The Sermon on the Mount (part 5)

I just returned home from teaching a session on Missiology based on the Sermon on the Mount. I have decided to continue writing on this subject. This is an amazing message because it sets in contrast the righteousness of man and the righteousness of God. The characteristics of the righteousness of God have been covered in the previous articles. Once a person encounters God

Church Bible study on choosing deacons

Last night Good News met to have a short Bible study on the characteristics of a deacon because we are in the process of choosing deacons. A church with over 100 members does not have any deacons. We elected a deacon last year but he was then ordained as a pastor to plant a church out of Good News. There was a deacon in the very beginning but he was ordained a couple of years ago to be one of the pastors of our growing church.

I would like to share the truths that we learned last night.

How is Matthew 7:21-27 lived out daily?

As I prepare to teach at our youth group next Friday night, I would like to share some truths with you about how to live out Matthew 7:21-27. The message is part of a series of supposed contradictions in the Bible. So far, we have dealt with two supposed contradictions and the implications of understanding what the Bible teaches and living by those teachings.

1. Is God a racist?
2. Did Jesus contradict the Law of Moses when He did not condemn the woman caught in adultery?
3. Three teachings learned while studying Jesus response to the woman supposedly caught in the act of adultery.

Speak the truth in Love (Sunday’s Sermon from Ephesians)

Yesterday was a great day. I really enjoy Sundays, even though as a pastor, it is not really a day off for me. I get to meet with our church members who serve the Lord on the mission field throughout the week and hear how God is at work. It is amazing to be a member and leader in a church that is active. Each Sunday I get to hear at least 2 or 3 testimonies about God’s goodness from members who are actively involved in the process of making disciples.

After hearing all of those wonderful testimonies and worshiping corporately through song, our Senior Pastor, Vasile Filat shared a great message from the Word of God with us. He has been preaching through St. Paul’s epistle to the Ephesian church and this week’s message come from one verse:

Fix your eyes upon the Lord

As you go through the daily activities of life, do you have your eyes (your heart, your focus, your perspective) fixed on the things of God or on the quickly fading things of this earth? What are you living for, to eat, drink, and be merry because you never know how much longer you have or are you living with eternity as your perspective setter? What do you spend the majority of your time focusing on, the things that are here today and gone tomorrow or the things that will last all throughout eternity. The things of this world are fading away so if you are focused on them, you and your perspective on eternity will fade away along with them.

Can one man really make a difference?

As a pastor, I enjoy sharing the Good News of the Gospel with the people around me as well as counseling believers and nonbelievers alike. As I speak with people about the difference one person can make in this world I usually end up hearing something like, “what can one person really do to make a difference in this big world of ours.”. I leave it as a statement instead of a question because from the tone of voice and body language, it is obvious that the person in making a statement instead of asking a question. I want to share about the impact that two people have had on this world by impacting the lives of many, many people.

Standing strong in the face of temptation and sin

I am preparing to teach lesson 5 from the Bible study “How to make choices you won’t regret” produced by Precept Ministries International. In order to catch us up to speed on the manual, I would like to give a quick review/overview of the previous 4 lessons.

1. The bad choices that King David made.
2. The consequences that those bad choices caused.
3. How David repented when he was confronted because of his sin.
4. The good choices that King Josiah made.

For the better part of King David’s life, he made great choices. He made a few mistakes but repented of them when he was confronted. He turned away from his sin and allowed God to work in his life. He was called “a man after My own heart” by God, Himself. If a man like David could fall in the face of temptation and sin then we need to realize that any of us may fall at any time. We need to be ready to recognize the attacks of the enemy and defeat him. Sometimes the enemy is the evil one, Satan while others times (most of the time) we are the enemy because of our sin nature. The question is, “what do I do when I am tempted?”. That is what we want to find out.

Finding our adequacy in Jesus Christ

As I prepare to lead lesson three from the study, “Lord give me a heart for You” based on II Corinthians, I would like to analyze this lesson and explain its amazingly practical truths for daily living in this article.

The apostle Paul was a great missionary, church planter, pastor, and overall leader during the early years of the Christian Church. He had to deal with a lot of stuff on a daily basis, doing things that had never been done before. He did not have a model to follow or even a manual other than the Old Testament and maybe a few of the Gospels. He was taught directly by Jesus Christ which greatly helped him but mostly he depended on the examples of the great leaders of the Old Testament. As a leader, he had to depend completely on God and not his own adequacy. He knew that in himself and his own strength he was inadequate. He explains that in Romans 7. Paul knew that he needed help and he knew exactly where to turn for that help. In order to be adequate in the Lord, there are certain things that we must do and there are certain things that God must do. We know that God will always do His part so it is up to us to do ours.

Cohabitation and Domestic violence

We hear more and more discussions these days about stopping domestic violence. There are many, many campaigns out there that want to “educate” people on the problem of domestic violence and how to stop it. The discussion is very similar to AIDS awareness discussions. They speak of the problem and offer solutions but never address the root of the problem. If you know anything about medicine then you know that if you just treat the symptoms and never get to the root of the problem then the person will never be cured, just becomes dependent on the meds that treat the symptoms. I have written on the subject of cohabitation and you can read it here.

Principles of Leadership from II Corinthians (6)

I have really enjoyed looking at II Timothy and discipleship together with II Corinthians and Biblical leadership. The two go hand in hand. If we would follow God’s Word, we would learn how to disciple others and be good leaders as we do it. You can read article number 5 here. As a recap, here is what we learned in the last article on leadership.

1. A good leader is able to forgive and he teaches his followers to do the same.
2. A good leader cares for the well being of his followers.
3. A good leader is an aroma of the knowledge of Christ everywhere he goes.
4. A good leader does not manipulate people with the Word of God.