I received a great question on the blog today:
"How long did Saul (who became Paul) spend studying before he went out and spread the message?"
Acts 9 speaks directly to this question. After his experience with Jesus on the Damascus Road and after the 3 days of being blind, Saul spent several days being with the disciples in Damascus. It says in verse 20 "At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God."
It got me thinking. How long should we spend studying before going out to spread the message? I am a big advocate for education, but we also need to make room for the work of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, there is no better preacher than a new believer. Someone who has had a dramatic encounter with our Lord and Savior has the "At once" thing bubbling inside, exploding to get out!
Remember: People can argue with our theology, but they can never argue with our experience. What God has done in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit can be accepted or rejected by men, but it can never be changed by their opinion.
Today is the day! Are you wondering when you should answer God's call? How about now?
Be the Good News! People need to know that there is Strength for today and Bright Hope for tomorrow.
Keep loving people, and keep Chasing the Mission!
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The View
Welcome to the adventure!
The Church. Ekklesia. In the original Greek, this comes from the two words - Ek (meaning "out") and Kaleo (meaning "called"). This refers to the people of God; the called out ones; we who are formed in His image, to be His dwelling and to be bringers of His presence into a dark, desperate and dying world. It doesn't refer to a building, denomination or physical location. So when you read the word "church", think of yourself and your faith community, not that building you go to each Sunday. We have been placed here, right where we are, to "Chase the Mission" of The Great Commission.
The mission, should we choose to accept it...
GROW the saved, SAVE the lost, CARE for the downtrodden!
The mission, should we choose to accept it...
GROW the saved, SAVE the lost, CARE for the downtrodden!
Who's behind this?
- Pete
- I am a licensed minister with the Church of the Nazarene. We are on a journey to discover what it means to BE the church.
1 comment:
Great stuff here! I hope I'm responding to the right post here(4/19?)
Here's a question-and I hope more folks will chime in as my husband and I are trying to learn more about what God is showing us in this area-
What would the Church look like as missional and truly empowered by the Holy Spirit?
It seems like we can be a type of "missional"(at least as I understand missional so far) without the Holy Spirit. In fact we can (and do) accomplish a lot of "good" things without much dependence on God at all. Money, numbers of people and a common goal can accomplish a lot. And this is what our family has been struck by and struggling with lately.
I read this teaching by a pastor recently and the truth of it hit me like a ton of bricks. He was talking about how the Jesus said, "The Son can do nothing by himself.."Jn. 5:19 (And in the Greek the word nothing has a unique meaning--it means nothing, just like in English). Anyway, he goes on to talk about the distinctions of Jesus' humanity in that 1.He had no sin to separate Him from the Father and 2.He was completely dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit working through Him. Then what are the distinctions of our humanity as believers?--We are cleansed by the blood of Jesus and through His sacrifice nothing separates us from the Father. So there remains only one unsettled issue--How dependent on the Holy Spirit are we willing to live?
So when you talk about what is different today--and that not much is different in human needs--something rose up within me and cried out wanting to add "Our dependence on the Holy Spirit!--We really look different from the first church in that." I don't even understand all of what this means--more of a heart thing God is burning into us now.
Thanks for any response to my long-winded question(where's the smiley face option here???)
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