Matthew Shepard Act

A DAY OF REFLECTION Theme: SHARED MEAL… SHARED LIFE! I. Welcome: A grace-filled morning, everyone! Today, we continue to immerse ourselves in the abundance of God’s grace in our lives through this day of reflection. This is an opportune time for us to spend a special moment of silence, prayer and reflection with God, the Source of all goodness. God continues to share with us His infinite goodness by giving us Jesus Christ, His only Son, who selflessly share Himself with us through His…

Matthew 7, in addition to emphasizing Jesus’ strong historical/cultural message on the Mount, makes use of some very poignant and effective literary devices to enhance and emphasize the message. Jesus is the one using these literary devices, as he concludes His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus uses a variety of metaphors, personifications, and parables to illustrate his message to and to teach the crowd in a coherent way that resonates with them. In verse 15, Jesus makes the notable comparison between…

Hell is confusing. One of the greatest preachers in American history, Jonathan Edwards, proclaimed, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire” (Edwards 97). Yet, another great theologian Jürgen Moltmann stated, “In hell the trumpet signalling liberation has already been…

“The Last Supper” is in the Holy Bible in the book of Matthew chapter twenty-six verses seventeen through thirty. This particular story in the Bible has Jesus Christ preparing for the Passover meal. He directed his disciples to go into the city and tell a specific man as Jesus has requested that “The Teacher says: My time has come and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.” (Matthew 26:18). While Jesus and his twelve disciples are eating, he announces that one of the men…

Of the many words exemplified in the Bible, one word that is constantly being interpreted is “Wisdom.” The origins of Wisdom in the Bible stem from the old testament. As the books of the Bible progress, the word Wisdom takes on many different shapes. Like many words and concepts in the Old Testament (OT), the New testament uses context to provide a clearer explanation of what those terms mean. This paper will incorporate biblical references as well as scholarly commentary to define, identify…

Differences of Nouthetic and Integrative Counseling The field of psychology has been divided many times into many different schools of thought and even in Christian counseling these differences in opinion still come forth. The two sides to Christian counseling are Nouthetic/traditional counseling and Integrative counseling. Nouthetic just focuses on using the New Testament and the Old Testament together to teach people and to try and help them with any issues. Integrative counseling not only…

Matthew 24:45-51 describes the story with a servant whose master is away. The parable has two outcome; if the servant is faithful and do what he was assigned for then it is good; however, if the servant choose to disobey and “beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards” then he will be punished severely (NIV Bible, Matthew 24:49). Jesus was giving a warning for Christian underneath the actions of the servant. In the story, the master is Jesus himself, the Son of Man, but in this…

Santiago’s Sacred Struggle Many know the story of Jesus of Nazareth and are able to confirm the historical figure whether they believe in him or not. The holy story can be divided and interpreted to explain Christ 's struggle, death and resurrection for the sake of mankind. Many see the modern-day allusion to Christ’s story in Ernest Hemingway 's The Old Man and the Sea. When compared side-by-side, these plot situations may help the reader see beyond the text on the page and visualize and…

Summary Over ten chapters, Scot McKnight, in The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited, articulated the Gospel of King Jesus. In the first chapter, McKnight provided three scenarios that supported his argument, namely, that there is a need to answer the question of what is the Gospel. The next chapter distinguished a salvation culture from a Gospel culture. Unfortunately, most of evangelical churches today lean towards a salvation culture. To have a Gospel culture instead of a…

There are a significant amount of differences between John’s Gospel and the Synoptics. The Synoptics consist of the Gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke. All three Gospels have a large narrative approach. They include geographical settings, extensive numbers of characters, and a considerable amount of dialogue. They also capture Jesus as teaching generally through parables and short sequences of proclamation. John’s Gospel, however, is much more drawn out and inner-directed. John’s Gospel clarifies…