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Keys to Unlocking Disciple-making Let’s consider the keys to unlocking how to be effective at making disciples. Lock and key are apt descriptions. Too often when people are converted the church does not retain them. We need to ask ourselves...

I’ve been a pastor for almost 30 years and in ministry for nearly five decades. There have been more ups than downs, but in the down-times, when stress was high, there’s one thing I never did. Quit. Dealing with selfish...

Inquisitive people win the day and show the way. Inventions happen when someone questions what others perceive as certain. Jesus and Questions Jesus asked 307 questions and was asked over 180 questions. Interesting the one who knew the most asked...

Are you effective with growing a church, winning the lost, and turning converts into disciples? If so, your effectiveness on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ did not happen by accident. You made some intentional decisions.  The concepts presented here are...

Would you rather be "loved" or "respected"? A comedian is liked. People laugh. Is he respected? Respect is earned by loving people AND treating them with merciful and kind respect. 

2020 has been difficult for the entire world. Celebrations, weddings, graduations, work, birthdays; were either postponed, or downsized.But does Christmas and the holiday season have to be a bad one? Absolutely not!

Do Christian leaders occasionally make the mistake of trying to bring people to a place of participation they are not ready for. People should be rooted in the church as well as rooted in the Word of God to be productive.

Ordinary people were able to do extraordinary things because the Spirit of God was at work in their lives.  The ministry of the Holy Spirit is not a luxury; it is an absolute necessity 

The light that shines the farthest shines the brightest at home.

Infallible proofs were provided to the apostles. By extension, I can choose to believe and accept these infallible proofs though I did not see this proof for myself.

With Jesus there was action and doctrine. A bird must have two wings in order to fly. The church must also have the two wings of “action” and “instruction.” Seek balance – “to do and teach.”  Both are necessary. To be over-balanced toward one or the other leaves the church weak.

Began . . . a word that calls for a continuation. Luke was volume one of a saga that could not be contained in one writing,. God's approach is different, the tools being employed are different, but what He started has not concluded.

Christianity is a point of departure as well as a point of arrival. The acts and words of Jesus are a beginning, a center from which to journey.

The book of Acts covers approximately thirty years. Understanding the time involved gives a sense of the time in Paul becoming a convert, a disciple, and then a student of the scripture. It helps see the development of Peter as the apostle preaching the first gospel message to the Jews and nine years later to a Gentile.

 

Acts contains an experiential theology of salvation whether dealing with those who conspired to commit murder (Acts 2); a prayerful and honest-hearted Roman military official (Acts 10), or an Ethiopian who had traveled to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 8). How to be saved is found in the book of Acts!

 

Step by step the gospel message moves from Jerusalem to Rome. The missionary effort was not easy. Persecution, personal disagreements among leaders, and people backsliding did not stop the missionary effort.

This view sees Acts as a pattern. Acts is thus like the Lord's command to Moses regarding the tabernacle. "...Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shown thee in the mount." (Exodus 25:40)

 

Acts has much divine activity. God was breaking in on people of various cultures and backgrounds. Luke was especially concerned that his readers understand this.