Neglect In Building God's Kingdom?

To Build or Not To Build

³ Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? ⁵ Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways”    (Haggai 1: 3-5).

I have found that the Christian walk is filled with hills and valleys. There are those of us who pitch a tent after a valley event and never bother to head back up the hill. Our priorities become skewed and we lose the focus, settling for “status quo and the lazy lethargic attitude”. This is what happened to the first set of returnees. The Israelites had been exiled for over 70 years and were now in their land, having been given the challenge to return home and rebuild God’s temple (Ezra 1). After the hostility, dashed hopes - “With what are we going to rebuild? This is a huge effort! We have to fix our own living conditions too..” They took the focus off the rebuilding effort and pitched a tent in the valley of ease and contentment. They began to focus on their stuff – caught up with daily living (work, work, home, kids, fun, work, work, home kids, husband, wife, relationships).

Is my marriage before a justice of the peace legitimate?

Is my marriage before a justice of the peace legitimate?

Philosophy of Ministry

   The Way 

 (Written by Minister Kevin A. Hall)

  

God has given the church the responsibility of making disciples of every nation. Jesus’ final words to His disciples were to make more disciples – baptizing, teaching, discipling. He promised that He would be with them always, having given them the authority to fulfill this mission. The target audience of this mandate was ‘the whole world’. To accomplish this task, members of God’s church must be equipped, incarnated, then deployed. Through the ministry of the church, we evangelize, preach, teach, heal, nurture, administer, disciple, plant churches, affecting society for God’s Kingdom. 

Ministry Purpose: 

Our goal is to equip every member for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12). Submitted to the Holy Spirit, we will mobilize the Christian community to live redemptively so as to become Christ’ witnesses. We will be incarnational in execution, entering others’ world, as Christ entered our world, without compromising God’s truth, biblical convictions, our values, nor our standards. We will engage in Presence ministry, fully involved in the community through relationship building, speaking life to the dark corners of the earth, and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. 

Kim Clement prophesying about Donald Trump 2007

The LAST prophecy: FUTURE of AMERICA (2017 ~ BEYOND) a Trey Smith docum...

TRUMP ~ Ancient Prophecy Documentary of Donald Trump

No Room - Losing Focus During The Holidays

No Room!

Christmas had come – by that I mean the real meaning of this season we celebrate had arrived. The Kingdom of God showed up at the door. What door? The Inn-keeper’s door. We don’t know too much about this Inn-keeper in Scripture; only that he informed Mary (the mother of Jesus) and Joseph (Mary’s husband) that there was “No Room” at the Inn.

The most important guest (ever) to arrive at an inn (throughout all history) arrived at Bethlehem Inn only to be told by the manager “No Room”. Isn’t that the tragedy of our day? So many of us have said the same thing in one way or another “No Room for you God”. And especially during the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, commercialism, gift giving, tradition and religion has taken the place of the real meaning of the season. The order of the day in regards to Christ is “Sorry, No Room For You”. I pray this does not describe you.

Can We Engage Our World Through Christian Apologetics?

Apologetics & The Present Culture

Our generation does not embrace the Christian worldview as wholeheartedly compared to recent generations. As early as the 1960’s, Craig suggests that a contributing factor was the rise of atheist philosophers (Craig, 94). As the context of the question suggests “the atheists are striking back vigorously since the 9/11 attacks”. Apologist and author Ravi Zacharias has painted a vivid picture of the decline of our culture over the last few generation: He states that it is commonplace in our society that Christianity is attacked. “It is rampant” he says. “Unbelievers once revered the church, and its teachings, but today they scorn them. Films such as the Da Vinci Code and organizations such as The Jesus Seminar attack the credibility of Jesus and the Bible”. It is to this decline in a God-influence that Apologetics plays a very important role.

I really believe that at the heart of all this is the strategy of the enemy of God to win the hearts and minds of men, women, boys and girls. It is an attempt to suppress the reality of God and give license to all that the mind of men can conceive. The Bible states that the will of God is that men (the just) shall live by Faith (Romans 1:17). The Bible also describes the strategy of the enemy as a great exchange – God has revealed Himself to mankind, but their hearts became dark, they became fools (saying there is no God), leading to the exchanging of “the truth of God for a lie” (Romans 1: 18-25). Apologetics is needed to combat this rampant wave of attacks from the atheists, agnostics and secularists in our society who wish to silence the voice of absolute truth.

Should Christians celebrate Christmas?

Should Christians celebrate Christmas?

For My Friend Who No Longer Believes In God (Hypothetical)

I Have Lost My Faith In God!

A Letter To My Friend

Dear Lloyd,

                    How are you my friend? Hoping this letter finds you in peace today. I am so happy that you reached out to me with your concern. This is significant. Actually, this is major – a big deal! For your concern deals with life and death. Still, you’ve come a long way and I hope to encourage you on this Faith journey.

I see you have concerns about the existence of God – that you see no evidence to support your Faith. I am sorry to hear that. I pray by the end of this letter to have given you just a bit of information that may help you with the answers you seek. I know you are a reasonable person, so let’s see where the evidence leads. I know you have read the Bible before and in it you’ll find proof of God’s existence, but I’d like to address your concerns from a different angle.

Without a doubt, one of the best-known arguments for the existence of God is that of the “Moral Argument”. Over your many years of life, I am sure you realize that something inside of you differentiates between good and evil, right and wrong. This is called Objective Morals. These are “values we hold dear that guide our lives” (Craig, 172). If we start here, whether or not you agree, there are some things that are just wrong, and it is so “independent of what people think or perceive” (Craig, 173). Take robbing a store – If you decide to do this, already you know that such an act is wrong. While there are written laws on the books that punish such an act (confirming that robbing a store is wrong), your conscience will tell you “Lloyd, this is wrong”. Tied up in this Moral Argument are moral duties and moral values. Moral duties are concerned with that which is right or wrong, while moral values concern that which is good and bad (Craig, 172). During the time in which you had Faith, you surely can remember an internal compass guiding your behavior. You relied on that which was greater than you for discernment. That internal compass is God.

Here’s what philosophers call an ontological foundation in support of the existence of God through the existence of moral values: