Early in my ministry, I made a conscious commitment to biblical preaching. My first priority has always been to answer the ques- tion, "What does this passage mean?" After I've explained as clearly and accurately as possible the meaning of God's Word, then I exhort people to obey and apply it to their own lives. The Bible speaks for itself to the human heart; it is not my role as a preacher to try to tailor the message. That's why I preach my way through entire books of the Bible, dealing carefully with each verse and phrase--even though that occasionally means spending time in passages that don't readily lend themselves to anecdotal or motivational messages.
I didn’t mind as long as I was going. My beliefs are strong about God. A lot of my beliefs are from my dad’s parents. My grandmother always told me that I had to go to church if I ever wanted to get married in a Catholic church. She said you can’t fake your way through it.
Good News Preaching: Offering the Gospel in Every Sermon by Gennifer B. Brooks presents the challenge of presenting “good news” in every sermon. Brooks emphatically begins the book with the statement that the sermon is good news. This statement of sermonic good news brought to memory messages that I have heard that seemed to be void of good news on any level. I was as well mindful that since accepting God’s call to preach five years ago, I have often been reminded and encouraged to preach Jesus, to preach good news. Brooks’ easy to read and understand discussion of the importance of naming good news in the sermon is immensely helpful.
Is there life after death? What should I and what can I do about guilt? How can I deal with my inner pain?” The answers to these questions are usually formed by a person’s upbringing, religion, and environment. My worldview was formed mostly because of my family and my church. I grew up in a Christian home and knew from the start that I was always going to follow Christ.
The people come to life on the pages of the book in a sense that you may have not fully experienced before. Childhood Bible Stories take on a new life of their own, with the “lessons learned at our Mother’s knee” driving our minds and hearts much deeper in thought and prayerful practice. We can see ourselves mirrored in the themes and in the people page after page. Sometimes this can be difficult - a rude awakening - to see ourselves in parallel to a “lesser” versus a “greater”. As we Christians hunger for a spiritual feast in the Old Testament, we find a faithful, true Biblical, rich, hearty and challenging overview of the Old Testament within this book - taking us on a journey to “Meet
The Holy Spirit is important in causing the change and the Word of God is the source of helping the client to become Christ -like. According to Adams (1986), this change must be toward God and must be “from the heart outward” (p. 7). If not, then the change is just superficial and it will eventually lead the client further astray. The very backbone of his counseling is 2 Timothy 3:16, which states: ," But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work"(NIV, 2010).
Whenever I question my parents or my grandparents why should I go to church, they would say that I should give thanks to our blessings as well as pray for those who are in need and less fortunate. My young mind, filled with more questions that I know I should not ask because I know that the adults would just get annoyed and scold me for being noisy during the mass. As I grew older, I was expected to be closer to God, when in fact I felt more confused. I thought there was only one God? Since when did Muslims have their own God?
They understand the bible is the final authority. This type of counseling can address a range of emotional and spiritual issues. Christian counselors understand that the Bible has a lot of practical wisdom. There are several avenues a Christian counselor can take to help a spiritually oppressed person become a whole person, mind, body, and soul. Three of these avenues are overcoming false guidance, bitterness and rebellion.
Conversion Testimony I have not always been a Christian. Having been raised by my mother and step-father that are committed Christians; I have been attending to church all of my life but I did not understand what was going on due to no Sign Language Interpreter. I used to think that church was just family and friends gathering on every Sunday. No one sat down with me and made sure that I understood. They just assumed that I was a deaf and dumb.
As children grow older they will start to view the world differently, from the big picture. When children grow into adolescence it may become clearer how important love really is. Paul concludes that faith, hope, and love are necessary to be the greatest person you can be, but love is the greatest. In the article “I’ve Seen the Promised Land” Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks of doing what god intended us to do, which is to help our fellow man. King tells a story of a man who tried to trick Jesus.