Posts tagged equip
Jesus Christ in the Old and New Testaments
Jesus Christ in the Old and New Testaments

At this time of year, the church celebrates the miraculous birth of Jesus according to the Scriptures. The miraculous birth of Jesus in a Bethlehem stable confounded many expectations of the Messiah based on contemporary Jewish interpretations of Old Testament prophecies. Jesus’ Messianic identity was still problematic to his followers even after the resurrection. Like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), we need Jesus to come alongside and “explain what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” through the Holy Spirit so that our hearts will burn again with all that He opened to them. In a short book, Hays does a really good job of showing how the Gospels do just that.

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Bruce McCallumequipComment
Equip: From Cessationism to Continuationism
Equip: From Cessationism to Continuationism

I grew up in a cessationist church.  Cessationism is the belief that the miraculous sign gifts of the Spirit ceased within the first 100 years of the church. The opposing viewpoint is continuationism which is the theological belief that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit have continued to the present day. The church I grew up in was full of gracious people and the gospel was preached.  I assumed most good churches believed in cessationism.  I heard horror stories of ridiculous preachers doing comical sign gift routines with their churches that we attributed not to the Spirit but to Satan.  I was taught that in 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 when this passage says that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will pass away when “the perfect comes” which my teachers saw as the completion of the scriptures.  

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Fred KusikequipComment
Equip: Parenting in Proverbs
Equip: Parenting in Proverbs

In our midweek Christian family night, we just completed a two-week study of parenting in the Book of Proverbs. Two proverbs often come up in discussions of parenting.  “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (ESV), is one. “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him,” (from which we get the English proverb, “Spare the rod and spoil the child”) is another. Both are found in Proverbs 22, verses 6 and 15, respectively.  Together these two proverbs form a tightly bound parenting model, but we need some context to use them profitably.  

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Bruce McCallumparenting, equip, proverbsComment
Seeing Jesus
Seeing Jesus
The book of 1 John opens with the testimony of John's personal relationship with Christ: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us...
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Pastor TommyTommy Orlando1 john, beloved, gospel, pastor tommy, equipComment