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A Look Around the Room

As the teacher spoke, I looked around the room at those in attendance. In this rectangular room were 47 persons, male and female. The subject was something of significance in church governance but had been given little attention in the text of Scripture. Do we look beyond the text to church history for the answer? The subject is one that has become important in a modern western cultural context and had been previously addressed in church history but is not clearly addressed when looking at Scripture alone because the subject was not as important in the biblical cultural context in which the New Testament writers wrote. The subject of the class discussion is not the subject for which I am writing today. It is the significance of what I was seeing and hearing that is the subject. Not the theology that was being discussed, but the manner and persons whom discussed the theology. As I surveyed the room, I saw 47 persons, male and female. Of the 47, 5 had seminary graduate degrees, 4 male an…
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Master of Theological Studies

On March 13th, 2016 I wrote a blog that I named, “Breadth & Depth” announcing that I was beginning classes at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary working towards the Master of Theological Studies degree. I cannot tell you what a pleasure it was to take the classes and what an honor it is to have this graduate degree conferred upon me by such a God honoring, Christ exalting, and church loving Seminary.  When I began the classes I really did not know what I was getting myself into. I loved the Lord and wanted to know more about Him and His church. Along the way I learned what theological studies are and their purpose. Therefore, I would like to talk a little bit about theological studies and their purpose. Theological studies follow a fourfold pattern of text, history, truth and application.1 Text Text refers to the study of the Bible. I took five classes that were specifically biblical studies. Two Old Testament survey classes, two New Testament survey classes and a hermeneuti…
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Church History

Do you love the Scripture? How about the book of Acts? Acts is church history. The church was birthed on the Day of Pentecost and continues to this day. There is a rich and vibrant history that is the Church of Jesus Christ.   The Day of Pentecost When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4)  People often take things out of the Day of Pentecost that are not intended by the writer and others ignore what was intended. What we should take out of this is that the way God has related to man in the past has changed. Jewish people associated the outpouring of the Spirit especially with the end of…
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The Ruler of the Sea

The Ruler of the Sea
Psalms 89:9
You rule the swelling of the sea; When its waves rise, You still them.

This morning I awoke aboard a seafaring vessel. Psalm 89 was part of my morning reading plan. I read this passage while looking out over the sea and I was reminded by the fact that we control nothing. The Lord God is in control of everything; therefore, we must put all of our trust in the Lord alone, He alone can calm the waves. All that we have is a merciful-gracious gift from our heavenly Father. He created heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them. All human beings are created in His image but none of us except Jesus Christ are God.
Mark 4:39-41
And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
Many of our friends a…
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Honor Your Mother

As a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ we are in no way under the Old Covenant Law, nor are we without law but under the law of Christ. The Law of Christ is the law of love, the example of Christ, the teaching of Christ, the teaching of Christ’s apostles, and all of Scripture in light of Christ. Even though new covenant believers are not under old covenant law, all of Scripture is applicable because we can receive principles from the old covenant law.1 Such is the case with the old covenant law to honor your father and your mother. (cf.Ex.20:12) We can see this in the example of Christ with regard to His mother, the teaching of Christ about treatment of mother and father, the teaching of the apostle Paul, (cf.Eph.6:2) and in all of Scripture because it is a good principle that is applicable in the lives of new covenant believers. This morning I would like to talk about the example of Christ with regard to His mother during his crucifixion. (cf.Jn.19:25-27) In this passage Jesus comme…
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Redemption

This is what I have been thinking about today; therefore, I have written it down. God created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. All human beings are created in the image of God; therefore, all human beings are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Sin can be described in many ways, but it is essentially falling short of our created purpose. The penalty for sin is death, which occurs in three phases: 1) Spiritual death: When our first parents Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God expelled them from the garden, away from His presence; therefore, all of their children are born spiritually dead. For this reason Jesus said, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 2) Physical death: On the day that Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, God told them that life would now be difficult and at the end of their days their bodies would return to the dirt of the earth from which they were made, then …
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