Jesus himself has given gifts to his people to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, to train and build up the church for acts of service. Jesus gave all of these gifts through the Holy Spirit so that the church would reach unity in the faith and become mature in the fullness of Jesus (Eph 4). The problem is that the church has mostly adopted and been comfortable with three out of five of these gifts. But in order to revive our fellowship and revive our communities, we must embrace them all.
Continue reading “Eagerly Desire Spiritual Gifts”
Walter Brueggemann makes a case for God’s people to recapture the prophetic imagination of God’s prophets. He calls us to recapture it because we are encapsulated by our surrounding, dominant, and pervasive culture. Starting with Moses he demonstrates to the reader how God’s people are to be a part of an alternative community. Moses was not simply interested in social justice but he was preaching a message that ushered in God’s re-creation. The Israelites had been enslaved so long that they did not know an alternative to their way of life as slaves.