A "Spirit-filled Christian." Have you ever heard this term before and if you have, would you have a definition of what this means? How would you describe such a person? What would a Spirit-filled Christian look like to you?...
Last week, we looked at a wonderful passage that brings forth several principles for us to consider in regard to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the passage before us this morning, we find additional insights in how we are to operate as a church under the Lordship of Christ and empowered for ministry by the Holy Spirit....
No church on earth is exempt from problems of one sort or another. We can see this in the New Testament churches, and the church in Corinth was no exception. As a matter of fact, they knew they had problems and so they wrote a letter to Paul about some of them, asking about such matters as marriage, food sacrificed to idols, the nature of the resurrection of the body, and spiritual gifts. As we continue our series on the Holy Spirit, I find the teaching of Paul on spiritual gifts to be very helpful. Here, we find solid counsel on the use of spiritual gifts in the life of the church....
Our passage for this morning is also about change but it is all about positive change for the better. It s about a transformation that occurs in the life of every Christian by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit change that is gradual, but permanent; slow, but steady; in degrees, but life-long. It s summarized for us in the last verse of our passage for this morning: "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."...
One of the key questions I and so many Christians have asked regarding the Holy Spirit is this: "Is there a baptism in the Holy Spirit and if so, when and how does it happen?"...
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:1-2)....
We are not unlike Jesus first disciples in this, for they found it very difficult to believe in the resurrection. Jesus seemed too good to be true when he appeared at a gathering of all 11 of his disciples. We can understand the difficulty they faced. After all, they were just coming to terms with the fact that Jesus had died on the cross. All of their hopes had been dashed when Jesus died. They had not understood that this was a part of God s plan of salvation and had come to think that maybe they had been wrong about Jesus....
Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed (John 20:8)...
In the midst of such public events, however, Jesus wanted to teach His disciples a vivid lesson about faith. It began on Monday, when Jesus and the Twelve were leaving Bethany to return for Jerusalem....
So far in looking at the portrait of Peter in the Gospels, we ve seen different dimensions of the call to discipleship that comes from Christ the call to follow, the call to serve, and the call to trust. In our passage for this morning, we find "the call to confess."...
