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Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2019 19:16:23 GMT -6
Study Begins: June 16, 2019
Discussion Begins: June 23, 2019
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John R
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Post by John R on Jun 17, 2019 11:22:54 GMT -6
We lose sight, in our modern "scientific," mind-set, of the supernatural story that is being played out in an unseen realm. Starting with the Holy Spirit calling Saul and Barnabas to the mission field to this episode with the magician, the proconsul, and Paul. There is a spiritual battle in an unseen realm fighting against the Lord and his angels. Paul knew this, and he called out the demonic forces opposing the gospel. Working through a willing participant (a false profit) the demonic realm (son's of the devil) pushed back against the gospel from being proclaimed to the Roman "official." But God, through Paul, took authority and struck this devil's servant blind! Oh that we could have such faith!
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John R
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Post by John R on Jun 17, 2019 11:44:32 GMT -6
After giving the temple goers a history lesson and then the gospel, Paul and Barnabas left the people (not the priests) begging for more! The Holy Spirit was moving in the congregation and "the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord."
God prepares hearts and hardens others to hear the gospel.
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John R
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Post by John R on Jun 17, 2019 11:54:20 GMT -6
Pride and jealously blinded the Jewish (assume leadership) against the gospel, as God knew it would. The plan was on track and now the focus shifted to the Gentiles. "I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." (Isa 49:6) This was not lost on the religious establishment and was an encouragement to those Gentiles who did not know the ways of the Jews.
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John R
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Post by John R on Jun 17, 2019 11:57:12 GMT -6
The religious establishment and the so called "leaders of the city," join forces to drive out the gospel. How difficult it is for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle!"
Blessings! John
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JB
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Post by JB on Jun 24, 2019 7:23:30 GMT -6
We lose sight, in our modern "scientific," mind-set, of the supernatural story that is being played out in an unseen realm. Starting with the Holy Spirit calling Saul and Barnabas to the mission field to this episode with the magician, the proconsul, and Paul. There is a spiritual battle in an unseen realm fighting against the Lord and his angels. Paul knew this, and he called out the demonic forces opposing the gospel. Working through a willing participant (a false profit) the demonic realm (son's of the devil) pushed back against the gospel from being proclaimed to the Roman "official." But God, through Paul, took authority and struck this devil's servant blind! Oh that we could have such faith! I would love to return to the days when there was a clear, visible distinction between those who love the gospel and those who oppose it. Here and numerous times in the New Testament, opponents of grace are overt and identifiable. The story of these verses plainly shows a seeker of the gospel (the Proconsul) and an enemy of the gospel (Bar-Jesus, the magician) standing side-by-side. Who seeks and who opposes is evident. Satan again thought he could overcome the power of grace after desire for it had embedded itself in the heart of a sinner, but again he was quite wrong. As a result, the magician "became blind" (v.11) and the seeker "saw" (v.12). Satan is the god or blindness and darkness. YHWH is the God of sight and light. |
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JB
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Post by JB on Jun 24, 2019 9:08:18 GMT -6
After giving the temple goers a history lesson and then the gospel, Paul and Barnabas left the people (not the priests) begging for more! The Holy Spirit was moving in the congregation and "the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord."
God prepares hearts and hardens others to hear the gospel.
Imagine what this would be like at your own church. - Your preacher preaches a sermon
- That sermon results in the break up of a local worship establishment that doesn't honor Christ
- The people beg to hear more
- A follow-up meeting is scheduled for next week
- Next week, the entire city shows up to hear the gospel!
Question: If it happened then, what prevents it from happening now? What are the key differences? |
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JB
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Post by JB on Jun 24, 2019 9:17:14 GMT -6
Pride and jealously blinded the Jewish (assume leadership) against the gospel, as God knew it would. The plan was on track and now the focus shifted to the Gentiles. "I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth"(Isaiah 49:6). This was not lost on the religious establishment and was an encouragement to those Gentiles who did not know the ways of the Jews. The children of Abraham were always supposed to have been evangelistic. 800 years before Christ, God said to the Jews through Isaiah, “ You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6). But they failed at it. They became internally-focused, prideful, and exclusive. |
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JB
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Post by JB on Jun 24, 2019 13:56:41 GMT -6
1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
It didn't jump out at me until just now that the Holy Spirit in some way communicated the orders in v.2 to "prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul" all at the same time!
