Bible teaching, encouragement, homiletics, exegesis, etc.

Be Filled by the Spirit

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18 And do not become drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled by the Spirit, Eph. 5:18, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1

What does it mean for a Christian to be “filled” by the Holy Spirit? In my translation above the preposition “by” renders the Greek word ἐν (en), “in, with, by, among, at, on, when, to, as, for, through, while, within, of, about, into, because, during, throughout, before, under.” Why did I render it as “by” instead of “with?” As Lewis Sperry Chafer said, “It is not a matter of acquiring more of the Spirit, but rather of the Spirit of God acquiring all of the individual.” The believer who is Spirit-filled is influenced by the Spirit and nothing else, while those who are not are more influenced by the temporal. To be filled by the Spirit is to have our thoughts, desires, values, motives, goals, priorities, and all else set on spiritual things and spiritual growth. View article →

Christian Unity

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1 Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, encourage you to walk worthy of the calling by which you were called, 2 with all humility of mind and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love,  3 being eager to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. Eph. 4:1–3, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1

About the time I completed my exegetical study of Ephesians 1-2, which was titled “God’s Purpose for the Church,” we learned that my nephew Travis, who had a brain tumor removed about 4 years ago and had been declared cancer free earlier this year, had begun to have severe headaches and seizure-like symptoms again. Tests showed that he had another tumor in a different part of his brain that was growing rapidly. His surgeon was able to remove most of it and utilized some very new treatments that will, hopefully, kill it. We thank all of you for your prayers for Travis and his family as well as my sister and her family. I learned a great deal from this in the matters of grace and the working of the Spirit in the body of Christ. Genuine Christian faith is genuine Christian faith regardless of whether everyone who possesses it agrees completely on matters of religiosity or not. We do not determine that, God does. View article →

Getting “High” On God

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Courtesy of Herescope, in this well-documented article pastor Larry DeBruyn takes a look at how the “worship” experiences of megachurches act much like a drug. Add this to contemplative spirituality and you have the recipe for the growing apostasy within evangelicalism. View article →

What it Means to be God’s People

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No doubt that few have heard of Scottish preacher Eric J. Alexander, who is the former senior pastor of St. George’s Tron parish church in Glasgow, Scotland. He is the author of Prayer: A Biblical Perspective. 

Alexander’s five sermons expositing 1 Peter are exemplary in their teaching of what it means to be God’s people. View article →

Soli Deo Gloria!

In America

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While it hasn’t really crossed over into the mainstream of the visible Christian community, still there’s a fair amount of interest in a book by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn called The Harbinger.

It’s been a source of not a little unrest within the camp of discernment ministry as people like me have criticized Cahn sloppy use of Holy Scripture. Well, here in this exclusive Apprising Ministries video clip we find out that apparently through direct revelation God spoke to Cahn and told him to write it. View article →

The Throne Room of Heaven

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“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” Rev. 4:11, ESV

The natural mindset is that we thank God and praise him when he has greatly blessed us or delivered us or comforted us in some way, but a study of the Psalms or Romans 8, for example, shows us that Christians worship their God from grateful hearts even in the midst of fiery trials. While the world sees that as a paradox, we who are in Christ know from what we have been saved. Sadly, in our time, there are so many who call themselves Christians who are ignorant of the propitiatory sacrifice deliberately made by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in order that all who would believe and obey the gospel would be justified by grace alone through faith alone as God’s gift alone. God has imputed the righteousness of his Son to all those he has justified just as he imputed their unrighteousness to his account as he hung on that cross paying the penalty for their sins. This knowledge and the power given to believers as they abide in their Lord enables them to have this paradoxical world-view that the “world” cannot understand nor will it ever understand this side of Judgment Day. View article →