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.
Being young is like living in spring. Everything is alive and vibrant. Being old is like living in winter. Things grow dark and dim, and death is foreboding and on its way one day.
Even the godliest people need to occasionally pull over, ask some diagnostic questions, and make adjustments. In this section of Ecclesiastes we are going to pull over for a soul pit stop and have Solomon run diagnostics on our soul with nine questions to get us healed up, tuned up, and back to enjoying life with God.
Conflict happens. Whether it’s physical or digital, conflict invites others to join in on the riot, and according to Pastor James, this is just part of being sinners in a fallen world. But, he says, conflict need not be worldly—we can engage in a kind that’s godly.
Conflict happens. Whether it’s physical or digital, conflict invites others to join in on the riot, and according to Pastor James, this is just part of being sinners in a fallen world. But, he says, conflict need not be worldly—we can engage in a kind that’s godly.