Please place your comments for week 5 below. As usual, tell us the name of the book and how many chapters you have left. Divide that number by four. Then tell us the names of the chapters we will be discussing this week.
I think that it would be difficult to try to do this in a shorter amount of time. Life just seems that it gets busier and busier everyday. The way that you have this program set up is working out perfectly fo me.
Chapter thirteen talks about Paul's role in the spread of Christianity. He went on four three missionary trips and then took a trip to Rome. Without his work in the early Gentile churches, I don't think that the gospel would be so widespread. God took the drive that Paul had to persecute Christians and changed it into the drive to see people saved. The drive was always there, but now it was for the will of God! That tells me that there is always hope for someone who is lost. Paul was bold and strong in faith. I don't know if anyone else could go on after what he experienced.
Chapter fourteen talks about Paul's life. He was a Pharisee. He knew the law and thought that he was doing the will of God when he was persecuting Christians. He wrote half of the New Testament and worked with the churches. He truly was a great man of God. I also would like to mention that Paul must have had an interest in sports. You can tell it by some of his writings. I really enjoy studying his writings.
Thank you for your answer to the question about the length of the course. I wondered if this was dragging on for you, especially since you had already read much of the book when we first started. The idea of covering one book at a time seems to help keep a focus going. spreading it out over 8 weeks is designed to get the topic down into manageable chunks.
Paul and Peter were similar in some ways: They both were "driven." They both were bold. Paul, however, was able to use his earlier education, where he studied under the feet of Gamaliel, to channel his drive into writing much of the New Testament (this writing, of course, was done under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit). Peter wrote words of Scripture too, but his writing was not a prolific (prolific refers to a great amount of writing) as Paul's.
The author only mentioned that Paul was not married. Paul also talked about being single in one of the letters to the Corinthians. I guess Paul knew that a wife would be difficult to have in his ministry. It would not be fair for her to not get to see him very much.
I have just read chapter fifteen. It talks about Paul's early writings. They are Galatians and first and second Thessalonians. The letter is one of four writings that is known as hauptbriefe. This means that there has never been a serious challenge to Pauline authorship. This letter really emphasizes the teaching about staying away from a counterfeit gospel. He wanted to tell them that they did not need to return to legalism. He also explained the purpose and intent of the law.
Chapter fifteen also talks about the letters to the Thessalonians. Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians to encourage the church because it had suffered intense persecution. The second letter to the Thessalonians was more encouragement. I really think that when Paul describes the rapture of the church, it is the most comforting verses of scripture in the New Testament. Just think about this- So shall we forever be wiht the Lord.
The reason why I asked about Paul's marital status is that some scholars think the Paul may have been a widower. They base that partly on the idea that Paul may have been a part of the Sanhedrin (or that he may have been eligible to be a member.) Then, they say, tht one of the requirements for this was to have been married. The Scripture does not mention anything directly about Paul being married. It was all based on piecing things together. I don't know whether their speculation is right. I just wondered if the author of you textbook had mentioned anything about it. Since he didn't, I just brought up what some others have said for additional information
You are right, that Paul's schedule would have been very hard on a wife (as it probably was for the 12 disciples who followed Jesus.) He had no plans to marry, and he did talk about the advantages of not being married by being free to go wherever he needed to when he needed to. If he were a widower, or if ha had always been single, he had no plans to marry at the time he wrote his letters.
Did Paul's discussion about the purpose of the law have something to do with the term, school master? Briefly, what was the purpose and intent of the law as he described it?
I think that the Paul describes the purpose of the law as showing us just how far we are from God. It is amazing really. God new that men could never live according to the law. We have never been able to live under the law. Thank God that we are under His grace!
Chapter sixteen is called Paul's Chief Writings. It describes the letter to the Romans, and the first and second letters to the Corinthians. These three letters have so much in them that I like to study and preach on. The letter to the Romans really is neat. It doesn't really have one certain theme, but many themes. The main point that Paul wants to get through is that we are saved by the grace of God and not the law. I actually have the Romans Road to Salvation on my desk at work. I think that Romans is a god book to teach out of.
The letters to the Corinthians shows a lot about correction and Christian living. First Corinthians talks about many different themes and second Corinthians is really encouraging about living as Christian. I really like these two books and the content of them.
