Tag: in church
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Daily Devotional: Exodus 15:1-21
Moses and all of Israel sing a new song about what Yahweh has done. There are no gods like Yahweh, who actually acts and does wonders. All other gods are silent as if they do not exist. The fame of Yahweh goes out to the nations because of what He has done in Egypt. Yahweh…
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Desire Prophecy, Don’t Forbid Speaking in Tongues
Paul is writing to the local church at Corinth in order to admonish the congregation toward unity in the faith—unity through maturity. He is currently addressing the practice of spiritual gifts—particularly those of prophecy and speaking in tongues. He has admonished the local church to prioritize love, which edifies. He has also instructed the congregation…
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Wheat and Weeds Unexplained
Jesus told one parable concerning the kingdom of Heaven. His word is sown everywhere but only bears fruit when it is sown in the sower’s good soil. The fruit Jesus explicitly referred to was understanding and sound teaching. Now, Jesus tells another parable. He, again, leaves it dangling without explanation. Since Jesus will explain this…
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Prophetic Singing in God’s Church
I have mentioned before about how my ministry is nothing like what I initially planned. It seems to me that God has closed all of the doors I wanted to open for myself and opened completely different doors. This is exactly what we see playing out as we read the story of Saul’s anointing and…
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The Gospel for a New Generation
What do we say to the next generation? How do we reach the next generation? I think these are questions that every generation asks, and I think they are the wrong questions. Let me explain. I love youth ministry and I am passionate about evangelism. Within the last 100 years these questions caused much of…
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Regarding Women in Ministry, a call to the church
As the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting draws nearer, the debate about women in ministry is escalating to a ridiculous height. On one side, we see the progressive women, like Beth Moore and Joyce Meyer, calling for women to stand up and claim their rightful place in the church while seemingly ignoring any semblance…
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How Much Authority Does Satan Actually Have?
In the prelude to Jesus’ public preaching ministry, He has been led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. Tonight we will observe the third and final wilderness temptation. As we work through the text and consider Matthew’s (and Jesus’) use of the Old Testament, we will ask this…
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How Does Satan Use the Bible?
Last week, we read about the first temptation that Jesus experienced in the wilderness and we saw that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for the particular reason of being tempted, which was fitting to fulfill all righteousness (we talked about what this meant two weeks ago). This week, we will read about…
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If God’s Love is Unconditional, why are there so many conditional statements in the Old Testament?
In chapter 3 of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus revealed that before beginning His preaching ministry, it was fitting to fulfill all righteousness. This was done in His baptism by John and it would be done in the Temptations. Tonight, we arrive at the first temptation. We will spend the whole night on this one temptation and…
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Why Did Jesus Receive the Baptism of Repentance From John?
Last week, we started this section of Matthew’s Gospel that we are referring to as the prelude to Jesus’ preaching ministry. John the Baptist taught some very significant things concerning the kingdom of heaven, which was at hand. As he is teaching, Jesus comes to be baptized by him. Matthew 3:13-17 Then Jesus arrived from…