opinions and musings

Prayer for the United States in December 2012 With the many mass shootings that have occurred this year in the United States, I believe that our spiritual enemy has released a spirit of death over the United States.  Let's pray that God would release His life and mercy into our nation to overcome the spirit of death.   The Bible says that God is able to bring victory out of tragedy and to bring life out of death.  Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. If you are a believer in Jesus as Lord I invite you to join with me in praying the following prayer over our nation to release the Life of Jesus to our nation: "Father in Jesus Name we join our faith together to declare that Life be released into our nation today.  May the Life of Jesus be released over our nation and may Life prevail in the hearts and lives of our people. "Father, turn the hearts and minds of this nation toward you in repentance and...

We have seen many people in the Body of Christ in America in recent years calling themselves apostles who do not really manifest the character, wisdom and fruit of apostolic ministry.  As we study the Scriptures, we see that apostles were men and women who have been through the fires of testing and have proven character.   They live lives of humility with a deep love for and submission to the Lord Jesus the Messiah.  In addition, they are gifted by the Holy Spirit with wisdom to help establish believers in sound doctrine and in a real relationship with Jesus.  Both the apostles Paul and Peter wrote letters to the first century churches, helping them to understand the foundational teachings about Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, and who believers are in Christ.   Neither Paul nor Peter tried to control the churches or dominate them.  They operated in real humility, servi...

What is the apostolic gospel?  I suggest it is the good news that was proclaimed by the apostles of Jesus in the first century.  The word "apostle" comes from the Greek meaning "sent one."   The apostles were the messengers chosen and sent by Jesus to proclaim the message of good news.  I received much of my inspiration for this study from Scott McKnight's excellent book, "The King Jesus Gospel." I highly recommend his book for further s tudy. We can get a glimpse into what the apostles proclaimed by reading their sermons as recorded by Luke the physician in the book of Acts in the New Testament.  According to many scholars this book was written around AD 63.  It is a companion volume to Luke’s gospel, and it describes the development of Christianity in the first 30 years of its existence.   Dr. Luke focuses on the missionary journeys of Paul and Barnabas into present day Turkey and Greece, as they carried the good news of God’s King...