The Bold Witness

Scripture reference: Zechariah 8:11-17 The Old Testament prophets all proclaim of how God tells His people that he will bless them if they do what He wants them to do, and how He will punish them if they do what He tells them not to do. Blessings follow obedience, and punishment follows disobedience. It is God's way of assuring us that He will always keep his word, and is always just. In this passage God declares that He is going to pour out his blessings of peace and prosperity on His people as a way of displaying to the rest of the world that He is a great God. He tells His people not to be afraid or discouraged for any reason. And He instructs them to get on with the business of re-building the temple. God promises that if they do this He will bless them. Based on the idea given to us by Paul that we are the living temple of God, what does this message mean to us? It should have a physical, mental, and spiritual meaning. For, as a complete person, we are a sort of temple

According to the Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a loosing team. The number of new members has dropped again for the third year in a row. The number of new members, registered by the number of baptisms performed, was nearly 19,000 fewer in 2007 than in 2006. This in spite of the fact that they built 473 new churches. Apparently they were simply re-arranging deck chairs on a sinking ship. Up until a month ago I was a member of a SBC church in San Antonio, TX. I left it because, quite frankly, it was a dead church. I think it had was dead when it was formed simply to give its members a place to worship that was closer to the new neighborhoods they had moved to. The majority of the membership was over fifty years old, and their ideas of church were even older. There was no understanding of anyone born after 1955, and no attempt to reach out to anyone younger than the youngest deacon. The youth department had fewer than twenty active members, despite the fa

Scripture reference: 1 Corinthians 2:4-14 Paul always emphasized that what he preached was not taught to him by any man and did not come from himself. It is not man's wisdom, but a demonstration of the power of God that was revealed in Paul's teachings. And it was not with what the world considered wise and fancy words that Paul sought to persuade people to accept the gospel, but the power of the Holy Spirit that touched men's soul's and spoke to men's hearts. Paul tells us that it is the Holy Spirit that knows the secrets of the depths of God's spirit, and can reveal those secretes to the man who has accepted Jesus as Christ and has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But the man who does not have the Spirit of God in him cannot understand the wisdom of God, because it is only the Holy Spirit that can reveal it to him, not some man using man's wisdom and man's eloquent speech. This is why Paul made sure that he spoke plainly to ordinary men.

If you carefully study the book of Acts, as well as study the early history of the Church and the last years of Jewish Jerusalem, you will discover that the greatest threat to followers of Jesus were orthodox Jews. Just as the Pharisees, Scribes, and members of the Priesthood clan opposed Jesus during his life, and then persecuted his disciples (to the point of death were Stephen and James the Just were concerned) after Christ's death within the scope of Israel, they then persecuted Paul and tried to destroy the young Church in Asia. The orthodox Jews saw the young Church of the gospel of Jesus Christ as a threat to their power and favored lifestyle. Its message of equality of all in the eyes of God, and its emphasis on humility and service, was in complete opposition to the view taught and tightly held by the Jewish ruling class. As a result, the orthodox Jews sought to assure the teachings of Jesus were completely excluded from Jewish life. If you closely study the society of

Scripture references: Exodus 12:1-20, Mark 14:22-25 This is the week of Passover; the annual event during which the Jews remember and commemorate the night God performed the final miracle in Egypt which finally caused Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave. It was his final Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciples in an upper room the night he was betrayed by Judas. It is this meal from which we Christians get our ordinance we call Communion or The Lord's Supper. The important element of the Passover meal, the one which is the symbol of the Christ, the Savior, is the first born lamb without blemish of any kind. It is to be sacrificed and consumed, while wearing traveling clothes. That last part is something that is never mentioned in Communion services, but it is very important; it is of great symbolic significance for the Christian. It is something Paul understood quite clearly. First, we are not to nibble at the teachings of Christ, like a little child playing with his m

The scripture reference for this is rather long, but is really necessary. Read Judges 1:21-2:23. What God is saying here in His word is that he told the Israelites to get rid of something completely. He wanted this thing, the religion, world view and life style of the Canaanites, out of His land. He wanted the His people to have absolutely nothing to do with it. There was no single part of it that was acceptable to God. So He told His people to remove it from their lives, and have no part of it. Unfortunately for the children of Israel, they were not totally committed to and totally obedient to God. They removed some of the Canaanite contamination from the land, but let some of it remain. The Israelites had the idea that the Canaanites were not all bad. And, if they made them their slaves and controlled them it would be alright. In other words, they thought they knew better than God. Where as God had said that even having "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."

