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Kindle Notes & Highlights
History is replete with stories of great people who were converted through the power of the Word.
Just as the Word of God is used in conversion, so it is a critical instrument in our spiritual growth. By immersing ourselves in the Word of God, we begin to gain the mind of Christ and learn what discipleship is.
True!
persecution is the lot of every Christian and the Christian community. Believers must expect it.
Deception through distortion of the truth of God is a major problem that confronts every generation and every Christian community.
A reminder of that other book that claims the world is horrible because of the Bible.
Scripture strengthened Paul to live out the Christian life despite opposition.
By continuing to study the Bible, we grow in faith and are able to stand firm in the truth.
The value of the Bible lies, first of all, in the fact that it teaches sound doctrine.
It is fashionable in some academic circles to exercise scholarly criticism of the Bible. In so doing, scholars place themselves above the Bible and seek to correct it. If indeed the Bible is the Word of God, nothing could be more arrogant.
When we experience the "changing of the mind" that is repentance, we are not suddenly cleansed of all wrong thinking. The renewing of our minds is a lifelong process.
To be sure, the Scriptures call us to maturity. We are not to be satisfied with milk but are to desire the meat of the Word.
We should pray because prayer is a duty of every Christian; because prayer is a privilege; and because prayer is a powerful means ofgrace.
Jesus tells us to pray always and not give up.
Whatever Jesus says we "ought" to do becomes a solemn duty for us to perform. Prayer is one such duty.
Christianity is not an exercise in mysticism.
The New Testament tells us to believe in Christ and calls us to faith in Christ, but the word that it uses is the Greek word eis, which literally means "into," so the New Testament literally is calling us to believe into Christ.
This union with Christ, in turn, is the foundation for all of Christian unity.
That's what prayer is. It's a communication of love from the bride to the Bridegroom. It's not enough to pray
because we ought to pray; beyond the duty element, there should be a delight about being engaged in this kind of communication. What a privilege prayer is.
We pray not only because it is our duty and our privilege, but also because prayer is a powerful means by which God brings His will to pass.
Thus, prayer is a means that God uses to bring about His intended ends. Just as God uses the preaching of the gospel as the power unto salvation, so He uses the power of prayer to bring about redemption. Our prayers cannot force God to do anything, but He uses them as His own instruments to bring about His will.
God's Word will not return to Him void.
The Lord's Prayer is a model. It gives us not only an actual prayer to pray, but also a pattern to follow in prayer.
This means praying beyond our own circumstances and needs-seeing the bigger picture and praying for God's work in the rest of the world.
the focus of our prayer needs to be on the work of Christ and the work of the kingdom, so that we begin to pray earnestly and specifically for the effective impact of the gospel in the world in which we live.
