There are two Philip’s mentioned in the New Testament. The apostle is mentioned for the last time in Acts 1:13. In Acts 6:5 we are introduced to another Philip, often called Philip the Evangelist. The Bible is filled with wonderful, great men of God. Philip the Evangelist was one of them. Consider … 1) Philip […]
Yesterday we started looking at Stephen, the first Christian Martyr. Today we continue looking at this remarkable man who stood steadfast for the Lord Jesus in the face of immense persecution. 1) People saw Stephen’s life in action. The Greek for Stephen is “crown”. He certainly seems to be crowned with God’s best gifts. Ac […]
Hundreds of thousands of Christians have been martyred because of their love and service for Jesus Christ. “In Christianity, a martyr is a person considered to have died because of their testimony for Jesus or faith in Jesus. In the early church, stories depict this often occurring through death by sawing, stoning, crucifixion, burning at […]
Christian ministry, be it full time or part time, can be very dangerous. Allow me to share two incidents with you to prove what I am saying. (1) Outside the church where I pastored for many years I saw two beaten up VW Beetle’s parked for weeks. On either side of each car at the […]
We have been discussing people refusing to hear the Truth of God from a man of God, be it the wicked king Ahab or a local church congregant. In reading through 1 Kings 22:1-28 we have seen so far that… 1) Ahab hated Micaiah because he told the truth, that 2) Jehoshaphat seems to be […]
Have you ever heard someone saying to a pastor after a Church Service … “You preached at me” or “You betrayed a confidence” or “How did you know that about me?” Some may say this in jest but some say it in anger. Mostly the preacher does not know what is going on in the […]
We have been considering the call of Elisha. It almost seemed as though he was about to reject the call because he wanted to go and “kiss my father and mother goodbye.” As we saw yesterday with Jesus, this could mean a refusal to go into ministry until the parents have died! Elisha had in […]
Some people love working, some don’t mind working and others hate working. This thing is that if you don’t work, you don’t earn money and you can’t survive. More than that, God created us to work and after the Genesis Chapter three’s fall into sin, work would be hard. Ge 3:17 To Adam he said, […]
It’s one thing to be called to be a Christian, and another thing being called into Christian service or ministry. I’m very aware that many today do not believe in “a call to Christian Ministry”. That is their prerogative, though personally I believe in a call. I had a good career, established as a family […]
Yesterday we saw that in the midst of Elijah’s weakness God provided for all his needs. That being done … we see two interactions between God and Elijah where we find him still afraid of losing his life. Coupled to this he seems not to be where God wants him to be. He also feels […]