The Greek word evangelion comes from the the two Greek words eu- for "good," and angelion for "message." So the word evangelism literally means telling the good message or good news. And what is the good news? It is also know as the Gospel. The gospel is good news because it witnesses a saving message about God from God. The message that He loves all mankind so much, and wants so badly to be reconciled to man, that He presented his only Son to be a substitutionary sacrifice to pay the debt of our sins. It is a message of a full pardon from condemnation and freedom from the sentence of death that accompanies that condemnation. It is a promise of life. And not just the existence of being in this world with all its ugliness and unhappiness; but abundant life filled with a deep abiding joy and an unexplainable peace. A life filled with the Holy Spirit now, and lived with God and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, for all eternity. It is a message that we do

Yesterday the International Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Church announced the appointment of 92 missionaries. All are foreign missionaries being assigned to places like Africa. It seems Africa is the "mission field du jour." It is the mission filed of choice among people who talk about mission work. I just heard two women yesterday morning talking longingly of how wonderful it would be to be able to be a missionary to Africa. I am going to make a lot of people mad, but I am sick and tired of hearing Christians talk about Africa. I am sincerely convinced that most of the interest in Africa is the result of nothing other than ego and a desire to feel special among the general public. It is not motivated by a sincere desire to serve God, and spread the teachings of Christ; but is the result of a personal desire for the exotic, and the arrogance of proclaiming a superior religiousosity. Quite frankly, it makes me sick. I am not at all impressed. In the first t

One of the lessons we learn from the letters of Paul is the importance of supporting, encouraging, and exhorting a new convert so that they will continue in their faith after the initial bright burning fire of conversion has settled down to a glow of coals. Paul's letter's to the churches he had established always demonstrate his concern for their perseverance, his joy with their progress, and his disappointment with any back-sliding. Paul knew that he had "run in vain" if his converts became weary from persecution, were lead astray by faulty teaching, or returned to old lifestyles out of a desire for comfort or worldly lusts. He was always very concerned that they would be able to present themselves as worthy brides of Christ on the day of His return. If that were not to occur, Paul would have considered himself a failure in fulfilling the mission Christ had given to him personally. There are three stories in the Gospels of Christ bringing someone back from the d

The King James Version of the Bible translates Genesis 1:2b as, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." If we begin with the word translated as waters and work our way backwards through this verse, we end up with a less worldly and more spiritual interpretation. The word translated as waters is the ancient Hebrew word mayim . Now some of you gentlemen may be familiar with the practice of saying you have to "go make water" when you need to relieve your bladder. This may have been the motivation for the scholars translating a word that means urine, semen, piss, or waste water as waters. However, the term liquid waste or a fluid waste is actually more accurate. Now let us look at the word translated as face. This word, the ancient Hebrew paniym, is not easily translated, and can have a wide variety of implied meanings and applications. Interestingly, it can mean form, regard and was purposed. In the context of this verse, it would not

I have been doing quite a bit of exegetical Bible study recently, and I have begun to wonder just how many people really study the words of The Word. And how many ideas, beliefs and doctrines are based on incorrect definitions and interpretations of words. For words must be defined within their anthropology, their immediate context, and the greater context of the author and/or subject. Any interpretation outside this criteria, especially if it is based on supporting a particular belief or doctrine, creates a distortion of The Word. This is a problem which has lead to many of the divisions within the Church. For an example of how difficult and important a single word can be, let us look at the Greek word kaphale . The King James Version of the Bible translates this word as head. However, after Wayne Grudem looked at 2,336 uses of this word in ancient Greek writings, it has been determined that the more accurate meaning of this word is authority over. It can also mean the source

