The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a “then-now-then” gospel. First, there is the “then” of the past. When I embrace Christ by faith, my sins are completely forgiven, and I stand before God as righteous. There is also the “then” of the future, the promise of eternity with the Lord, free…
Here’s some background to Acts 26:1-32 which is the passage I’ll be drawing several principles from when sharing your faith: Paul receives permission to speak from King Agrippa. He informs Agrippa and the rest of the audience that he counts himself fortunate to make his defense before the king, who is acquainted with the customs and…
May 15, 2014 | By Nathan Millican In Part 1 of The Pastor as Counselor, we discussed various responses that sometimes are heard from pastors concerning counseling, as well as a couple of passages that speak to the role and responsibility biblical leaders have in coming alongside the church to help them walk with Jesus. In this…
I imagine you or someone you know has said or thought one of the following statements regarding the issue of counseling in the life of a pastor: When I signed up to be a pastor I didn’t sign up to be a counselor! I just do not have the time to counsel anyone—I’m busy enough…
It’s crucial to help kids see how the good news of Jesus influences our lives. Here are four basic categories where the good news affects our behavior: Gratitude Confidence Hope Comfort Concerning these four categories here are several discussion questions to help an individual connect their behavior to the gospel: Gratitude: What did we learn…
Change. We all look for it in the folks we minister to. We want to see people transformed by the amazing Gospel of Christ. We pour ourselves out in ministry in order to see someone’s entire world revolutionized by the grace of God. But if you’re anything like me, there are times when, in your…
The tendency of most parents, even Christian parents is to teach behaviorism, in hopes that the behavior will bring about a change in heart. The Bible tells us that not only is this the opposite of what parents are to be doing but its impossible for someone’s behavior to produce a change of heart. Hence,…
Paul David Tripp in his book Age of Opportunity, says that the goal of parenting teens is “to raise children who were once totally dependent on us to be independent, mature people who…are able to stand on their own two feet.” Additionally, parents should seek “to be used of him [God] to instill in our children…
Literally every ministry in the history of the Church has had trouble raising up good leadership. Jesus himself founded his church on twelve highly flawed men (Eph 3:20-21). And with all of our weaknesses and shortcomings we have a commission to complete (Matt 28:18-20). So the question is how do we raise up people, specifically…
Works righteousness is a deadly and false variation of godly obedience. Godly obedience is motivated by love for God and trust in his gracious plan and power. Works righteousness is motivated by unbelief; it is a reliance on our abilities and a desire to control outcomes. Works righteousness eventuates in penance: I’ll make it up…
Theology Along the Way 