Doctrine

How Much Yeast Have You Been Eating?

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

Matthew 13:33
Jesus spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.”

This is one of Jesus’ many “Kingdom parables” where He compares the Kingdom of God to something else in order to relate truth about how His Kingdom operates. And at first glance, this parable could be interpreted as God’s Kingdom positively affecting the world around it. However, I think if we dig a little deeper we’ll find something different.

In this parable Jesus used the Old Testament understanding of leaven along with an example from his culture to relate a truth about the Kingdom of God.

So what does the Old Testament (and parts of the New Testament) say about leaven? Well, according to the following passages, it is consistently shown in Scripture as exemplifying the presence of impurity or evil.

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I second that!

~ Joe ~ 2 Comments

Floating Axhead has a wonderful article called The Wal-Mart Way which does a great job of explaining how the modern church has tried to market itself and failed. The article mentions Wal-Mart’s new slogan of “Save Money. Live Better.” and compares it to the slogan of “Find God. Live Better.” that so many churches have slowly adopted. I fully agree with the article and appreciate Floating Axhead’s candidness on the topic.

Here are some of my thoughts.

Sam Walton may be right in saying, “There’s only one boss. The customer.” but that’s not how the church, the Body of Christ is organized and operated. The customer mindset may be fine for business but it’s not for church. In fact, I believe one of the biggest problems with church today is that people have brought the customer mindset into it. We believe that we are customers and the church is there to entertain us! And when you think about it, it kind of makes sense. People drive up and park there cars in large parking lots, walk into the building (which very rarely has a cross on it anymore), are greeted with warm hands and smiling faces, find a cushioned seat somewhere in the auditorium, and then…the music begins! They’ll have people welcome them from the platform and hand out “up coming events” literature to them. There will be musical numbers sung by the choir and soloists, and eventually, the main attraction — an eloquently delivered message from the minister. This whole time the “customer” has had to put forth no effort except for maybe dropping some money in the offering plate as it passes by. And many of them will only drop in as much as they think the show is worth!

Is this a picture of every church. Absolutely NOT!!! Is it a picture of your church? I hope not. But I know it is for many people.

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The Action Gifts of the Spirit

~ Joe ~ 2 Comments

This is part 4 of a 4 part study on the gifts of the Spirit.

The other sections are…

The three action gifts are grouped together because by them the Holy Spirit produces something through the recipient.

Faith

Greek: pistis (pÄ“’-stÄ“s) – a conviction of the truth of anything especially when relating to God, Christ, and the divine; belief.

Defined: The gift of faith is a supernatural gift by the Spirit of God enabling a recipient to supernaturally, and against all odds, believe and trust in God for anything.

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The Spoken Gifts of the Spirit

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

This is part 3 of a 4 part study on the gifts of the Spirit.

The other sections are…

The three speaking gifts are grouped together because by them the Holy Spirit delivers a divine message through the recipient.

Unlike the revealing gifts which deliver a divine message to a passive recipient, the recipient of a spoken gift must be willing to speak the message in order for it to be delivered.

Prophecy

Greek: prophÄ“teia (pro-fā-tā’-ä) – a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things hidden; especially by foretelling future events.

Defined: The gift of prophecy is a supernatural utterance in a known language given by the Spirit of God which provides strengthening, encouragement, and comfort to believers and/or foretells future events pertaining especially to the kingdom of God.

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The Revealing Gifts of the Spirit

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

This is part 2 of a 4 part study on the gifts of the Spirit.

The other sections are…

The three revealing gifts are grouped together because they make known to the recipient of the gift something they had previously not known, a divine revelation.

Unlike the spoken gifts, the revelation that comes through the revealing gifts is usually not given through the recipient’s own mouth. Revealing gifts also do not require the participation of the recipient as do the spoken gifts; the Holy Spirit simply gives the revelation to the recipient whenever He sees fit.

Unlike the action gifts, the revelation that comes through the revealing gifts does not do anything on its own. The recipient must act on the revelation in order to apply it.

Message of Wisdom

Greek: sophia – wisdom, broad and full of intelligence; used of the knowledge of very diverse matters

Defined: The message of wisdom is a supernatural revelation given by the Spirit of God which provides insight into the mind of God, His purposes, direction, and will.

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Concerning Spiritual Gifts

~ Joe ~ 2 Comments

Paul starts his twelfth chapter in 1 Corinthians by saying he doesn’t want us to be ignorant about spiritual gifts. This can mean two different things: 1) we may simply not know anything about these gifts of the Spirit and are therefore ignorant about them. Or 2) as in the case of the Corinthian church, we may have the gifts of the Spirit operating abundantly in our lives and think we know all there is to know about them, but in reality, we know very little about their true purpose, value, and use.

So let’s not be ignorant but instead let’s take a closer look at these nine gifts of the Holy Spirit.

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