Scripture reference: Ephesians 3:2-12 Until the coming of Christ, God kept in himself, hidden from the world, a great mystery. (A truth or fact which is hidden.) This mystery was revealed the world through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ Jesus. God then called Paul to convey and explain this mystery to world through his mission to the Gentiles. "This mystery is that through the gospel (the message that Jesus is the Christ and was sacrificed and raised from the dead for the propitiation of sins) the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 3:6 NIV) The wisdom and grace of God are made clear by the existence of the church. For it is in the church that God's great mystery, the unity of Jews and Gentiles, is made manifest. The very purpose of the church, in the final analysis, is to give glory to God. The glory that flows through the Son, Christ Jesus, and the savin

Scripture Reference: Joshua 3 When It came time for the children of Israel to leave the wilderness and enter the land God had promised to their fathers, they had to cross the Jordan river. To make things worse, they had to cross the river during its flood season. The Jordan was well out of its banks; it was a wide, ragging river. For an ordinary man relying only on his own strength it would have been impossible to cross. But as Jesus tells us in Matthew 19:26b, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." (KJV) And in this case God made the crossing of the Jordan possible by his mighty power; poured out upon his children as a sign of his grace and for his glory. When it comes to us moving out of our comfort zone into the mission field God has planned for us, sometimes there are personal, psychological and spiritual rivers we must cross. And they can seem wide and deep; greater than we can traverse by our own strength of will. You may face a rive

Scripture Reference: Mark 5:40-42 Although I believe this passage is an account of a real event, I believe it is also an allegory of a couple of things we experience in our lives. One of those is the coming of Spring. During the Winter the flowering plants and trees go into a deep sleep which looks like death. They leave our lives, and we loose some of our spiritual brightness because of it. The little flowers and the green of grass and leaves on the trees are precious to us. And without them we do not feel as alive. The amount of sunlight becomes and less, the days tend to be cloudy and dark, and the nights last longer. Our days become physically dark, and our spirits become darker. The animals, birds, and flowers die off, go away, or go into a long Winter's sleep. So a little bit of us dies or goes to sleep in the Winter. We become less alive, and long for life to return. But then the Spring comes; and with it, the things that were asleep wake up and come to life. The little

The Bible gives us instructions on what a Christian is, what a Christian does, and how to successfully live the Christian life. I would like to suggest seven elements of Christian success. COMMITMENT - Luke 9:57-62; Jesus indicates that we must be completely committed to following him. We must be willing to cast off all the elements of this earthly life, including family and concern for such normal earthly things like a regular home. And once we had made the commitment which must not look back. For Jesus warns that such an individual is not fit for the kingdom of God. DEDICATION - Romans 12:1-2; Paul urges us to offer our bodies (our hands to reach out to the poor, our arms to embrace the down trodden, our lips to speak the words of God) as living sacrifices, for this is our duty of spiritual worship. BOLDNESS - Acts 5:40-42, Acts 28:31; Peter and Paul were flogged and told to stop preaching Jesus, and went right on preaching with joy that they had been counted worthy of suffering

In 1 Chronicles 29:10-19 King David offers a prayer before all the people which stands as an example of one of the finest prayers in the Bible. It's theme and tone are universal and common to all men in every age throughout time. He begins by saying that the Lord God of Israel should be blessed forever and ever. He then acknowledges that all power, glory, victory, and majesty belong to God. He declares that all that is in Earth and Heaven is God's kingdom, and God is exalted above all. King David then states that all we have is really God's because it came from Him to begin with. David acknowledges that all we have has been give to us by God. And not just the material and physical things of our life, but life itself; along with all strength and greatness of any man. Therefore, unto God we give thanks, and praise the glory of his holy name. For all is really his, and he gives of his love, grace, and bounty freely to us. And all he asks of us is that we give to him