Tune and Prepare!

Our Spiritual Journey Teaching and learning is not a lecture.. is there a way back to the informal? This article is part of the "Vitalize" pack In the tapestry of believer's life, teaching and learning are woven threads, strongly connected yet profoundly distinct from mere lectures and rote memorization. The teachings of Jesus Christ, the process of imparting knowledge transcends the mundane, becoming a sacred endeavor. Or - rather - challenge. One way or peer to peer? The postmodern life has a one way {consumerism or entertaining} culture. You can see the model: The person who's entertaining and the Audience who listens. In other words this is the Lecture culture or TED talk culture. Unfortunately this misleads us keeping our lives, hearts in the unilateral communication which is far far away from the peer to peer developing relationship during the {original} teaching. In the ancient culture the sages , seers and prophets or the pro...

(Matt 5:1-16) by Andreas Köstenberger In his monumental Gospel, Matthew introduces Jesus as the descendant of Abraham and David, narrating his miraculous virgin conception and birth and recounting his flight to Egypt and return to Nazareth. At the inception of Jesus’ public ministry, John the Baptist cries out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (3:1). Later, when hearing of John’s arrest, Jesus begins to proclaim an identical message (4:17). Yet while John is only the forerunner, Jesus is the Messiah. At this, Jesus gathers a large following and travels far and wide “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people” (4:23). After this preamble, Matthew opens the first of five major teaching sections of Jesus in his Gospel. The number five is reminiscent of the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. Similarly, the reference to Jesus ascending a mountain brings to mind Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai when recei...

series: Our Living Word 3/3 Faith, became flesh ..in the XIX century England In this, third part of our study: "Our Living Word" series about the Incarnate Message we'll have a great story from the XIX century England. William Wilberforce 1759 - 1833 William Wilberforce, a British politician and philanthropist who from 1787 was prominent in the struggle to abolish the slave trade and then to abolish slavery itself in British overseas possessions.  He studied at St. John’s College at the University of Cambridge, where he became a close friend of the future prime minister William Pitt the Younger..  In 1780 both he and Pitt entered the House of Commons, and he soon began to support parliamentary reforms... ... Wilberforce’s abolitionism was derived in part from evangelical Christianity, to which he was converted in 1784–85. His spiritual adviser became John Newton , a former slave trader who had repented and who had been the pas...

series: Our Living Word 1/3 Word, became flesh ..but what does it mean? Dear visitor! You can read a three-part series here, called "Our Living Word" in which we will examine: The connection between word and faith The change of form of the Word The help of the Holy Spirit Walking - according to the earthly ministry of Jesus The mercy-teachings of Jesus referring to prophet Hosea's words and their two dimensions We can also see a practical example from the nineteenth-century England We know that faith comes by hearing, and it is by the Word of Gd. (Romans 10:17) Originally, this means not simply the physical hearing of the Word, but the opened "ears" of the spiritual man the way the Word speaks to him/her personally. We also know that even the lifelong persistent work of human mind cannot catch and "understand" the Word by reason alone. The Word of God, the Logos is active: being given as a prophecy, visi...