Gwen, God has called and chosen many preachers that were not skilled or knew anything about preaching or scriptures. One pastored testified and said the only scripture he memorized and knew when God called him was the 23rd Psalm. Those preachers are dynamic speakers and can engage an audience because they solely relied upon the Holy Spirit as their teacher and guide. Truly, I am not against acquiring skills, because I am attending South University (smile). However, some pastors put book knowledge before the first schooling (Holy Spirit).
I agree that it is necessary for pastors to get a greater education to help them to understand how to deal with life situations. Their Church members will need them to understand what they are dealing with. True knowledge works well for the Pastors in different types of communities
Thank you for your text and for directing me to Psalm 103, it is one of my favorites. As far as my health, I have some fairly good days where the pain is controlled with the medication and others that are not, well, not as good. I go for my next five-day treatment next Monday. I was told that patience is required in all of this as full recovery for patients with this condition is slow, but successful in the majority of cases. Carla is doing a little better, but the last bit of the cold is hanging on as colds usually take a week or two to pass. She has to fly out early tomorrow to the Dominican Republic for her work and will be back late the following day. Damaris now has a lady that lives her and is her full-time caregiver. She really likes
The preacher must want to proclaim the word in order for it to be effective. There must be a fervent burning within, to drive a preacher to be proficient in the craft of preaching. “There is a sense in which the sermon preparation time is an act of worship. It is not simply some technical/skills- oriented exercise separate and apart from the transformation we seek to evoke in others through the power of the Holy Spirit.” In order to reach the depths of the word of God, one must have a desire to dig and prepare. One’s desire should be considered as a matter of life or
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye” New Testament Psalms and Proverbs by the Gideons International. Ps 32:8 Wanting to reach out to those who struggle or who can’t see the light on their own is why I want to attend CCU. Some teens come from a bad background or style of living. Working five years at an alternative high school as a security guard I saw a lot of teens that seemed to have no hope, or know what hope was. I’ve seen them come from broken homes and struggling through their everyday lives thinking the “color” of their shirt mattered. Making my daily rounds on campus, kids would approach me seeding someone to talk to or seek guidance. A big factor that helped through my time there
The Bay Psalm Book is most notable for being the first book printed on American soil. It was a collection of metrical psalms compiled by the Puritans of new England and published in 1640, first printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Bay Psalm Book contained metrical translations of every psalm from the Hebrew, and was compiled by Richard Mather, grandfather of the famous puritan preacher Cotton Mather. Richard Mather himself contributed to the translations, along with a number of other Puritan scholars.
Secondly, if his heart is not fully going to be in the sermons then what he says is in vain. Sermons do require practice, but also sermons require the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to work at the heart of the hearers of the sermon and the preacher. If the pastor’s heart is not tender to God’s Word before he preaches, the congregation will not receive the sermon. Preachers must have boldness, pure hearts, and clearness when he is preaching (2 Timothy 2:15)! Along with the preaching, pastors are to have a heart for service outside the pulpit. The list includes meetings, church events, small groups, visitations, funerals, and community events. Pastors are to be salt and light unto the world and for his flock (Matthew 5:13-16). It is not good enough to be a body at the events, he must be invested in the people in everything. Many times, the heart wants to isolate a believer to do their own thing (Proverbs 18:1). As a pastor, he cannot afford to give up his opportunities to serve! God uses pastors as a “figure head” of what Christ is. No, it does not mean he is above everyone else, but the pastor is a shepherd of his flock (1 Peter 5:1-4). Pastoral ministry cannot be viewed as a job because it ruins the heart of the ministry.
Jesus Christ taught in parables during his time on earth as a way to assist others in finding understanding about sacred truths. Matthew 13 contains several parables that illustrate Jesus’ skill at using this teaching method, but beyond these types of extended similes, chapters 13 and 14 of Matthew show several other teaching habits of Christ and several of his best character traits. At the opening of Matthew 13, verse one describes Christ sitting by the sea. I think the action of him sitting by the sea as people are arriving is intentional, because it would have allowed him to interact with those he was about to teach instead of just waiting in the boat as the multitude gathered.
Last fall one of my classmates brought Psalm 91 to my attention. I had been going through a tough time for several years and another cutting event had just taken place. I felt as if I was at the end of my rope. She reached out to me and told me to hang onto this Psalm, that it can be my refuge as I walk through this difficult journey. I like what Kidner says about dangers, “Most of these dangers are of a kind which strike unseen, against which the strong are helpless as the weak” (Kidner, 1973, p. 364). This is how I felt when going through this latest turmoil. I could not physically see the danger, but the pain of the danger enveloped me like a thick and heavy fog. I felt completely helpless and weak, but Psalm 91 gave me an atmosphere
From the beginning of our time, there has been many people who have possessions and “gods”. We have the history and the after effect of their lives and belongings, but none has lasted, except for God. Eternality means that there is no beginning, no ending. People have had created many “gods”, but none is eternal like God. God has no beginning, no ending, and does not experience time in succession; yet he sets events in time and acts in time. In Psalm 90:2 Moses in his prayers says, before the mountains were born, God is everlasting to6 everlasting. This means that God if with us and is not
Once I read through Psalm 19, I realized that God is the only almighty one who created the beautiful world we are living in now and I noticed God also loves the beauty, as He is beautiful. Even though it happens not always, I enjoy living here at now when I see a lot of incredible sightseeing, stars, night, morning sunshine, and sky, which God created. Further, the more I am getting to know how the star or moon is being created, it wows me so much more than I can expect and I could not agree more that God is the only one who I must believe and trust.
Have you ever felt that life is unfair? For those of us who are committed to following the will and ways of Jesus, it’s easy to get frustrated when people who don’t care about Him seem to do well in life. A businessman cheats yet wins a large contract, and the guy who parties all the time is robust and healthy-while you or your loved ones struggle with finances or medical issues. It makes us feel cheated, like maybe we’ve been good for nothing.
The attendance of the Lord as shepherd is present throughout the Holy Bible. Whether being accountable of the primary duty of providing animals with sufficient food and water, protecting the sheep, or just plain caring for the sheep like David, the responsibility of the shepherd is making sure every facet of a sheep’s life is taken care of. The rationale of this paper is to give an exposition of Psalm 23, while reflecting on Psalms as a whole, in order to give adequate evidence for arriving at a conclusion that proves the LORD is the only necessity in an individual’s life in regards to the role of a servant.
5Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
Psalms 37:5 Commit everything you do to the LORD, Trust him, and he will help you.
In the Old Testament, Heman the Ezrahite, the son of Joel and the grandson of Samuel the judge and prophet of Israel, wrote Psalm 88. This Psalm is a very unique one in that it is the only one that does not end with an assertion of comfort or joy. It is very sad and melancholy and you can tell that it was written by someone in a very depressive state: