Category: Kingdom Community

Fellowship and koinonia

rejection

The Reward Of Choosing Rejection In Our Society

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Pharoah’s daughter found the Jewish infant Moses and adopted him as her son. But when Moses grew up he chose to keep his Jewish identity rather than his Egyptian identity. Obviously, Moses’ life would have been much more prosperous and enjoyable if he had chosen to be related to the Pharaoh of Egypt. But something even better gripped his heart. He wanted to be part of the people of God. He was “choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” (Heb. 11:25, ESV) This is where Moses’ story becomes our story and guides us to Christian living in an unchristian culture. Moses believed that belonging to God and fellowshiping with His people had to be superior to belonging to Pharaoh and his people. But this was a dangerous idea. The Jewish people were oppressed and God called Moses to free Continue Reading →

poor

Jesus Came To Make Us Good News For The Poor

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It is encouraging to remember that when Jesus came to earth we find comfort for the poor from the very  beginning of his life. In her song to God when she is pregnant with the Messiah, a song we call  the Magnificat, Mary proclaims “he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Luke 1:53, ESV). We also see that at the beginning of his ministry Jesus proclaimed these words “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18 ESV) From these passages we know that the advent of blessings for the poor was an important part of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus never promised to make the poor financially rich, but he did promise something better: to fill their hearts with spiritual wealth. More importantly, he Continue Reading →

baby

Is Evangelism Hurting Your Discipleship?

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About a year ago I was at a conference that was promoted as a growth conference for Christians. One of the speakers pastored a church that was very successful at evangelism. At one point he said that occasionally someone asks him if his church produces mature believers. He responds by saying he doesn’t know if they are producing mature believers, but that‘s not his focus. I sat stunned for a few moments. It’s not often a pastor of a big church all but admits that he isn’t trying to produce disciples of Christ, but rather focus on evangelism. Doesn’t this lead to many Christians being stuck as spiritual “babies”? Of course this approach flies in the face of the many passages in the New Testament about becoming mature, growing in Christlikeness, or at least growing to the point of the maturity of an elder. God doesn’t want us to remain Continue Reading →

pitfall

The Four Biggest Pitfalls In Leadership?

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Many years ago I was attending a really good church where the Holy Spirit was present and the people were genuinely seeking God. I was especially thankful because my previous church had just collapsed due to some unresolved issues between the pastor and the elders. Everything was going well at this new church then one day I received a stunning message. The senior pastor had just left his wife and run off with the attractive worship leader, who left her husband to run off with the pastor.  The two of them had been spending a lot of time together in ministry and people on staff expressed concern but the pastor did not respond. Over the years I have observed first-hand pastors and other leaders who fall into moral failure or severely restrict their effectiveness because of four different issues. Maybe there are others that belong on this list but these Continue Reading →

holy spirit

10 Temptations of Spiritual Renewals In Your Life – Part 2

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Do you ever face these temptations when you are trying to let the Spirit guide you? Keeping ourselves open to the Spirit is essential to a complete Christian life but it comes with temptations that can gradually derail us. This continues a list of temptations that individuals and churches experience which we began last week. Bad principles of discernment. When the Holy Spirit moves people are happy and everyone wants to encourage and trust each other in what they do and say. But this causes problems especially in the area of prophecy, (i.e., speaking words from God.) The temptation is to encourage people that if they are focused on God and asking for words from God then if something comes to them then it is probably from God. I’ve been in more than one gathering where this was clearly taught. But Hebrews 5:14 states “But solid food is for the Continue Reading →