I wish more detail were given... was this audible? Did He speak inside each of them? Did He develop the same conviction inside each of them and then they realized it as they discussed it?
My inquiring mind wants to know, but that detail is evidently not as important as it feels like it would be since the Holy Spirit left that out of the scriptures.
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Eric B
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Post by Eric B on Jun 24, 2019 22:23:23 GMT -6
After giving the temple goers a history lesson and then the gospel, Paul and Barnabas left the people (not the priests) begging for more! The Holy Spirit was moving in the congregation and "the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord."
God prepares hearts and hardens others to hear the gospel.
Imagine what this would be like at your own church. - Your preacher preaches a sermon
- That sermon results in the break up of a local worship establishment that doesn't honor Christ
- The people beg to hear more
- A follow-up meeting is scheduled for next week
- Next week, the entire city shows up to hear the gospel!
Question: If it happened then, what prevents it from happening now? What are the key differences? Jb,
That is a good question. I think this still may happen in parts of the world, more so with smaller villages. But, a key hindrance is a lack of faith. In Mark 11:23-24 it states, "“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you."
This is a mountain for many believers. I generally hear that God no longer works this way and I hear this often from ones who are content with the way things are. The difference between the two sides is clear. One side would pray that it happens and the other would reminisce of what it must have been like.
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John R
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Post by John R on Jun 26, 2019 4:24:09 GMT -6
In response JB I would first agree with Eric that faith is weak in many these days, but what I hear from the sermons that come out of many of the North American Mega church pulpits and pastors is not a Jesus-centered message of his saving mercy and grace. What I hear instead is a "me-centered," "what can God do for me message?"
I believe it was Alaister Begg who referred to this phenomenon as God the "Cosmic Genie," who can be summoned when the believer wants something from him. Our boldness for the ways of God his commandments and their erosion are obvious in our rapidly decaying world. Our prayers lives are virtually non-existent and there is no repentance and true brokenness displayed over sin. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Jesus warns in the letter to the church at Ephesus that they have lost their first love and forgotten how far they had fallen and how His sacrifice on the cross was in essence taken for granted. (Rev 2: 1-5).
Christian men are weak, the church has been "feminized." Churches are a "how does it feel ?" place rather than a "what does the bible say?" place. I heard recently from a fellow believer that he worked for a long time to share the gospel with a close friend. The relationship was strong and when the time was right, this believer shared the gospel. He said, the reaction was surprising and quite disturbing. The person (a man) heard the gospel and said, I want to believe and become a Christian, but "I don't want to lose my balls!" This person saw a Church that had no power, lead by men without backbone, and women who had over "sensitized" it. He is right. American and European Christianity have virtually no effect on the morality of culture and the individual believer.
We have fallen a long way from the days of the book of Acts. Its time to get out the mirror to our souls (the Word of God) and examine ourselves to see if we really believe what we claim.
Blessings!
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elacey
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Post by elacey on Jun 26, 2019 6:47:38 GMT -6
After giving the temple goers a history lesson and then the gospel, Paul and Barnabas left the people (not the priests) begging for more! The Holy Spirit was moving in the congregation and "the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord."
God prepares hearts and hardens others to hear the gospel.
Imagine what this would be like at your own church. - Your preacher preaches a sermon
- That sermon results in the break up of a local worship establishment that doesn't honor Christ
- The people beg to hear more
- A follow-up meeting is scheduled for next week
- Next week, the entire city shows up to hear the gospel!
