http://moments.nbseminary.com by Dr. Larry Perkins, President, Northwest Baptist Seminary Fri, 02 May 2008 21:54:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Psalmist declared “Since my youth, O God, you have taught me” (Psalm 71:17) and he desires that God continually would teach him to do his will (Psalm 143:10). His experience and expectation is that God does instruct him, with the result that he knows God and ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/78_taught-by-god/ Paul’s choice of words in his letter to Christians in the province of Galatia reflects careful intention. The issues he confronts are extremely serious, the opponents powerful and persuasive, and his audience somewhat befuddled. Strong warnings mingle with cries of frustration as he encourages these believers ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/77-holding-god-in-contempt/ Paul’s choice of words in his letter to Christians in the province of Galatia reflects careful intention. The issues he confronts are extremely serious, the opponents powerful and persuasive, and his audience somewhat befuddled. Strong warnings mingle with cries of frustration as he encourages these believers ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/76-being-imitators-mimtai-of-god/ The conduct of believers, whether within the church or towards those who are not part of the Christian community, was a major preoccupation of Paul, the apostle. To embrace Jesus as Messiah, Saviour and Lord necessarily transformed a person’s behaviour. When sin no longer exercised dominion ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/behave-respectably-euschmons-to-the-outsiders1-thessalonians-412/ Within the final prayer Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in his first letter (1 Thess. 5:23-24) he used two adjectives (holotelēs, holoklēros) which only occur here in all of his letters. These unusual terms give expression to Paul’s confidence that God will enable the Thessalonian believers to ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/74-prayers-for-moral-and-spiritual-wholenessholoteles-holokleros-1-thessalonians-523/ In 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 Paul uses forceful language to describe his extraordinary relationship with Christians in the city of Thessalonika. When he first visited them and shared the “gospel of God”, he exercised great care lest any impression be given that his gospel work was merely a means to make ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/an-73-extraodinary-tenderness-1-thessalonians-28-homeiromai/ Much is being written today about the call to ministry vocation. All believers have a calling from God, expressed in conversion, and lived out obediently as God assigns various tasks from time to time – marital care, parental leadership, hospitality among God’s people, sharing the good news, cross-cultural ministry. The ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/cultivating-a-72-desire-for-ministry-leadership-oregesthai-1-timothy-31/ The translators of the New International Version chose to render apogenomenoi (aorist middle participle of apoginomai) in 1 Peter 2:24 as “die”. It follows a tradition of interpretation that goes back to the King James Version (“being dead to sins”). Karen Jobes in her recent commentary on 1 Peter, however, ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/%e2%80%9cso-that-we-might-die-to-sins%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-the-sense-of-apoginomai/ In Matthew’s Gospel the lexical group skandalizein/skandalon defines various negative spiritual responses to Jesus and his teaching, as well as moral failure. Matthew, Mark and Paul use this vocabulary most frequently within the New Testament canon. Mark only used the verb form. Luke (7:23; 17:1-2) and John (6:61; 16:1) employ ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/spiritual-stumbling/ The terms oligopistos (adjective: a person of little faith) and oligopistia (noun: little faith) first occur as Greek terms in the Gospel of Matthew (and once in Luke 12:28 which is a parallel text with Matthew 6:30). The almost complete limitation of this term to Matthew’s ... http://moments.nbseminary.com/archives/fixing-a-broken-faithologopistos-in-matthews-gospel/