My New Favorite Book - Haggai

Haggai - Encouragement for the Journey

I have to say, the Book of Haggai has become my new favorite of the Old Testament. Just conducted a study of the book - only two chapters. Short, but packed with so much encouragement for the Christian walk. Haggai is used by God to whip the people back into priority. Just a few initial thoughts from study:

• This book encourages us to “Consider ourselves” (1:5)
• Reminds me that there’s always a remnant who are committed to God despite the current state of world affairs
• Just as the temple of God was paramount to worship, so too is the maintaining of our spiritual and physical temple in this day
• The people were not blessed because of disobedience and selfishness. Divine judgment was also tied to their actions…the same applies to us today (Deut. 28)
• God will accomplish His work (Hag. 2: 4-5; Zech. 4:6)
• Association with the wrong crowd can bring spiritual defilement (Hag. 2:10-19)
• The Christian walk is one that requires commitment – this can lead to blessings

There will be an extensive study of this chapter to come. I am so excited about this one!

Blessings!

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

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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?