lindogwala

The special speakers will bring what is lacking in a congregation. They can impart some spiritual gifts. The itinerant preaching requires (financial) support; but it is important because it spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fear that persecution instils in Christians mind becomes a hindrance and discouragement to them. Those who carried on in their Christian life will be strong, even Jesus Christ was tempted.

The opposition was persecuting Christian in Thessalonica, because Paul did not want them (Christians in Thessalonica) to be unsettled by persecution; he sent Timothy to strengthen and encourage them. Timothy learned the ministry and to trust God as he was alone in Thessalonica. Delegating ministry increase worker in the kingdom of God

We cannot because there is no reason to, as we are doing God’s work out of love for Him. However, we know that since even Jesus Christ gave a parable indicating that we will receive rewards for our labour in God’s work. According to the parable in Matthew 25, he rewards the faithfulness; and does not rewards unfaithfulness.

The Word of God separates light and darkness in a person’s mind. It is like a map to the followers of Christ. The power of the Holy Spirit helps the Word to work in peoples’ minds.

It is because father need to exhort, urge their children to achieve what they have set their eyes on. Even Christians need the father figure to urge, exhort they so that they stay focus.

The church or Christians need to be loved most of the time. The male disciplers could be adopting some of the above traits with care.

Impure motive (love of money and power); men pleaser; greed and fame are flaws that are problematic in the church. Every preacher these days are talking about offering so that people will be blessed; other calling TV station to televise them healing people. Healing services have become the marketing strategy. Preachers have become motivation speakers using similar gimmicks or ‘catch phrases’. One has to focus and fix one’s eyes on to Jesus Christ our Lord and saviour.

Personal courage is important because the gospel should be preached even under challenging and dangerous conditions. The preacher should not be stopped by challenges. Paul and Silas were beaten up but had courage to preach the gospel. When preachers are full of fear they bow to pressure from the opposition and challenges. God has called me to preach the gospel here where I live; after heavy attacks on my character and standing in the Body of Christ. My family is recovering from the attack. I knew that with prayer I will find courage to “forget what is in the past and press on focusing on my divine calling. It is happening.

V10 teaches us that Christian faith is anchored on Jesus Christ. Christians are to be rooted in the five foundational truths about Jesus Christ: that Christ is the Son of God; that Christ will return; that God raised Christ from death; that Christ is our Savior and that God’s wrath is coming upon sin. These elements are all equally important to all Christian community; not accepting any one of these foundational truths is not believing the Bible. However the church today is not preaching a lot about repentance and leaving sins that were committed before one receives salvation. It is as if Christians can still sin as long as they bring offerings in the house of God.

It is very important for a new Christian to have role model to learn from. That is how the new Christian spiritual being will develop. As Paul says is v6 that ‘You became imitators of us and of the Lord…’. It is therefore very important that leaders should imitate Christ in their everyday walk; understanding that new Christians are watching and imitating them or following their example. Obedience to the Holy Spirit, praise and worship, serving the poor and widows are some of kinds of ministry conducive to imitate. Christians who are not part of Christian community do not grow well spiritually or do not grow at all. The leaders (and parents) in the church need to understand that they are role models to the people (and their children) they are leading since their followers are patterning their characters after them.

The working of the Holy Spirit is so necessary in any ministry to be effective because without the Holy Spirit in any ministry no miracle will happen. The result of the absence of the Holy Spirit will be that no divine healing will take place, people will not repent because only the Holy Spirit can touch people's hearts. The church will be nothing else but a social gathering. The will-power has limitations. The concept is used mostly by motivational speakers. This is the 'feel-good' evangelism. The role of miracles in Paul's evangelism is to win people/souls to Jesus Christ. If we saw miracle in the evangelism we would win more souls to Christ. Pride, preachers worried about their personal gains rather than their calling to lead sinners to Christ, unbelief among Christians (believers) is what hinders miracles in the church today.

Firstly, in the book of Acts 17:1-10 it appears that the Jews were deeply rooted in the teachings of the Law of Moses. Anything that did not agree with the Law of Moses, in their eyes, was to be opposed vigorously. Paul and Silas were preaching that Jesus Christ is the Mesiah; and the Jews did not believe that He was. Further, the Jews were jealous of Paul and Silas because a large number non-Jews that were joining Paul and Silas (Acts 17:5). The violent could not stop Paul from praching the gospel because of his conviction that Jesus Christ is the Mesiah, who died for sinners. He had a testimony to the whole world that he (Paul) met the Lord on his way to kill believers who believed that Jesus Christ is Lord. with the same conviction as Paul's, violent must not stop us from preaching the Good News to the whole world.