between emulating semantic analyses, deals with text-critical questions that have a significant bearing on how the text is understood, and addresses questions relating to the Greek text that is frequently overlooked. Although this handbook is part of the secondary literature, it will push the reader to the text of Matthew’s Gospel. Olmstead has produced a masterful and incisive treatment of the Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew. This Handbook provides essential detail to understand Matthew's Gospel in the Greek Language.
Goldingay, John. Genesis. Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020. I was graciously given a review copy from Baker. This commentary is the fruit of labor from many years of research. The result of Goldingay’s work is a readable commentary that does not get bogged down with minute details of the text. This commentary reflects both the best Jewish and Christian scholarship as well as the detailed commentary on the book of Genesis. The introduction to the book is quite short, only twelve pages. This might disappoint some readers since Goldingay almost completely ignores critical questions about the origin of Genesis. He suggests the canonical form of Genesis dates to after the fall of Judah to Babylon in 587 B.C. although it certainly makes use of earlier tradition. “It is implausible to think of Genesis being created from scratch in the Babylonian” (8). The bulk of the introduction deals with defining what he means by the story, and how
Walking in the Spirit and living by the Spirit are terms used in the New Testament to point Christians to the new way of living. It is the opposite of living by the fleshly desires of the human downward pull. Walking by the Spirit is not merely trying to avoid sin or trying to keep the law. It is the new way new creatures in Christ have been called to live. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit on his return to heaven. The Holy Spirit has been given to every true believer. He was given to guide us in our Christian walk. He is the same Spirit we are admonished to walk in and live by. Living by the Spirit is the act of putting to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom.8:13). The deeds of the flesh consist of lying, coveting, murder, envy, strife, adultery, fornication. This is what Paul calls the works of the flesh in Gal.5:19-20. The Holy Spirit living inside of the Christian will not put up with anything that offends God, hence the reason why there is always a sense of uneasiness when sin
The Lord Jesus told us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). We can see that when we investigate the true way, it is the Lord’s will that we seek with an open heart. When we hear someone testifying that the Lord has returned, we must take the initiative to seek and investigate to see whether or not it is the appearance and work of God. If we sincerely seek and yearn for the Lord’s appearance, then He will surely lead us to find His footsteps and to welcome Him. Why does the Lord say that we must seek with an open heart when investigating the true way to welcome the Lord? We all know that God’s wisdom reaches beyond the heavens and that He performs a new work each time He comes—these things are unfathomable to us humans.
Psalms 74 and 75 speak to one another. In Psalm 74 we hear a desperate cry for help. The unthinkable happened when the Babylonians destroyed the Jerusalem temple. The psalmist in Psalms 74 says, Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs. They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees. And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground. They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land (Ps. 74:4–8). The temple was—on the one hand—the center of religious life and identity for God’s people. The temple was the normative place of God’s presence for Israel. If you wanted to be in God’s presence, all you had to do was go to the temple. No matter how bad things seemed in Israel, there was the comforting knowledge that the temple stood not far awa
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. “ When examining a Biblical verse, it is important to understand the historical context in which it’s written. Originally recorded by John, Son of Zebedee, whose main purpose in writing his Gospel can be found in John 20:31, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. , is Jesus’ declaration “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. The passage of John 14:6 is part of an extensive conversation that Jesus had with his disciples during the “Last Supper” on the eve of the Passover Feast. Immediately preceding the statement, we read that Judas has been identified as the betrayer of Jesus and that Peter will deny Jesus three times before sunrise. Jesus has just advised his followers that he will be leaving them soon and He is attempting to comfort