According to Galatians 3, the law was to be our schoolmaster or tutor to bring us to Christ. The law shows us where we fall short. Then it points us to Christ who kept the law perfectly for us.
Paul evidently was dealing with some people in Corinth who did not want to accept his authority. He defended his apostleship in II Cor. 10-13. Sometimes it is good to pretend that someone has challenge our calling, and then to spend some time being reminded of the things, events, circumstances, that have confirmed God's calling on our lives.
I have a prayer request. My older brother, Scott Owens, needs our prayers. He has epilepsy and has problems with seizures. He is not allowed to drive and now his work has told him that he can't come back until he is better. He is supposed to have brain surgury in September or October. Please remember him in your prayers.
You will notice some posts below that relate to various topics of discussion by our online community of preachers.
One of the purposes of Preachers' Meeting is to provide a place for young ministers or those recently called to preach to interact around the principles in a course of study recommended by our local group of preachers in the Southern Illinois area.
We invite you to look in on our conversations. If you would like to add comments as a guest, you are welcome to do so. If this looks interesting to you, you may join us as we start a new session. You can look in the side bar (or sometimes it is moved to right below this post) to see the weekly requirements. We start new courses every 8 or 9 weeks. As already mentioned, you are welcome to comment as a guest before that time.
Below these posts, you will see the word, "comments." Just click on it, and you will see a box on the right side of the screen where you may add your comments.
Look around. Enjoy yourself, and come back often!
Weekly Requirements
Here is a review of the general requirements for each week.
You have three assignments each week
(1) Make at least two initial posts in your posting area. The first one will be the name of the course, and the names (or numbers of the DVD's) of the chapters or lectures you will be covering during the week. The second one will be a comment on one of those chapters. You will receive one point for getting the first post in on Tuesday or Wednesday. You will also get a point for getting at least one more initial post in.
(2) Go to your fellow student's posting areas, and ask them a question or make comments about their intial posts. You will recieve one point for completing this assignment before 12:00 a.m. on Friday morning (that would be before midnight on Thursday).
(3) Answer the questions asked.
(4) On Fridays, I will also give directions for making remaining posts during the week. Be sure and read those, and take them into account when making at least one of your remaining posts.
In all, we want to make at least nine posts during the week. You will receive points for that as follows:
9 or more posts - 12 points
6-8 posts - 10 points
3-5 posts - 6 points
1-2 posts - 3 points
You will have the extra points you had accumulated by getting things in on time. Those are bonus points that will be used only to move your grade closer to 100 if you need them. They will be awarded each week if needed to move your grade up to 12 for the week. If you do not need them for that week, they will be carried over to the next week(s). Remember the posts that count for points will be at least three sentences long.
Thoughts on Application
Roger gave some good thoughts on application:
"Chapter 75, titled: 'Apply Within' is a lesson in application. The writer explains why it is sometimes difficult applying a sermon to real life situations. I will list some of the reasons application is not applied to our lives.
"First it is "hard work", it is hard to find application to every situation in the congregation,
"second, is wrong assumptions, assuming the audience is able to apply any and all biblical truths is totally a wrong assumption,
"third, is fear, fear of being to deep or to simplistic in the text and failing at application, and then there is training or lack thereof,
"many preachers know the text, and the history and the order of things but are totally untrained in application. One gentleman said it this way," how can you be a good football player when you can pass the ball, or when you can kick the ball, or when you can run with the ball but you don't know the rules of the game."
If you live in the souther Illinois area, we would like to invite you to a Couples' Marriage Enrichment Seminar on Saturday, February 27. It starts at 6:00 p.m and will run to 9:00 p.m.
After the welcome, there will be a dinner. Then there will be an opening session, followed by two breakout sessions, then a short closing.
The Keynote Speaker is Dr. Randy Carney (That's me :)!) and Roger and Janet Dutton will be speaking during the breakout sessions (That's Roger, who is commenting on this blog during this term!). Randy and Rhonda (my wife!) Carney will also have a breakout session discussing "Keys to Marital Bliss."
The Keynote Address will be on the topic of "The Way to a Successful Marriage: The Shocking and Surprising Truth."
Roger and Janet will be talking about "Hope for Restoring your marriage."
The cost is $15.00 per couple and that includes a dinner and all seminar materials. A nursery and childcare will be available. (Please indicate that you need these services when you register.) A book table with resources from Handfuls on Purpose Christian Bookstore will be available.
