Author Archive: Pastor Mark

Acceptable and Pleasing

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There is a growing misunderstanding today in Christian circles where God’s pleasure in us is being linked to His acceptance of us in Christ. These two are very different subjects. While everyone who has come to Christ in faith is 100% accepted in the Beloved, we are NOT always well pleasing to Him. Fortunately, this topic is very easy to understand and clarify from God’s word. Acceptable “Accepted” is term associated with relationship. Even in English, our notion of being accepted by God means that we are approved by Him. This approval finds its expression in a state of relationship […]

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Spiritual Gifts, Ministries & Callings

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Gifts, Ministries & Callings…oh my! After establishing these fundamentals, Paul breaks down into three categories, what Christians often lump all together as “gifts”. I have highlighted the three terms with their Strong’s Concordance numbers so you can easily see that all three, are different words. You may already notice that the three words used in the King James version are NOT the same words I used as the heading of this segment of the article. That was on purpose! While nearly every Christian denomination is aware of the term “gifts” in one capacity or another (a.k.a. spiritual gifts, grace gifts, gifts […]

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God’s Grace and Spiritual Gifts

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Much confusion surrounds this topic of gifts, ministries and callings, and much of that confusion could be greatly minimized by understanding the words scripture uses to describe them. So in this article, we mostly be touching on the meanings of these words and some of the words typical associated with them. The Grace of God – through Gifts of the Spirit Paul had a tremendous revelation of grace. God had visited him in dreams, visions and perhaps even by taking him to heaven itself in order to deposit a clear revelation of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Paul […]

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scriptures

Are the Scriptures Reliable?

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Are the Scriptures Reliable? There are three major terms one needs to understand when approaching the question of the reliability of the scriptures. These terms are Inerrancy, Infallibility and Inspiration. One common misunderstanding is that inerrancy and infallibility are the same thing. To further complicate this issue, there is no “official” and universally accepted definition for the word “inerrancy” when used in reference to the scriptures. Nevertheless, these two terms, are most often treated differently, with infallibility being a far more foundational doctrine, with far greater implications than inerrancy. Inerrancy For some, inerrancy means that the entire Bible was dictated […]

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Dichotomy or Trichotomy – What people are made of

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Dichotomy or Trichotomy… what people are made of For PDF of this article click – HERE If approached purely from a humanistic point of view, mankind is typically seen as nothing more than a physical, material beast. One, as it were, with the universe in which they dwell. This is called “monism” and in most religious circles it is rejected as completely materialistic (which of course it is). Most commonly, in the religious world, there are two additional views – that of humans being as a two part being or a three part being. These two views are known as […]

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