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Fear or Faith at Work?
What’s the most challenging aspect of living out your faith at work? Some of us work at home or with other Christians, so being salt and light, and talking about our faith, come naturally. But many of us work in places where talking about Jesus and faith are discouraged. And some workplaces are downright hostile to Christians, so speaking openly could mean the end of our employment. For all of us, shining the bright light of Jesus in a very dark place can feel scary––even dangerous. The average worker faces situations and decisions every day that test the boundaries of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?). Fear is real. We’re…
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Holy Spirit Hot Spots
I just finished teaching a study of the book of Acts to a group of women at my church. I am so grateful to God for inspiring Luke to write that book, using his giftedness to write it so carefully and full of wonderful details. We approached our study of Acts not as a book of history but as the work of Jesus Christ by His Spirit through His Church. That is still continuing through today. And, we likened the work of the Holy Spirit to the firepower of a volcano. His work in the lives of individual believers is like “hot spots,” those places on earth where lava erupts…
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Dogs and Pigs
Two years ago I took an Evangelism class—a seminary graduation requirement I had put off. Rehearsing for disaster, I envisioned a mandatory assignment that would leave me covered in eggs and tomatoes. Although my hair would have shone like the sun, I would have preferred a night of thumb-hammering over having to share the gospel with strangers at a grocery store. I remembered from Systematic Theology 101 that we cannot prove that the Bible is true. Awesome. At least this frees me to believe without the pressure to convince mockers why I believe. But my eczema still wouldn’t fare well under splattered…
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Witnesses
What comes to mind when you hear “witness”? I think of ABC’s Eyewitness News and the 1985 thriller Witness starring Harrison Ford about an Amish boy who witnesses a murder (yes, I’m dating myself). Recently, however, I’ve been challenged to step up as a witness. In fact, ALL believers are called to testify as witnesses. Not in a court of law. But in our lives and through our work. Acts 1:8 proclaims Jesus Christ’s final words before ascending into heaven, and what Jesus says still applies to all believers today: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all…
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How is the Holy Spirit like a Dove?
So, why is the Holy Spirit symbolized as a dove in the Bible?
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The Full Divinity of the Holy Spirit
This year in the church calendar, the Day of Pentecost (meaning “fiftieth day”) occurs on May 20th. Annually, on the seventh Sunday after Easter, believers celebrate the occasion when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus’ disciples after His ascension into heaven (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:2, 9; 2:1–4). The outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost signified the inauguration of the new covenant. His appearance as tongue-shaped flames over each disciple’s head fulfilled what Jesus’ promised the evening before He went to the cross. Specifically, the Father and the Son would send the Spirit to abide with Jesus’ disciples forever (John 14:16–17; 16:7). Jesus referred to the Holy…
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The Glory of Business
God has created us to pursue business, but not only to provide for our needs and make a profit. His primary purpose is to experience the glory He designed for us when He gave us the life and gifts He provided for us. The problem is many of us don’t understand what God has done. We tend to think that living for God is one thing, but conducting business is another. What we miss is the fact that God is not only interested in our going to church and participating in Bible study but also in how we run our business and even more in why we run our…
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A NEW LOOK AT THE OLD BOOK
True believers read the Bible even though ancient texts with foreign cultural perspectives confuse or sometimes bore us. The younger the believer’s age the more the confusion.Nevertheless, those who believe, young and old, novice and mature alike, regularly listen to, read, and memorize Scripture passages. When we are taught to read, we first learn to recognize letters and sound out words. We quickly move on to reading comprehension, learning to retain what we read by filing it in our memory bank under various categories. The enemy of our soul wars against us. He desires that when we open God’s Word we forget those comprehension and retention lessons. He wants to…
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God’s Call
In the summer and winter of 1944, the sovereign God transformed my life from temporal and purposeless to eternal and purposeful. Here’s how He did it. During that time my name was Douglas Rice, I had no home, no father not much of a mother, and she intended to put me into a religious boys’ home when I turned five late in 1944. I have no idea where I had been for the first four plus years of my life, but that winter I and my half-brother, Donald, lived with Anna Keeler, known to us as Mother Keeler, a British immigrant and a member of the Salvation Army. Mother…
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Religious Folklore – We Do Not Get all of the Holy Spirit when Saved
Religious folklore has it that we only get part of the Holy Spirit (1) when we are saved and the rest when we have a second experience called being baptized with the Spirit.