The seminar is for couples of all ages, ranging from newlyweds to marriage veterans!
To register, call 618-627-2228 to let the church know how may will be attending. Payment can be made at the event. (Make checks to TFBC.) For more information, call the church at 618-627-2228.
The Greatest Love
Since Valentine's Day falls on Sunday this year, I imagine there will be a ton of sermons going out on the topic of love.
Paul talked about love and respect in marriage (Ephesians 5), but he was really saying that that was an illustration of the relationship between Christ and the church.
Christ
Left Heaven to come to this earth.
He
Overcame adversity while here. He even conquered death!
He
Valued mankind so much that He gave Himself on the cross.
He desires fellowship with us. He reconciled the world to Himself, so that people could have an
Intimate realtionship with Him.
He meets all of our
Needs.
He is the supreme example of
Giving.
Do you see the word, LOVING, there? That is what He is--our LOVING Savior! Because of that, we should love one another.
Course 11 Week 4
Scroll down to the week 4 area to begin commenting.
Dealing with the Closed American Mind
One of the chapters Roger is reading is entitled, (something like) "Dealing with the Closed American Mind." I don't know if it is mentioned in the chapter, but I suspect that if you tak about something where a person has a felt need, you can gain their hearing somewhat.
What are your thoughts?
You may scroll down and comment in the week 3 comments area. Visitors are welcome to comment also.
Connecting with Postmoderns
This is something most preachers do every Sunday. If you have young unchurched visitors in your church, you will be trying to reach postmoderns. Even some of your church youth are more influenced by postmodernism than by their previous Sunday school teaching.
Here is my reply to one of Roger's posts:
"Roger, what tips stand out to you for commecting with postmoderns? I think the term modern referred to an age in history that related to new thoughts in science, etc. (If I am off base, refresh my memory.) Post modern refers to the time following that era. Connecting with postmoderns is something you have to do, whether you realize it or not, almost every time you preach."
I will post some of his answers here if he sees the question in time.
Preaching--Proclamation of God's Word
Preaching, by one definition, is the proclamation of God's Word. As such, a person, can take the Scriptural passage and find some of its main points and emphasize those points.
While I believe we should learn all we can about the grammatical construction of the words of Scripture, and that we should learn all we can about the historical setting for when those words were originally spoken; the nice thing about proclaiming the Word is that you can just take what the text says and emphasize it. Then the Word will not return void.
People with all different types of backgrounds have been called to preach throughout the centuries. Some very "unlearned" (as the world would put it) men have had great results by simply taking the main ideas of Scripture and simply emphasizing them. As long as we do not twist the meaning, this simply shows the amazing power of the Word of God.
New Format
I am going to try putting my comments for each day in this left sidebar. The comments areas for the remaining weeks are displayed to the right. That is where you will place your comments for each week.
23 comments:
The title of my book is THE NEW TESTAMENT: ITS BACKGROUND AND MESSAGE. There are going to be four chapters to read this week.
13. The role of Paul in the Spread of Christianity
14. An Overview of Paul's Life
15. Paul's First Writings
16. Paul's Chief Writings
This should be an interesting week.
Tyler
I think that it would be difficult to try to do this in a shorter amount of time. Life just seems that it gets busier and busier everyday. The way that you have this program set up is working out perfectly fo me.
Tyler
Chapter thirteen talks about Paul's role in the spread of Christianity. He went on four three missionary trips and then took a trip to Rome. Without his work in the early Gentile churches, I don't think that the gospel would be so widespread. God took the drive that Paul had to persecute Christians and changed it into the drive to see people saved. The drive was always there, but now it was for the will of God! That tells me that there is always hope for someone who is lost. Paul was bold and strong in faith. I don't know if anyone else could go on after what he experienced.
Tyler
Chapter fourteen talks about Paul's life. He was a Pharisee. He knew the law and thought that he was doing the will of God when he was persecuting Christians. He wrote half of the New Testament and worked with the churches. He truly was a great man of God. I also would like to mention that Paul must have had an interest in sports. You can tell it by some of his writings. I really enjoy studying his writings.
Tyler
Tyler,
Thank you for your answer to the question about the length of the course. I wondered if this was dragging on for you, especially since you had already read much of the book when we first started. The idea of covering one book at a time seems to help keep a focus going. spreading it out over 8 weeks is designed to get the topic down into manageable chunks.