Question: If it happened then, what prevents it from happening now? What are the key differences? What is preventing... Our states of conciousness are clearly different in this modern world. Its possible that there are some things present in our modern day life that break the connection to nature and the spiritual realm. Or maybe a better verb is "insulate". I think about sleep and dreaming and how that might be different today. Sleep and dreaming still remains a mystery to science for the most part. Electric heating and cooling Electric light Because of these two things our bodies are disconnected from the light and temperature changes from sunrise to sunset. The rise of the sun brings light and warmth. The setting of the sun brings dark and cold. If our bodies were more connected to this we would sleep in a deeper and more consistent and healthy way theoretically. If we slept deeper, then we might dream "deeper". Our mind would theoretically be more attuned to the spiritual and less to the material. Electronic screens have a similar effect. Not only are we insulated from nature but also from people. |
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JB
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Post by JB on Jun 26, 2019 6:53:16 GMT -6
In response JB I would first agree with Eric that faith is weak in many these days, but what I hear from the sermons that come out of many of the North American Mega church pulpits and pastors is not a Jesus-centered message of his saving mercy and grace. What I hear instead is a "me-centered," "what can God do for me message?"
I believe it was Alaister Begg who referred to this phenomenon as God the "Cosmic Genie," who can be summoned when the believer wants something from him. Our boldness for the ways of God his commandments and their erosion are obvious in our rapidly decaying world. Our prayers lives are virtually non-existent and there is no repentance and true brokenness displayed over sin. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Jesus warns in the letter to the church at Ephesus that they have lost their first love and forgotten how far they had fallen and how His sacrifice on the cross was in essence taken for granted. (Rev 2: 1-5).
Christian men are weak, the church has been "feminized." Churches are a "how does it feel ?" place rather than a "what does the bible say?" place. I heard recently from a fellow believer that he worked for a long time to share the gospel with a close friend. The relationship was strong and when the time was right, this believer shared the gospel. He said, the reaction was surprising and quite disturbing. The person (a man) heard the gospel and said, I want to believe and become a Christian, but "I don't want to lose my balls!" This person saw a Church that had no power, lead by men without backbone, and women who had over "sensitized" it. He is right. American and European Christianity have virtually no effect on the morality of culture and the individual believer.
We have fallen a long way from the days of the book of Acts. Its time to get out the mirror to our souls (the Word of God) and examine ourselves to see if we really believe what we claim.
Blessings!
The type of preaching you are describing is throughout the Bible. Read the direct, hard-hitting sermons of the prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, and others. Read the numerous examples of Jesus' messages to the people. Read the examples of convicting, direct preaching all through Acts. It wasn't even just back in the biblical times. Calvin, Luther, Wesley, Jonathan Edward, DL Moody, Alexander Campbell, David Lipscomb, and so many others in pre-modern times spoke the truth directly, without compromise, in a way that was offensive because, as the NLT translates Paul's words, " Dear brothers and sisters... if I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended."(Galatians 5:11) |
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Post by Admin on Jun 26, 2019 7:20:37 GMT -6
Imagine what this would be like at your own church. - Your preacher preaches a sermon
- That sermon results in the break up of a local worship establishment that doesn't honor Christ
- The people beg to hear more
- A follow-up meeting is scheduled for next week
- Next week, the entire city shows up to hear the gospel!
Question: If it happened then, what prevents it from happening now? What are the key differences? What is preventing... Our states of conciousness are clearly different in this modern world. Its possible that there are some things present in our modern day life that break the connection to nature and the spiritual realm. Or maybe a better verb is "insulate". I think about sleep and dreaming and how that might be different today. Sleep and dreaming still remains a mystery to science for the most part. Electric heating and cooling Electric light Because of these two things our bodies are disconnected from the light and temperature changes from sunrise to sunset. The rise of the sun brings light and warmth. The setting of the sun brings dark and cold. If our bodies were more connected to this we would sleep in a deeper and more consistent and healthy way theoretically. If we slept deeper, then we might dream "deeper". Our mind would theoretically be more attuned to the spiritual and less to the material. Electronic screens have a similar effect. Not only are we insulated from nature but also from people. Eric - Interesting observations. So our electronics potentially interfere with our communion with God?
That idea brings to mind a conversation I had with an Amish man - Jake - who is a personal friend and the owner of a local store.
I asked him about clocks - how do Amish keep time? How do they wake up at a certain time of day to get to work?
Jake said that (1) Many Amish do use wind-up clocks, but (2) The more conservative Amish simply know what time it is and wake-up and go to sleep at standard times without clocks of any sort. In other words, their bodies and minds can distinguish 2:30pm from 3:00pm, and they can wake up at 5:00am on their own.
