On Fulfilling the Great Commission

In Matthew 28 Jesus commissioned His disciple’s to go into all the world, preach the gospel, & teach the nations His commands & ways. In Matthew 24:14 we have a great prophetic promise & the foundation of all missions work in the earth. 1) The gospel WILL go forth to all the nations, & 2) then the End – Return of Jesus – WILL come. Mission’s experts & demographics professionals estimate that the gospel will have reached every nation with in the next 2 decades if not before. With the global trends of sin, violence & humanistic unity rising around the earth to unseen heights, how will God raise up a global mission’s movement in the earth, with more power than any other in history – John 14:12; Acts 2:17 -, to complete His global mandate in the most hostile time the earth has ever known?

Pursuing a Life Vision to Love God: John 17:26 & the Knowledge of God

Growing in the knowledge of God is ultimate means by which God has chosen to produce love in the human heart. It is through encountering God that the heart is enabled to give love back to Him. So if you are a Bible believing, blood bought, grace receiving, Holy Spirit empowered, faith expressing Christian, this marvelous truth is for you.

On loving God with the Mind

Loving God with one’s mind is a facet of His primary call to everyone. Here is a statement from John Piper, and the lad’s from Bethlehem College Seminary, giving some insight as to why the Bible is the most helpful resource to aid in loving God with all your mind.

“If God has inspired a Book as the foundation of the Christian faith, there is a massive impulse unleashed in the world to teach people how to read. And if God ordained for some of that precious, God-breathed Book to be hard to understand, then God also unleashed an impulse to teach people how to think about what they read—how to read hard things and understand them, and how to use the mind in a rigorous way. Therefore, we endeavor in all of our intellectual inquiry to love God with our minds by thinking deeply and humbly about his word and his works.” – BSC Core Values

Summary: to love God with the mind is to use it in such a way so as to evaluate, understand, embrace intellectually, and then feel intensely & appropriately what God is seeking to communicate through the truth of His word.

See – www.bethlehemcollegeandseminary.org/

God’s Vision Statement for Your Life in the New Year: Extravagant Love

When Jesus – God in the flesh, on the planet – was confronted with the question of what was the most important commandment in the heart of God for humanity, He responded with this: “You shall LOVE the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the FIRST and GREAT commandment.” – Matthew 22:37-38. The gospel of Mark adds to this that you shall love God “with all your strength” . God has one vision statement for your life in the new year and all that follow: that you love Him extravagantly. That you love Him with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind & with all your heart.

A Revelation of the Glory of God: His Name

In Exodus 33 Moses, with need & steadfastness, cried out to see the glory of God. God responded by promising to declare His name before him. (Exodus 33:18-23) Thus we find from God’s lips that the most potent, powerful & heart transforming revelation that heaven can give to the human heart, is the revelation (experiencing the truth) of who God is – His name.

In His name is contained the infinite fullness of all that He is. It is in His name that we find out His nature. When we think of God’s name we think of who & what He is like.  His name defines Him, and the definition of His name reveals to us His charachter. So to have God declare His name into history to us is significant beyond understanding. Let us stand filled with joy at the goodness of the God who makes Himself known.

In Exodus 34 God revealed His glory.

Fresh Insight During Onething: God’s love & the Main Diet of Forerunners

Forerunners are those who prepare & declare the way in the earth for the unprecedented movement’s of God in history. Before the coming of Jesus the first time around, God raised up a man named John the baptist to declare that He was coming, & who gave clarity on how to respond when He came. Before every move of God in history God has raised up men and women to declare what He was doing just ahead of time so that people could respond rightly in the hour of His actual visitation – weather in blessing or judgment. God has never left people unprepared and unready for what He has done. The entire Bible history of the earth declares this. Now at the end of the age, as we approach the 2nd coming of Jesus, His plan has not changed. God is raising up forerunners who will declare and prepare the way of His Son’s return with power, clarity, authority and love burning in the hearts to prepare people for the 2nd coming of Jesus. As He raised up forerunner’s the first time around so he is doing again – across the earth. 

Notes on Revival: God’s Mandate for the Holy Spirit in Revival

As a member of the Triune Godhead – with equal glory, power, deity, majesty & worth as the Father & Son – what do we see upon the Holy Spirit’s agenda in the Bible? The Scripture’s definition of what He is to accomplish in seasons of revival is stunning. He glorifies Jesus, reveals the deep things of God, floods the human heart with divine love, convicts of sin, heals broken bodies, minds & hearts, He testifies of the judgment to come, witness’s to the devil’s being crushed at the cross, He causes men & women (young and old) to prophesy, & He gives dreams and visions…etc. These are but a few of His glorious works.

Notes on Revival: What is Revival?

Notes on Revival: What is Revival?

Revival: it is when the Holy Spirit moves upon the hearts of men & women of all ages, to bring them into a new and increased experience of God, by applying the power of Jesus Christ’s saving work to them. In the next few posts, I’m going to look at the glorious issue and reality of revival. I want to take a historical look at what it has been, & from there, to take an introductory look at five key Biblical texts concerning the ministry & work of the Holy Spirit in the midst of His great work called “Revival”.

As history moves forward toward the greatest time frame of God’s visitation, which is clearly articulated in scripture (Joel 2:28-32…etc), we must gain an understanding of God’s heart, word, & intention in the midst of revival. The Scriptures speak of a coming revival which will see the greatest release of God’s power and glory in history just before the second coming of Jesus. It has much to say on this crucial & disruptive subject, & in order to rightly move forward into all that God has, we, the Body of Christ, MUST DELVE deeply and lovingly INTO the SCRIPTURE to see what God has laid out for our understanding and preparation for the days ahead.

The Inescapable Power of Beauty

“Beauty”: is found in something which looks good. It is found in looking at a sight or thing which takes hold and doesn’t let go till you look again; and again and again and again. It is that thing which pleases the eye and fills the soul with delight. It is a sum of parts in perfect composition and relation to each other that make a harmonious whole. In sum total, beauty is that which we deem as being worthy to look at because of it’s aesthetic perfection and the pleasure it brings as a result of our gazing upon it and the prospect of enjoying it.

Discovery in Movember: Jesus still Saving & Transforming People in Americas Largest Maximum Security Prison

A blog from DesiringGod.org

“One of the growing ministries of Desiring God is the outreach to prisoners. Those of you in the Philippian Fellowship hear about this more often than the rest of our website guests.

On Thursday a team of four of us stopped in at Angola Prison in Angola, Louisiana. Warden Burl Cain was very gracious to take us into his world, even the most painful part of it.