Paul and Peter were similar in some ways: They both were "driven."
They both were bold. Paul, however, was able to use his earlier education, where he studied under the feet of Gamaliel, to channel his drive into writing much of the New Testament (this writing, of course, was done under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit). Peter wrote words of Scripture too, but his writing was not a prolific (prolific refers to a great amount of writing) as Paul's.
Did the author deal with the question of whether Paul might have been married at some point in his life?
The author only mentioned that Paul was not married. Paul also talked about being single in one of the letters to the Corinthians. I guess Paul knew that a wife would be difficult to have in his ministry. It would not be fair for her to not get to see him very much.
Tyler
I have just read chapter fifteen. It talks about Paul's early writings. They are Galatians and first and second Thessalonians. The letter is one of four writings that is known as hauptbriefe. This means that there has never been a serious challenge to Pauline authorship. This letter really emphasizes the teaching about staying away from a counterfeit gospel. He wanted to tell them that they did not need to return to legalism. He also explained the purpose and intent of the law.
Tyler
Chapter fifteen also talks about the letters to the Thessalonians. Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians to encourage the church because it had suffered intense persecution. The second letter to the Thessalonians was more encouragement. I really think that when Paul describes the rapture of the church, it is the most comforting verses of scripture in the New Testament. Just think about this- So shall we forever be wiht the Lord.
Tyler
The reason why I asked about Paul's marital status is that some scholars think the Paul may have been a widower. They base that partly on the idea that Paul may have been a part of the Sanhedrin (or that he may have been eligible to be a member.) Then, they say, tht one of the requirements for this was to have been married. The Scripture does not mention anything directly about Paul being married. It was all based on piecing things together. I don't know whether their speculation is right. I just wondered if the author of you textbook had mentioned anything about it. Since he didn't, I just brought up what some others have said for additional information
You are right, that Paul's schedule would have been very hard on a wife (as it probably was for the 12 disciples who followed Jesus.) He had no plans to marry, and he did talk about the advantages of not being married by being free to go wherever he needed to when he needed to. If he were a widower, or if ha had always been single, he had no plans to marry at the time he wrote his letters.
Did Paul's discussion about the purpose of the law have something to do with the term, school master? Briefly, what was the purpose and intent of the law as he described it?
I think that the Paul describes the purpose of the law as showing us just how far we are from God. It is amazing really. God new that men could never live according to the law. We have never been able to live under the law. Thank God that we are under His grace!
Tyler
Chapter sixteen is called Paul's Chief Writings. It describes the letter to the Romans, and the first and second letters to the Corinthians. These three letters have so much in them that I like to study and preach on. The letter to the Romans really is neat. It doesn't really have one certain theme, but many themes. The main point that Paul wants to get through is that we are saved by the grace of God and not the law. I actually have the Romans Road to Salvation on my desk at work. I think that Romans is a god book to teach out of.
Tyler
The letters to the Corinthians shows a lot about correction and Christian living. First Corinthians talks about many different themes and second Corinthians is really encouraging about living as Christian. I really like these two books and the content of them.
Tyler
According to Galatians 3, the law was to be our schoolmaster or tutor to bring us to Christ. The law shows us where we fall short. Then it points us to Christ who kept the law perfectly for us.
Paul evidently was dealing with some people in Corinth who did not want to accept his authority. He defended his apostleship in II Cor. 10-13. Sometimes it is good to pretend that someone has challenge our calling, and then to spend some time being reminded of the things, events, circumstances, that have confirmed God's calling on our lives.
I have a prayer request. My older brother, Scott Owens, needs our prayers. He has epilepsy and has problems with seizures. He is not allowed to drive and now his work has told him that he can't come back until he is better. He is supposed to have brain surgury in September or October. Please remember him in your prayers.
Tyler
Tyler,
We will try to remember to put your brother on the prayer list.
Will he be able to draw unemployment since he is sort of "laid off," or will that not qualify?
Randy
He wil actually be able to braw temporary disability.
Tyler
I think that the difference between self-help books and Paul's letters is the Holy Spirit.
Tyler
I agree that the Holy Spirit is the difference between Paul's writings and self-help books.
Glad to hear that your brother will have at least some financial help.
Post a Comment