Archive for April, 2006

2 Kings 5:10-12 -“Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”   But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.  Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.”

“Wash yourself seven times.”  This story begins with a man who was not an Israelite. He was a Syrian, of a high position in his country. He was a general in the army of Syria, a country that Israel feared at the time.  Even so, this man was a leper. continue

1 Chronicles 28:3 - “But God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.’”

This was a prophetic word delivered to David when he wanted to build a temple for the Lord.  At the same time, it was a prophetic illustration of the Lord Jesus and his work of salvation.  Jesus established His Kingdom and provided everything for our salvation through the shedding of his own blood; then the Father sent the Holy Spirit to build the church, the living temple.  

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“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1:8

“But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”  - Matthew 3:11

There is much more to the baptism in the Holy Spirit than just power to be witnesses – that is but one small part of it. In places where the Lord’s servants work together as a Body, we see more of the emphasis given to the Holy Spirit’s work in integrating new lives into the Body of Christ, giving closer communion with the Lord, and sanctifying us through and through. On the other hand, when Christians act more like a “movement,” rather than a Body, often the focus is exclusively on the “power to be witnesses.”   continue

John 8:6 - “Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger…”

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Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Church historians usually date the death of Paul at the year 68 or 69, during Nero’s main phase of persecution against the Christians. This assumes that Paul obtained an acquittal from the charges pending against him at the end of the book of Acts, and that he made one or two subsequent missionary journeys.  Early historical writings suggest that Paul died (beheaded by the Romans) in the city of Rome, and today there is a large Catholic church supposedly built on top of Paul’s tomb.  The earliest historical writings about the death of the Apostle Paul, however, are from hundreds of years later.  No one from his generation wrote a biography of the Apostle Paul describing his death.   continue