Many people consider Philippians to be their favorite book in the New Testament. And why not! It is the epistle of joy! Perhaps more than any other book in the New Testament the words “joy” and “rejoice” occur. Interesting that Paul would write about such an attitude given his circumstances—when he wrote Philippians, he was in jail!
Pastors are prone to suffer, and that suffering comes in many ways. There are attacks from without and attacks from within. Sometimes, we get caught up in the thought that if we are faithful, nothing will ail us. This is just not true. As the hymn, "Just as I Am," says, "fightings within and fears without."
Immanuel Baptist Church has returned to the first century in our approach to reaching the world for Christ. More than 20 years ago, we began to examine the methodologies of the early expansion of the Kingdom of our Lord and found that His primary tool was local churches.
A few years ago, an extensive survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute discovered that 85% of college freshman say their goal is getting rich. That’s a 43% increase over what the typical college freshman thought 50 years ago.
Unless you are a BBQ connoisseur who has visited Ms. Helen’s BBQ, you have likely never been to Brownsville, TN. Brownsville is a rural, tight-knit community of just around 10,000 in the greater area. Yet, there are currents of change that will soon electrify this small town.
Have you ever given God the scraps of your life? Malachi 1:6-14 tells us that is exactly what some of God’s people did to him. In fact, the people were guilty of two great sins: they despised God’s name and they defiled his altar.
This statement, “God is light,” has been interpreted in different ways. First, it could be a description of the visible manifestation of God’s glory. Second, some have seen in this statement a reference to God’s self-revelation to man. Light enables us to see. Though these first two options are true, contextually this does not seem to be what John has in mind.
Every serious Christian desires to know and do the will of God. Paul says in Ephesians 5: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
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