This supports the idea of us being out of sync with nature and perhaps out of sync with God for similar reasons.
[On a somewhat humorous side-note, Jake said "the Amish liberals just look at their cell phones, which they charge at their English friends' houses."]
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elacey
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Post by elacey on Jun 26, 2019 7:40:01 GMT -6
Another obvious one is medications.
I have diabetes 2 - insulin resistant. Best I can tell, luckily the old school meds I take don't seem to interfere (probably help). Metformin at bedtime slows liver production of glucose overnight. Insulin very small dose. Still I'm doing my level best to reverse my condition in every means possible. Training for a marathon this year... Chicago.
I think diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol meds seem helpful and probably not disconnecting or insulating... but it seems like a new more complex drug just keeps coming to surface for these conditions and we are not told about all the potential ramifications.
How many people do you know who are taking meds for...
...nerve pain.
...anxiety or depression
...sleep disorders
I also feel like Social Media is having a profound impact on society... in how we view life on this earth.
Also video gaming on youth.
Lots of modern world insulators... the list could go on.
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JB
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Post by JB on Jul 6, 2019 2:59:11 GMT -6
My comments here will focus on a single statement in a single controversial verse: Acts 13:48. I don't expect everyone will be interested in this because it gets pretty technical. However, Acts 13:48 is the key verse that separates those who believe in predestination (aka, Calvinism) and those who believe in free will (aka, Armenianism) when it comes to salvation. Michael and others who have studied Greek, please chime in!In Acts 13:48, Paul turned his back on the stubborn Jews and focused his attention on the Gentiles. The Gentiles were overjoyed at this and “ as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” ( Acts 13:48, ESV). Much has been written about whether Acts 13:48 teaches that God decided ahead of time that some people would have an opportunity to be saved and others wouldn’t (Calvinism). Admittedly, the way that verse is usually translated as it is here, it looks like people have no choice in the matter. God decides some will be saved and He decides others will not, and that’s that. Though I’m arguing with many great minds and people of great faith over the centuries, I do not believe that viewpoint is biblical. The Father, Son, or Holy Spirit offering me a shot at eternal life - but not offering that to others - contradicts the God of the Bible starting in Genesis 1. Christ died to give everyone an opportunity to be saved. He is “ not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” ( 2 Peter 3:9). I will try to write clearly here, but it will get a little complex… Biblical Greek verbs are written in one of three possible “voices”: Active, Middle, and Passive. Those can be broken down further, but here we only care about two variants: Active Voice and Middle Reflexive Voice. In English: - “Johnny hit” is Active. Johnny did something.
- “Johnny was hit” is Middle Reflexive. Something was done to Johnny.
You can see there's a vast difference in meaning between hose. In Acts 13:48, - “As many as chose eternal life believed” is an active voice. They chose eternal life.
- “As many as were chosen for eternal life believed” is a middle reflective voice. Someone chose eternal life for them.
The voice completely changes the meaning. So which Greek voice is used in Acts 13:48? Here’s the problem: For the verb tasso (“choose”) in Acts 13:48, the Active and the Middle Reflexive are spelled exactly the same way! The spelling of this particular word doesn’t answer our question! The only way to know which meaning Luke intended is to see which more aligns with the rest of scripture. People being responsible for their own response to the gospel best aligns with the rest of what I know of the Bible’s message. Side Note: For those who know a little Greek, the form of the word τάσσω used in this verse is τεταγμένοι. It can be either active (“those who chose”) or middle reflexive (“those who were chosen”). |
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Eric B
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Post by Eric B on Jul 6, 2019 14:00:34 GMT -6
Jb,
One verse that comes to mind in all this is Acts 13:46, "And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles."
If predestination were true, what necessity would there be, that the word of God should first be preached to them? |
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JB
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Post by JB on Jul 6, 2019 16:47:34 GMT -6
Jb,
One verse that comes to mind in all this is Acts 13:46, "And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles."
If predestination were true, what necessity would there be, that the word of God should first be preached to them?
That is an important point, Eric. Likewise, that text suggests strongly that they had an opportunity (to choose to accept it rather than to repudiate it. |
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