What did Jesus mean when He said that, to be His disciples, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and give our lives for Him (Matt. 16:24,25; Mark 8:34,35; Luke 9:23,24)? In the context of these passages, Jesus had been predicting His death. Peter rebuked Him, and Jesus responded to Peter. Then Jesus made the statements we are discussing. They actually tie back to the points He was discussing before Peter interrupted Him. He had said He must die. Peter had shown a desire to follow his own will regarding this, instead of God's will. So Jesus showed how His death proves we must not follow our own desires, as Peter had just done. If we want to come after Jesus, we must (1) deny self, (2) take up our cross, (3) follow Jesus. (4) This is then described further as losing our life. Note these points more closely: Denying self requires us to give up anything that we would want or seek that would hinder our doing the will of God. This does not mean that, if we want something, it is n
Just before getting in the boat with His disciples to cross to the “other side” (Gentile area on the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum) where He would deliver the two demoniacs, Jesus taught His parables on the kingdom, the most famous of which is the Parable of the Sower. It’s the only parable from this group that is recorded, along with its explanation, in all three Synoptic Gospels. When compiling a list from the three Synoptics, we see that Mark adds an eighth parable to Matthew’s list of seven, and both Mark and Luke record an illustration used to further illuminate the Parable of the Sower. PARABLES ON THE KINGDOM 1. Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13, Mark 4 & Luke 8) • Explanation of the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13, Mark 4 & Luke 8) • Illustration of a Lamp on a Stand (Mark 4 & Luke 8) 2. Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13) 3. Parable of the Growing Seed (Mark 4) 4. Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matthew 13 & Mark 4) 5. Parable of the Yeast (
Have you ever considered the gentleness of Jesus? Isaiah prophesied about this very thing: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.” (Isa. 42:1-3) Jesus knows we are fragile reeds. This passage touches upon two things: first, our fragility, and second, our Savior’s gentleness. Indeed, we are the “bruised reed” mentioned in these verses. We are bruised by sin, which weakens all our faculties. We are just like that tall, limp blade of grass blowing to and fro in the wind. Scripture often compares our plight to that of a flower that is thriving one moment and dead the next. Elsewhere, Scripture describes our weak condition by saying we are “dust” (Ps. 103:14). In that same verse, however, t
In Matthew 7:1, we are called to examine our motives once again. This time it is in consideration with how we cast judgment towards others. This text specifically asks us to take the time to consider our own motives and conduct before casting judgment on someone else. Interestingly enough, most times we are more inclined to changing behaviors in others rather than changing behaviors within ourselves. Jesus’ statement is a warning against hypocritical and judgmental behavior that is usually displayed to bring shame to others while building oneself up. Personally, this is one thing that I try to keep in mind often. It is easy to want others to do better and to be better while not taking the time to consider what ways I can improve and become better. The author even mentions that “we are not to be critical or condemning but be more generous in our assumptions about other’s actions”. We are to keep this at the forefront of our minds and to leave judgment to God who is our Righteous Judge
In Ed Hindson's book Courageous Faith, he made an interesting statement when he said, "What you leave behind will tell people what you were all about." (p. 203) That made me think a lot about what people think of me. I know that my family loves me and will do whatever for me, just as we did for grandma. However, I am showing them the right path. Am I that spiritual leader that I need to be? The most important thing that I can teach all people around me is trust and love God with their hearts, minds, and souls. This is something that I need to concentrate on with my family. A godly life steps beyond worry and into the trust of God. Each time a situation causes us to fret, we should stop and remember who is in charge. If God's sovereignty rules over all the Earth, we have no reason to worry. The evidence of our faith is the absence of worry. Jesus is the mystery of Godliness. Beyond all questions, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated
I graciously thank Baker Academic for a blog review copy of the book The State of New Testament Studies by Scot McKnight and Nijay Gupta. As the field of New Testament studies continues to embellishment in the 21 st century, it is increasingly difficult for scholars to stay well-informed and up to date with the developing and new developments across the discipline. In The State of New Testament Studies, Scot McKnight and Nijay Gupta offers an understandable and comprehensive resource with contributions from new scholars and world-class experts mapping New Testament studies' landscape over the last few decades. This book is a compilation of essays exploring the current understandings of thought in New Testament scholarship, "updating" a previous work doing the same type of thing for an earlier generation. The work begins with the New Testament context: The Roman empire and women's standing in Jewish, Greco-Roman, and early Christian culture. It then explores a varie