Baptism with the Holy Spirit

Summary Kent and Barbara Hughes recorded their insights concerning their ministry experience in their book, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome. In its first chapter, Kent Hughes revealed his calling and passion to preach. He discussed his early beginning in preaching. After completing his studies, helping a church, the church he helped decided to have him be the founding pastor of a church, and at first, everything seemed to be great. However, he wrote, “Our church was shrinking,…

Socrates – Ancient Philosopher or Christian Prophet? Ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, has been labelled by some Church fathers a “Christian” despite living four centuries before Jesus Christ. This was often attributed to Socrates’ proposal of multiple philosophical opinions that are reflected in the theological framework of Christianity. Still, the rationale of Socrates as a “pre-Christian saint” is challenged by many early Christian Church fathers. Vassilios Adrahtas appraises the…

The book Love Kindness which was written by Barry H. Corey explains how many Christians have lost a key value which is kindness in daily life. Corey is currently the president of Biola University in California and introduces many stories during his time at Biola. Throughout the whole book Corey presents real stories and people to change the hearts of the people that pick up and read this book. Along with the stories there came a lesson to be learned and a bible verse to show how kindness is a…

David Call’s The Crucifixion of Sign Language is particularly striking to me because of its integration of an eminent religious symbol with sign language to convey a thought-provoking message¬– sacrifice and tolerance. The overall tone of the piece is assembled upon suffering and sacrifices that the Deaf community had to endured during the period of sign language oppression. Needless to say, there are countless negative implications as a result of the Milan Conference in 1880, but I believe that…

In Exodus, God commands us to use the Ten Commandments. We are to use the commandments in our everyday lives; to live like Jesus did on earth. The Ten Commandments are not the only thing that leads us to a godly life. We must obey God’s word with the Ten Commandments, but we must also do spiritual acts that reflect our faith in God. As a church and as an individual, God expects us to use these sacraments as another way to live a life like Jesus. Three things that define a sacrament, according to…

What does it mean to have faith that moves mountains? This phrase is found throughout the bible, particularly in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Thomas. When we study this phrase, we can see that when we focus on our problems God looks small, but when we center our attention on God the problems look small. When we turn to Jesus, he takes the weight of our burdens in order to heal us. In the Gospel of Matthew, 17:14-20, Jesus heals a boy who is possessed by a demon after his disciples failed to…

Timothy Witmer (2010)—author of The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding in Your Church—says that servant leaders who act as shepherd leaders carry out multiple responsibilities. This study proposes the following responsibilities of K.E.E.P., which includes knowing, empowering, equipping, and protecting (Witmer 2010). Essentially, these four roles are a combination of servant leadership and agape love working together. However, Frederick Taylor (1915, 9)—author of The Principles of…

be satisfied by God as Psalm 90:14 says “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” The first four beatitudes are concerned with waiting, as G.E.P. Cox, (. Cox ,G.E.P ,1952) says, the poor in spirit, the mournful, the meek, the hungry and thirsty are waiting for the promise of the kingdom of heaven to come true for them. Or as , Herschel H. Hobbs says, these four are “the essence of the Christian character” ( Hobbs, H. H., 1961, p. 36). The…

Shepherding Model The role of a shepherd is identified as that of caring, courage and guidance. The qualities of a shepherd are knowing, leading, vulnerability, serving the flock welcoming, cooperating, and equipping. (Petersen, 2007) The call for leaders in the ecclesiastical community to pursue the shepherd-leader model for the advance and the effectiveness of the mission of God. (Resane, 2014) Shepherd have the need to feed God people. A shepherd’s way of thinking is essential to leading…

Restore Israel: Because We Are Thy Vine In verse 7 the psalmist cried, “Turn us again,” this is emphasize of this psalm. Psalmist repeated 3 times this sentence in verse 3, 7, and 19. But also psalmist used different sentence to describe the prayer for restoration of Israel, “Quicken Us-verse 18,” the restoration brings to revive of Israel. In verse 3 and 4 psalmist called God, “God and LORD God of host,” reminder that God Almighty, He is also the God who made a covenant with Israel (LORD). In…