Jesus and His Dependency on the Spirit

August 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Presence

Scot McKnight recommends the volume by Hawthorne as the best work available on Jesus' relationship to the Holy Spirit. This is an important subject for Pentecostals, and Evangelicals in general, to consider. Hawthorne makes an interesting, and highly significant, distinction between "faith in Jesus" and "the faith OF Jesus." Consider this excerpt: (p. 35) "In thinking still more about the faith of Jesus as a mark of his humanness, there are also those difficult phrases - pistis lesou and pistis lesou Christou to be considered. They appear in the letters of Paul and are most frequently … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Belief, Bible, Charismatic, Christ, Faith, Holy Spirit, Pentecostal, Pentecostalism, Spirit Tagged With: , , , , Leave a Comment

Alexander Whyte on Friendship’s Power

July 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Alexander Whyte

Abraham is described in the Bible as “the friend of God” (James 2:23). This was perhaps the most intriguing title ever given to a created being. The 19th Century biblical biographer, Alexander Whyte, describes the significance of the term, in the language of his time: You may take sarza to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, flower of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain; but no [substance] opens the heart but a true friend ‑‑ a true friend to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lies upon the heart to oppress it. . . … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bible, Christ, Friendship, God, Intimacy, Relationship, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , Leave a Comment

Guns or Sons? David Brooks Frames the Debate on Meet The Press

July 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
David Brooks

While many obsess over gun control laws, the more pressing question is what we can do to better “influence” the souls that may eventually use them. On Meet The Press (NBC, July 22, 2012), NY Times political and cultural commentator David Brooks was asked by host David Gregory if the Colorado shootings may cause “some kind of national moment” to occur.  Brook’s response framed the issue clearly and poignantly. He said: … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Belief, Bible, Boomers, Busters, Church, Community, Conflict, Election, Emotions, Following, Heroes, leadership, Millennials, Parenting, Presidents, Religion, Soul, Suffering, Uncategorized, Violence, Young Men Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Newsflash: Marriage Reduces Poverty (A Brookings Study)

July 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

MARRIAGE REDUCES POVERTY? A recent study by the Brookings Institute shows that for those who graduate from high school, who get a full-time job and wait until 21 before they get married and then have their first child, the probability of becoming poor is 2%. If those factors are absent, the probability of becoming poor is 76%! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Couples, Love, Marriage Tagged With: , Leave a Comment

The Bible Appreneur: The Story of YouVersion Founder

July 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Youversion 2

  Read the story of Bobby Gruenewald, the founder of Youversion, and how this incredible Bible reading and study tool came into being.             … [Read more...]

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“Hire Introverts” – Is This Why Paul Chose Timothy?

June 22, 2012 By 1 Comment
Atlantic Monthly

The newest issue of The Atlantic Monthly (July-Aug 2012) has an excerpt from a new book by Susan Caine called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking). Here's what she says: "'Hire good people and leave them alone.' So declared William McKnight, who was 3M’s unassuming CEO during the 1930s and ’40s, and who encouraged employees to spend 15 percent of their time noodling on their own pet projects. (The policy survives to this day at 3M, and gave birth to the Post-it note, among other innovations.) … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Introverts, Work Tagged With: , 1 Comment

John Piper on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

June 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
piper(1)

John Piper (who is not a Pentecostal but a Reformed Noncessationist) says... "Now the positive thing I want to say about the moderate Pentecostal teaching (represented by the Bennets, i.e., Dennis & Rita) is that it is right to stress the experiential reality of receiving the Spirit. When you read the New Testament honestly, you can't help but get the impression of a big difference from a lot of contemporary Christian experience. For them the Holy Spirit was a fact of experience... I think that being baptized with the Holy Spirit (the way Luke means it) is not the same as being born … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Belief, Charismatic, Holy Spirit, Pentecostal, Pentecostalism, Pneumatology, Power, Spirit Tagged With: , , , , , , Leave a Comment

What “Following Jesus” Is … and Is Not. – Eugene Peterson

June 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
eugene-peterson

“I like the prayer of Thomas – ‘my Lord and my God.’ ...This prayer keeps us ready for surprises; it keeps us alert to Jesus who rules our lives as Lord and commands our worship as God.  Following Jesus is not a skill we acquire so that we can be useful to the Kingdom and it’s not a privilege that we’re let into so that the Kingdom can be useful to us. It’s obedience – 'my Lord' – and it’s worship – 'my God.' No matter how much we know, we don’t know enough to know what Jesus is going to do next. And no matter how familiar we are with the traditions and customs and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christ, Discipleship, Following, leadership, Uncategorized, Worship Tagged With: , , , , , Leave a Comment

The Emotional Jesus: His Ups & Downs

June 15, 2012 By 2 Comments
Jesus wept

(From The Presence & The Power by Gerald Hawthorne, Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1991) “The Gospels … stress the fact that Jesus was indeed a human being simply by recording that he, too, experienced those things – little and big – that go into making up human existence, such as paying taxes, heartily eating and drinking, climbing into fishing boats, and so on (see Matt. 17:24-26; 11:19; 9:1). They note that he was hungry, thirsty, and weary (Matt. 21:18; Luke 4:2; John 4:6-8), in fact, so weary that he was able to fall sound asleep in the cramped quarters of a small boat in a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christ, Emotions, Jesus, Journey, joy, Suffering Tagged With: , , , , 2 Comments

How Many Bible Chapters a Day? – A Quote

June 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“Some people like to read so many [Bible] chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart!” — Pope Benedict XVI … [Read more...]

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