On Pentecost God Gives Us the Holy Spirit as Our Guide to Replace the Law Pentecost occurs fifty days after Resurrection Sunday (Easter). It’s a significant event in the early church. That’s when the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus’s followers in an extraordinary way. The Holy Spirit empowers team Jesus to share his good news […]
Jesus Must Return to Heaven before the Holy Spirit Can Come Ascension Day occurs forty days after Resurrection Sunday (more commonly called Easter). Here is some background. Jesus comes to earth as a man to save us. He dies on the cross as a sacrificial sin offering, dying in our place. On Easter Jesus rises […]
We Should Praise God for the Many Ways He Loves Us Love is a recurring theme in Scripture (686 verses). It shows up in most every book of the Bible (60 out of 66). The word is most common in Psalms (157 verses). Psalm 136 leads the way with 26 mentions of love, all in […]
Not Everyone Can Be a Missionary, but Everyone Can Support Missionaries We’ve talked about four places—or ways—to be a missionary for Jesus. How does the idea of a short-term mission trip fit into Jesus’s command to be his witness (Acts 1:4-8)? Or his instruction to go make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20)? It doesn’t. At best a […]
We Must Correct Some Wrong Perspectives about Our Religious Practices We’ve looked at how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament to provide a new way for us and our churches to function, replacing the temple, paid clergy, and tithes. Then we explored ten New Testament practices and five New Testament examples to inform our church behavior. […]
Make Disciples of all Nations In the oft-quoted passage that wraps up the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his followers to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). In doing so, they—and we—are to be a missionary for Jesus. We see this repeated in the book of Mark (Mark 16:15-20). In the parallel […]
Discover What the Bible Teaches About Meeting Together While considering a better New Testament approach to church, we talked about the three key perspectives that Jesus changed: meeting in homes, serving as priests, and helping those in need. Then we looked at ten more New Testament practices: relying on the Holy Spirit, worship, prayer, fasting, […]
New Format Now Available The The Victory of Jesus audiobook is now available. In addition to audiobook, it is also available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats. The audiobook is auto-narrated by Maxwell. The Victory of Jesus is a devotional to celebrate the victory of Jesus in this 50-day devotional that spans Easter to Pentecost. […]
Examine What the Early Church Did and Apply It In part one of this post we looked at the first five practices of the early church as detailed in the Bible. They relied on Holy Spirit power, they worshiped God, they spent time in prayer, they fasted, and they lived in community. Here are the […]
Instead of the Confusing Messages about Easter, Focus on Jesus Rising from the Dead On Resurrection Sunday—more commonly known as Easter—let’s place our emphasis completely on Jesus. After he died as the ultimate sin sacrifice for all humanity, he proved his power over death by rising from the dead. He is alive! Though dead for […]