Jesus teaches some parables and principles for prayer. First, our God is good, loving, gracious, and kind, so we should come to him, day or night, 24/7, and ask, seek, and knock. Second, God is a good Father and if we ask him for a good thing, we won’t get a bad thing. A good Father gives good gifts and the greatest gift is the Holy Spirit. Ask, continually, for the Holy Spirit and his help.
Prayer is simply communicating with God. Jesus is the perfect prayer, so he teaches his followers how to pray. First, Jesus teaches that God is our Father. If you want to grow in prayer, don’t focus on prayer. Get to know the Father. If you want to learn how to pray, don’t look at religious people. Look at children with a father who adores them. Through Jesus’ prayer we also learn that our Father is holy, our Father is a king, our Father is generous, our Father forgives sins, and our Father leads well. Our Father hears and answers every prayer.
Are you Mary or Martha? Mary’s contemplative; Martha’s active. Mary’s about being; Martha’s about doing. Martha thought she was going to serve Jesus the good portion, but Mary chose the good portion. Jesus is our good portion that will never be taken away. A meal is temporary, but time with Jesus is a gift that lasts forever. We live in a Martha world; we’re troubled, we’re anxious, and we’re distracted. But God built this world to be a Mary world with Martha moments. When sin entered the world, it turned into a Martha world in which we have to fight for Mary moments. The rhythm of our day is supposed to be Mary first, then Martha. Spend time with Jesus, then get stuff done. Worship like Mary, then work like Martha. Worship God before you work so that you can worship God in your work. We want Mary’s heart and Martha’s hands.
Paul teaches that the church is one unified body made up of many divers parts, each dependant on the other and equal in value.
Week 4 of a 6 week study of the spiritual gifts. This week we depart from the book of 1 Corinthians to examine the gifts of encouragement, giving, leadership, mercy, and hospitality.
Week 3 of a 6 week study of the spiritual gifts. This week we examine the gifts of apostles, teaching, helps/service, administration, and biblical counseling/pastoring.
Check out this week’s video update from Pastor Mark. Every week, readers write in sharing stories of how God is at work and prayer requests. This week, Pastor Mark shares a tragic story of suffering, loss, and prayer.
The Corinthian church leadership looked like their surrounding culture rather than leadership modeled on the suffering of Christ.
Jesus said that one day Christians would do even greater ministry than He did by the empowerment and gifting of the Holy Spirit. This gifting, however, is often misunderstood. Paul provides clear teaching on the purpose, nature, and goal of “spiritual gifts”.
The Corinthian church had turned the practice of Communion into a mockery of the Gospel by using The Lord’s Supper to partake in drunkeness and favoritism, with little or no focus on Jesus Christ Himself.
Once Paul founded the church at Corinth he left to pursue other ministry opportunities in Ephesus. Although the church was likely small, perhaps only fifty people, it quickly turned into a crisis as supposed Christians sprinted into heresy and moral sin. Some church members were so distressed that they visited Paul to notify him of the mess and seek his counsel.
As the old adage goes, you save the best for last.
This is why at a concert the biggest hit is the song that closes the show and dessert is saved for the end of a meal. The same is true in Ecclesiastes. The entire book has thus far explored the meaning of our fleeting life, and now gives us the bottom line for how to keep life aligned with God’s will.